Am I doing the right thing?

StartingAgainKayla70

Hi

I shall come straight to the point as I need to ask advice whether or not I am doing the right thing.

Loan of 10k

Credit card 0% 6K

Totalling to a monthly payment of £267.00, which we cant afford.

We are thinking of taking out a loan of 16k over 15 years, is this the best way, or is there another alternative.

I would really appreciate any help on this matter.

Thank you

Willsnarf1983

generally the answer is normally no coz u'll more than likely put the 6k back on the cc, ur obv over spending and need to find oput why and what u can do to stop it.

do a statement of affairs listing ur Income and expense and include everything u spend, ie food, taxis, utilities etc etc etc etc and then the people on here can tell u where u can save etc etc


Will

StartingAgainKayla70

Income £2300

Outgoings (bills&food) £2040

Petrol £100

Misc £300

As of today we have decided to stop buying take aways, as that is a bit of a weakness at week-ends, we dont go out as we have young children, so I know its just buying stupid things.

We could manage if we werent having to pay out £267 on the 10k loan and the 6K credit card, so we were thinking of getting at £16k loan over 15 years?

Willsnarf1983

thats a good start but put more detail into it

ie how much on food, how much on electricity etc etc

if ur not sure do a spending diary


Will

also ur on £2300 which is very very good wage so what is the other 2k going on?

this is the whole point coz if there is anything majorly that can be changed other people may spot it

*Sparkle*_3

Perhaps you should post a more detailed statement of affairs, you are overspending and you need to come to terms with that.

What's the £300 misc for? and what do the bills inc?

I am also in the same position as you i have two young kids and lots of debt because i kept spending out of my means. I was also thinking of wacking the whole lot on a secured loan, because thats the easy option, you dont have to face up to it then.

I have since realised that this is not a good option, you'll end up paying tons of interest.

Dont you just want to pay it all off and be debt free again, i always think about, what if something happened to me tomorrow and i left my kids with all this debt......i dont want that for them so i'm trying to pay it off as soon as possible by snowballing (paying off the higher interest rate first).

Good luck

Magentasue

Michaela, your income doesn't look bad for your repayments to me - is it possible that £300 for Misc and £2040 for bills could be cut? I suspect it could. Now it's not for me or anyone else to tell you how to spend your money but if you break those figures down, I bet people here would be able to help you make savings.

I would suggest tarting the credit card debt as long as you can and reduce your outgoings. Why pay interest for fifteen years when you don't have to?

This will sound harsh but I think you have been spending more than you can afford to for a while and another loan will encourage you to continue the habit. I don't think that it's that you can't afford your repayments, I think it's that you can't afford your lifestyle. Please don't be offended - I can say this because I did the same thing.

*Sparkle*_3

Magentasue wrote:

This will sound harsh but I think you have been spending more than you can afford to for a while and another loan will encourage you to continue the habit. I don't think that it's that you can't afford your repayments, I think it's that you can't afford your lifestyle. Please don't be offended - I can say this because I did the same thing.

Me too... agreed

StartingAgainKayla70

Car Account ie: mot/tax £50
Gas £80 (was in arrears)
Next Catalgue £20
Endownment (savings) £74
Virgin Internet £18
Food £280 (5 of us)
Pension £16
Dog £5
Orangex2mobs £60
Petrol £100
BT £20
Car Loan £160
tV £10
Council Tax £126 Hubby income £1900
Life Assurance £66 Me £400
Loan £167
Sky £17
House Ins £17
Electric £35
Mortgage £800
The rest is on our £1k overdraft misc
items, like b'days, paper, nappies etc

Think thats everything

Magentasue

OK,again will sound harsh.

Ditch Sky (save £17)
Sell car, get cheap runaround (save £160)
Get rid of mobiles, use PAYGs for emergencies only (save £55)
Get rid of internet (use library for free) (save £18)

I don't suppose you'll want to do any of these but think how much easier it would be tog get to next pay day if you got rid of these bills. And instead of paying £300 on miscellaneous items you could clear £3600 a year off your debt.

Also, would it be worth you cashing in your endowment and getting a cheaper repayment mortgage. Don't know much about life insurance but I would say you can't afford the cover you have.

What do you reckon?

*Sparkle*_3

wow its amazing how much we all spend on life insurances etc!!
i say ditch the life insurance too

matrix999

Michaela wrote:

Car Account ie: mot/tax £50
Gas £80 (was in arrears)
Next Catalgue £20
Endownment (savings) £74
Virgin Internet £18
Food £280 (5 of us)
Pension £16
Dog £5
Orangex2mobs £60
Petrol £100
BT £20
Car Loan £160
tV £10
Council Tax £126 Hubby income £1900
Life Assurance £66 Me £400
Loan £167
Sky £17
House Ins £17
Electric £35
Mortgage £800
The rest is on our £1k overdraft misc
items, like b'days, paper, nappies etc

Think thats everything

Hello!!

You do need to cut back on some things to make savings - I've made a list for you

1. Gas/Electricity Use the link in the MoneySavingExpert website to check the savings thats can be made by switching suppliers

2. Virgin Interent - Change to https://www.fast4.net for £6.99 and have unlimited dial up access

3. Food - Use shopping robots and money off coupons to save money eg: Certain supermarkets will offer discounts on your first online shop and free delivery

4. Loan - It may be worth reconsolidating your outstanding loans and credit cards but this will depend on the APR of the new loan and the term of it. It may also be an idea to use a snowball calculator and pay off your highest APR debts first, see this link http://www.whatsthecost.co.uk/snowball.aspx

5. Orange Mobs - Far to exprensive!!! I pay £10 per month and get 500 X Network Mins and 500 Texts with O2 - All you have to do is once your contract is up speak to the Retentions Dept and get them to do a good deal for you, in the mean time if you have been on your contract for more than 6 months i would suggest you move to the lowest possible tariff which i think is approx £15 per month

6. Sky - Its a waste of money get rid of it and buy yourself a cheap Freeview box, doesn't have as many channels as Sky but its not as if you can watch 100 million channels at once anyway

7. BT - What are you getting for £20 per month???

Hope this is of some help to you, and good luck with your money saving!!