Hi new here and after some advice to get debt free

Cozy9k · 10 January 2007 at 2:13PM

Hi

, My names Paul (everyone calls me Cozy though) been lurking for a while and picked some great tips from the forums but I have had my lightbulb moment and need to sort my finances out as ashamed as I am, I still live at home with my mum at 27 (which is probably a good thing to sort my debts out) and I really want to get on the property ladder with my GF (who is good with money and I need to sort myself out)

I have done my SOA below and have started doing a spending diary to find out what I’m spending all my extra money, I have also quit smoking and on average got down to one a day this week with the view to making it none a day next week (cold turkey no patches, gum etc) so am already seeing the benefits (money and health) from this.

My SOA is ok as I don’t have to shell out for a lot of bills (apart from NTL, mobile and car insurance) as such as I pay my mum rent (£40/week) which is good

I am going to be doing a budget shortly too so I can control my finances a bit better really as before now I have just gone week to week paying for things as and when they are needed, now I have seen the error of my ways and I can start putting money aside for things in the future so I don’t get hit with it all at the same time

Main Concern below:-
My main concern is my two main debts, both with Cahoot and both getting on top of me, I was stupid really as I first got a credit card then got a loan to pay the CC off and a couple of other things (car repairs etc), then I spent up to the limit again on the CC so I really need to sort them out and change to someone else as both the CC’s APR has just been put up and the Flexible loan has jumped up seriously (seen a few others in the same boat)

I have never missed any payments so far on either CC or Loan so that hopefully should be a good thing for applying for others but I’m just unsure where to go from here really as I have never transferred a CC to another one etc

Ideally I would like one debt that I can pay off as much as I can as quickly as I can but not sure how to go about it as I have seen the m&s card with the LOB at 3.9% but unsure if I could get both the loan and CC onto that or not or if there is a better way to do it

Sorry for the long post, and I know I haven’t got the greatest of debts compared to some others on here so if you can please help, here is my SOA, I may have missed some off that but I will update it regulary

Here’s to getting debt free, any help / advise greatly appreciated especially with the loan and CC

Cheers Paul (Cozy)

SOA

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1111.60 (hopefully increasing soon if I get my payrise)

Total - £1111.60 (this is after tax, what i come out with)

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £160
Council Tax – N/A
Gas – N/A
Electric – N/A
TV License – N/A
Sky – N/A
NTL Broadband - £17.99
Mobile Phone - £20.45 (for 3 months - £32.95 for 12 months) (18 month contract)
Lunch at work (shopping at netto) - £25
Food (home) - £60
Car Insurance - £67.11
Petrol - £120
Going out / entertainment - £240
Car Tax - £16.10
MOT & servicing - £15
Haircut - £9
Life Insurance – N/A

Total: £750.65

Debts

Cahoot CC – Balance £2447.08 (limit £2,500) APR 10.9% (APR just been put up to this)

Cahoot flexible Loan – Balance £6203.29 (limit £6500.00) APR 14.9% Flexible loan (just put the APR up again)

Loan from family - £400 (need to pay this off asap really)

Thanks again in advance, determined to do this

woohoo_postingid · 10 January 2007 at 3:02PM

How much are your loan repayments every month?

Cozy9k · 10 January 2007 at 3:10PM

woohoo_postingid wrote:

How much are your loan repayments every month?

minimum payment on the loan at the mo before the apr rise was approx £127, min on CC was £48 or something like that.

was paying regular amounts to both of them previously but a few months before christmas was only paying the minimum's as i was short of money

moozie_2 · 10 January 2007 at 3:12PM

Hello there

Just some thoughts from me!

You have good scope within your SOA to make savings and clear your debts. I hope your payrise is good!

Can you Amazon/ebay things too? Mystery shop? Always using cashback sites when shopping online.

Good luck!

Cozy9k wrote:

Monthly Incomings:
My salary - £1111.60 (hopefully increasing soon if I get my payrise)
Total - £1111.60 (this is after tax, what i come out with)

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £160 If you pay £40 a week that's £173.33 a month. If you pay her actually £160 a month this is fine.
Council Tax – N/A
Gas – N/A
Electric – N/A
TV License – N/A
Sky – N/A
NTL Broadband - £17.99
Mobile Phone - £20.45 (for 3 months - £32.95 for 12 months) (18 month contract)
Lunch at work (shopping at netto) - £25
Food (home) - £60 This means £85 a month on food. Could possibly reduce it by preparing lunch/batch cooking? Old style Board for ideas!
Car Insurance - £67.11 This is astronomical! :eek: Any idea why it's so high? Ours is £23 monthly.
Petrol - £120 Can this be cut down at all?
Going out / entertainment - £240 £2,880 a year on entertainment seems high. Any chance of cutting down?
Car Tax - £16.10
MOT & servicing - £15
Haircut - £9
Life Insurance – N/A

Total: £750.65

Leaves with £360.95 for debt repayment/savings
Debts

Cahoot CC – Balance £2447.08 (limit £2,500) APR 10.9% (APR just been put up to this) Can you balance transfer to a lower interest CC as this is high? What is the min payment?

Cahoot flexible Loan – Balance £6203.29 (limit £6500.00) APR 14.9% Flexible loan (just put the APR up again) Min payment?

Loan from family - £400 (need to pay this off asap really)

Thanks again in advance, determined to do this and you will

Cozy9k · 10 January 2007 at 3:31PM

moozie wrote:

Hello there

Just some thoughts from me!

You have good scope within your SOA to make savings and clear your debts. I hope your payrise is good!

Can you Amazon/ebay things too? Mystery shop? Always using cashback sites when shopping online.

Good luck!

yes i have an ebay account and am building my paypal account up by selling stuff on there then once i get a decent amount in there i will transfer to my bank account and put it towards my debts

Originally Posted by Cozy9k
Monthly Incomings:
My salary - £1111.60 (hopefully increasing soon if I get my payrise)
Total - £1111.60 (this is after tax, what i come out with)

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £160 If you pay £40 a week that's £173.33 a month. If you pay her actually £160 a month this is fine.- yeah £40 a week
Council Tax – N/A
Gas – N/A
Electric – N/A
TV License – N/A
Sky – N/A
NTL Broadband - £17.99
Mobile Phone - £20.45 (for 3 months - £32.95 for 12 months) (18 month contract)
Lunch at work (shopping at netto) - £25
Food (home) - £60 This means £85 a month on food. Could possibly reduce it by preparing lunch/batch cooking? Old style Board for ideas!i have reduced this as i was going to the sandwich shop for my lunch at work but now do a shop for the weeks lunch's at netto and it only costs me about £6 for the week - could you give me a link to the old style boards (not too sure what this is
Car Insurance - £67.11 This is astronomical! Any idea why it's so high? Ours is £23 monthly. It's the area i live in (area is nice just some of the surrounding area's are full of thieves and i'm still fairly young and it's a powerful engined car
Petrol - £120 Can this be cut down at all? not really, its mostly motorway milege and i live about 20 miles away from my work so its 40 miles round trip
Going out / entertainment - £240 £2,880 a year on entertainment seems high. Any chance of cutting down? this is my main one to cut down as like you said it is very high and this will be the one i will be focusing on
Car Tax - £16.10
MOT & servicing - £15
Haircut - £9
Life Insurance – N/A

Total: £750.65

Leaves with £360.95 for debt repayment/savings
Debts

Cahoot CC – Balance £2447.08 (limit £2,500) APR 10.9% (APR just been put up to this) Can you balance transfer to a lower interest CC as this is high? What is the min payment? was thinking this but unsure whether to just transfer this to another CC or to get both the loan and CC payed off then have one debt that i can plough money into

Cahoot flexible Loan – Balance £6203.29 (limit £6500.00) APR 14.9% Flexible loan (just put the APR up again) Min payment?
Approx £128

Loan from family - £400 (need to pay this off asap really)

Thanks again in advance, determined to do this and you will

can't seem to get used to quoting other peoples posts - or the SOA with comments and colours, do i need to do something different as i quoted your post but it didn't copy the colours or the SOA with your comments which is why i changed them to magenta lol

Cozy9k · 10 January 2007 at 8:04PM

hi could anyone offer me any advice on what options i have with regards to my existing CC and loan or would i be better off posting it in the credit card and loan forums,

my first thoughts were to get a loan to cover both but if i were to go down that option if its a fixed loan can i pay additional payments to pay the loan off quicker or would i be better with going for a new loan and a lower % credit card

sorry i have never transfered balances to other cards before and would be grateful of my best options to pay the debt off asap

Thanks in advance

moozie_2 · 10 January 2007 at 9:13PM

Cozy9k wrote:

can't seem to get used to quoting other peoples posts - or the SOA with comments and colours, do i need to do something different as i quoted your post but it didn't copy the colours or the SOA with your comments which is why i changed them to magenta lol

I thought magenta was not me :rotfl:

You are doing well and you are clearly thinking about where to focus which is great!

I don't think the answer is one loan to pay both your debts off. I did that twice and I have regretted it as it didn't teach me anything, I have paid more interest in the long term and I am bound by terms and conditions and inflexibility.

You can pay off the Credit card reasonably quickly if you knuckle down. Have a play with figures at https://www.whatsthecost.com - it's an eye opener.

Old style forum is very handy for anything to do with food and lots of others things! You can find it here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33

No idea about the quotes, you will get used to the forum in no time - trust me

moozie_2 · 10 January 2007 at 9:15PM

Cozy9k wrote:

hi could anyone offer me any advice on what options i have with regards to my existing CC and loan or would i be better off posting it in the credit card and loan forums,

my first thoughts were to get a loan to cover both but if i were to go down that option if its a fixed loan can i pay additional payments to pay the loan off quicker or would i be better with going for a new loan and a lower % credit card

sorry i have never transfered balances to other cards before and would be grateful of my best options to pay the debt off asap

Thanks in advance

On the left of this page there are links to Martin's articles and research. Read through the Credit Card ones, they are very useful and explain all about Balance Transfers. I think that is your best option - please don't consolidate again

Hi new here and after some advice to get debt free

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