New to debt management

emmington_2

Good evening Debt Free Wanabees,

As explained in the title I am quite new to debt management and so look to any of you experienced people out there for ideas and advice, firstly, a bit about me:-

I am not new to the site, think that I joined in 2008 but I don't have access to the internet very often and also kind of have been ignoring my debts. I just turned 25 a few weeks ago and it seems to have been a turning point for me. I am now bored of coasting along with my debts and want to attack them :rolleyes: I realise that it will be a long slog but am looking forward to seeing the results.

I've completed the calculator of my outgoings and wanted some advice from anyone really on how to tackle debts. I was thinking that I would pay the minimum on the 3 debts whilst attacking 1 of them with major payments and then moving on to the next debt. Does this sound like a good idea?

I know that there are issues with my outgoings at the moment i.e. parking £94.00 a month! This is a long story but basically I was told a load of !!!! and bull when I moved in that I could get a parking permit from the council for £25.00 a year which turned out to be very much not the case :mad: anyway, I plan to remedy this by moving out of my place in January when the contract expires and getting somewhere with FREE parking.

I also realise that my mobile phone bill is rediculous! I think mainly the charges are from ringing 0845 numbers to pay and sort out bills, they are crippling me. Anyway I found this website, say no to 0845 numbers and will be taking note of the non massively crippling phone numbers for the companies that I use and hopefully this will remedy the phone problem and revert me back to my standard £35 a month tarrif.

I don't pay any car insurance at the moment as I paid it all up front but the calculator thingy wouldn't let me continue without putting a figure in.

Unfortunately I am not in a position to get 0% credit cards as my credit history is in ruins :mad: but hopefully in the not too distant fututre that will not be the case.

Quite literally any advice on paying off the debts or cutting back on some of my spends is welcomed. I am open to all ideas :T

Thanks for listening guys :rolleyes:

Emmington.

Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 1750
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1750

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 50
Rent.................................... 600
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 83
Electricity............................. 12
Gas..................................... 12
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 2
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 60
TV Licence.............................. 23.75
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 100
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 50
Road tax................................ 5
Car Insurance........................... 30
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 94
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 7.59
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 2
Haircuts................................ 25
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1286.34


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 1500
Car(s).................................. 6000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 7500


Secured & HP Debts

Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 6000.....(50).......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 6000......-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit Card....................1250......30........18.9
Loan...........................2000......120.......29.9
Loan...........................1500......50........5.4
Total unsecured debts..........4750......200.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,750
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,286.34
Available for debt repayments........... 463.66
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 200
Amount left after debt repayments....... 263.66
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 7,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -6,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -4,750
Net Assets.............................. 2,750

di3004

Hi there,;)

Good luck with this and someone should be along soon to help you through this, all the best.;)

Di
X

emmington_2

thanks mate

Shoe_Gal

Good luck

Your SOA is very similar to mine but your debts are less than a quarter of mine :rolleyes: I wish l had acted when l was your age to sort myself out :mad:

wannabedebtfree_2

emmington wrote: »

Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 1750
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1750

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 50
Rent.................................... 600
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 83
Electricity............................. 12
Gas..................................... 12
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 2 Is this right?
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 60 Any better deals...this seems very high
TV Licence.............................. 23.75 This should only be about £13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 100
Clothing................................ 50 Can this be cut back for a while, until your debts are smaller?? I don't spend this much on 2 adults and 2 kids!
Petrol/diesel........................... 50
Road tax................................ 5
Car Insurance........................... 30
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 94 I know you said this is a major issue, but someone I know asked around people who had private drives and managed to get parking on an old ladies drive (who didn't have a car) for just £20 per month instead of the £50 they should have been paying!
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 7.59
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 2 This doesn't seem much....well done!
Haircuts................................ 25 This is too much.....waht you having done every month??!!
Entertainment........................... 50 Hmmmm....you know what I want to say!!!
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1286.34


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 1500
Car(s).................................. 6000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 7500


Secured & HP Debts

Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 6000.....(50).......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 6000......-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit Card....................1250......30........18.9
Loan...........................2000......120.......29.9
Loan...........................1500......50........5.4
Total unsecured debts..........4750......200.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,750
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,286.34
Available for debt repayments........... 463.66
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 200
Amount left after debt repayments....... 263.66
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 7,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -6,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -4,750
Net Assets.............................. 2,750

Well I think there are a few areas that you could cut back, at least until you are debt free........I'm sure others will give their opinion too!

emmington_2

Actually I don't pay any water - it is all included with the rent, but again the calculator thingy had to have a figure - forgot to mention - well spotted

The mobile is £35 a month standard with unlimited texts and 800 minutes which should be more than enough - but it's the 0845 numbers that are crippling me - i've managed to sort that out now so from next month it should revert back to just £35 PCM which is much better :T

I also thought that the TV licence was high - I will get onto them and see what's going on - THANKS

The clothing can be cut back with a massive grudge by me, I have an obsession with River Island and massively over priced shoes and a problem with impulse spending but I guess it's all for the greater good

The parking idea - BRILLIANT - getting onto google now to check and see whats about, never even thought of that, cheers :beer:

With the hair, I get it highlighted which is £70 every 3 months. I know this is expensive but I love getting my hair done and it just doesn't look as good with my natural colour. I did try to dye it myself to save a bit of money which turned into a complete nightmare, it turned orange and green :eek: so won't be doing that again.

I am lucky with the present thing as my parents live in a different country and my brother and I have agreed to not buy each other anything ever, as we are both pretty much in the same situation :rotfl:

And now to the entertainment, yes I do know what you are going to say but, as it used to be spent on pubs and clubs, I have strayed away from that now and instead have taken up a course with the open university, just to give me something to do and obviously to better myself. It is £40 PCM, I could cut back on it but otherwise I would just be sitting in doing nothing thinking about debts. I also signed up to play hockey with the local teams, it's only £4 a match and I can only make a couple a month due to shift work anyway. I know I could cut back on this but I kind of wanted something to do, which was fairly cheap, that keeps me from going insane looking at the 4 walls every day for years whilst the debt is paid off.... What do you think? Can I keep it?

Thanks :T

Shoe_Gal

I think you should keep it

ln the end it's up to you what you can sacrifice/how frugal you can be against how long the debts will take to pay off

I have accepted that l am in it for the long haul - and l still need to have a life :rolleyes: I still spend £40 a month on my nails, haven't really cured my need to buy shoes (I love RI shoes too ) and still have a couple of nights out a month

As l said - personal choice in the end :A

emmington_2

Thanks :T happy me I will keep it.

OMG £40 PCM on nails - I used to do that - then I bought this nail kit for £40 from Argos - it's brilliant and you get enough stuff to do your nails 10 times, including having them infilled - that's like 6 months of nail stuff for 40 quid!! It takes a couple of times to get them right but trust me they look better than having had them done professionally - it's brilliant.

And when you run out of stuff you can buy the supplies i.e. powder, varnish, nails etc from Argos for £20 - absolute bargain :D:D

tealady

Hi. I would put your debts into the snowballer to see which need to be cleared 1st.
Then make the minimum payments to all the others whilst throwing every spare penny at the 1st one.
Re internet. You can often use it for free at your local library (and its free to join!)
You can often rent DVD's so you could have friends round for a cheap cinema night in (or how about Orange Wednesdays?)
HTH

rethink

With regards to 0845 numbers I refuse to use them there is a site called saynoto0870 you type in the company name and it give you a local rate number which would be free if your using your inclusive minutes hope this helps a little

a x

Tixy

Whilst some areas of your spending could be reduced, as suggested by others, more important is where you are spending the surplus £263 each month. Unless you have been using this money to make additional debt repayments then you need to work out where it is going. The best way to do this is to keep a really detailed spending diary for a couple of months. keep a notebook in your bag and write down everything you spend, whether its 50p on a can of pop, £3 on a magazine or £50 on another pair of shoes. If you can cut down on where this money goes you could make some serious inroads into your debts.

Check if the loan with the high APR will allow overpayments, if so tartget that debt first, if not go for the credit card.

With regard to what you mentioned for your car insurance if you pay for this up front you will probably have had to increase your credit somewhere to pay for it. I'd suggest you open an instant savings account and transfer 1/12 of the cost of all items you don't pay each month (car ins, car tax, maintenace etc) then when you have to pay for these items you won't need to use an overdraft or credit card.

Do you have an overdraft currently? If so don't forget to include it in your list of debts.

Good luck.