I know I have a problem and now I need advice!

theymademedoit

Hi,
This is my first time on here and for awhile I have been thinking of posting.
I have over the last 10 years managed to get from no debt to around £22k in debt due to moving to an opposite end of the country and setting up from scratch.
This is spread over a Natwest loan (just under £20k = £255 pm) and the rest is with a 6% lifetime balance Barclay Card (£55 pm).
I am not a home owner and my Monthly net income is £1200 and once rent, repayments and bills/insurance etc is paid out I am left with around £280 pm to spend on petrol, food and socialising.
I am 33 and I feel like I am screwed.
I scrape by every month and have cut down on my spending as much as possible and I am very careful about what I spend on food etc.

I don’t know if I can cope like this until my debts are paid (6 years for the loan).
Does anyone have any advice on what I can do regarding a cheaper repayment (consolidation) or on anything else?

I will try anything as I now know that I am in financial turmoil and I am dead set on sorting this out.

Thanks in advance,
Al

loopymadlover

im also in the same situation however i dont go out and socialise if you add your soa someone will help you your really not alone in this

http://www.makesenseofcards.co.uk/soacalc.html

this will break down all your spending and someone will be along to help you soon

have you thought of selling on ebay and amazon ?? i do and use the money to make extra payments for my debts not a lot but every little helps !!

RAS

Welcome

Do the SOA and then we can find ways of making your money go further. Also, there may be samll and bigger ways of increasing your income as well.

pebblespop

try the £10 a day challenge on here. it seems like a lot of people manage to achieve it and you should be £300 better off by the end of november. you can pay this off your cc

**Amy**

Hi

Welcome to MSE xx

Firstly definitely do the SOA (statement of affairs) as posted above. Even if you do not want to wholly share the information with us, you will at least know exactly what goes out and what comes in.

If you do decide to post it up on here, im sure lots of people will have some good ideas on ways to cut down your outgoings. Things like switching gas and electricity suppliers, but doing it through a cash back site (www.quidco.com is a very good one, and I have "earnt" over £300 in the past 6 months through purchasing items that i would normally buy, but clicking through their site first)

Have you also thought about upping your income? There are so many ways, and there is a board completly dedicated to that on here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=145

Also, it might be a good idea to have a chat to a debt charity. Either National Debtline or CCCS. (www.nationaldebtline.co.uk or www.cccs.co.uk). The CCCS also have an online process that can tell you what your best course of action may be, relating to your income and your debts.

Hope this helps.

xxx

theymademedoit

Thanks for the response.
It’s difficult as it’s a shared house, however I can list all my outgoings manually.

Net monthy income = £1200

Rent = £375pm
Bills = £100pm
Natwest loan = £255pm
Barclay card repayments = £51pm
Contents insurance = £27pm
Car insurance = £36pm
Mobile = £25pm
Life insurance (covers loan if die) = £6pm
Petrol around = £40pm

What is left pays for food and anything else such as general shopping etc.

Does this help?

Travelqueen

I'm not as proficient at this as other people but is there any way you can reduce your contents insurance at all? Seems quite high is all for what I assume is just your stuff in a shared house?

Can you reduce by either sharing with your housemates or, failing that, putting a lock on your room (if you don't have already) as the insurance companies like that sort of thing!

Just my thoughts but I'm sure someone else will be along with some better advice in a bit.

theymademedoit

Travelqueen wrote: »

I'm not as proficient at this as other people but is there any way you can reduce your contents insurance at all? Seems quite high is all for what I assume is just your stuff in a shared house?

Can you reduce by either sharing with your housemates or, failing that, putting a lock on your room (if you don't have already) as the insurance companies like that sort of thing!

Just my thoughts but I'm sure someone else will be along with some better advice in a bit.

Hi,
Thanks,
Yes I tried the whole insurance thing, however they have stated that I will have to pay a fee to stop cover with them....this is something that I only recently thought about and I will look into it further.
I cant see why there would be a fee though.
Regards,
Al

**Amy**

Hi

Thats good. So you are left with £285 per month for food etc.

Firstly do you need your car? (i.e. for work?) I only ask because obviusly they are a big expense. Its not a problem if you do need it at all.

My monthly food budget is £120. Thats just for me and 2 greedy cats. I do buy bread and sarnie stuff weekly for work, but thats all the money I have spare.

This may seem quite a small amount but it has worked for me for the pas 8 odd months.

I seriously suggest you writing down everything you spend if you find you dont know where the £285 is going. It can be a shock to find how much you spend on magazines, chocolate, coffees etc.

I also really urge you to speak to one of the debt charities i listed above.

They wont judge you, they will just try and help you.

xxx

redsquirrel80

There doesn't seem to be a great deal you could cut back on there, so I think you need to concentrate on getting some extra income and also what you're spending that £280 on, maybe keep a spending diary for a month to see where it's all going? Maybe I'm just used to living on a tight budget but it doesn't seem (to me) an unreasonable amount of money to have left once all your bills are paid.

If your credit rating is still good then could you look for a lower rate loan or 0% balance transfer for your credit card?

theymademedoit

redsquirrel80 wrote: »

There doesn't seem to be a great deal you could cut back on there, so I think you need to concentrate on getting some extra income and also what you're spending that £280 on, maybe keep a spending diary for a month to see where it's all going? Maybe I'm just used to living on a tight budget but it doesn't seem (to me) an unreasonable amount of money to have left once all your bills are paid.

If your credit rating is still good then could you look for a lower rate loan or 0% balance transfer for your credit card?

I am into photography and I am about to show an exhibition which will cost me around £90 to produce cards and prints. If I sell them over the weekend for half what I have been told they will all fly out the door, I stand to make about £1k in a weekend (can’t be bad).
This could give me the scope to start selling cards and prints to shops…………from there who knows.
On the loan side of things, I think its front loaded and I will still have to pay the interest off if I exit only……or is the incorrect?
I only took the loan as I was desperate at the time and went through my bank, so I didn’t shop around.
Any ideas who I could try to get a better rate?