HELP! We're in the poo!

tealady

Hi again. Just look on their website (if they have one) or ring the main switchboard. There should be an office that deals with councillors.

dmom

I don't mean this to sound harsh but if you want to get out of debt you need to seriously think about your spending. Firstly the cigarettes! £60 plus further spending a month is huge expenditure that you could be using to pay off Council Tax arrears. As Tealady stated it is one of the few things you can go to prison for not paying, it is a priority payment unlike the cigarettes. Can you do your own leg waxing or go to a student to decrease cost? I am no angel but I have realised that I need to be more in control of what I spend and I now question everything I buy asking myself "Do I really need it?" Surprising how many times I don't!!!

singlemum_4

Hi there, just looking at your soa your shopping bill is huge for 2 people, why don't you look at the old style board for ways of cutting it right back. As for the make up/toiletries etc I get these for birthday/xmas pressies or from my boots points hardly ever buy any myself these days.
Good luck

SM

brokeinwales

Firstly the cigarettes! £60 plus further spending a month is huge

Tell me about it! Unfortunately it's out of my control - I'm not the smoker.

Can you do your own leg waxing or go to a student to decrease cost

That is at the college. I tried to wax my own once but it didn't work.
Thanks for replying though - just doing the SOA did make me think about some things I could cut down on.

Hi there, just looking at your soa your shopping bill is huge for 2 people, why don't you look at the old style board for ways of cutting it right back.

Is it? I thought it was quite low - what would you suggest as a good level for two people? Do you think the old style people would mind if I posted my entire shopping list and asked for ideas or is that a bit cheeky?!

As for the make up/toiletries etc I get these for birthday/xmas pressies

Do you not run out in between times?

Sorry - I sound like I'm making excuses here - I really don't mean it to! I'm grateful for the ideas I just like to get everything clear in my head.

I am planning to contact the council tomorrow now - should I phone them first or just write a letter?

kizzykizzywizzy

Hi there Brokeinwales,
Just looking at your SOA there are so many things you pay out for that at this moment, until you are straight, you just can't afford.
Food bill is far too high, you need to batch cook & freeze some meals, have a look on the old style board for recipe ideas.
Cigs, well that's obvious, he can't afford to smoke this much, how about changing to roll ups?
Wine - sorry too much, you need to cut down I'm afraid
Haircuts, surely not £15 every month?
Kung fu/writing/swimming, can you cut at least one of these out until finances are better ?
Boots meal deals - you really need to start taking packed lunches to work every day, this is a huge amount of money over a month, I would expect with the amount of money you spend at the moment for food already, packed lunches would be included!
Taxis, you say only half are essential
Leg Wax - shave them!
Make up, I don't think I spend this much in a year!
DVDs- get free view, or look on the freebies board for free cinema tickets
Mags - need to cut this out really, often you can get 3 mags for £1 on the grabbit board I think.
Xmas/birthdays - You may be able to get gift vouchers by doing clicks on pigsback or do some comps, I have used some wins as presents.
eating Out - You can't afford this, very special occasions only!
Clothes - do you really need new clothes every month?
£50-£70 pocket money:eek: hope his bus fares are a huge part of this.

Sorry if this sounds really dull, but if you even cut down on half of these things you will be better off, a lot of these items are not essential, you need to start making do, it depends how desperate you are to sort your finances out
Good Luck, but somethings got to give, you can't go on spending as you are

singlemum_4

I spend about £160 for me,two hungry teenagers and a mad cat!! I menu plan and cook everything from scratch don't waste anything, as for the toiletries I don't use that much make up but do like nice smellies etc all my family know what I like and it does usually last me, they do the same for the kids so it all helps out, if I need to buy syuff then I get it when its on offer. There's loads of advice on the OS board and its very friendly.

singlemum_4

Also christmas, I did all my pressies with tesco clubcard deals last year didn't cost me a thing.

In_Search_Of_Me

brokeinwales wrote: »

OK. Thanks - trying to resist the urge to ramble too much now I know someone's reading!
Here goes - worked this out at 5am this morning based on the spending diary I've been keeping since just after Christmas, so I'm hoping it's fairly accurate:

Basic income
I take home £970 a month
my partner gives me £400 a month for housekeepingwhat % of bills do you both pay?

Other income sources
Casual modelling work - varies a lot, some months it's nothing, others I can make about £100 -£150
ebay/amazon selling - ebay has actually cost me money as I haven't sold a thing! Amazon has made me about £20 in the past six weeks
Surveys - signed up to all of them but not getting far
Slice The Pie - just signed up!
Cashback sites - just registered with Greasy Palm and RPoints

Outgoings
Rent £535Can you get cheaper?

Mobile phones £5 (PAYG)

Phone/ broadband £44.00 (locked into a contract for another 5 months unfortunately)Will they reduce it?

TV License £11.65

Food shopping £230 (We do a monthly £180 shop at Tesco online, and buy roughly £10 a week of fruit and veg from local grocers - plus a few quid a week for things like bread and milk)You could reduce this quite a bit - esp take fags off! Why not try grocery budget?

Cigarettes £60 (partner smokes not me! We get £60 worth in with the internet shop and he buys rest out of his pocket money)

Wine £40 (I know!!!) Knowing and doing are different things!! You have to cut down! You dont have the money for luxuries right now!

Haircuts £15 (I've started using student nights)still alot every month...I have mine cut (not blowdried!) at a salon & still dont spend that much a month - does ths incude dye? If so try homekits for a while - not as good but MUCH cheaper!

Leg wax £13 - Either get an epilady or start shaving...too much money for a luxury!

Kung Fu class £16 You spend an awful lot on entertainment, kung fu, swimming, writing, going out, tv....you need to look at cheap or free alternatives for now...running, library books, walks in park etc...Going out should be a TREAT occasonally rather than a regular occurence...

Writing group £6

Swimming £10

Taxis £32.80 (at least half of that is essential as it's late night after buses have stopped) YOu absoloytely CANNOT afford this!

Nationwide loan payment £89

Make-up/toiletries/ cosmetics £28 (I'm looking at ways to cut this so any suggestions particularly helpful!) au naturel?!

Christmas/birthdays £30 (estimate based on last Christmas)

DVD rental £5.99 (I've run out of free trials!)

Clothes £20.00 (I've already decided to stop all clothes spending for the time being)

Magazine subscription £2.50

Eating out £30 (i've included this even though it's unusually high because we went out to celebrate my Masters graduation - normally it would be less.)again a luxury...

Boots Meal Deals £17.94 (I do take packed lunch most days but don't always have time.) Must go!

Like I said, I've lurked here a while so maybe it's helpful to add the stuff I already do to save money:
-Buy mostly own brand food, make everything from scratch, eat vegetarian, buy herbs in bulk. (looking into shopping at Lidl but noticed some things you can't get.)
- Use charity shops for clothes
- Use low energy lightbulbs!

I hope this is clear. I've already thought of a couple of changes just through writing it down (the meal deals really freaked me out) - but if anyone can think of anything to help you can't imagine how grateful I'd be. Really I need extra money fast to sort out the more pressing problems of Council Tax and stuff!
Thankyou so much!!!

HI there. I dont mean to be harsh but seriously you are spending a huge aount on luxuries for someone who is behind on council tax! Does this not make you feel physically sick?!! It would me! I dont know where you live in Wales but know that Penarth has ridiculous CT while Cardiffs is less so maybe look at the area you live in & also see if you could get cheaper rent? Have a look at Martins articles re insurance etc & shop round using quidco etc for cash back! You can easily do this but it will mean some changes to your current SOA but will mean you are in control of spending rather than it controlling you, as it is now! Grocery challenge on old style is a great way to cut food costs & you should take the fag money out of the GB - at the moment you are paying for him to smoke which is nuts! At £6 a packet its ridiculous and he needs to try & stop (hard I know, esp having smoked 6 myself last night!!) because its bad for you & definately bad for budget! Could your BF get extra money from other work or OT?
Most of all welcome! This will be a tough journey for you but you can so easily do it with tweaking & while hard to believe now, being a DFW ca be an adventure...lots of few things to discover!!

brokeinwales

Hi kizzykizzywizzy (what a name!) - thanks for taking the time to help me out here!

Food bill is far too high, you need to batch cook & freeze some meals, have a look on the old style board for recipe ideas.

I do this already, but thanks anyway.

Cigs, well that's obvious, he can't afford to smoke this much, how about changing to roll ups?

Will tentatively suggest this!

Wine - sorry too much, you need to cut down I'm afraid

Yes I know! this is one of the things we'll talk about when my other half gets up!

Haircuts, surely not £15 every month?

I have a cut and blow dry every eight weeks. I'm thinking of reducing the frequency a little.

Kung fu/writing/swimming, can you cut at least one of these out until finances are better ?

Possibly (not willingly, but if I have to...)

Boots meal deals - you really need to start taking packed lunches to work every day,

I know. This amount surprised me as I do make packed lunches most of the time and I only get meal deals 1-2 times a week maximum. I may start taking tins of soup to heat in the microwave as this would be a bit cheaper.

Leg Wax - shave them!
Make up, I don't think I spend this much in a year!

As I mentioned - I work part-time as a model, so things like this help me to get work (I can't shave regualrly as I get shaving rash). I'm looking into ways to save on make-up though so suggetsions would be welcomed.

DVDs- get free view, or look on the freebies board for free cinema tickets
Mags - need to cut this out really, often you can get 3 mags for £1 on the grabbit board I think.

Will discuss cutting these out entirely

Xmas/birthdays - You may be able to get gift vouchers by doing clicks on pigsback or do some comps, I have used some wins as presents.

Been doing comps regualrly for years and never won anything!! Can someone explain what pigsback is?

eating Out - You can't afford this, very special occasions only!
Clothes - do you really need new clothes every month?

No - it's averaged out and included a special occasion as mentioned. Am going to cut out my clothes spending entirely for a while and not eat out either.

£50-£70 pocket money:eek: hope his bus fares are a huge part of this.

they are!

Good Luck, but somethings got to give, you can't go on spending as you are

[/QUOTE]
Thank you. Really is appreciated.

brokeinwales

I take home £970 a month
my partner gives me £400 a month for housekeepingwhat % of bills do you both pay?

Well we worked out a while ago that our total essential bills (including shopping) should be about £800 so he gives me £100 a week to cover his share of housekeeping.