It's finally hit me.....

little_miss_broke_2

Virgin - APR is.....okay, i can't see it on the statement, am i being blind? Current balance is exactly £2512.16 and the interest last month was £28.75. Can i work it out from that?

Lloyds - that's not much clearer! It does say the monthly interest rate though, that's 1.385.

Egg - I can't see the interest rate on the website (what it is with all the interest rates, are they a secret or something?!!), but my monthly interest is around £4.00, which seems very cheap? I've only had the card since october, so maybe i'm on a special offer at the moment?

wigginsmum

Egg cards are usually 15.9% APR, I think, unless you're taking out cash on them. You might be on a special offer, I guess.

little_miss_broke_2

Yes, i have payment protection on the lloyds card. I will phone them and cancel that. Oh god yes, i've got it on the virgin card too. I will phone them too. That's nearly £45 a month between them going onto the cards.

Jobbingmusician - it's more than that isn't it? The tesco loan has about £6k left i think, i'd have to check to be definite.

At the risk of repeating myself, thank you so much to everyone who has replied and helped me already. You have no idea what it means to me. No-one at all knows about my debt and i feel relieved just to have shared the secret with you guys.

little_miss_broke_2

wigginsmum wrote:

Egg cards are usually 15.9% APR, I think, unless you're taking out cash on them. You might be on a special offer, I guess.

I think i must be. The estimated interest for next month is just £3.28

jobbingmusician

little_miss_broke wrote:

Jobbingmusician - it's more than that isn't it? The tesco loan has about £6k left i think, i'd have to check to be definite.

Yes, apologies, I typed it badly (and have been back since, as I realised before you posted) - could only add up the debts where you'd given a total. If the Tesco one is £6k it will take it up to just over £20k. We can do it!!!!

little_miss_broke_2

Thanks jobbingmusician, i thought i was going dolally then!

Right, it's only little steps, but i've just phoned lloyds CC and virgin CC to cancel the PPI and see if anything can be done with the interest/repayments. Unfortunately i need to call them both back tomorrow (relevant depts not open on sundays!) to see about the interest/payments. And virgin couldn't cancel the PPI till monday either. However lloyds did cancel the PPI and a very nice lady said if i call back tomorrow and speak to the debt department she was sure they could help me

I'm going to have a quick look at the mobile phone deals that are about at the moment now and when i find a good one i'm going to call orange and threaten to leave, lets see if they can match it

Only tiny baby steps, but i'm feeling a touch more positive.

MushyPeas

Excellent - you go!!!

It is a bit of a cliche, but the 'look after the pennies to look after the pounds' does really work. Each tiny step helps. Also check to see whether you have insurance on your mobile phone. I had one for years, lost my phone and then they said it didn't cover that :mad: I have been wasting £5 a month for three years....grrrrrr,

What will you look at next? Grocery budget?

MPeas

little_miss_broke_2

MushyPeas wrote:

Excellent - you go!!!

It is a bit of a cliche, but the 'look after the pennies to look after the pounds' does really work. Each tiny step helps. Also check to see whether you have insurance on your mobile phone. I had one for years, lost my phone and then they said it didn't cover that :mad: I have been wasting £5 a month for three years....grrrrrr,

What will you look at next? Grocery budget?

MPeas

Oooh yes, i have got insurance on the mobile, same as you, £5 a month. I've found a great looking deal wirh virgin, very similar tarrif to what i'm using now, but for a fraction of what i'm paying. Grr! Going to call orange now and threaten to cancel (i've been with them 2 years) and i'll see what they have to say!

Not sure about the grocery budget to be honest, that comes out of the joint account and if i were to start saying i wanted to pay less in a month i know H would wonder why. I'm not quite ready to tell him just yet. Maybe once i've spoken to the CC companies tomorrow and i've got a better idea of where i'm heading........

scottishspendaholic

jobbingmusician wrote:

I agree it would be best to tell hubby. But there does seem to be a self-esteem thing going on here - LMB wants to prove to HERSELF she can cope. And she won't end up deeper in debt if she follows the excellent advice on this board, so I think she possibly (depending on what we see in teh SOA) has the luxury of telling her husband when the time is right.

Hi Little Miss,

I am nearly in tears here reading your emotional thread - you are having your lightbulb moment and everything will get easier from here on in. Yes, you might have low points - but I promise - this really is the worst part.

I just wanted to chat quickly about the telling the hubby bit. I faced up to things in mid January this year and started cutting back, selling on eBay, starting a wee crafts/wedding favours business, trying to change tariffs and payments + lots more = generally trying to sort myself out financially to pay off my debts. Eventually on 25 Feb a couple of weeks ago, it all just got too much - I tell my OH most things and it was killing me, not being able to talk to him and keeping everything all bottled up. We had a huge row about nothing and I was so upset and was talking about there not being a way out and anywhere to go and I just felt so low - I even considered calling the Samaratins as I had no-one else to talk to. Eventually I came home and just spilled everything out to my OH. He was lovely - I thought he'd be so angry (since this certainly wasn't the first time I had hidden debts from him and he'd found out) but he had a couple of secrets too and we worked through everything together, he gave me a big hug and helped me sort everything out, as some things were still in a jumble and a week or so on - I am so glad that happened. There has been no resentment or bad feeling and he was just SO glad that I had told him - he just wants us to be truthful with each other. He just couldn't bear that I was trying to brave all this by myself. He also really appreciated the fact that I was trying to be proactive and sort things out/earn money and wasn't just panicing and being inactive.

If I was going to give any tips from your SOA, I would recommend that you get Martin's Money Diet book (updated version) from your local library (for free!) - I can't praise it enough and I reread a chapter or so every night for inspiration. Even when you think you've taken on all the tips you can and worked through everything, there's always something else. I've cut back my SOA drastically and now live on a £20 budget a week which is hard but working but every week I get ideas from Martin's book and the site like claiming back bank charges, setting up a business, what will sell on eBay and loads more.

eBay and Amazon selling is another good tip. I thought I had nothing to sell and made £300+ last month and still haven't sold everything. I keep unearthing stuff and coming up with new ideas.

Anyway - I have lots more to say, but will shut up for now. Please keep posting - I really look forward to getting to know you better in the next few months.

Good luck and remember, we're all here for you

scottishspendaholic x

MushyPeas

Good luck with Orange. A lot of these insurance things on mobiles are rubbish! Also remember with Orange you can buy a text bundle which works out cheaper. They come in bundles of 30, 60 or 120. I'm trying to cut back so have just reduced mine from 120 to 60. Remember what I said about chaning your phone to record how many minutes dialled and texted sent so you can keep within your limit.

I understand about the joint account bit. Why not try to cut the grocery expenditure and then any money you had left, would you be able to take out and use to pay off debt?

Good luck with this all. I'm off to the shops for some savvy food shopping

TTFN

Oh and well done - look how much money you are saving already!! :T