Newbie

Hello, I have only just registered on here but have been receiving the emails for a while. My partner and I are in debt to the tune of around £16,000. We are currently coping with the repayments as I have already sought advice from the CAB for my personal debts. However, partner also has debts which were brought into the new relationship. The CAB dealt with debts are going ok, all the interest is frozen and the payments are being made. I have managed to clear my priority debts and approx £1,500 of non priority debts now that were my sole debts. But I am sick of being in debt and dream about the day when the final one is paid. I hate having all our income being spoken for for repayments.

Ok I'll set the scene and see what you can help me with.

I had a baby with a man who I had a mortgage with, and we earned £20k between us 5 years ago. He had just graduated and so had student overdraft debt etc. He worked full time and I worked 2 jobs. We had just bought a house, so money was tight. But all the credit card payments and loans were being paid, until he left. That is where my problems started. I stupidly had most bills in my sole name leaving me responsible. I was a single parent on income support and ended up defaulting on my credit card. 3 years later I was in £7,000 of debt and ended up in real trouble financially. I lost my job and that made things worse. I went to CAB who were terrific. Anyway, so all those debts are now being paid monthly, no interest and its ok.

I then met a guy who I now live with who brought over £10,000 debt with him. The debt is in car finance, catalogue (interest free), credit card, store card. We don't have the car anymore, and are not paying interest on the debt, but it is a default. We have never sought help for those debts because we can afford the payments on paper. We bring in £24,000 between us but only £16,500 is his guaranteed income, and about £3,000 is overtime. The rest is maintenance, child benefit, child tax credits etc.

We are getting married in 15 weeks and have saved for 18 months for it, so we have not had to borrow anymore. But I'm dreading starting married life in such a bad financial situation. We can't get a mortgage because of defaults, so are stuck with £400pcm rent. The difficulty is although we earn enough to pay, there never seems to be any spare money to do it with. I admit I love shopping and hate being without things. I know this is my downfall, but it's hard to stop. We have 2 under 5's as well. I am doing a degree at the moment with the OU so I don't incur debt, as I get free course funding through them and a grant of £250 a year for study expenses. I can also claim back childcare from the access funds, which I do get back. My youngest is 18mths you see, and he goes in daycare for 3 mornings so that I can study as I do the equivalent of full time study.

I suppose I just want some advice about how to motivate myself into doing more to get rid of debt. At the rate we are paying it will take 7 years to repay, I'd love to have it clear within 3 but don't want to see every penny disappear each month. We have no savings other than the wedding fund.

Feel free to throw ideas at me xx