Help! I'm new and trying to reorganise my debts

mum2one

Hi

this is the link for snowball, you put each debt in as amount, the apr, and what the minimum payment is, then it gives you a choice, either pay off the highest apr or the one with the highest amount owing. (The highest apr goes quicker).

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

Its painless honeslty, and really makes a difference, what I did (b4 I took a consolidation loan out) was start of each month, set up the payments to come out at different times, didn't have to worry.

The other thing would say, is get a notebook each and for a week or 2, list everything that you buy, whether thats a £50 item of clothing, or a 30p chewing gum, gives you an idea where the money slips through the gaps. xx

dancingfairy

Another thought for you - that gas and electric seems quite high as well. I would definitely look at shopping around for that as well - don't forget you can go through a comparision site or probably Quidco when you have found the cheapest. If you really do use that much gas and electric you might need to trim it a little - lights off when not in the room and not needed, unplug t.v/laptop/computer etc wherever possible and don't leave on standby as some things use almost as much power on standby as on full, get low energy light bulbs where possible, check water heating temperature and turn down by a couple of degree is necessary, make sure you have the right amount of insulating, etc, etc oh and some companies give you little electric monitor things so you can work out the worst culprits that sap your electric.
The good news is that you have loads of potential areas to cut down on and should be able to get a decent dent into the debt.
Best of Luck
df

TrickyDicky

When is your AA due for renewal? I assume you have the most expensive package?

Have you tried looking at Auto-Aid? My re-quote is £37/year, and it includes home start, and overnight stays I think. But you do have to be able to pay for repairs up front and you re-claim the cost. Ive called them out for a home start and they had someone to me within an hour, refund came through about a week after I sent them the invoice.

dangerousdodo

mum2one wrote: »

Hi

this is the link for snowball, you put each debt in as amount, the apr, and what the minimum payment is, then it gives you a choice, either pay off the highest apr or the one with the highest amount owing. (The highest apr goes quicker).

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

Its painless honeslty, and really makes a difference, what I did (b4 I took a consolidation loan out) was start of each month, set up the payments to come out at different times, didn't have to worry.

The other thing would say, is get a notebook each and for a week or 2, list everything that you buy, whether thats a £50 item of clothing, or a 30p chewing gum, gives you an idea where the money slips through the gaps. xx

THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU
I have checked the site out and it is excellant :TI have started running some scenarios on the repayment. I can see that with better budgeting mixed in with discipline I can cut this debt down in a few years.
When I started this exercise I thought that consolidating the debt would solve my problems , but I can see I missed the point it needs to be changing of lifestyle and repaying the credit cards with the surplus.

I also take you're point on keeping records particularly on the food shop , I can check the spend and review any uneccessary spending as well as looking for where I can get purchases cheaper.

YOU GUYS ARE BRILL THANKYOU!!!
:A

mum2one

dangerousdodo wrote: »

THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU
I have checked the site out and it is excellant :TI have started running some scenarios on the repayment. I can see that with better budgeting mixed in with discipline I can cut this debt down in a few years.
When I started this exercise I thought that consolidating the debt would solve my problems , but I can see I missed the point it needs to be changing of lifestyle and repaying the credit cards with the surplus.

I also take you're point on keeping records particularly on the food shop , I can check the spend and review any uneccessary spending as well as looking for where I can get purchases cheaper.

YOU GUYS ARE BRILL THANKYOU!!!
:A

I'm sure I speak for us all, one reason and another we've all been in/still in the financial do-do, and as others had said, some cuts can painless and you won't notice the difference.

You've come to the most important part - the lightbulb moment - (I need to do something about the debt), but you've also gone a lot further by realising how it happened and how to rectify it, that the biggest step to take, as me included (I'm on my 3rd lightbulb moment!), but this time I know why I want to be debt free, thats the difference between the failed attempts and now

Gd idea re records, may seem mad and sometimes pointless, as if to say its only 50p for packet sweets, but 10 packets sweets £5.00, 100 packets £50.00, times that be a few items and it soon mounts up.

Your going brilliantly, def agree throwing different amounts in snowball, what I did was put the minimum that I reckoned I could pay and any extra I had I threw it at the biggest apr,even if it was a couple of quid was worth it.

The other thing, look for an incentive, so you have a goal, I have two, 1st if I pay £5k off in a year (my snowball est was 3k), my friends taking me to Ritz Hotel for afternoon tea for our 40th bday, (we were born 5 days apart). My 2nd - I want to go to Las Vegas, but I will be debt free.

xx