Please Work Your Magic

The_Ram

Hi All,

I've seen the help and advice that you have been able to offer many other people in very different circumstances, and now I need to turn to you.

I have 7,000 on credit cards, and a HSBC loan at 7.9% interest with 11,000 left to pay. I AM currenly paying interest on the credit cards, although about to try moving them.

I have gone through Martin's Money Calculator, and include it below. I was looking at doing a work from home scheme, or find some kind of second job to allow me to clear my debts in the quickest possible time; and ideas on any of my problems would be a massive help.

My income is 2,196.68 per month

The results leave me 62.29 p/month short. This may not sound a lot, but I really want to pay off a lot more than 300 p/month on my credit cards.

Any help at all would really be a big help.

Thanks in advance,

(Per Month)
Home:

Mortgage/Rent: 481.63
Council Tax: 75
Water: 12.83
Gas: 11.00
Electricity: 20
Home Phone: 12.00
Internet: 18.00
Mobile: 80.00
Other: 10.00


Insurance:

Travel (Year): 35.00


Eat, Drinks, Smokes:

Food: 50.00
Eating Out: 50.00
Cofee/Sandwiches: 64.95
Drinks for Home: 20.00
Drinking Out: 173.20
Smokes: 43.30


Transport/Travel

AA: 3.17
Rail/Bus: 10.00
Car Maintenence: 10.00
Insurance: 30.05
Tax: 12.08
Petrol: 120.00
Other: 10.00


Debt

Personal Loan: 254.51
Credit Crad: 350.00 (but want to pay MUCH more)
Student Loan: 90.68


Savings

Saving: 20.00

Fun and Frolics:

Hobbies: 20.00
Big Days Out: 50.00
Book/Music: 10.00
Theatre: 25.00
TV Licence: 11.07


Big One Off's

Christmas: 16.67
Holiday: 41.67
Bday: 8.33


Clothes: 8.33


Odds & Sods

Newspapers/Magazines: 2.08
Haircuts: 10.00
Optical Bills: 15.50

livilou

hiya, looked at your outgoings and the obvious savings to me are

1. drinks out 173.00 -
2. coffee/sandwiches 64
3. smoking 43
4. theatre 25.


could you not cut down on the above which equates to over 300.00

it's always hard to cut back but it won't be forever - and it might give your liver a rest if you cut down on the drinks out lol :beer: assuming it's alcoholic drinks you mean in your budget!

pack yourself up some nice homemade sarnies!!!
maybe go to the cinema rather than the theatre or go every other month.

good luck

xx

livilou

ooh me again meant to say mobile costs as well, can you reduce that as well, 80.00 is quite a lot, maybe half it??

off again now.

xx

sanfrancisco

You have a lot of wiggle room if you are really really serious about getting debt free. many people on here have cut back to the bear minimum. I would say all the following could be cut out for a while:

Mobile: 80.00
Other: 10.00
Other: 10.00
Eating Out: 50.00
Cofee/Sandwiches: 64.95
Drinks for Home: 20.00
Drinking Out: 173.20
Smokes: 43.30
Saving: 20.00
Hobbies: 20.00
Big Days Out: 50.00
Book/Music: 10.00
Theatre: 25.00

I make this over £550 per month (although you may need to increase your food budget a bit). This covers your shortfall and gives you ALOT of extra to put to your debts. It all depends how quickly you want to get debt free.

The_Ram

Hi All,

Thank you for such quick replies.

It's scary isn't it when you actually breakdown, honestly, what you spend ... I can't believe I spend that much on going out; it seems just crazy!!!

I certainly intend to cut back on many of the things you suggest ... thank you.

What about a second job? I work quite irregular hours in my current job, so I was thinking about some kind of work from home prjects. Does anyone know of any that can be trusted? I'm really not keen to pay up for these ones available on the net.

Cheers again.

sanfrancisco

You really need to invest a bit of time in spending less. If you got a second job now, you might just start thinking, "Oh I earnt £xxx extra last week I can go out for a beer." Look at all your outgoings and try to trim every one of them. Every time you reach for a £1 out your wallett - STOP.

Have you done a lot of ebay/amazon selling? Books, dvds, cds, games, shoes, bags. This could be a good second job for a while. Get selling!

I think generally there are no cushy jobs from home (wouldn't everyone be doing it?). There have been many threads on it, do a search. Could you babysit, teach something (guitar,maths?), make things and sell them on ebay, ironing???

jobbingmusician

The Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith costs £5 for all seats on Mondays. Even if you went EVERY WEEK, you would save £5 on your theatre bill

Coffee and sandwiches can be reduced fairly painlessly unless you use this as a VITAL part of your social life.

£20 a month for drinks is rather a lot! Get over to the grab it now board and find out about wonderful wines from Tesco for little money (and think about cutting down :eek: )

I think you have to think about how pain-free you want this process to be. It helps me to save money by thinking 'every £1 I spend is actually costing me £2 because that's the interest I'll pay on the mortgage if I don't shove it into the mortgage account' (Hope that makes sense).

livilou

if you work irregular hours it would be hard to find something that you could commit to and as has been said if you can find something reliable working from home your lucky.

I would concentrate and cutting back your outgoings which you can easily save a good couple of hundred pounds from and chuck at your debt. reassess in a couple of months and if you can find something you can do as a second job then go for it.

good luck

x