Is anyone else just stuck in debt and fed up?

Ditch pet insurance if it's for cats and self-insure by saving the same amount every month you'll get some interest and save a fortune. I have never insured any of my cats and i have never regretted this. Ditch the boiler cover - my boiler service costs £75 a year. Buy your hand set and go sim only. Get on MoneySavingExpert - loads of ideas there.

Didn't read every post but saw a few saying get rid of boiler cover and pet insurance. If personally never do this. Our dogs would have cost us in the thousands without. Even ‘small’ things like having to sedate for an x-ray costs hundreds.

This year our boiler would have cost probably around £1500 for repairs and it’s only 12 years old. We’ve only had to pay 2 call out fees of around £140 total because of our cover. I’d say the amount you’re paying is a lot. Look at comparison sites. We’re paying £18 a month for boiler, electrics and plumbing cover.

If your phone contract is coming to an end look at sim only. I kept my paid off handset and now pay £9 a month for 32gb data and unlimited everything else.

Was it less than 14 days ago - or more precisely less than 14 days since you received the policy documents? If so it's a cooling of period and they have to cancel (and pay back any premiums you have paid, with no charge).

Depending on the interest rate on personal loans, and the mortgage rate and terms and conditions, when you need a loan you could possibly increase your mortgage borrowing more cheaply than the personal loan rate. When you do need a new boiler, you could apply to borrow more on the mortgage for home improvement, so long as you have the headroom on percentage loan to value and the terms and conditions allow. This may be at a cheaper interest rate than personal loans and of course it will be repayable over a much longer period.

Yay and then it’ll break down in a couple of years.
Been there, done that.

Thats not an area where going for the cheapest of the cheapest is the best idea in the long run.

Ring everyone and threaten to cancel, don’t actually cancel unless you want to however see if they will come down in price. Keep your cat, my cat was my luxury when I was in a similar situation and I wouldn’t have been without him.

When I was in 15k debt from my divorce I got a 2nd job and paid it off in 2 years. I hated working 6 days a week but I hated being in debt even more. I don't have any debt now.

You need to be a bit more systematic.

What’s your minimum income in a month?
You’ve listed your expenses.
How much debt to you have, what form is it in and what is the interest rate.
Cut your expenses back as much as you can - if you can’t give up Netflix then take it back to the minimum subscription and cancel YouTube premium. For the sake of £6 if you want Netflix, keep it.

Then what is spare - you need to budget this. You need a pot for food, travel and emergencies as a minimum. Aim to get £1,000 in an emergency fund, then focus on putting towards the debt (there’s no point paying down debt if you’re going to rack it back up).

The Financielle app / podcast has a great playbook for this. It feels like you need a mindset shift in the short term, and then once you’re out of debt you can relax the budget a bit (think about how great a free extra £300 per month will be!).

@MikeRafone I love the pocket accounts in Chase. At the moment I have one for summer (changed from Christmas), one for the car, one for my daughter's activities, one for flooring and one for a rainy day. I work part time on a zero hours contract and put £10 into each pot for each day I worked that week. I also have a Help to Save account. The car goes in for its MOT tomorrow so I'm a bit stressed but hopefully I'll have enough in the pot to cover it.

"What's wrong with watching nothing? Why do you need to be watching something? "

@LlamaDharma Because it's someone's main form of entertainment. Some people read, some people go to the pub. And then some people really enjoy watching films. It's actually a really cheap way to spend time.

I'm really surprised this needs explaining.

I agree. I'm not a pet owner but know people who have had their cat hit by car was a huge vets bill - it survived to old age tho
and apologies in advance if this doesn't apply to cats - neighbour's dog on a country walk was killed outright by a speeding vehicle. The dog was deemed to have caused the accident and they were sued by the driver's insurance, luckily pet insurance covered it.

If you do decide to cancel Netflix then consider making use of your library.

My local library has box sets to borrow. Music to borrow. They even have a streaming service for weird and wonderful films! It used to anyway.

If you work in one LA and live in another you can join both library groups probably.

I also get magazines and comics online (I reckon the library saves me hundreds every year)

You might have access to "universal class"

You might have access to BFI replay (tv and video archives) though have to be at the library to use that.

It's a great way to save money and of course using the library helps protect it by boosting user numbers.

Opt for a cheaper Netflix plan. I pay £5:99 per month for Netflix with ads.

Can’t believe people think you should rehome your cat and get rid of your tv just to pay debt off a bit quicker.
“you’re poor! You deserve to be bored and lonely!!”

@LlamaDharma because you said you would go out more

I'm asking for ideas where that costs less than Netflix does a month and also gives you a full month of stuff to do

I know people don't melt but in 2024 being at home with nothing except a radio is fucking miserable when it's minus temps outside and throwing it down

There are things you can do to reduce those monthly outgoings

> boiler cover- £31.50
Scrap that one immediately!
Put £20/month aside into an interest bearing account
Every year when you get the boiler serviced go with a local engineer, NOT British Gas, it will be ~£100
After five or six years you'll have enough to pay for a new boiler when it's needed
Which magazine has one bit of advice for people paying monthly boiler cover
IT'S A SCAM, STOP PAYING IT

> petplan and insurance- £43
What pet do you have - $43/month is over £500/year which is excessive

> phone contract and handset- £32
See if you can buy out the phone, and switch to Lebara (£5/month for unlimited calls and texts plus 4GB data)

> gym- £14
Scrap that for a few months until you've cleared your other debts - job, run up and down stairs at home if you have them, do weights with tins of soup or bottles of water

> YouTube/netflix- £22
Scrap those. Utterly unnecessary until you're financially sorted

> wifi- £24
That's a good price - use your devices to view free things instead of paying for Netflix or Youtube

> Student loan- £30
You should only be paying that if your income is above £25,000 and lots of things (e.g. pension payments) are taken into account first

Have I understood this right - so you're paying £28/month for pet health club? That's £336/year!😯Annual vaccinations/health check is €52 per cat at my vets (I'm in France). I buy wormers and tick/flea treatment in bulk online and I've never had to have any of my cats claws trimmed.

To be fair, it was pretty crap. I hope that my new one lasts better.

Do you enjoy being unpleasant?

It's unhelpful to have absolutely nothing in your life. The climate in this country is awful. OP needs something. Don't think saving 6 quid will have too much of an impact.

Get a £10 tv from a charity shop.

What was the £1500 loan for last month?

Our boiler cover saved us a £700 boil once. Yeast the cover adds up to more but if you have got the ‘ready money’ it is difficult, current one went nuts a year or so ago and it was covered completely. Something to do with an expansion something…no idea. I just nodded as the very attractive muscly bloke did bloke things to fix it.

I have been in debt before and the feeling of being out of it is such a relief, I actually have savings now, can afford clothes and holidays. I still think I’m skint though so I’m frugal.

Surprisingly people don't actually melt if they go outside when it's cold or wet. Life actually continues. Why are you asking me what other people should do to entertain themselves fir a whole month anyway?

In our last house, our Worcester Bosch oil boiler died when it was only about 10 years old. We had a maintenance contract (which didn't cost much more than an annual service) and basically got a new boiler for free. So a good maintenance contract is worth having IME.

Not watching netflix does not equate living in misery for goodness sake. That's quite insulting to people living in real poverty. There are other things that give fulfilment in life. That last reply suggests you're not prepared to make realistic sacrifices to save money anyway. Crack on with your netflix. I'm sure it will help in the long run.