at wits end

doyda

hi i have been lurking around the site for a while and have posted before.

My Husband and i have a combine debt of £29000 and some pence. Which is making me panic - we have no problems meeting the payments and paying a bit more than the mimimum, so the issue isn't struggling to pay it's just struggling with knowing we have accumulated such a huge debt.

We have a £10,000 bond that is tied up until June 2009 with absolutely no chance of withrdrawal until it is released ( I have checked today!!)

I have done Martin's money makeover and managed to save money on our sky and insyrances which has been great.

At the end of each month we have approx £200 left after paying all bills and buying food.

I know there are a lot of people on here who are in such a worse situation so I do not want to offend anybody - I was just wondering if anybody had any tips for saving more money or adding to my monthly income.

I do the cashback sites and the daily clicks and I have been selling stuff on ebay and amazon so any other suggestions would be great especially when it comes to saving on food shopping. We are a family of 3 plus 3 dogs and 1 cat and we currently spend approx £200 on food a month.

Sorry for the longwindedness

Thanks lorna

Hell1

:j Hi!

I think you are doing really well. I was in a similar position to you in summer 2006. I've managed to reduce my debt to under £7000. - Most of this was done by taking on extra work, maybe that can be an option for you?

I don't think you'll offend anyone, we are all here for the same reason...

Good luck,
Hell

CAFCGirl

Hi Lorna,

First of all congratulations for acknowledging the debt and the need to change.

My first suggestions would be meal planning, cooking things from scratch, shopping online and using discount codes to try and gt your food shop down.
Can you lower a brand with some items, especially pet food as that can sometimes double some people's grocery spends because they feed their pets expensive brands.

Spending diaries can also be useful for people. You said you had £200 a month spare after everything, do you think this is the case? If not, it could be worth finding out where this money does go.

Are there any balance transfer deals you could get with any of your debts? This could cut down on the interest being paid and therefore more of your payment is going toward paying down the debt rather than paying off interest.

Is there any chance of overtime at work for either you or your OH?
Is there any monies you are owed from other people, bank charges perhaps.

All aspects are worth looking into so well done on your efforts so far.
Keep up the good work and keep posting.

Putting up an SOA on here will also help others to suggest areas where savings could be made.

P.S Cut up all credit cards now so the debt cant be increased too easily!

doyda

thanks to everyone who has sent me a reply it has really helped boost my stressing. we don't have a great credit rating generally from being late with payments etc. which we hopefully have under controll now. We are self employed so have just taken on another job for a couple of hours a week which will boost our income a bit. i have written to banks re: bank charges so waiting for a response from that.

All my credit cards have been cut up as too tempting when i am even the smallest amount in credit

Have also had a look at the thrift forum so feeling a lot more positive now

mickeyblue_2

doyda wrote: »

hi i have been lurking around the site for a while and have posted before.

My Husband and i have a combine debt of £29000 and some pence. Which is making me panic - we have no problems meeting the payments and paying a bit more than the mimimum, so the issue isn't struggling to pay it's just struggling with knowing we have accumulated such a huge debt.

We have a £10,000 bond that is tied up until June 2009 with absolutely no chance of withrdrawal until it is released ( I have checked today!!)

I have done Martin's money makeover and managed to save money on our sky and insyrances which has been great.

At the end of each month we have approx £200 left after paying all bills and buying food.

I know there are a lot of people on here who are in such a worse situation so I do not want to offend anybody - I was just wondering if anybody had any tips for saving more money or adding to my monthly income.

I do the cashback sites and the daily clicks and I have been selling stuff on ebay and amazon so any other suggestions would be great especially when it comes to saving on food shopping. We are a family of 3 plus 3 dogs and 1 cat and we currently spend approx £200 on food a month.

Sorry for the longwindedness

Thanks lorna

Hi

Have you thought about doing avon?
My partner does it for some spare cash and makes about £70 every 3 weeks, by just selling to family and friends. There is no start up fee.

doyda

Monthly income after tax................ 1245.42
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1245.42
Benefits................................ 369.52
Other income............................ 45
Total monthly income.................... 2905.36

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1056.88
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 146.66
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 28.98
Telephone (land line)................... 30
Mobile phone............................ 60
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 30
Internet Services....................... 14.99
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 40
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 54.97
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 21.5
Contents insurance...................... 21.5
Life assurance ......................... 16.88
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1814.36

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 375000
Shares and bonds........................ 10000
Car(s).................................. 11500
Other assets............................ 500
Total Assets............................ 397000

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 217000...(1056.88)..15.8
Total secured debts........... 217000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
halifax one....................5900......130.......24.9
barclaycard....................4850......111.......14.9
virgin.........................5900......90........15.9
car finance....................1750......105.1.....NaN
car finance....................9000......219.......NaN
lloyds tsb.....................3750......20........12.9
virgin.........................3500......60........17.9
natwest........................500.......11........12.9
cap one........................500.......20........12.9
mint...........................4300......30........12.9
Total unsecured debts..........39950.....796.1.....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,905.36
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,814.36
Available for debt repayments........... 1,091
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 796.1
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 294.9

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 397,000
Total Secured debt...................... -217,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -39,950
Net Assets.............................. 140,050

doyda

i rang bradford and bingley and they said no option of withdrawal - it is an ebond so don't know if its because of that.

fudgecat

I`m not sure that the monthly payment of a £217000.00 mortgage at an interest rate of 15.8%( a huge APR) could possibly be as low as £1056.88?
Is this interest only and if so over what period? Or did you mean 5.8%?

doyda

yes sorry 5.18%

doyda

yes sorry 5.18%

fudgecat - how did you get your debt down so quickly if you don't mind me asking - hope this isn't to intrusive

fudgecat

Hi doyda,
Sorry I didn`t reply before - lost the thread, so to speak! I save 350.00 per month regularly (whip it out of the account on the first of the month so that it is gone and cannot be spent). Taking Martin`s advice I systemmatically went through all expenditure for myself, husband and kids and ruthlessly slashed everything we could - phone, mobiles, gas and electric provider, etc.
Went for lowest brand level everything, daughter went vegetarian (big saving), no more takeouts, home cooked everything (batch cook in slow cooker), fired window cleaner and now dice with death doing it myself. Borrowed on zero percent cards and paid off bank loan, then saved all payments in account (no more PPI!) to pay off zero card. Signed up for absolutely every freebie and cashback. Have bought no new clothes in two years - or shoes. No holidays for three years - at all. (one day out in two years where the car broke down!). Husband and older daughter say I am obsessed with money - sadly true, but I will be able to help out said older daughter with her wedding (have just paid for dress - more to come, so balance will not be so healthily low next year - or will it?)
Amazingly have discovered that I am content with very little.
Adopted Sinead O`Connor`s album title as a way of life "I do not want what I do not have". Doing all this, plus an unexpected promotional payrise ( I am the main wage earner in this house) let me save up to another 300.00 a month on top. I couldn`t believe how much we had wasted and fittered away before! That said, before I sound revoltingly moral and goody two shoes, I have just had a bad month paying for a wedding dress, new window for the back bedroom and Christmas prezzies for family. Credit card bill for this month will be £1700.00. I know it`s cashback card, but ***** hell!
Lean November beckons.