I need to be clever...

Peachy_2

Hi everyone

I know my situation isn't anywhere near as bad as others I've read, and nothing like as bad as it was for me only a year ago - I've had debts ALL MY LIFE, yes my own fault, but I've managed to be able to pay off £20K from crippling debts of £27K :beer: - please can you help me make sure I do the best thing poss to get rid of the last £7k as best I can

They are:

£500 - court fine (do I pay this off first just to stop me being taken back to court and being subjected to a means test - they didn't accept my offer of £40 pcm - but as it's interest free - should I bother going to court to ask them to accept a small amount per month or just pay if off in one lump to keep them off my backs - or try to just pay their recommended £50 per month payments?)
£1150 - Barclaycard Flexi rate bill (16.9%) - Flexi rate means the more I pay the lower the rate goes (currently paying off £50 per month)
£600 - Student Loan (interest free - currently paying off at minimum rate of £36 per month)
£550 - Council Tax Arrears (interest free - currently paying off at agreed rate of £25 per month til cleared)
£350 - Utility arrears - Gas & Elec (interest free currently paying off at minimum of £20 per month - this doesn't affect current utility supplies)
£200 - Capital One bill (17.93%) - (currently paying off £20 per month)
£115 - Next Directory bill (24.99%) - (currently paying off £20 per month)
The final £4050 luckily is to my kind parents who are waiting for me to pay off the other debts before I start repaying them their loan.

So, question - I am trying to pay the most expensive debts off first and only paying the minimum where poss when debt is interest free after much negotiation with suppliers. Should I do any better than this? I have approx £600 coming to me hopefully in a annual bonus - should I throw it at the Barclaycard or the Next or the Capital One or the Court debt?

I just need to pay things off smarter - will try to get the 0% cards in Dec of course too but I haven't had a great result (the Capital One was an attempt at a 0% but the credit limit didn't let me transfer any and then I used the card and did everything I wasn't supposed to and so I am just hoping I can get a 0% card with limit of over £1465 to stick on the Next+Barclaycard+CapitalOne debts on then it will be simple!!???)

Thanks for any advice and help and time...

Peachy

black-saturn

Could you give us a run down of all your incomings and outgoings so we could give you ideas of where to cut down to be able to pay the debt off easier.

Pay the ones off with the biggest interest rate first.

tomstickland

Pay off Next, Capital One and as much of BCard as possible with your bonus.
Start paying the £50 per month, going to court is wasting time.

sloggingitout

keep going Peachy your doing well so far, kill the next its a cribbler, and if you can cover the court fine at £50, its time as well as money that you will spend on this one. Put your bonus into the Cap one and / or Barclay. You will reduce the number of creditors you are dealing with and this will aid your cause in greater free time ( more working hours! ) and a sense of getting somewhere. Plus they have the highest interest rates. keep it going.

Peachy_2

OK - At the moment it all looks like this:

I earn £1650 a month net

outgoings are currently:
£574 - rent
£200 - Orange (got badly caught out earlier in the year and am only now paying actual bill of £50 per month - the rest is arrears with an agreement with Orange - should be paid off by Jan's pay date (i.e in 2 more pay date's time)
£90 - personal loans from friends for this month only
£50 - BCard
£50 - Court fine (not started paying this yet)
£50 - Guitar (committed to buy a interest free Guitar at £50 a month - ending Dec)
£39 - Council Tax (for three months more)
£25 - Council Tax Arrears
£36 - Student Loan
£26 - Dell (sh*t, forgot this too - this is why I am so bad, I "see" it as a loan for a PC but of course, it's a debt!)
£20 - Capital One CC
£20 - Next
£20 - Utilities in arrears
£10 - Homechoice/BT/Internet (shared house so its approx £10 each)
£5 - Old Council Tax Arrears (interest free and they don't mind how long it takes to pay - forgot to mention this debt earlier, but its about £1.5k - thought it looked a bit easier earlier!)
£5 - Smile Savings
£3 - BT rental
£3 - TV Licence

= £1206 leaving £444 living costs

I cycle to work most days so travel costs are limited to £12 per week max by tube or train when and if I use it = £52 pcm max
Food & booze is approx £200 a month but I'm quite good at food budgetting if less money in the month
Cigs (trying to quit) = £5 a day = £155 pcm (BLIMEY!!!!!!!!!)
House bills (elec, Gas, water) = £35 (estimate - not been in new house long or seen bills yet - share the house with 2 others)

APPROX TOTAL: £442

SHOULD THEREFORE HAVE £2 over but it doesn't ever seem to be like that!

THINGS I KNOW TO DO (please add anymore you can think of!)
1 - give up smoking
2 - Pay off Next first then Barclaycard then Capital 1
3 - Sort out better tarif for Orange once arrears paid off
4 - Don't buy anymore musical instruments (!) til all debt paid off
5 - Chuck bonus at Next or BCC or Cap1 first
6 - Should i start saving yet? I have an ISA with Abbey I am not doing anything with, don't know why I opened the Smile savings as I can only put away £5 a month and keep dipping into it anyhow
7 - Pay £50 a month to the court then?


Anymore help gratefully received. Even just writing it all out like this has helped as I forgot certain other debts too

Thanks in advance

Peachy

skintchick

You have £444 to live on.

I spend £60 on food, £30 on landline, line rental and mobile, £80 on petrol, £60 on going out/newspapers/treats, which is £230.

I assume you are single too? You could do a similar budget and throw even more money at your debts.

But the first thing you need to do is keep a diary of everything you spend, no matter how small, so you can see where it all goes. Ypu spend way too much on food and booze. I no longer have wine at home, only on my occasional nights out.

You are younger than me and earn more, and i have a mortgage and house maintenance to worry about, so YOU CAN DO THIS.

southernscouser

Hi Peachy,

Correct me if I'm wrong but it still seems you are living beyond your means. You owe your mates money and you are in arrears with 5 different debts!

Do you find yourself paying your min. payment on credit cards that maxing it out again?

However, when your Orange arrears are paid in Jan and guitar next month that will be another £250 minus mobile bill to throw at the debts.

Have you tried a spending diary? Everyday note down every single penny you spend. At the end of the month you will be amazed at where it all goes! (I was) :eek:

Peachy_2

Hiya SOUTHERN SCOUSER - yeah I realise this now (bit late) - I'm in the process of doing a money diary - I have such BAD habits such as chucking away receipts and guessing how much it was and yes you're right - paying off the min on the credit cards and then maxing them out. Even writing down that long list has helped.... Thanks for your posting - how are you finding paying stuff off ???

macca64

Cancel the £5 Smile savings and chuck that at the Next, this should save you some interest, and reduce your debt.

Wouldn't start saving yet, as the interest on your debts will far outweigh the interest on your savings.

Peachy_2

Hiya SKINTCHICK - thanks for replying - yeah you (and the southern scouser below) are obviously right- thanks for making me realise - I do spend waay too much on food (I'm only 8.5 stone so I don't know what that's all about !!) and booze - I find the odd box of wine at home cheaper than going out though no? To be honest, I'm better off not boozing at all for a while, at least on week nights! Smokes can just go fairly straight forwardly... Am doing a money diary this month (since Friday's payday) and so by Dec 23rd will have a much better idea of what to change and how... Thanks for your help! How are you doing with everything - how long's it been for you being in debt to ??

Peachy

southernscouser

Peachy wrote:

Hiya SOUTHERN SCOUSER - yeah I realise this now (bit late) - I'm in the process of doing a money diary - I have such BAD habits such as chucking away receipts and guessing how much it was and yes you're right - paying off the min on the credit cards and then maxing them out. Even writing down that long list has helped.... Thanks for your posting - how are you finding paying stuff off ???

It's going OK thanks. Only the second month mind! Next month is gonna be a disaster, Christmas work bash, Christmas itself etc so I'm planning for damage limitation really then getting back on track in January!

I was the same with my CC's. Pay it off then spend it again! All your doing is going around in circles paying interest and not getting anywhere!

But you've done superb to get down to £7,000! :T

People may disagree with me but I think also you should try the damage limitation approach for December then in January you can start hitting the debts again. You will have the extra money from other debts that are paid off. Just don't go crazy! Try not to use the cards and keep the spending diary going! When I'm out if I don't get a receipt I tap it into my phone then note them down as soon as I get home. Do it everyday and it only takes 2 minutes!