I am shattered, on the train back from Banbury. It’s 3pm and this one has taken a day and a half to get all the necessary filming in – a little longer than normal. Even though the premise of the programme is how much money I can save in a day, sometimes it’s necessary to run over simply because of the requirements of filming. One of the things we wanted to do was a bit of a drive.
Anyway, onto the family itself. A really nice couple with good jobs. Suddenly realising, as many do, that they had no pension provision, they’ve recently bought a share in a Spanish flat as an investment the only problem being that it’s substantially stretched their pockets. This has caused them to be overspending, and while on the surface a nice house and place in Spain looks great – the finances are creaking and without some care there could be dodgy times ahead.
Of course, my job is to try and stop that happening. Unfortunately the big savings we’re accustomed to from changing mortgage weren’t available as the family was on a good deal. There were, however, again major savings to be had from using nursery vouchers – something I’m going to publish an article on imminently, as the more looking through people’s finances I do, the more important this feels to me.
Other savings of course started to add up – a little bit at a time though there was a need for quite a lot of ‘pain-full’ savings; cutting back in other words. And of course while I talk through how to budget with Neil and Fiona, ultimately when I leave it’s up to them. In this case I think they’ll do it – they’re aware every penny they save allows them to keep the flat in Spain. Though whether the sacrifice is too great, is up to them.
