the long road ahead

wanttomove

Well, I think I have had my lbm this morning, after being in debt for around 13 years now of varying levels we (me and dh) need to do something to sort this out once and for all

I have had depression on and off for years, have a wonderful husband and 2 lovely kids whom I seem to spend all my time shouting at and I know this is down to my stresses from debt. Having recently lost my mum to breast cancer a couple of months ago and my kids are now growing up (they are 9 and 5), I don't want them to have memories of their childhood of me spending half my life screaming at them, I have to stop this.

I guess our debts have accumulated because of me overspending (to cheer myself up sometimes), we both have good and secure jobs so we are luckly that way. We moved house a couple of months ago and reduced our mortgage by £40k and are currently on a 3 year interest only deal to try to hammer our debts down

I want this to be a new start for us, we're going to have to work hard to pay the debts off, at the moment I'm not sure how much we owe but it is around £35k, all unsecured (apart from mortgage of £150k) in the past we have paid so much off and then just run it up again but we have to stop this NOW!

When I think of how much disposable income we would have if we didn't have all these CC debts, I am so ashamed and disappointed in myself, my parents were always very careful with money (obsessively so) and I can't believe I have turned out like this.

Anyway, I guess we are fortunate that we can afford to pay everything at the moment but there's not a lot spare. I have just tried to get a CC with 0% interest to transfer a couple of balances but don't think I will be accepted, we had a few late payments on cc's last year and my credit rating was shot because of it, we haven't applied for anything else since the mortgage in December so I thought I would try but I'm not holding out much hope

I need to get our SOA together which I will do over the next couple of days, I think the biggest advice I need is how to manage this properly, I think where we have gone wrong in the past is that I have thrown every spare penny at our debts and have had no life at all, I can only do that for so long then would go mad again undoing all the hard work, I think this time I have to be realistic and realise that you still have to have a few treats and work this into your repayment plan

totally embarrassed, ashamed and humiliated, I want to be free of this debt finally once and for all so I can enjoy life again and sleep at night

Nomad25

Hi and welcome

Just giving you a friendly bump.

GirlRacer_2

Hi there wanttomove. Welcome aboard. It's an awful feeling when you have your LBM sn't it, but it's a good positive start to getting things sorted and you've come to the right place. Why don't you put up your statement of affairs and let everyone nit pick through it, maybe somebody will have an idea to save you some money.

wanttomove

thanks so much for your support already, just started on my SOA and shaking whilst totting everything up, its a bit scary isn't it?

Anyway here goes:

Income 1 1940.00 (also get bonus every 3 months of about £1200 but
not guaranteed)
Income 2 1760.00
Tax Credits 40.88
Ch Benefit 125.00

total 3865.88



Monthly Expenditure:
Mortgage 770.69 (interest only at present)
Council Tax 129.00
Build & Cont Ins 33.00 (approx)
Sky 31.00
Life Ins 13.06 (for both of us)
Water Rates 37.86
Pet Ins 15.99 (this is cheapest as he's a weimaraner)
Mobile 33.69 (dh contract until xmas)
Daughters mobile 10.00 (top up PAYG)
Daughters piano 36.00
cubs/football subs 16.00
Groceries 250.00
fuel 100.00
Car Ins 58.34 (cheapest as its for a sports car....don't ask)
Elec ? (don't know as haven't had bill yet since we
moved in March)


TOTAL 1534.63

leaves 2331.25 for debts


Debts

Loans O/S Payment APR
Cahoot Flexible Loan 6500.00 128.47 15.9
A&L 844.27 120.61 7 payments left
TV Loan 1058.72 62.16 19.9% 17 payments left
Car Loan 1 2443.65 488.73 5 payments left
Car Loan 2 1502.33 79.07 19 payments left

Credit Cards O/S Payment Cr Limit APR
Mint 2809.28 63.00 2900.00 1.167% pm
Argos 1861.18 48.05 2190.00 27.9% pa
NatWest 8750.24 206.00 9200.00 1.5 - 2% pm
HSBC 6342.94 160.94 7000.00 1.325% pm
A&L 1 887.00 26.64 1100.00 2.5% pm
A&L 2 4500.00 100.00 5900.00 2.2% pm
Cahoot 2057.68 51.44 2500.00 16.9%
Egg ? 30.61 ? ?
Barclaycard 4336.14 97.00 4460.00 1.1 - 2% pm
Next Directory 2640.00 220.00 2500.00 29%
Open University 167.45 46.00
Total monthly debt payments 1049.68

Tesco Phone still owe 130.00

Overdrafts

HSBC 500.00
A&L 500.00
Cahoot 1500.00
F Direct 300.00


TOTAL OWED £49,630.88 sheeeeeeeeeit!!!!!!

Egg card has ? next to it as this is outsanding from years ago, I don't know how much I owe as I can't remeber how to access my account (not used it for about 6 years) but the payments just come out of my account each month, I think its about 2.5k


So in total our income is 3865.88
Essential outgoings 1534.63
Debt payments 1049.68
net 1281.57

so why are we constantly overdrawn?????
We also have to save money every month for oil for heating, as yet I don't know how much this will cost us as we only moved to this house in March and not sure how much this is going to cost?

rubydoiwannabee

Hi Wanttomove
I understand how you feel, I know it is hard at the moment but please do try and be positive about the fact that you are now making positive steps to change the pattern.

We are in a very similar situation to you, I am married with two children, have about 25K unsecured debt and a big mortgage that we are just about to convert to interest only to make life easier and to ensure we balance the books instead of being in deficit each month.

My first observation from your soa is that you need to allow something each month for haircuts, xmas and birthdays, etc.

Also have you considered cancelling sky and getting freeview, much cheaper. Get new quotes for all insurances...I have done this over the last few weeks and it has saved us loads. Use a website called quidco and you get money back...

I know it feels hard now, but you will really feel better when you can enjoy your day to day living and still see the debts coming down.

When you have had a chance to list your debts and their interest rates, use the snowball calculater on this site to see which one you should concentrate on paying off first, it is a great tool and gives you a debt free date too.

Best of luck and remember everyone here is in the similar position. The support and advice I have received from this site has been invaluable.

xxxx

GirlRacer_2

I agree with the above poster. You need to make allowances for christmas, birthdays, car repairs, tax etc. Also you need to list your debts. Are you paying PPI on any of your debts that you could cancel?

wanttomove

I accidentally posted my SOA before adding my debts but I have added them now and it was very upsetting adding that lot up, I am so ashamed about it all and my mother would be horrified if she could see this bless her I can't believe how greedy and material loving my life has become, none of that matters and losing my mum has made me realise what is important, the health and happiness of my family

anyway its done

Haircuts are aournd £35 per month
We have around £1000 in savings right now for holidays/xmas/birthdays etc which we put £150 per month away into
Sky, yes I agree we should get rid of that as we already have freeview!, just need to talk dh into it
Insurances wise - hubby's car insurance is the cheapest we could get at £58 per month as he has a sports car (which is why we are paying £488 per month on it!!), there will be a balance of £10k on it at xmas but we are going to hand it back instead of keeping it to get things paid off, I know he wants to keep it so much as it was his dream and I do feel bad about it as he doesn't have anything else hobbywise (and all the spending and debt is my fault really not his) but I think whe we have £50k worth of debt we have to prioritise

We took the interest only mortgage on for 3 years to sort ourselves out and we have to do it in this time, I am hoping to be debt free by March 2011 or as near as damn it, do you think this is achieveable?

I don't want to stop my kids going to cubs/football or my daughters piano lessons, I will happily go without myself first as they don't get to do much else

We had a holiday booked to Mexico for April just gone but had to postpone it because my mum died, if we canel we will lose around £700 of what we have paid but we still owe £1100 on it and then we would need spending money so I think we should just cancel and get £1300 back ( we have paid £2k on it already)

I am also still waiting for £200 back from the mortgage people who organised my mortgage (as it was a special cashback offer) and am sick of chasing them up for it

bank_of_slate

wanttomove wrote: »

Anyway here goes:

Income 1 1940.00 (also get bonus every 3 months of about £1200 but
not guaranteed)
Income 2 1760.00
Tax Credits 40.88
Ch Benefit 125.00

total 3865.88



Monthly Expenditure:
Mortgage 770.69 (interest only at present)
Council Tax 129.00
Build & Cont Ins 33.00 (approx)
Sky 31.00
Life Ins 13.06 (for both of us)
Water Rates 37.86
Pet Ins 15.99 (this is cheapest as he's a weimaraner)
Mobile 33.69 (dh contract until xmas)
Daughters mobile 10.00 (top up PAYG)
Daughters piano 36.00
cubs/football subs 16.00
Groceries 250.00 writing and sticking to meal planning and a shopping list will help to reduce this
fuel 100.00
Car Ins 58.34 (cheapest as its for a sports car....don't ask)
Elec ? (don't know as haven't had bill yet since we
moved in March)


TOTAL 1534.63

leaves 2331.25 for debts


Debts

Loans O/S Payment APR
Cahoot Flexible Loan 6500.00 128.47 15.9
A&L 844.27 120.61 7 payments left Good, once cleared, use the dosh to pay off high APR debts
TV Loan 1058.72 62.16 19.9% 17 payments left
Car Loan 1 2443.65 488.73 5 payments left as comment above
Car Loan 2 1502.33 79.07 19 payments left

Credit Cards O/S Payment Cr Limit APR
Mint 2809.28 63.00 2900.00 1.167% pm
Argos 1861.18 48.05 2190.00 27.9% pa
NatWest 8750.24 206.00 9200.00 1.5 - 2% pm
HSBC 6342.94 160.94 7000.00 1.325% pm
A&L 1 887.00 26.64 1100.00 2.5% pm
A&L 2 4500.00 100.00 5900.00 2.2% pm
Cahoot 2057.68 51.44 2500.00 16.9%
Egg ? 30.61 ? ?
Barclaycard 4336.14 97.00 4460.00 1.1 - 2% pm
Next Directory 2640.00 220.00 2500.00 29%
Open University 167.45 46.00
Total monthly debt payments 1049.68

Tesco Phone still owe 130.00

Overdrafts

HSBC 500.00
A&L 500.00
Cahoot 1500.00
F Direct 300.00
Are these authorised overdrafts? do you get charges added on as well?

TOTAL OWED £49,630.88 sheeeeeeeeeit!!!!!!

Egg card has ? next to it as this is outsanding from years ago, I don't know how much I owe as I can't remeber how to access my account (not used it for about 6 years) but the payments just come out of my account each month, I think its about 2.5k


So in total our income is 3865.88
Essential outgoings 1534.63
Debt payments 1049.68
net 1281.57

so why are we constantly overdrawn????? keep a spending diary to find this out, a pound here, a newspaper or packed lunch there quickly adds up
We also have to save money every month for oil for heating, as yet I don't know how much this will cost us as we only moved to this house in March and not sure how much this is going to cost?

You've made a great start! some of the above debts are coming to an end which frees up money to get rid of the highest APRs first.
Have you cut up the cards yet?

Welcome aboard the DFW train
...Linda xx

wanttomove

Thanks Linda, I was very scared what people would say to my SOA as I know we are very lucky to have the income we do have and should be bloody grateful, I can't believe how much money we have just wasted and frittered away over the last few years

the overdrafts are authorised fortunately but have gone over their limits occasionally which we have been charged for and at the moment just pay some money into every few months to keep them within their limits

We are going to sit down tonight and start a meal plan so we can cut our grocery bills, the £250 I have allocated up above is actually a much reduced amount as I was frequently spending at least £130 a week on groceries which is just ridiculous, now I shop at farm foods/lidl and have cut this down to around £70 a week but know I could be more savvy here, we have a freezer full and storecupboards overflowing at home so we are going to go through it all and start using it!, so we may be able to cut this down to the bare minimum for the next few weeks anyway (just buying essentials like bread and milk)

a spending diary is a great idea and I think I will start one today

we haven't cut up the cards yet, we have done this so many times in the past then just ring up and ask them to send another one out! dh doesn't use his cards at all and I don't have a card for his accounts, my main problem is that I have a corporate card for work but sometime use this for personal stuff but as it has to be settled every month then have to transfer the balance onto a personal credit card, now I have obviously almost run out of credit to be able to do this so I have to stop and learn to just use it for business purposes

bank_of_slate

debts are often relative, you earn more...you spend more so what you earn is besides the point.
Everyone on here is or has been in varying levels of debt, what may seem a huge amount to some would be considered small change to others.
We're not on here to judge anyone, just support and advise regardless of why, where, when etc...
...Linda xx

bank_of_slate

my main problem is that I have a corporate card for work but sometime use this for personal stuff but as it has to be settled every month then have to transfer the balance onto a personal credit card, now I have obviously almost run out of credit to be able to do this so I have to stop and learn to just use it for business purposes

PLEASE be very careful with this, there was a lady on here a year or so ago who was doing this until one month some personal things remained on the company card.
She was sacked and pursued by her employer for the debts as well as all her own personal debts.
...Linda xx