www.iva.co.uk

With rising costs of fuel, food, clothes and the like its time to get more aggressive with your money and start squeezing your gas, electric, insurance Companies (infact all of the Companies you pay your household bills to) and pass the extra cost of living back to them.

I would urge everyone to make more use of their telephone and internet to cut down their outgoings..it really is easy. So many Companies out there are also feeling the pinch and need to keep their customers and will offer discounts etc to keep you.

So for example, with insurances, make sure you use comparison sites, or at least contact your Company and and explain your IVA/debt predicement and see if you can reduce your premiums. NEVER TAKE A RENEWAL QUOTE ON FACE VALUE....either challenge it or move!

As we say in the north "shy bairns get no sweets"!

I always shop around for everything. I'm the one who can usually tell everyone at work where the offers are even on toiletries. Being in a budget has certainly made me thrifty.

I shop around to a certain extent but my car insurance I'm more than happy with and nobody can touch it, utilities, phone and broadband are the same. No point me trying to change the house insurance as we've made a few claims in the past couple of years so nobody else will touch us!

As to shopping, I tend to buy own brand stuff (even with toiletries and hair care) as it is much cheaper. My deodorant is currently 78p (Asda) and is brilliant............well I've had no complaints yet!

Must admit Kallis and Lesley being in this IVA and on such a restrictive budget has made me question ever penny of my outgoings on a continuous basis. For daily living we are fortunate to have an ASDA, Lidl, Aldi and Netto within walking distance and our weekly shopping depends on where the special offers are at the time. As a night worker myself I get to my local ASDA at around 6am most mornings, at which time they put the "sale" items up, particularly the broken boxes of cereal, juices etc which have been damaged by the shelf stackers the previous night lol or are up on clearance. By morning they have to be removed off the floor for the less discerning customers.

As for telephone etc I'm sure if you can afford the payments or at least find your outgoings comfortable then theres no reason to change but I read so many posts on here about rising costs and unaffordability and sometimes being pro-active with these Companies can help with the burden of our IVA/DMP's etc.

I love Asda, it also helps that daughter works there so I get 10% discount! I don't like Lidl, Aldi or Netto though. Wasn't impressed with the stuff they had.

I always look for the reduced stuff where I can - my local Tesco usually have loads.

We changed to Sky last year for the phone and broadband and it is loads cheaper than BT, the service is better and I shall stick with it.

My mobile contract is up for renewal in a couple of months but will obviously have to stick with O2 as nobody else will touch me and I do love an up to date phone!

I find Tesco cheaper for me - I often put my shopping list into mysupermarket.com just to check, and yesterday Tesco was £10 cheaper than Asda.

We're with Sky for TV and broadband as well and we wouldn't get the sme deal cheaper anywhere else, and I can't fault their service.

I'm with Vodafone for my mobile contract and I would like to bring the cost of that down, but I can't at the moment. I wouldn't have PAYG - like Jan I like an up to date phone!

I just recently soted car and house insurance. Both the renewals were going to go up £5 and £9 respectively, per month. Not on I thought. Shopped around, got great deal on car ins from Swinton, with cashback facility in three months, decided to check them out with house insurance, could have got it £4 cheaper per month than renewal, but decided to take out the Home emergecny cover for the boiler/pipes/raditors etc., something we were going to do next month. So I am actually paying £1 dearer than the original renewal. Not bad to get a years cover. Had I not questioned it I would have been paying the £9 increase plus about £15 boiler cover from next month, so the way I see it I've already save £14 a month LOL.

Farm Foods for Milk, bread, marge, eggs and potatoes...saves loads on Asda.
Asda for mostly everything else
Aldi for super 6 fruit and veg every two weeks.

So far each month I have finished the month with a bit left over from housekeeping, truth be told last two months was only £2 each month, but thats definately better than no money for food at all.

Phone with TMobile and only quarter way through contract, but I get mobile minutes, so this means I can use it to call other peoples mobiles and this then saves on the landline. So much so that they put our payments down £10 three months ago. Not bad eh??

Don't forget as well (as I often do) for some of these things if you do them online, use Quidco and get cashback.

Meat is from a local butcher, bread from a local bakery. It may be more expensive but it is so much nicer. Veg comes from a local farm shop.

We get our meat from the butcher's van at the market and fish comes from a local frozen fish wholesaler. We get fruit and veg from either Tesco or the mark and bread is homemade - I only buy white sliced to keep in the fridge at work for emergencies. I only buy free range eggs - I'd rather go without than by caged eggs and it annoys me that Tesco still sell them.

I have found that changing sometimes doesn't pay off - I bought Tresemme shampoo as it was so cheap and ended up scratching like monkey! I also changed to Tesco butter rather than I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and it was so hard it didn't spread!

I use Kerrygold spreadable butter as it is 100% butter. Asda's own shampoo and conditioner for me at the moment.

The fish we have delivered and it is far superior to anything in the shops.

Same here Jan, I've never actually said anything but I always give people evils if they are buying them.

We were getting our frozen fish delivered, but we actually live near one of the suppliers so we're going direct to them now for half the price!

Ours is fresh when it's delivered so we freeze it and use it as and when.

I hate battery farmed anything!

For those that are not interested in a new mobile phone (not for you then Kallis lol) checkout GIFFGAFF sometime....they have some great deals.

99p shop for me today, much cheaper for some things, but you need to watch what you buy. Some of the branded stuff is quite a bit cheaper than supermarket.

Leakybrain well done....a person after my own heart!