Your advice and thoughts are needed please...

lindens

A few things jump out at me-

Is there any point at the moment saving money in an ISA when you are short of monthly outgoings?
You are spending a hell of a lot on mobiles, switch to a lower tariff or change to PAYG. I spend £5 a month now I am on PAYG!!
Can you cut out clothes for a while, I'm sure you have anough in your wardrobe to keep you going for a while. An exception here is the kids if they outgrow things.
Not sure what exactly housekeeping covers, but you could easily shave at least £100 off this if you did meal planning and the store cupboard challenge.
Obviously the cars are costing you alot but you have realised this and are looking at other ways. Try a car share??

rubydoiwannabee

Thanks Lindens
The ISA is for the interest only part of our mortgage, so not really savings. We have part repayment covered by the term assurance and part int only covered by the ISA.

We can definetly make savings on clothes, I don't actually spend this, it is what NDL told us to budget for. This budget has been developed when we were looking at a DMP, which is why I think we can easily work at breaking even.

For example the last two weeks we have done menu planning and it has cut our shopping from about £110-120 a week done to £80 and that includes a couple of birthday presents.

I am feeling positive that if we really do start watching every penny, we could do this.

Thanks for your support and advice.

:T

skintscotslass

Hi Ruby

Join us on the Grocery Challenge. You'll be amazed at what a difference you can make

LEWKI

Hi - good luck with this. There is a no smoking thread on here as well if your OH is interested. I have just given up and found it a huge help. I gave up because I was spending £150/month and could no longer afford it.
I wish you all the best, at least you are working on this as a team . You will get it sorted

rubydoiwannabee

skintscotslass wrote: »

Hi Ruby

Join us on the Grocery Challenge. You'll be amazed at what a difference you can make

I would love to but my laptop is not letting me access any threads with lots of entries!! very weird, I have emailed the website help to see if they can help.

Thanks again.

rubydoiwannabee

LEWKI wrote: »

Hi - good luck with this. There is a no smoking thread on here as well if your OH is interested. I have just given up and found it a huge help. I gave up because I was spending £150/month and could no longer afford it.
I wish you all the best, at least you are working on this as a team . You will get it sorted

Thanks ever so, I really hope so.
WELL DONE TO YOU FOR GIVING UP, IT IS VERY HARD ISN'T IT?

tyllwyd

One silly little thing I noticed is that you are paying out £5 a month on your fridge - does it go wrong that often? Would you be better just saving the money towards a new one?

rubydoiwannabee

tyllwyd wrote: »

One silly little thing I noticed is that you are paying out £5 a month on your fridge - does it go wrong that often? Would you be better just saving the money towards a new one?

thanks... tee hee, you are probably right. The trouble is it is under two years old and has been repaired once already, hence the plan rather than paying £70 per visit. I will never have frost free again.
It has also started leaking but not all the time!! So i must get them out again before I cancel.

Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings

OberonSH

Personally I would put your appliance insurance and put it in a saving account. Once it gets to the price of a new fridge without being needed, pay the extra off the debt. If it gets needed - at least you get the insterest in the meantime.

Also, can the kids take packed lunches? There's some great ideas on Oldstyle for interesting boxes.

When does the court fine finish? Don't forget to visit the snowball at whatsthecost.com - this will show you the quickest or cheapest way to pay off your debt, by taking the payments made on one debt and paying off something else when it finishes - byt eh last debt it's getting blasted with uor whole debt budget. This is really motivating.

Is there any way to get a train tp work? Monthly tickets can work out cheapr than taking the car, plus you get the time on board to catch up on your reading!

Good luck hun, you'll get there. At least you caugt it early and asre setting a great example to the kids.

peb

Just a quick thought - unsure where you shop but I am saving tesco voucers for RAC membership - is this an option?