What to do?

rchddap1

You aren't in as bad a position as some of the people who come on these boards asking for help. Carefully managed you could sort these debts out in no time.

What happens if one of you loses your job? Or if the car needs repairs? What happens at Xmas time, birthdays etc....? Or what happens if your gf becomes pregnant? Whilst you are keeping your head above water for the moment one little problem and you could be in trouble. Particularly if you don't have any savings to draw on.

Many on the boards speak of a 'wake up moment' I don't know if you've reached yours yet, but you have to sit down and really think if you really need all these things that you're spending money on. Please try to work hard to sort these debts out (ie, making hard choices and sacrifices) as we wouldn't want to see you back on the boards again in the future asking for help about baliffs etc...

toontastic

Can I just ask a bit more about the mobile. How many minutes do you use and how many texts ? Also how far are you in to the contract ? Just your in your twenties and if your like me and my mates then you'll be using text mostly. If you are then you could do one of two things. Go through pay as you go with O2 who I think are still doing the deal where if you top up £10 each month then you will get 1000 free texts and then obviously £10 worth of calls. Or you could go through orange pay £20 a month and get 3000 texts. Most sites like this don't mention these sort of deals they just mention the number of calls so I thought i'd let you know there are more texts deals if you send loads of texts.

alecpr

I get a £270 surplus on the joint account currently, but I'm sure it must be missing things like contents insurance, Electricity etc. Water and Gas look very cheap too!

skintchick

samgoffe wrote:

Phone i could lower, but i cant see myself using it any less!

Sky is proberly 5 months in, and its our only luxery, we never go out, never have take aways etc.

.

There's little point in us trying to help you if you aren;t going to change your attitude and realise that you have debts and need to pay them off, and so you don't GET to have luxuries, and you HAVE TO use the phone less.

You need to have your lightbulb moment otherwise everything we advise will be like water off a duck's back.

Sorry if I sound harsh but the people who come on here with your attitude get nowhere fast, and those who really WANT to change their spending habits make massive inroads into their probelms, like Moozie, Ms_London, and numerous others.

rchddap1

One thing is that the TV license isn't £25.30 every month.....more likely quarterly (which is what I assumed in my calculations).

illmonkey

i get 400 minutes and 200 texts. Thing is, i feel i hardly use it! i dont know how they get used up. I dont sit to mates talking all night etc. They are required calls, now, i could use the house phone, but they will just be on that bill.

I know im not in the worst position, but i feel its bad. I have jsut drawn up this table, these are static outgoings, and the bare minimum at the moment, so while it looks like were not doing TOO bad, there is moving factors on top of this.. some months we use more petrol, some months we need more food or cant get as good deals etc...

http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/9438/list5ys.jpg

I also spend £10 a week on lunch, but i will be taking a pack lunch in soon, but then its going to make the shopping bill higher for more food!

The CC's are paying off £4ks of credit cards, which we used to sort the flat out, and paid for contents insurance and stuff.

rchddap1

If you hardly use your mobile then there is no harm in reducing to the cheapest tarriff and not using the mobile until you can cancel the contract.

That pic is a bit difficult for me to read, but my instincts say that there is still a lot of stuff missing. Yes you have all the 'bills' there, but what about when you need to buy birthday presents, or xmas presents, clothes etc.... From what I can tell from the pic you have plenty of cash left over from this budget to throw at the debts.

You need to draw up a full and complete budget...with nothing missing...even down to packs of chewing gum or newspapers.

What skinkchick has said is true....you've not yet reached your lightbulb or wakeup moment and so whatever people here suggest you will automatically say no to. Getting out of debt isn't about moving that debt around...its more about watching what you spend like a hawk and if it isn't 110% necessary (eg, council tax) then you need to either eliminate it (or cut it down) and switch that spending to paying off debts.

If you are serious about getting out of debt you need to change your spending habits, stick to a budget and be very ruthless when it comes to 'luxuries'. All your choice of course.

I don't have Sky, or a mobile phone and my partner and I very rarely go out as well. However, we live well within our means, and are managing to save a good proportion for those 'little extras' and problem moments. A little while ago our car was written off. Now, if we didn't have savings we would have been sunk....but we did....and so bought a new car very easily without getting into debt.

Think about things carefully

lynzpower

Once you get into the swing of packed lunches you will find, no matter what you think, you will save a fortune. I found that I was thinking I spent a tenner a week, but a sandwich itself is 2.50. so I cant have been spending only a tenner a week, once the crisps, chocolate, pack of biscuits for the team blah blah.

sometimes if I make a stew, or lasagne or anything like that for tea, I'll take a bit in for lunch the next day. OH has tuna sandwiches ( its pretty much the only sandwich he likes) which can be done for 2 quid a week i reckon, otherwise tin of soup & few slices of bread or even at the end of the month, cupasoups ( have to be pretty dire straits for this i have to say) Bottle of squash for on the desk ( 80p same as a can of pop but lasts forever)

Needless to say whatever I take in from home is a hell of a lot better than what I can get from my terrible works canteen, and i have looks of envy most days.

illmonkey

Your right, it looks (on paper) that i have a spare bit of cash left every month. But that "spare" cash goes on the little things. I dont see how i can cut these down, last thing i bought for me must of been a month ago, the rest is required. I need to cut my bills down and sort my debt out, so at least im not paying huge chunks on intrest. Thats what im trying to achive.

Sky is my only luxery, i eat value food, make my own dinners (no pre packed stuff) we steal the internet from my parents (live in same block of flats). Last time we went out was the cinema a week ago, before that it must of been a month, purly as money is so tight.

toontastic

Right you say the only calls you make on your mobile are required calls. Does this mean work ? If yes then surely they must pay something towards the bills else it's no sorry I don't have a phone any more. If it's not then what are required calls. Can you ask the mobile company as well for a run down on how many calls and texts you actually make. If you don;t think you use it much you might not be using it much and as such can knock the tariff down.