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

debtfreesomeday

Hi again Butterfly

Sorry for not replying sooner, just re-checked your thread.

Stuff that I pay by Debit card for are food & petrol:

We budget £150 per month for food, household products like cleaning stuff and washing stuff, all groceries etc. We buy cheapy stuff where we can, although a few things we don't like the basic ranges. (ASDA's basic own brand softener is only 26p a bottle and smells great! We do buy the surf concentrate washing liquid which, although costs more, lasts us for ages, and we do a wash about 4 - 5 times a week, sometimes more).

£150 per month goes on petrol.

Every other bill is direct debit/standing order

Cash - we budget £150 but I take out £120 first, and if we need any more then I'll take the extra £30 out.
We use this for 'everything else'. We allow ourselves a few treats like going to the cinema, having coffee out on a Sunday, a takeaway if we have some cash left and my hubby likes a bottle of wine sometimes. I also pay my lottery money for work (£1 a week!) out of this and anything that crops up. All the comes out of the cash is we have it spare, if not, we go without!

It really does help us to know what money we have and where it goes. Once I start using my debit card for little bits here and there I completely lose track and the spending starts to add up! If I buy something from the internet, I'll then put the cash equivalent back in the bank to cover it.

Try it for a month or two and see how you get on. Good luck xx

Travelqueen

Hi
Just wanted to say well done on starting to make a dent in your debts. My only worry when reading your SOA was whether you are paying enough (sorry!) for gas and electricity? It may well be that you live in a small flat and can get heat from other people but I just wondered whether you should check your usage to avoid being hit by a large bill?

Admittedly I do live in a large draughty victorian end terrace with 3 other people but my fuel bills are £210 a month...

Sorry if I've worried you at all, but please do check

Another place people haven't mentioned is freecycle for getting stuff (for free!) which might help with a few things.

Good luck anyway

TQ

dealornodeal_3

Just a thought, with the Credit Card debts, and the higher Interests. Wouldnt it be better to re-mortgage the property. by an extra £70k. Use £35k to clear debts, and £35k for doing up the property

Then try and pay extra paying off the mortgage?

angel_eyes_3

Having beeeen a lurker for a while. Most of the advice seems to be against turning an unsecured debt into one secured against your home. Obviously all cases are different but perhaps someone will be able to give you the pros and cons of doing this?

Well done on facing up to your debt. It is the first but most important step on the path.

Best wishes x

firesidemaid

Travelqueen wrote: »

Hi
Just wanted to say well done on starting to make a dent in your debts. My only worry when reading your SOA was whether you are paying enough (sorry!) for gas and electricity? It may well be that you live in a small flat and can get heat from other people but I just wondered whether you should check your usage to avoid being hit by a large bill?

Admittedly I do live in a large draughty victorian end terrace with 3 other people but my fuel bills are £210 a month...

Sorry if I've worried you at all, but please do check

Another place people haven't mentioned is freecycle for getting stuff (for free!) which might help with a few things.

Good luck anyway

TQ

ooh, £210 a month for gas and elec, that is high. we currently pay £129 a month for both each month, much average bills are less in summer, more in winter - elec is about £50 a month of that. i hope to save another £10 a month by switching, and also hope i will still be in credit at the end of the winter and can reduce payments again. we live in a 3 bed 1940s detached and i thought ours was difficult to heat. we haven't got cavity walls unfortunately, but are just about to increase our loft insulation to help reduce bills. do you have gas or elec heating?

butterfly_in_debt

firesidemaid wrote: »

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

i do hope so!

butterfly_in_debt

Dear Jesthar
we are going to pay it off the mint card as thats the most expensive one at the moment and its the one we need to get rid of first! also got some bits on ebay which will hopefully sell and go towards it.
we've got 3 large rabbits, we by food and hay to eat, and the odd treat (very occasionaly!) and use newspapers i collect off family to put at the bottom of the hutsh and sawdust and straw for bedding.
i would love to bulk buy but we live in a little 2 bed house and to keep it tidy we have a storage bench where all rabbit things need to go so we have no where to store big bags if hay and straw, i really like the idea of shredding paper as thier bedding, we have so many papers and they are free!! thank you, what a great idea!

butterfly_in_debt

debtfreesomeday wrote: »

Hi again Butterfly

Sorry for not replying sooner, just re-checked your thread.

Stuff that I pay by Debit card for are food & petrol:

We budget £150 per month for food, household products like cleaning stuff and washing stuff, all groceries etc. We buy cheapy stuff where we can, although a few things we don't like the basic ranges. (ASDA's basic own brand softener is only 26p a bottle and smells great! We do buy the surf concentrate washing liquid which, although costs more, lasts us for ages, and we do a wash about 4 - 5 times a week, sometimes more).

£150 per month goes on petrol.

Every other bill is direct debit/standing order

Cash - we budget £150 but I take out £120 first, and if we need any more then I'll take the extra £30 out.
We use this for 'everything else'. We allow ourselves a few treats like going to the cinema, having coffee out on a Sunday, a takeaway if we have some cash left and my hubby likes a bottle of wine sometimes. I also pay my lottery money for work (£1 a week!) out of this and anything that crops up. All the comes out of the cash is we have it spare, if not, we go without!

It really does help us to know what money we have and where it goes. Once I start using my debit card for little bits here and there I completely lose track and the spending starts to add up! If I buy something from the internet, I'll then put the cash equivalent back in the bank to cover it.

Try it for a month or two and see how you get on. Good luck xx

thank you for that info, i really want to do the cash thing its just hard to know the right amount to be taking out so we dont have to much or to little money to be trying to live on!

ill start it this month and let you know how i go, thank you

butterfly_in_debt

Hi travel queen,
i dont know much about bills, as you can see! but £210 seems a lot. i live in a little 2 up 2 down mid terrence so we dont have a lot of space to heat, i do think its a good idea to check though, so thank you, i hadnt thought it may be to little! thank you

butterfly_in_debt

dealornodeal wrote: »

Just a thought, with the Credit Card debts, and the higher Interests. Wouldnt it be better to re-mortgage the property. by an extra £70k. Use £35k to clear debts, and £35k for doing up the property

Then try and pay extra paying off the mortgage?

hi, we tried to re-morgage just for the amount of our debt but they said no for now as we've only had the morgage for 3 months, i do wish i had one loan or put it all into morgage as then i would only have one repayment a month. i would try again next year.
thanks