Tired of dealing with debts alone!

Clariman

jasperconran wrote: »

I have been and done the snowball calculators again for the credit cards:mad:. found another link on here for a different one, must be doing something different, cos one said I would be DF in November 2011 and the other one November 2014! lol.

Hi. If you want me to double check the snowball calculations, let me know the figures and I'll run them through both snowball calculators and check. The 2 calculators may make slightlt different assumptions but that shouldn't make 3 years difference.

Actually there is one area that could make a bigger difference and that is if you have Secured Debts. The snowball calculator at makesenseofcards has specific support for secured debts, whereas whatsthecost doesn't. This could potentially make a bigger difference. If you can give me your numbers I'll look in to it.

Clariman

trina2010

Hi, well done for taking your first steps towards debt freedom.

im wondering though why you want to reduce your payments to halifax? you can afford it very easily as it stands, by all means ask them to freeze the interest but get rid as quickly as possible.

As others have rightly said, you are losing more money in interest than you are gaining on savings, so no matter how begrudgingly i would plough that money into the debt instead.

From your SOA there were a few things that caught my eye...
£180 a month for power is huge, many have given advice on this already, so ill leave it at that.
£91 a month for tv/internet/phone......sky packages for all 3 start at £16.50 a month...you pay the TV, they give you the internet and phone for free, thats for basic TV and you can add packages to that for £1 a month. so you have a LOT of potential to save money here, because you're quite honestly being ripped off there DFW or otherwise, no sense in throwing money away no matter how much you make.

I think the most important step for you though is to reduce the day to day, bits and pieces spending which as you can see really adds up. Maybe try joining the No Spend Day challenge? or the weekly spend challenge etc. I think these things could really help you along the way and give you some real support when you feel like reaching into your purse for something in a shop.

jasperconran

trina2010 wrote: »

Hi, well done for taking your first steps towards debt freedom.

im wondering though why you want to reduce your payments to halifax? you can afford it very easily as it stands, by all means ask them to freeze the interest but get rid as quickly as possible.

As others have rightly said, you are losing more money in interest than you are gaining on savings, so no matter how begrudgingly i would plough that money into the debt instead.

From your SOA there were a few things that caught my eye...
£180 a month for power is huge, many have given advice on this already, so ill leave it at that.
£91 a month for tv/internet/phone......sky packages for all 3 start at £16.50 a month...you pay the TV, they give you the internet and phone for free, thats for basic TV and you can add packages to that for £1 a month. so you have a LOT of potential to save money here, because you're quite honestly being ripped off there DFW or otherwise, no sense in throwing money away no matter how much you make.

Hiya and thanks for your post. TBH, I have now decided to pay off one of our unsecured loans in full (me and OH have 2 between us) at least then, I will be £162 a month better off!. I dont want to, as that will only leave us just over £2300 in savings, but you are all right of course. I can always build it up again as I go along. The sky is a major issue with me, OH refuses to give it up. We have got our phone with them now, but we are paying for multi room as well. We have got bloody sky all over the house!:mad: Its costs £10 per extra box and we have 2, so therefore we pay an extra £20 per month on top of the full package. gonna havta ring them I think, there must be a way I can reduce this??? its ridiculous I know. Also the internet is another one I would love to change, unfortunately, just as I was about to do this, OH got all 3 of the company vans sign written with the company email addy, so I think I am gonna be stuck with BT forever! will havta talk seriously to OH about changing our internet if we can, see how much it will be to change just the last little bit (ie @btinternet.com) on all 3 vans, and see what he says. I am know counting every little penny now, ie OH weekly spends, groceries etc, no matter how many times I calculate our monthly outgoings on paper, at the end of the month our bank account says different! we are always up to and sometimes over our bloody overdraft:eek: which of course, we then get charged for by HSBC. any other ideas guys would be gratefully received! dunno what else I can change