Money Management Boot Camp ..... anyone interested?

[Twiglett]

OK the house of twig has been overspending drastically in recent months, so I'm about to start sorting it out again (took my eye off the ball you see)

I know we do style and healthy living makeovers on here

Anybody want to join my Money Boot Camp? Get control of your money and stay in control?

NB this may be well over my head though but I'm pretty good at this normally

sign-up if you wanna try .. we could start next month?

Well I spent £7.04 in the co op on way back from dropping DS at nursery. I have also said because it is his first day he can choose a magazine on his way home and some sweets!

oh and 50p for snack and milk but that sonly per week.

Niceglasses - if your current lender said no, would you consider going to a mortgage broker? I think they would be able to help you find the best deal for you, and would hopefully be able to point you in the direction of banks who would accept you (no point in paying an application fee for a mortgage and then being turned down).

Hello, can I join in ? I've just finished writing down everything spent in the last 4 weeks, and am trying to work out what to do next.

niceglasses - we are just going to remortgage, and are using the brokers Charcol. DH works in Financial Services and he says they have a very good reputation. They charge £199, but I think it's worth it, because they do most of the work for you.

It's worth shopping around for different mortgage providers anyway ( or getting a broker to do it for you ) because you could probably get a better deal.

Lots of people change their mortgage providers regularly - it often makes sense - just like lots of people change their credit card provider regularly - to keep on top of the best deals.

We should be several hundred pounds better off a month, once we've remortgaged, even with our consolidated debts added onto the mortgage.

My current B&C Insurers just reduced my monthly payments to £14 when I called to enquiry about cancelling my policy.

Next stop (tomorrow) - mobile phone!

So far I've managed to reduce my essential bills by £32 per month/£384 per year

..and I've not even changed any of my suppliers.

Mortgage, sky and mobile phone on top and I think I'm on track to save ~£2000 a year just on the essentials. That's before I start looking at shopping savings.

The one thing I would say about remortgaging is (I've been shopping round a lot this weekend) some seem to have high redemption charges and arrangement fees. Make sure this doesn't offset the saving or mean that it'll be costly to transfer to another leander in the future.

I'll have a look in

I've got a budget but not for daily/weekly - we have a grocery budget and just allocate ourselves "pocket money" for the rest. Still got leaks somewhere though so might try keeping track of daily spend for a while...

Had an ok weekend, managed not to spend on anything but going for dinner on Sat night and lunch on Sunday.

I went out to walk the dog and when I came back dh had fallen victim to a door to door bloke and had spent £20 on (wait for it...) a dog grooming glove, a pack of carpet clean wipes (wtf) and a tub of some cleaning paste

He had done better on Fri pm, he called me from Monsoon and said he had seen a shirt that he quite liked to wear to dinner on Sat night, I said "do you really really love it" and he said no, it's just ok and it was £50!! So he didn#t get it

Sorry I think I mean additional borrowing on our mortgage, not re-mortgaging. Am being dim. Thanks for all your replies, I think we may have to go to a broker if NWide say non.

Can I join up too?

I keep telling DH we need to spend a month or two writing down where our money goes in order to spend less. I would really like to whittle down the 'invisible' spending. Most of it is probably down to me but DH is guilty of it as well. I'd also like to live week to week off a cash amount but have no idea how to calculate what is a reasonable amount.

So, what happens after we complete the budget plan and keep a written note of daily expenditure?

I'm going to sell my xBox 360 - friend reckons I can get £200 (inc games) for it so going to put an add in my local shop.. then can use that money to pay for dd's Christmas presents. I hardly ever use it and when I think that would save me so much money over christmas..

niceglasses, we are looking to add an additional £12000 onto our mortgage - I think it's still known as remortgaging, whether you do it with your current provider or a different one.

Right:

Menu planner done
Shopping list done round menu planner
Spent £20 less as a result.

still writing down what I am spending....quite a bit seems to go to the little supermarket round the corner which I just pop to for extra milk and today washing up tablets....£8 plus £10 cash back later.....

oh yes.
I fill the car with petrol today as just got paid and was at asda which is the cheapest place locally. SHould also mean I don't spend odds and sods in petrol stations when filling up for a bit

Popsycal - I do the same and spend a few pounds a day in the local supermarket - I pop in to get milk and a paper and spend around £10 a time. Am faithfully writing it down and hoping that (a) it won't add up to that much or (b) it will total so much it will scare me into stopping. Hum...which one do we think it will be??

Why did I say I'd start today when it's my wedding anniversary??

Anyway, I'm cheating slightly, cos I should have bought the food for a romantic meal tonight when I went to Tesco yesterday and I forgot, so I'm not counting it, lol.

DH has sorted out the house insurance (due tomorrow, paid annually), only had time to scour two quotes, one over £100 cheaper than the other, and when he rang to pay it this evening, they knocked a further £19 off!

School dinners is the only thing I've paid for today - £17.

Ok so it's been a week for me and I've just done a quick tally. I'm so shocked that I've still spent

£28.15 on sundries - crsips/snacks/lunchdrinks/fish&chips @ £5.80 these little things really add up

I have also spent £77.14 on essentials - Food, Petrol, dry cleaners

I'm disappointed, I thought I was doing really well.

Must try harder!

So yesterday I had a really bad day:
£8.25 - school dinners
£0.90 - bottle of water in petrol station to get some change for hospital carpark
£2 - parking
£3.50 - greengrocers
£1.60 - local shop (DD demanded apple sauce so I needed to buy apples)
£20 - petrol
£30 - DS beavers

Total = £66.25 And DS now informs me that he has lost his pe shorts.

OK Have just spent £6 on the RedHouse website but they are the first of dd's xmas presents and it was £20+ worth of books so it made me feel better

well dh made £50 last night by helping a colleagues (sp?) mum move house! he was knackered last night, but it's well worth the £50!

Brilliant Stacey! I must get my xBox sold!

Mascara, have you considered ebaying it? the premium packages with 3 games are going for ~£200 and the ones with 6-8 games are going for ~£250-275

just a thought!

Yes, was going to eBay it as they are going for good price at the minute but I thought as it's coming up to Christmas it would probably sell in the local shop and that would be less hassle.

My friend who is a gamer said to put the games on seperately as I have some that are still expensive in the shops.. but I'm not so sure. I have about 6 games I think

Must sort it out.