Take a deep breath ... and jump

Money_maker

Re paperwork: Sort into company and date order. Hole punch. Use string through holes to secure. Chuck in the bottom of the wardrobe!

nelinuk

Hi Sal, I did have a few more ideas that I hope will be helpful.

Council tax - are you sure you're in the right band? I recently took the time (all of five minutes actually) to do the initial check and I may be in line for a reduction and refund. Well worth doing and you'll find the information on this site.

Water - are you sure you're paying the right amount? I know that over the past year or so I've been offered a couple of improved payment options because I (like you) live alone. It would be worth checking.

Petrol - gosh this is a lot of money. I would reiterate another posters question - do you NEED the car? The money you're spending on it versus what it's worth seems disproportional.

Haircuts - do you have a Supercuts you can get to? That's who I use for the grand total of £13 per haircut. Or is there a local barber-type salon that offers cheaper cuts?

Presents - reducing the money spent is a good start. But if people are really your friends/care about you, they will support you in paying off your debt rather than giving them gifts. Or get them to give you Tesco gift cards. That way you can use them for groceries, treats for yourself (as a reward for paying off debt, of course) or even for gifts for someone else! Whatever you happen to need most that month.

Good luck - I'm also about to reply to your thread about your first month. Take care x

sazzab

Well I've been on here just over a week - how come it feels like a year? I don't mean that in a bad way, not in any way shape or form. In the past week, by reading everything on here and getting the support of people and your advice and actually acting on it I have made such a massive turnaround it's untrue.
I just want to be able to say what a difference you've all made to me. I finally feel (for the first time in my adult life) that I have taken control of something that has always scared the living daylights out of me.

I have opened all my post every day since I started here (this might not seem like a big thing to most but it is for me. Huge). Today I opened one, and it was from Halifax. With a credit card attached. Funny, as I thought I'd closed the card I had with them last year. I phoned them up. I found out they'd never closed it and in fact had taken an extra payment last June when I had a balance of zero and so here I was, with £170.77 credit with them. A cheque is on it's way and the account is now closed. Apparently.

I phoned up about my gas and electric bills being so high. My monthly bill has been reduced by £19 and I'm getting £231 back from them this week. So there was me this time last week with just about enough money to feed myself when, with just a couple of phonecalls I had enough money sitting in someone else's account to the tune of £400!

And it's not just that. I made my monthly payments for my credit card on time this month so no stressing when the phone rings this time. The balance has gone down and I actually know what it's at. And, I also spoke to my parents about the situation. Something that I don't really do in great detail even though I am very close to them as I always think they'll be so disappointed. They know I'm rubbish with money but I don't think they know that I owed quite as much as I do.
I sat down and spoke to them about it, told them they didn't need to worry, I am now dealing with it and it's under control.
They have just phoned me up to tell me that with their One account they can have £10000 at 3.2% interest that I can use and carry on paying them the same amount that I'm intending to pay to get rid of my debts. That's instead of an average of 17.8% I'm currently paying.

I just worked out the difference in payments - firstly if I manage to make my target of next August, instead of having to find almost £900 a month it will be more like £800 plus I will save over £1000 in interest.

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's helped me on here and given me a friendly post because without all of you I wouldn't have done any of these things and although I would still be dealing with it, I would be dealing with it very badly and probably getting myself into a worse mess than I was already in.

It can be done and speaking to people has made the world of difference.

Cheers
Sal

Tixy

Sazza -Just wanted to post that that is all excellent news - its amazing the differences you can make with just a few calls isn't it? Glad to hear you are sounding so positive.

Now you see why its called a light bulb moment hey? Its so liberating and it made me feel like a 'proper adult' when I went through the same phase. Do keep on at it, those type of bigs savings will get harder to make and you'll need to work on saving a few pounds here or there but it all counts and it all helps against the debt monster.

Really glad you've found the help and the push you needed. You can do it!

sazzab

Tixy wrote: »

Sazza -Just wanted to post that that is all excellent news - its amazing the differences you can make with just a few calls isn't it? Glad to hear you are sounding so positive.

Now you see why its called a light bulb moment hey? Its so liberating and it made me feel like a 'proper adult' when I went through the same phase. Do keep on at it, those type of bigs savings will get harder to make and you'll need to work on saving a few pounds here or there but it all counts and it all helps against the debt monster.

Really glad you've found the help and the push you needed. You can do it!

Hi Tixy, yep it really is a big moment - that light bulb thing - when it happens and I'm glad it has. Better late than never huh? And I hear and understand completely what you're saying about the big saves. It's just so nice to know that I'm going to be able to see a big chunk come off right at the start - I'm still determined to get rid of it all by August next year. 14 payments to make and I WILL do it
Thankyou