My attempt at reducing debt.....

di7868

Hi all
I have spent many time reading others SOA's with huge interest in how you are all helping others from the goodness of your lil hearts :j !!!!


Incomings....

Salary 1300.00
WTC 356.00
Child benefit 72.40
Nursery fees 480

Total 2179.96

Outgoings... monthly
Mortgage 489.44 (deal runs out in nov :eek: )
Leasehold maintenance 120.15 (includes gas, elec, water, buildings ins, window cleaning & gardener)
Gas 0
Elec0
Water 0
Bulding Ins 0
Contents Ins 13.04
Council tax 71.00 for ten months
Loan 150 (staff loan which is int only until aug as on mat leave)
Credit card 50 (2 cards)
TV licence 11.65
BT 32.50
Account Fee 7.25
Bus Pass 34.00
Petrol 60
Childcare 560
Mobile Bill 40
Food Shopping 100
General Spending 100

Total 1842.03

Diff 337.93+

Debts

• Loan £22700 loan paying int only at mo (6.4%) (£150 will rise to £300 in aug) and am overpaying this at the mo to reduce debt (by between 200 and 500 a month depending on outgoings)

• Credit card £2000 int free £1k on virgin 0% til july 09 & £1k on ulster 0% til august 08

• Mortgage buy scheme £10k to be paid before sept 2016 interest free from sale of house or own funds

What i really want is to see if i can reduce my outgoings by your suggestions - also i am due to leave BT on the 27th May and hope you can give me good suggestions for alternatives ( am looking for a sky or virgin type package)

Thanks all

Cleosmum

di7868 wrote: »

Hi all
I have spent many time reading others SOA's with huge interest in how you are all helping others from the goodness of your lil hearts :j !!!!

Now I have decided on this beautiful dreary day (!) that I would join in and ask for your help in reducing my monthly outgoings as I find my gas elec & water are unmovable (explain more later) so the obvious reductions are not to be had for me :eek: !!

Ok firstly, a lil bit of background im 27 and a single mum to an 8 month old - I am due to return to work in 3 weeks *gulp* so my finances are a bit up in the air at the min.

Incomings....

Salary 1300.00
WTC 356.00
Child benefit 72.40
Nursery fees 480

Total 2179.96

Outgoings... monthly
Mortgage 489.44 (deal runs out in nov :eek: ) Start looking for a new deal about 3-4 months before the current deal ends
Leasehold maintenance 120.15 (includes gas, elec, water, buildings ins, window cleaning & gardener)
Gas 0
Elec0
Water 0
Bulding Ins 0
Contents Ins 13.04
Council tax 71.00 for ten months Change to 12 month payments
Loan 150 (staff loan which is int only until aug as on mat leave)
Credit card 50 (2 cards)
TV licence 11.65
BT 32.50 Swap to talk talk via quidco/other cashback site
Account Fee 7.25 Barclays additions plus Check what this account fee gives you and maybe think about cancelling
Bus Pass 34.00
Petrol 60 Can you get this down and use your buss pass more?
Childcare 560 Do you get all the vouchers etc that you are entitled to?
Mobile Bill 40 Is this contract? Can you cancel or downgrade? If PAYG then aim for £10
Food Shopping 100
General Spending 100 Do you know what this goes on? Entertainment? Extra groceries?

Total 1842.03

Diff 337.93+

Debts

• Loan £22700 staff loan paying int only at mo (6.4%) (£150 will rise to £300 in aug) and am overpaying this at the mo to reduce debt (by between 200 and 500 a month depending on outgoings)

• Credit card £2000 int free £1k on virgin 0% til july 09 & £1k on ulster 0% til august 08

• Mortgage buy scheme £10k to be paid before sept 2016 interest free from sale of house or own funds

At the moment I am saving about 300.00 a month from my surplus funds (sometimes up to 500 if im really lucky) and have this in savings to repay my staff loan early. I have worked out that by overpaying this early i will be free of this loan by Feb '11.

What i really want is to see if i can reduce my outgoings by your suggestions - also i am due to leave BT on the 27th May and hope you can give me good suggestions for alternatives ( am looking for a sky or virgin type package) I would go with Talk Talk which would give you free broadband and then buy a freeview box for TV (if you dont already have one!)

Thanks all

I have put my comments in red

Donedoingdebt

Shouldn't you be receiving child support for your 8 month old?

Hell1

Hi DI!:j

Just wanted to let you know you are not alone! -I have 3 kids and their father does not pay anything for them. It can be done on your own, and in a strange way, I feel proud that I'm doing it all myself! -With such a little one, there should be loads of free activities/playgroups around, and I'm sure you are already using freecycle?

lots of luck!

Hell

Hell1

Hi D1!
Just google freecycle and you should get its website. People in your area advertise things they no longer need, or you can request items. It's all free, you should be able to get baby/toddler stuff quite easily. It's all done via email initially so you don't have to give out personal details.

Good luck!
Hell

Keeping_Positive

Quidco is a money back site that shares its commission with you. Great for most things especially insurance. I got £120 for car insurance and £70 when switching gas and electric.

di7868

Okay so last night i spent the evening reading through two amazingly inspiring diaries on here and I have made some Major Decisions!!!! :j

I posted my SOA on here at the start BUT there was one (maybe two) main things i left out for self denial reasons.... here goes once its posted i have to acknowledge it....

Smoking I can easily spend 35 a week on cigarettes (the last month or two i have had duty frees which cost me 17.00 a fortnight...still not a good excuse) So last night with a stinking cold and every cigarette tasting vile i decided to dig out my allen carr book which helped me quit for two months before a family tragedy sent me back on the dirty path! I started this last night and read a quarter of the book in bed. I have one pack of twenty left now so I MUST finish this book today and stop smoking as i finish the book!!!Already feeling so positive after a quarter of the book :j I CAN DO IT!!!

Second I checked my bank account this morning and had a realisation moment I have a registration with an online bingo club and I joined it for the free ten pound etc. But i started to enjoy playing it. As i am in every night with my baby I jusitified it by thinking if i had one night out a week I would spend 40 quid so I will spend it here instead.. (i suppose at least i dont have hangovers haha) BUT at the same time although i am not in arrears with my debt i am determined to get rid of a twenty k loan by next christmas and have the spending budget all worked out for this HOWEVER it does not include bingo. Now I have been playing for a month and at a guess I have spent about £300 on it (havent actually added it up (too scary!!) but i can see from my balance roughly) and i have won £250 so at the mo its not cost much but i can see the downward spiral. It is now my aim to update this at night when I am bored and considering bingo PLEASE HELP KEEP ME ON THIS TRACK :rotfl: I am going to keep another site which permanently crashes on me so i never get to deposit funds on it (prob 1 in 10 times successful) so I will keep this as everyday there is a free scratchcard so i will get the funds accruing in the account and maybe once a week or two have a little go.... let me know your thoughts is this bad??

Also have taken my c/cs (which i have never used) out of my purse and bury them in my knicker drawer :rotfl:

Also gonna shop at Aldi after GMTVs food shopping report today although i have enough food to keep me going 6 weeks at least!!

Lastly i am gonna write down what i spend daily no matter how small like Chip's thread and then if i show a pattern for cakes chocolate etc you can all point it out to m and embarress me so i stop :rotfl:

God this was a long thread so well done if you still with me :T and i will keep you posted xx

di7868

Well i am so pleased with myself today :j
Got up this morning no hot water no heating hm not a good start
Usually this prompts an expensive call out charge etc etc, but after two years in my house I finally appreciate how useful it is being leasehold and not having a boiler in my house.... I live in these energy efficient house thingys and instead of having ten little boilers in ten houses they do one massive boiler in an outhouse and it serves you all.
Anyways called up the maintenace team and by 2 pm had my water sorted yay!!! And no cost double yay!!

Lula-Hula

Hi Di,

Well done for admitting to the smoking thing, I do sympathise as I gave up years ago but like you family tragedy sucked me back in until this week.

I found the chewing gum really helped me to quit last time & am back on them again now. 3 days without a smoke & feeling proud. If you're getting tax credits you should be able to get free help with nicotine replacement stuff, which will save you money .

Like Hell I'm also a single parent & not getting any maintenance & feel the same way about sorting life out by myself,

go girl & good luck

Lula x

RedDino308

Hi Di and Lula,

Giving up smoking can be the easiest thing in the world to do but the most difficult to maintain. Keep at it and think of all those lovely things you can put the money towards. Don't forget that you can get a lot of the smoking cessation aids (nicorette etc) on prescription if you go and talk to your Doc or Chemist and ask for help.

Also, your mobile bill does seem rather high. If you are not tied into a contract then it is worth putting the screws on your provider - there loads of advice here - as they will almost certainly cut you a great deal.

Let us all know how the smoking thing goes.

di7868

Hi Lula
Thanks for you words of encouragement there - they came just at the right time as in the last few minutes I have just finished the Allen Carr book to stop. :j

It is such a brilliant book and i know it will really help me get it all into perspective. One of the rules is no nictine replacement therapy but thanks for the advice there :cool:

You will have to keep me on the straight and narrow and me you:beer:

How are you finding it anyway after 3 days is it going well??

Im really positive about the no maintenance thing. I have always said that what money i do get will go towards reducing my debt (as i already pay for everything to make my sons life comfortable and a roof over his head i think thats fair dont you?) Then when i have no debts my first big save will be to put all the money given to me by his father in a savings account and when hes 18 my son can do what he wants with it. (Hopefully take his lovely old mum on a round the world cruise to thank her for raising him singlehandedly )
Take care hun xx