Desperate Help Needed

Gemmzie

Is it just you? If so, you can definitely cut down the food, entertainment and mobile costs

poorandindenial

Lots of questions [sorry]

The car, you are spending over £200 a month on petrol, insurance etc (not sure if the HP loan is for the car too)

Do you have to have it for work or could you take public transport/car share??

Have you looked into PAYG on your mobile?? Often people find it cheaper and there are lots of deals out there for free texts etc.

You have water rates down as being paid but nothing for gas and electricity, is this included in yor rent?

Obviously the spending on clothes has to stop for a bit

Do you have any stuff you could sell to make a bit of a dent in some of the debts with higher APR??

--Gem--_3

DALE1982 wrote: »

No they are linked to my debit card and charge silly amounts if you miss payments. Bank basically wont help, Wont consolidate my borrowing and wont reduce my loan payments. Also so much cash debt which im worried about to family and friends

Which company did you use? I may be able to help lots with this. I hope. x

DALE1982

Hi Thanks everyone. I live in a shared house hence no electric ect (inc in rent). Groceries/clothes ect can be reduced but Mobile is linked to 12 month contract at moment so cant be reduced. Have already sold loads on ebay notmuch else to sell. Petrol costs high as is used for work but car share in future may be option. Payday loans are with QuickQuid and payday express.

jinky67

It may be worth phoning mobile provider and asking to go on their lowest tarriff for the remainder of your contract

--Gem--_3

Ok well have you any payments outstanding to be made to the payday advance company? If so how much & when are they due to debit? x

Jesthar

Hi Dale,

Welcome to MSE!

Just to encourage you, you can DEFINITELY reduce the grocery bills drastically. I'm single and living on my own, and I usually only spend around half of what you do as a maximum. Even that could be lowered a fair bit still if necessary, to be honest, but I'm fortunately in the position where I don't have to do that at the moment, so I'm still buying more expensive brands I like the taste of (Warburtons wholemeal bread, for example), rather than significantly cheaper alternatives. I am trying to get it down a bit, though, and I have in the past lived off as little as £12 a week for food, though, and still eaten very well. And that was long before I found my way here - others here manage on much less than that!

One of my chief weapons is a slow cooker I bought just after last Christmas - I can make a 6-8 portion batch of spag bol or stew in it for somewhere between £5 - £7 (and this could definitely be done even cheaper, too). I can also slow cook cheap meat joints (beef brisket and lamb half-shoulder are my favourites) and the meat from a 1kg (again about £5 tops moneywise, or better if on offer!) will last a whole week if I'm careful. MUCH cheaper than chops or steak! In all these scenarios, the freezer is your friend - freeze what you don't/wont use straight away, and you have your own homemade ready meals. My other favourite freezer food is chicken thighs - I buy them on offer and wrap them idividually in clingfilm before freezing them.

Oh, and if you can go shopping in the evening, check out the reduced goods section, you can often pick up bargains there - although remember to only buy stuff you would use anyway.

Hope that helps a bit!

~Jes

tealady

Hi Dale. Could you cut down on entertaining for a bit (have a night in with a DVD and home made food) If you like the cinema look for the Orange wednesday deals.
Take a packed lunch, food bought out might not seem to cost much but is much more expensive than home made.
Start a spending diary (piece of scrap paper will do). Write down EVERYTHING you spend, keep your receipts, it will be an eye opener. For example a daily paper costing say 60p is £2 per week. Add that to say a sandwich per day at £1.50 and you have nealy £10 gone.
Try the downsize challenge as well or go one brand lower than your usual, most times you won't notice the difference.
Petrol look at https://www.petrolprices.com to check for the best deals in your area.
Oh and finally (not trying to nag - honestly), when you renew or buy anything go via a cashback website.
Hope this helps.

GeorgeUK

Dale, it would be helpful if you could edit your SOA post and put in the APR figures. I take it you aren't able to get another credit card to transfer this debt to? You can have about 3 credit checks in a 6 month period before your credit score is affected so be careful you haven't applied to too many places in a short space of time.

While consolidation is rarely a good idea, i think you should have a look at joining a credit union. You usually need to be a member for between 8-12 weeks before you can apply for a loan, but whatever interest rate they may give will be much better than the payday loan rate. If you are struggling to get credit, this may be an option.
http://www.abcul.org/page/about/intro.cfm

Something else you will need to look at is why you are in this position. You will need to change what you are spending (or have been spending) money on to make sure you do not just get into the same situation again.

Reducing the entertainment for a while and the groceries may be enough to get you through the next few weeks, but with the crazy interest of payday loans, you may soon need to consider a debt management plan - which will really screw up your credit rating and stop you getting credit at a decent rate for a few years.

DALE1982

Hey

I am happy to cut down food, entertainment grocery bills ect. IN regards to pyday loans mentioned above they are both due to debit on the 27th and come to £800ish. this is the problem being stuck in this cycle where when i pay this i will be massivley down on this months pay forcing me to borrow more to pay rent ect.