In Debt & Pregnant!!!!

JONESKEZ

pania wrote: »

thats a little easieron the eye;) back with some comments in a sec... xx

OK, Anticipated saving to be made of £451. as follows.
Reduce TOTAL food bill to £300, freeing up £315. Yes can do that!!
Cancel DVD's 3.95. Dont get them every month - just a rough estimate, also I dont have Sky movies and to be honest me and my husbandhardly ever go out together so sitting wathcing a DVD now and again is kind of our quailty time together. I will try.
Reduce family out budget by 1/2 15.00 Can do, hard to find free places sometimes and normally the one's you do find are far away which costs you more in petrol! Will have to stick with the local council parks!
Bin those beauty treatments 25.00. Will do! but will be hard - not keen on shaving!!!
Reduce hair bill to £25 12.50 can do that - I know fo local colleage
Cut the adult clothes budget in half 17.50 Dont really buy that many clothes this is just an average throughout a year! but will watch what I spend.
Cut your savings in half 62.50 Can do!

Saving of £451 as above.

You strike me as being the sort of lady that enjoys looking after herself sometimes! Harder to look good now pregnant! clothes dont fit etc!, good for you, just do it cheaper than you are currently. look outside the box more, have a girly pamper night at your friends where you do your nails and someone gives a massage and someone a pedicure etc, take a bottle of wine and you'll have a great time Non-alcoholic of course!. There are things which in the situation you are in right now just have to go by the wayside, and it isn't pleasent for anyone, but i am sure you can pull this back before little one arrives with some determination.
Good luck, we are always here for support. xx

Thanks for this, you have made me feel more confident in doing the right thing! Thanks for taking the time to help. It is very much appreciated!

pania

No worries, when i get a sec i'll try to find some website linkys for those days out. what region are you in?

pania

PS re the waxing, again try a local college, or how about the home strips (using your boots points of course ;-) )

JONESKEZ

Merlot wrote: »

Quote:
Originally Posted by JONESKEZ
Hi,

Here is my SOA as promised. Please note that I do not own my own home.

Incomings:

Salary: £1080 per month
Husband Salary: £1200 per month
Child Benefit: £72.60 pm
Tax Credit: £32pm

Total: £2384.60pm

OUTGOINGS: -

Mortgage/Rent: £575.00
Overdraft Cost (Interest)£70.00 - wow, this is high, why so much? Thats just what the bank take out of my account every month for overdraft interest - it's about 15.9% EAR, whatever that means!
Council Tax: £125.00
Water Rates/Meter: £23.00
Gas £25.00
Electricity £27.00
Home Phone £30.00 - again high, you could reduce this?Yes I have now - changed suppliers so I also get free broadband too!!! Still waiting for it to happen but hopefully will be soon!
Internet £17.00
TV Licence £11.95
Mobile Phone (2 phones on contract)£80.00 - Get rid of - a luxury you cannot afford Yes I am going oay as you talk when contract finishes end of April!
Food and Household Shopping £550.00 - that is twice the amount I spend on two children and a husband - far far too much how do you do it???? I must admit a lot of food gets wasted as I intend to cook proper meals as mush as possible but due to working full time and all the other things you try to fit into a day it makes it difficult! Also I only by free range meats/eggs and tend to shop organic which pushes prices up - this is something I will not stop but perhaps need to work out what I need each week and stick to it!
Eating Out £10.00 - got to go Ok but a little confused about that - I can't see myself staying in every weekend - I work hard all week and it nice to get out somtimes, even if its once a month. Is there now way I can do it cheaper?
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks £8.00 - got to go OK
Drinks for Home £25.00 - Got to go OK - not much of a problem now as can't drink!
Drinking Out£20.00 - got to go again am I destined to stay in every week?
Meals at work£22.00 - got to go - take a packed lunch I do now but still end up buying a soup and roll in the restaurant! Will leave purse at home!
Car Maintenance (2 Cars)£50.00
Car Insurance (2 Cars)£67.00
Car Tax (2 Cars)£33.00
Petrol/Diesel (2 Cars)£260.00
Car Loan Repayments £150.00
Personal Loan Repayments £60.00
Credit Card Repayments (MINIMUM)£185.00
Childcare/Play Schemes £100.00
DVD/Video Rental £3.95
Family Days Out £30.00 - take a walk on a beach - its free driving there isn't!
Satellite/Digital TV Subscription £28.00 - got to go NOOOO!!!! So no TV and no going out??
Beauty Treatments£25.00 - got to go OK
Dentistry£6.66
Haircuts£37.50 - too high yes - will do what the other kind person said
New Clothes£20.00 - too much This is average - sometimes dont buy clothes for months! Just need to get new clothes now as bump is getting bigger, any ideas grately received!
New Children's Clothes£20.00 - too high Will cut out
Work Clothes £15.00 - too much again this is average
Oh and I save £125.00 per month - you shouldn't be saving money if you are in debt, only save only if you are servicing your debts at 0% Yes your right but hate not knowing I haven't got any cash if something big pops up - like car breaking or something. Will cut this in half!

Total outgoings: £2,840.06
Therefor leaving me in a negative. Seeing this has scared me more now - its amazing how you can spend money without realising it!!

Please also note that I have recently changed suppliers of gas/electric in the hope it will be cheaper and I will also be able to cancel our mobile phones in april and go onto pay as you talk to save money.





I have added comments in above - I can see light at the end of the tunnel on this one, you are living way beyond your means, you cannot afford beauty treatments, eating out etc, and your food bill is far too high.

I don't want to sound harsh, you cannot live a champagne lifestyle on a lemonade budget. you have a very good income at this moment but you also have debts which should be your priority, not the luxuries like the beauty treatment.

You are currently overspending by approx £455 per month.

Well done for posting and realising the time is now to sort these debts out before they spiral out of control.


Merlot.x.

Comments made in Green in my defence! te he.

Thanks for this. You are a little harsh and it reminds me of my Dad but I always used to listen to him!!! again another kick up the butt!!! Thanks again really useful!

JONESKEZ

pania wrote: »

No worries, when i get a sec i'll try to find some website linkys for those days out. what region are you in?

Thank you! I am in wiltshire -west wilts!

JONESKEZ

pania wrote: »

PS re the waxing, again try a local college, or how about the home strips (using your boots points of course ;-) )

Could do the home strips on legs but not sure about that on the nether regions and not sure if I trust a student to do my nether regions either!! Its a very tough decision - I will have a think about that, thanks for the advice.

pania

http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/tiwtourism/thingstoseeanddo/cotswold/
http://www.kidsgofree.com/search.php

Winter Waddlers’ Toddlers Club - Search for Spring! - Totton - Within 24 miles *
Join Testwood Lakes Wildlife Reserve Education staff for wildlife stories, walks and games for 2-4 year olds, based in our warm and inviting centre, with ...
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thats for starters hon, have a look at the websites and see what you think
Also keep your eyes open for things like half price or free entry if you join that day... Had that at wildwood in kent once, £17 for the day or free entry if you join up and pay dd, let the DD come out for 2 months and cancelled, cost me £4 for a day out!! cheeky but hey it works!

Re the food etc, I noticed that alot of stuff goes to waste. for the next week of so do a storecupboard challenge, go through and do an inventory of everything you have currently and work out how many meals you can make out of it, you'll be amazed, there are grocery challenges and the like on the Old style board to, try that also. OH and I eat for £150 per month and we eat like kings (well he eats more like henry eighth but i didn't say that right
;-) )

No one is saying don't go out but when you have that much of a shortfall, going out needs to be as cheap as possible, even things like a alk around a local park, or a picnic, leave little one with a family member for the avo and get out for a good walk and alk with oh and have some fun, will do as much for your relationship as going to the cinema or pub together.
Good luck! (oh and for those maternity clothes? ebay!!! (then ebay them again when you are done with them.)

Honeybee_2

Legs are really easy to do yourself.

Wash them, dry them, then give them a dusting of talc. Keep the wax strips warm by putting them near something hot as they work better that way. Really stroke the strip down a few times then leave it for a minute to harden, then pull back with the strip as close to your skin as possible.

I know what you mean about the nethers though, they do tend to be cheaper for just that area though.

MissEyre

Re students and waxing-they don't let them loose on customers until they are pretty good and would save loads of money for you...

Sign up for Pigsback and the survey sites-they pay you in cash or vouchers, and you can use them for treats-DVD rentals from Blockbuster, Boots vouchers for nice bath stuff, meals out-free money, and it'll mean you don't go mad with boredom!

Snaggles

For maternity clothes, try Dorothy Perkins - they have lovely things and they are not all that expensive. I bought one pair of jeans (£22) and one pair of black trousers (£18), and they pretty much saw me through the whole pregnancy.

I found that my normal t-shirts would stretch over my bump quite easily, but then would be too short, so I wore a longer vest top underneath them, giving them quite a funky layered look. I managed to get through it all with only about 3 or 4 actual maternity tops by doing that.

I never did very well for maternity clothes on ebay - the few things I bought didn't fit properly, and I couldn't bear to be uncomfortable so I bought most things new. But they have quite a good resale value, so definitely sell yours on afterwards, unless you are planning on having another baby soon!