HELP! We're in the poo!

brokeinwales

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

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

We live in Cardiff in fact! I wouldn't say the CT is massive - it's just that we got behind with it after we first moved and haven't caught up.
Some of the amounts on luxuries did surprise me when I added them up, but a lot of them do seem like semi-essentials (i.e. taxis because it would be dangerous to walk, the magazine is relevant to my work, wine and DVD's because otherwise my b/f goes potty on his days off(!), waxing because I can't shave)
I guess I'm having real trouble differentiating between what I need and what I don't. I'm getting completely lost in a sea of figures and not sure where to start.

kizzykizzywizzy

Hi again, sorry if that sounded harsh I just couldn't believe how much you spend on luxuries. Nice if you can afford it:p
Ok so the leg waxing can't go, the makeup/hair is probably needed for your modelling also, I'm a Mum of 2, so I don't need to be very glam, although I do wear makeup, I probably stick to the same stuff & don't have the variety you have, which is probably why I spend less, so sorry no tips!
Great if you have a microwave at work, I used to take in left over pasta, or chilli all sorts, as sandwiches can get boring, also if you've got something in the cupboard like soup, you can just grab it if you are running late & haven't got time to make a packed lunch. I used to keep cuppa soups at work, used to get "borrowed" a lot though!
Don't cut everything out at once or you will go "cold turkey" but you really can cut a lot out, which is a good thing, some peoples SOA's have not got as much scope for cutting down as yours.

In_Search_Of_Me

No Cardiffs isnt massive (I pay it too!!) but the point I am making is you have alot of luxuries! Going out is not (believe it or not!!) an essential! Re the waxing you can get an epliady & DIY - look on ebay - one finishing in 15 mins (do epilator!) for under the price of a wax & there are loads of em! Just to assist with a want & a need...a want is something you want to do & a need is somethng you cant do without! The wants come under holiday, going out, mags (seriously go to the library if you have to you do NOT have to buy mags!!), waxing, make up...the needs are food, rent, council tax, bills etc! You need to plan some wants into the budget to avoid insanity but you have far too many and are sacrificing the needs for wants - ie you are happy to pay for wine, taxis's, hair waxing but havent paid your council tax, for which you can face imprisonment & the bailiffs! I dont mean to sound harsh but you really need to have a long think (both of you) & DO something about your finances because from the SOA & your comments it seems that you are really not seeing the seriousness of being behind on council tax! Where to start is to sit down with BF & talk things through - both of you need to make sacrifices and 70 a week pocket money is an awful lot BTW!! Hugs for you!

brokeinwales

OK. Thankyou everyone - believe it or not I do feel a little better knowing that there's stuff I can work with.
I think what I'll do now is go wake b/f up (!) and have chat after breakfast - then re-do what our monthly spend "ought" to be in light of some of this advice. And then I'll come back!

SingleSue

Not sure if this is any help but here goes anyway...

I tend to get my make up from Avon and use their special offers which they tend to have (you know, buy the lipstick and get the foundation free sort of thing) and this saves ooddles .... mind you, I only have to buy lippy once a year! My total spend on cosmetics over the last 2 years has been £8 (youngest son bought the last lipstick as a Xmas pressie...he even chose the colour - and it looked great!)

kazwookie

Hi

Cigs, Wine and the leg waxing have to go IMO, then you would have enough quite quickly to pay the ct.

The cigs you say you have no control over as your partner smokes them, well get him to buy his own, IMO (harsh as it seems) you are a mug to keep [aying for them, when you have other more important things to pay for.

Good luck and well done for taking the first step and posting

tealady

Hi You asked about Pigsback. Its a site where you can do free clicks and get 5 points at a time. The points can be exchanged for vouchers (I get Boots ones boo hiss the points needed has just gone up), and then I use the voucher to buy toiletries on 3 for 2 or BOGOF. You need to check daily as the 5 point offers aren't on there every day. If you sign up your OH as well then you can collect points for him.

Li0nhead

What i think the OP is trying to say is, how can get the debt paid off without cutting back? The short answer is you cannot.

Listen to what others have said. For instence the cigs thats £720 per year. There you go thats the council tax clear and a weekend away thrown in as a treat.

You have to cut back on the non essentials.

You say you have tried lidl but cannot get certain things there. Well we have a forum full of people who find things cheap, why not ask us what you cannot get.

Basically you have to cut back. Sorry if i sound condersending or harsh its not my intention.

tsstss7

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 housekeeping - this obviously needs to be more as you are not managing even with his input. contrary to what some people think it DOES cost lots more to have someone living with you some bills (esp food) will be proportionally more and council tax goes from 75 - 100%. Bear in mind at the mo. he actually only gives you £340 towards housekeeping!! (or 78.50/wk)

Other income sources
Casual modelling work - varies a lot, some months it's nothing, others I can make about £100 -£150 Bearing in mind your costs for cosmetics etc is this even paying for itself at present? Obviously you may be trying to make a name for yourself but would it be better to either really make a huge effort to increase the amount of work you get or stop for a while and sort out your finances first?

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 I've found this too lately - ebay has got very expensive and I'd only really use it now as a way of getting rid of stuff I cannot sell locally through the LOCAL CLASSIFIEDS and SUPERMARKET NOTICE BOARDS they are free!

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 £535

Mobile phones £5 (PAYG)

Phone/ broadband £44.00 (locked into a contract for another 5 months unfortunately)

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) Like others say this seems high and I would say you could probably cut down loads if you dropped the internet shop and did a weekly shop - don't you end up throwing away loads of food buying monthly?

Cigarettes £60 (partner smokes not me! We get £60 worth in with the internet shop and he buys rest out of his pocket money) ditto what others have said - he shouldn't be getting expensive cigs on you - buy him tobacco!

Wine £40 (I know!!!) ????? homebrew!!

Haircuts £15 (I've started using student nights) If needed for modeling why not only go if you have a casting the next day etc and see if this cuts down slightly.

Leg wax £13

Kung Fu class £16

Writing group £6

Swimming £10

Taxis £32.80 (at least half of that is essential as it's late night after buses have stopped) Take buses unless it really is too late for them!!

Nationwide loan payment £89

Make-up/toiletries/ cosmetics £28 (I'm looking at ways to cut this so any suggestions particularly helpful!) Try shopping around - even the expensive stuff is on special offer fairly often. Make sure you use up what you have before you buy new.

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

DVD rental £5.99 (I've run out of free trials!) Cancel this until you are better off - there is plenty to keep you occupied on tv and internet - read books they are cheaper!

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

Magazine subscription £2.50 Use tesco points?

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.) Tesco points/deals again

Boots Meal Deals £17.94 (I do take packed lunch most days but don't always have time.) When you don't have time take a potato and can of beans/coleslaw for the microwave - leave tins of soup at work to cover such occasions.

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!!!

Sorry have run out of time but just wanted to say that considering you cook from scratch you do seems to spend lots on food - maybe you should analyse what you normally buy and see if you can cut down on amounts/ more expensive items etc - do you waste alot for example?

Hope this helps :0)

mollymunchkin

Check out the Boots thread on the Grabbit board for amazing tips on huge savings on cosmetics etc.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=864075