It's finally hit me.....

little_miss_broke_2

Thank you for your kindness. I just can;t stop crying now.

I can't tell my H, he'd just be so disappointed in me. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be angry, but the disappointment would be so hard to bear. We've only been married 6 weeks.

I just feel so very stupid. I can't beleive i;ve got myself into this mess....

MushyPeas

OK honey, don't feel sick...you are strong and can deal with this.

As the other poster said, I'd have a look at your mobile phone bill. Could you go with a monthly option that would work out cheaper? I'm with Orange, found a cheaper tarif with 3 and phoned Orange to cancel who said they would match the offer. Look through old phone bills and work out how many minutes you tend to use per month and how many texts. Then you'll have a good idea of what tarrif to go for. Once signed up, change the settings on your phone to keep a running total of minutes and text messages sent. Then you can keep within your minutes limit every month.

There you go, I bet that is £40 a month saved already once you have done that :j

We are all here to help

jobbingmusician

I've added up your debts and the total of the ones you've told us the total of is £14,200. So now you've seen it in black and white - things get better from here.

As wigginsmum has said, the way to reduce the overall interest you pay is to hit the debts with highest interest rates first. Quite a lot of your debt is made up of little bits - which is quite nice in a way, as you will have the satisfaction of totally paying off some of your debts quite soon, I suspect (you owe £200 to 2 people who I suspect are likely to have high interest rates). There's another thread on here somewhere where someone is trying to pay off a debt a month, and finding that very satisfying.

keep the info coming....

wigginsmum

Sweetheart, many of us have been there. The relief in getting it all set out to see what you're dealing with is huge, isn't it? And we get so busy beating ourselves up that when someone's nice to us we feel we don't even deserve that.

So stick around here, read all the advice, act on what you feel would work, and you'll carry on getting support, and cheers as those balances go down!

MushyPeas

You are not stupid....just human! It is very easy to get into debt in this country. Maybe you can talk to him once you have a plan in action? Then you can show him that you have taken control and are dealing with it.

Next step...what are the interest rates on the cards? That will help you decide which ones to pay off first.

MPeas

little_miss_broke_2

wigginsmum wrote:

There IS a way but it takes time, so don't lose heart.

- Consider moving the mobile to pay-as-you-go as soon as you can - £80/month seems extremely high to me.

Can you breakdown the mortgage/household bills/food for us? Often that's where a lot of savings can be made.

The CCs - are these the minimum payments you've listed? If you can list the APRs on them, it'll show where you're paying the most interest and you can target them one at a time with little bits of extra money each month.

My mobile bill IS stupidly high, you're right. Stupid texts to H while he's at work and so on....

I can't really alter the amount i pay into our joint account. He would want to know why and i couldn't bear his disappointment in me...not just yet.

Yes, i pay the minimum to all the CC's, hang on a moment and i'll see if i can find out the APR's.....

topherxp

It is never easy to face up to the reality, but now you have done the hard part, all you need to do is be patient. You may want to consider speaking to the various companies about reducing the payments and having the interest stopped.

jobbingmusician

Hey, congratulations on the wedding, by the way. It looks like your whole life is really turning around!!! (((((()))))) (hugs)

Littlemiss-lotsofdebt

Well done for facing up to things (((((((((hugs))))))). Things can only start to improve now.

Little things make a HUGE difference! I've recently saved £300 a month by cancelling the PPI on my credit cards, cutting back my mobile on contract to the cheapest on offer (Orange - £30.00/mth includes 60 mins, 60 texts + insurance), and shaving £200.00/mth off our food bill by meal planning and using things in the house we already have.

You can do this xxxx Lots of luck and love, another Little Miss xxxx

wigginsmum

Are you paying payment protection insurance on any of the debts? I was paying that on my Egg card, emailed them and they immediately agreed to cancel it, saving me quite a bit each month.

Oh and if it makes you feel better, we owe £75k! The loan is static; the CCs and overdraft I can vary the repayments/non-use of overdraft, but it's going down each month, chunk by chunk. I put it all on a spreadsheet, including a day-by-day outgoing bills bit so I could see the day before each payday how much I have spare each month, and calculate how much extra I could throw at everything. I then have a separate sheet totalling the debt balances each month and I can see at a glance where I am, barring any emergencies. It's going to take me till 2009 to clear everything bar the loan but I can see where I'm going now.

Have a look at this calculator - it'll show you how to target the highest-interest debts first:

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx