New here, had a lightbulb moment this morning

NeedMoreCash

I have used this wonderful website for a long time, but rarely used the forums, I am hoping recording my aim here will keep me motivated.

I did the budget thingy and I got a green result.

I have debts though and a low income so I want them paying off!

Here are my debts:

Loan with MBNA - £2243.10

Overdraft £300

Laptop package £500

Grattan £350

M+S £20

Studio Cards £30

Drier £130

Total debt - £3573.10

I know it's not huge to some, but to me on my income it is, any one hve any ideas where to start??

Ames

Welcome to the board. If you could do a full statement of affairs that'd be a good place to start, people can see where you're at and advise better, and we might be able to spot places you can cut back.

There's a template here http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

saintly_2

hiya

well done for having the LBM!

its better to do a detailed SOA with all your income and outgoings then people will be able to help a lot more, the people on here can work are brilliant and can help soo much!!

doodledo_2

Hi and welcome to the board. You have found a brilliant place.

Like the others have said try filling out the SOA on the link given and posting it up on here then all the lovely peeps on here will have a nose and see if we can reduce your outgoings.

Another thing to do is to use the snowball calculator http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx. You pump in all your debt details, how much you can afford to pay back a month and their APRs and it kindly works out for you the order to pay them back to minimise interest and gives you a debt free debt if you follow their plan.

NeedMoreCash

Thanks for all these replies I will do a SOA this evening and post it.

tyllwyd

The thing to do is to start keeping a good record of it, so you can see it come down over the months (probably slowly, but as long as its heading in the right direction).

Without seeing the interest rates, I'd guess that getting rid of the studio cards debt first would be a good idea - I've not dealt with them myself, but I've seen them come up in other posts and they seem to be one that often hangs around for ages with interest & charges being added, so it would be good to get them paid off and off your list.