my incomings and outgoings, any suggestions to help me please

angelstar25

My income £ 870
no children no husband

Total £870

Also sell regular on ebay make around £100 a month, but it ain't guaranteed, also do extra duties at work

Expenditure

rent £205
Water £ 14.94
Council Tax £66
Electric £25
car insurance is £40
Home insurance £12
Telephone line rental £10.50 through BT
Telephone calls £20 approx through Telco global, used to be a lot more through BT
mobile - £20
TV licence £10.49
Pension £55
Petrol £50/£60
Tax, MOT etc £20
Grocerys £100 approx
Clothing £10
Dentistry £5
ISP 17.99

Total exp £689.94


Balances of debts:
Overdraft £900 pay £8 interest a month for debt
Personal Loan £7382.70 9.8% apr pay £140 a month over 8 years (cahoot)
£11'000, £158.83 a month for 8 years, 80 payments to go
Think I would owe maybe 10k maybe settlement
£1184.30 hsbc credit card £37 a month
2000 virgin card £40 a month (0%)
lloyds tsb platinum card £819.11 (14%) £17 a month
£368.36 cahoot credit card £7.66 a month
£177.08 oasis card £7 a month
£73.72 pilot card £5 a month
£2700 student loan depends if i earn enough a month


Total: £23'515 monthly approx = £412.49


£- 232 a month

I do get bonuses, I ain't counted overtime or ebay money in mine, I would about break even i think, but still putting groceries on my credit card, and having to borrow at the end of the month to break even
Can't get a huge loan tried, don't like the idea of large loans with huge aprs, as i'll be paying the next 20 years, what are my options.

regards
angelstar

donna-dan

Have you thought about doing the credit card shuffle?? Basically you move as much money from your credit cards with high apr to the ones with the lowest, filling the lowest ones up first.
This means that you will be paying the lower apr on a higher amount of your debt. Once you have done this you concentrate on paying the ones off with the highest apr first.
When you transfer your money see if your credit card company will give you a lower rate because you’re moving more of you debt to them.
I hope this helps, i know it will only save a little each month but it will soon build up!!

We wish you all the luck in the future

Dan & Donna

angelstar25

already doing that, just put 2000 over from one card to my virgin one, could try with others i guess, thanks for that idea
regards
angelstar

homersimpson_3

1. get rid of mobile or change to payg - you're paying 50 for phone calls (landline, mobile and landline calls- why so much?_
2. get rid of car- why is is essential?
3. £100 per month on food for one person is too much
4. why £15 for clothing and dentist fees?
5. try and get as much debt on 0% but you also need to start reducing debts. if you stopped paying pension even for few months some of these debts could be cleared and money you pay off them could be targeted towards other debts.
6. get rid of internet (can be used free in many places)
7. if necessary stop watching telly (and stop paying licence for a short while). trust me- this is easier than it sounds- a bit desperate but the pain's worth it.

bluezone

Definately cut down on the grocery bill - this is a lot for 1 person.

I know you may feel that we are nagging you but we are only trying to help

Thefunkygibbons

Where is the pension going?

Whilst it is a good idea not to be poor in retirement, nor is it a good idea to be poor now

If you are serious about cutting debt, you may need to put it on hold until the debts are clear

Tondella

I think possibly one of the easiest places to start is cutting back on your telephone calls, make sure you have the best deal for the calls you are making, look into using overrides to further reduce the cost of your calls and try try try to make fewer calls. Io also notice you pay £17.99 to ISP, can this be reduced? It seems rather high? I have free internet access at home (ie I only pay for the phone calls) which i use sporadically as i do most of my online stuff at work. If you only use your internet occasionally then you're probably better not paying a flat subscription fee but doing as i do and paying as i use.
A good way of cutting down your grocery bills is to set a budget and make a shopping list when you go. Don't shop when hungry either! Pack lunches to work etc, cut down on those coffees if they are your weakness. Then once you have a workable budget you can try and shave off a little amount from it (the grocery challenge). Every little helps.

PS It's good that you have presented your worst case scenario incomings, as your other efforts to make money can't be counted on. however, when the extra money comes in, how is it spent?

xpl0rer

Have you heard of Skype?

If you encourage all your friends & family who have internet access to subscribe you can speak vai your PC to them for Free (Its free to subscribe by the way)

If you want to keep your landline you can subscribe to Skype In (Just £20 for 1 Year) and Skype Out (costs approx £5.00 for over 7 Hours talk time) you will need to invest in a Skype phone or adapter for this.

AceCobra

There are much better programs out there than skype, one such being voipcheap. If you add £5 to your account that will last you a virtual age. No connection fee and 0.0ppm to all uk landlines (and most landlines around the world for that matter) You can even apply for a free voipcheap phone number so people can call you direct to your pc no matter where you are in the world (they will be charged a local call to reach you anywhere in the world)

The people than run voipcheap also have a landline discount package also, call1899. I beleive Martin did an article on them a while back.
Hope this helps.



Martin

Conor_3

Wow, that's ALOT of plastic there. That's the stuff that REALLY needs tackling first. You're not going to get out of this without taking a few hits to the old credit record.

Firstly, it's obvious you can't afford to live because you're having to put your shopping on the plastic. YOU NEED TO STOP DOING THAT NOW. All you're doing is digging a deeper hole.

Secondly, if any cards are at their limit, cut them up. You can't use them anyway.

Ring all your credit card and loan companies, tell them you're having problems and see if they can lower the APR or freeze it. Also see who offers what to transfer the balances from the other cards to them. Loan companies also will negociate reduced monthly payments as well as long as it's not too daft.

Once you've done the above, start by paying off as soon as possible, the cards from the lowest balance to the highest balance.

Pay the minimum monthly amounts on them all apart from the lowest balance one where you pay absolutely everything you can off it. That should mean you can clear the pilot and oasis card next month or the month after.

At worst you end up going bankrupt. It's not all that bad as you don't own your own house and the Official Receiver probably won't bother with what you have in it.

Yorkielass

As has been said if you're trying to tackle your expenditure the biggest areas I'd target are the phone, food and petrol.

1. Where are you phoning to run up £20 a month on calls at home? If you're at work during the day presumably these are evening and weekend calls - we got talk:talk free evening and weekend calls for a year and spend about 30p a month - and that's normally 0845 numbers when we can't find an alternative on sayno0870.com. Skype (or an alternative phone service) might be better if you're paying for a broadband connection - my brother lives in Germany and he talks to my mum via skype and OHs parents and sister talk to each other on it too as she's at University - it's free for them and it's much cheaper for my brother to call 'normal land lines' in this country from his skype too.

2. Check out the OS (Old Style) board for tips on food shopping and budgeting for food - look at the grocery challenge thread particularly hopefully you'll be able to reduce that bill a bit, and the store challenge bit is really helpful, trying to use up what you already have.

3. Don't know how far your commute is, but sometimes thinking about how you drive between places can reduce petrol useage - I'm very lucky I can walk to my current job - takes 25 minutes and I really wish I was driving sometimes - especially like weather this morning.

Hope you get there sorting out your debt - you've come to the right place