£35k+ in debt and not coping please help!

butterfly_in_debt

Thank you all for your coments, we did pay for our wedding in cash, we saved and saved and we are proud we did so, the credit card debt comes from living a life we couldnt afford but liked so put it all on credit cards, when we realised how stupid we were being it was to late. we also have a house which needs gutting and re doing, we ran out of our money put aside for that so started using cards.
we have realised we cant do it any more and have cut up all credit cards so dont have any in the house, i know we've got to clear the debt and got to clear our debts.
getting things done - i havent tried the credit card payent calculator but thats a really good idea, i can work out how much we can afford to pay off a month and its great that they could help me to know where to pay off.
ive also got things on ebay to help pay some debt off.
thank you everyone for your comments so far, i really appreciate your advice. many thanks

RAS

Hi

you need to pay off the most expensive debt first

and have a look at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/protect/make-money

butterfly_in_debt

dear debt free soe day,
thank you for your words of encouragement, i will check my council tax, it is high in my area but definatly worth checking.
i like your idea about spending only cash, can i please ask how much you take out a month? i wouldnt know how much to take out.
we do have internet at home with bt, we are signed into a 12 month contract but it was the best offer i could find when looking
the £2 jar is a great idea to. thank you
congratulations on your wedding in april

butterfly_in_debt

i have phoned sky and reduced our sky package to £28!! and also found out we've been paying for multi room and we dont have it so they are going to refund me £265!!!!!!!!!!

RAS

So, add the £360 you have saved yourself paying out over the next year and you have cleared 1.8% of your debt with one phone call. Probably more like 3% over the period when you will be sorting out your debt

Talk about picking the low hanging fruit.

Now you need to know which is the most expensive debt and pay that £265 off that debt.

dancingfairy

Would defnitely try reducing the food bill if you can - bulk buying, buying things that will keep when on special offer eg toothpaste, tins, toilet rolls - anything you know you will definitely use that will last for a while and won't go off. Make sandwiches and take to work. Meal plan. Buy veg at a market if possible to save money. Look in the reduced sections to see what can be frozen/cooked up etc. Also try making double portions and freezing half etc.

Would also suggest a spendig diary as I have a feeling you might not have covered everything in your SOA - for example a tv licence? This will show up any areas of weakness - so you can see where you can cut down. Entertainment/haricuts/clothes?

butterfly_in_debt

i have forgotton tv licence, thank you. a spending diary is a good idea.
what we are finding hard is we dont drink, smoke, go out for lots of dinners, so cant see any obvious ways of saving money.
with food shopping i took £40 cash shopping with me today and brought food and house bits (toilet rolls etc) for the week and did it in £40 which is better than before, i do need to have another look at our shopping.
i have wrote a meal plan for the next 2 weeks to make sure we use everything we have in the house

firesidemaid

i second other posters comments about spending time on the various forums, picking up hints and tips to save money - perhaps borrow martin's books from the library.

get to know how much everything costs from pet food to human food from duvets to dishes. know what a good price is and always keep that in mind.

i don't really buy anything without checking the shopbots etc online and then perhaps checking for money-off codes or points/cashback.

there are linkys on the top of the front page of this website to saving money on just about everything.

i now look forward to my insurances each year as i can't do anything about them but i know that using comparison sites i can save a load of money and then get up to £125 cashback on top of that. try quidco when you have time.

re. dog food. if you want to feed purina puppy to your dog, google it and find out where it is cheapest online - then compare this with the offers in pets at home etc. again some sites you can get cashback through quidco eg. zooplus.

we have adult dogs, one is too podgy and one too skinny! i found a good thread on here with the folks saying what they thought were the best/cheapest foods. my (previously podgy) dog now has wagg - and when its on offer i buy loads - last time from wilkinsons. i had it delivered to the store, not because i needed to, but it meant i could earn cashback on the sale!

after a few weeks on here you will begin to forget life before mse x

savingholmes

Good news about the sky refund - make sure you pay it straight off debt tho or you could be tempted to splurge it...! Keep up the good work, I'm sure some of us will pop in and out of your diary if you keep it updated...

Jesthar

Hi butterfly,

Well done on getting to grips with this, and congratulations on the Sky refund! As RAS said, make sure you follow through on that one by picking the debt with the highest interest rate and paying the refund money off that - from the figures, I think that would be either the Mint Card or the Barclays Loan. You need to check whether there would be any overpayment charges on the loan, though, and if in any doubt, go for the credit card, as that certainly won't have any!

About your pets, we've had a look at the puppy (awww! ), but how about the rabbits? I used to have guinea pigs, so I've been through this one, and I don't think I used to spend more than £5-10 on them a month max, even including treats. Obviously rabbits are bigger and eat more, but how do you keep them/bed them down? If you use wood shavings over newspaper, then rather than the little bales of shavings you get from the small aminal section of pet shops, I used to go and buy one of the huge bales (about 25 kilos!) intended for use in horse stables. It used to cost me around £10, and it would last several months! If you use other bedding, you may be able to get those in larger sizes too (definitely for hay and straw bales, if you have the room), they even use shredded paper as horse bedding these days. Or maybe even shred your own with a crosscut shredder.

Speaking of shredding, the other thing I would do was borrow a strip cut shredder (not a cross cut shredder) from my dad's office, and shred my own sleeping compartment bedding from newspapers and scrap paper/junk mail, rather than use all hay. I still put hay in to eat, of course, but using the paper as bedding rather than hay or straw was free! Also brought a smile to my face knowing the junk mail was getting what it deserved... I'd shred myself a good, full binbag, and it would last me a couple of months.

Anyway, hope that helps a bit.

~Jes