First time post - facing my problems

Basilbrush66

The mobile could definately be cut down....my contract just ran out so Im already investigating a pay as you go alternative.

Moving back in with the parents would be the ideal solution....unfortunately they are 250 miles away. I am also signed into a contract for a year yet so cant realistacally locate - it would end up costing me more to get out of the contract than it would be worth...

The problem is I cant see much room to cut down costs other than that - part time evenig work is somehting Im investigating but obviosuly I dotn want to let that effect my current job - im sure they wouldnt be impressed if they found out I was working after work...

Annie_Fanny

Surely it is none of your employers business if you are working an additional part time job? You have to face the facts - you need to increase your income.

amosworks

Hey Bazilbruss66, thanks for that.

Firstly Ouch! Your rent is high, what's your situation? What/where are you renting? Is it close to work? (Confused about the travel costs). Would you consider moving or sharing, that would effectively halve your biggest monthly outgoing?

Have you investigated reclaiming your bank charges yet? This applies to credit cards too BTW. That could be a nice sum to get you started, and may even wipe off a whole debt or two if you've been charged a lot over the years (definitely worth investigating!)

The biggest thing that strikes me is the number of payments left on all your debt appear to be practically the same, around 4 years remaining, except for your C1 card which is about 3 years off the top of my head, yet you have some £600pcm at least to eliminate your debt before you even think of cutting back which is good. Although you really should try and cut back a little and focus all that spare cash on to your debts. There's a method called "snowballing" which focus on paying off debts with the highest APR however there's a much better method called CAM, in which you focus on the debt that has the least number of repayments remaining and you grow an accellerator margin as each debt is consumed, this usually works out to repay debt quicker.

According to the snowball calculator you can be debt free in 30 months or 25 using CAM so the difference isn't huge as your debts are actually quite small compared to a lot of people, so I'd say go with what the snowball says. You should easily be debt free in about 2.5 years without the need for any DMP, assuming £600pcm to repay your debt. The more cut backs you make, the quicker you get debt free by an order of magnitude, smaller cutbacks earlier are usually better than bigger cutbacks later.

Now what were you saying about your debt being worse when written down? After just over 2 years you will not only be debt free, but doubtless on your way to saving for a deposit for a house and you'll be mortgage-free a lot quicker than all your friends for sure

amosworks

Sorry I spent ages doing snowball and CAM calculations and by the time I replied the rent thing has already been mentioned

Annie_Fanny

Amosworks - what is CAM? Have never heard of it? Do you have a link?

amosworks

Cumulative Accelerator Margins, it's a system for getting out of debt that's extremely quick and easy (doesn't require continual adjustments to your S/O's every few months lol), and pretty much guarantees that anyone can get out of debt in under 5 years regardless of how much debt they actually have (I kid you not).

You should read a book called Transforming Debt in to Wealth by John Cummuta. Some others on the forum also worship at the shrine of Cummuta

Edit: Forgot to mention that before I ever heard of snowballing I used CAM to get debt free and managed to pay off about 10k of debt in half the time snowball said when I checked it. The more debt you have, the quicker you can repay it

Basilbrush66

Yeah rent is high but thats London - I am sharing with mates already. I could realistically find somewhere cheaper but we are locked into our contract for another year so to get out of it would create another expense and the costs associated with new deposits, moving etc would be a false economy I think and end up costing me more than getting out - definately worth investigating when the contract is up for renewal next year though.

On the bank charges front I actually havent had too many - I have basically been moving money around to pay things on time - I have certainly had a few though and Ill definately investigate.

I have taken the plunge and sorted out some evenning work - this is probably going to be the toughest thing of the lot and the step Im probably most reluctant to take. Heading off to another not so glamorous evening job is not where I wanted to be at this stage but as you have pointed out I think its necessary - what the students there will make of me remains to be seen!

Thanks for the advice - I REALLY appreciate it. I think I might have made some hasty decisions without it.....I know feel at least a little bit more positive about this situation.

I think I may have some remaing questions after I follow up with a bit or research though

Emmzi

Welcome back any time. Let us know how the second job goes!

novice_money_saver_2

good luck BB - looks like you've made a lot of progress already :T