Cant believe its gotten this bad..advice appreciated..

black-saturn

I would have never paid all my debt off if it werent for ebay. I had a ruthless sort out of things like clothes, books, dvds, videos, cds and records and sold all of them and made about £800 which went off my debts. Then from then on whenever one of my kids grew out of something or there was something we didnt need anymore it would go straight on ebay.

tomstickland

I also think that going out is going to have be cut back. You have a choice:
go out as per normal and spend circa £400 per month on socialising, or cut back and put that money towards the serious task of clearing the debt.
It's very easy to spend £400 per month. Two nights out per week invoving a pub, a curry house, a club and then a kebab and you could spend that or more.
However, if you accept that a lot of going out is actually not very good, or good value for money, you can continue to drink good beer, but do it for 1/4 of the price.

southernscouser

Hi jaybee.

It's very important that the APR's are accurate as it determines in which order to pay off your debts so you pay the least interest!

Get an exact figure. Phone the companies up and demand the rate.

Have you shopped around for the best insurance for your car? You say your car payment is £143. How much do you spend on petrol/travel?

As others have said, reduce mobile bill. Perhaps buy texts in bundles! Might only save you a couple of £'s but it all adds up.

£400 for social! Everyone else has already said it. How much you reduce this by depends on how much you want to get out of debt!

You need to sort out your overdraft first. You are paying extortionate fees! Remember that money in the overdraft IS NOT YOURS!

And definately start a spending diary. You will the learn where your missing £160 goes!

monkeyspanner

The key for you is to get a exact fix on where your money is going. You admit to a £160 black hole but you also estimate £400 on socialising so where is that £560 going?

Whilst you are doing that you need to lead a less expensive social life style for a while.

Your earnings should allow you to clear your debts fairly quickly if you can cut down the unnecessary spending

dinkylou

James,

I think a bit of what you need (as well as all the financial advice) is a change in attitude. Although you earn a good salary you are not well off (due to your debts).

You cant afford to be out as much as you are, or going off on nice holidays or staying in nice hotels as we all feel we should be doing.

You need to start saying to yourself 'no, I ll not go out tonight' or 'no, i cant afford those new cds' etc

Think that realisation really needs to hit home for you to change your spending ways or you are on a slippery slope to some serious debt.