At my Wits end

wanttobedebtfreenatty

It is very hard for me at the moment like some of you. I am completely embraseed about not having any money at all. So here it goes being brave at the moment

Incoming £1735 and OH £934

Egg Card £7353 apr 15.9% my limit of this is £7150 I phoned then yesterday, and said that the plan they could do for me £185 a month for 6 months.

Barclaycard £700 limit on this £750 not behind of this but do pay £50 pounds a month have now cut the card up so it can't be used.

Mortgage is £700 but because there was a missing payment now £800 for 6 months.

Overdraft £2550 this comes down £150 a month arrangement with the bank
Loan £20,000 for wedding don't know APR at the moment £369 a month
Car Loan pay £295 a month ends in Nov 06
Gas is £8 per month
Elec is £30 a month (Have spoken to them to see if he can come down and it can't)
Council Tax £118 per month
House Phone £15.00 per month
Water £45 a quarter
SKy Plus £50.00 per month can't get rid of at moment still in contract
TV Lic £10.99
petrol £140 per month

Car Insurance £77.00 for both cars
Life Insurance £67.00


As you can see I am at my wits end I can't see any end to all of this, no money left over once we have been shopping.

I suppose I am lucky at least I haven't got too much behind on anything if at all. This is my lightbulb moment, just wish it was my OH aswell but he still has his head in the sand.

I have a few items on amazon which I am trying to sell, but nothing has come back yet.

Must get another job part-time for the evening just to get some cash in.

Thanks for listening even thou I still don't feel any better.

Wanttobedebtfreenatty

kar

Can you not downgrade to a cheeper sky package even if you can't canx. Phone them up and see what they offer you.

Do you NEED two cars? The reason i'm asking is that you haven't included running costs for the cars like MOT's Car Tax etc. which soon adds up over the year. Is there any way one of you could do without (say the other leave a bit early and drop them off on the way or something (i don't know what type of work you do and if this is possible but it's just an idea).

I would try uswitch.com to check if there is a different elec provider. They can't do a better deal so switch to someone who can. We recently switched and it was no effort at all - you just have to take your meter reading on a certain day and send it off (keeping a copy of course) and it's saving us a packet.

Also your water looks high. Are you on a meter? if not have you considered it?

Can i make a suggestion that you print off your post and give it to OH to read. Maybe if he sees in black and white both how much debt your in and how worried yuo are about it he will change his attitude towards the problem.

Well done for posting. I promise there is light at the end of the tunnel.

kar

Just done your summs and I make it that once everything listed above comes out you have 259.01 left for 'shopping'

Is you food bill really this much for just the two of you. Pop over to the OS board and have a go at reducing your shopping bill. LOADS of people on here do a grocery challenge and seem to be getting on really well with it.

Income 2669

Loan repayments and mortgage 1849

Other outgoings total 560.99

Leaving 259.01 for things not included

Broken_hearted

£20,000 for a wedding on credit ouch. Hope it was worth it. Petrol seems a bit high.

wanttobedebtfreenatty

Thanks Kar for the advice I will look into as for the cars, I work 25 miles away from my work and start at 7.30am, I have suggested going back to one car (His car was a gift from his Mum and Dad when they moved away) but as I have done aload of milage on my car I just wouldn't make any money on it.

The OH knows the amount we owe, have written out and shown him time and time again. Feels like I am fighting it all on my own so stressed out about it all, wish I could run away

Wizwoo

Welcome wanttobedebtfreenatty and well done for your post.
The cars do seem to be costing quite a bit (including the costs that you haven't included).

From my calculations you have a joint income of £2669 with outgoings here totalled at £2259.99 - but there seems to lots missing. What about groceries, home maintanance, home insurance etc. Martin has a budget planner it maybe useful to have a look at that to really see where your money's going.

Lots on here keep a money diary too - it really helps focus the mind.

Good luck and keep us posted.
x

Wizwoo

Oh wanttobedebtfreenatty - our posts crossed. Your OH has not yet faced up to things and had his lightbulb moment yet (unlike you). What I did was take all our outgoings (mentally) from our monthly pay then divide what's left into the number of days until next pay day (important that you include all your outgoings for this).

Ours worked out as £2.50 each per day - that really focused my OH.

Big hugs XX

nadnad

do you think you would be able to get a low life of balance transfer (or even better 0%) for your credit card cos that 15.9% is terrible alternatively did you ask egg if they can lower the apr cos your thinking of changing cards.

What APR is your Barclaycard? if its lower than the EGG you could ask if Barclaycard would raise your credit and transfer EGG to it (although I know its unlikely that they would raise your credit to £7k - but if you don't ask you don't get).

When does the £800 for mortgage come back down to £700?

Try and find out the APR for the wedding loan (ouch by the way!!) and how long have you left to pay this?

when does your sky contract end?

you haven't posted internet costs or other spurious costs.

you really should think harder about selling a car - even if yours has high miles on it well then sell it for whatever you can, but its the running costs and maintenance that you would no longer have to pay for that would make a difference. I assume your OH wouldn't want to sell his car as it was a gift - but maybe if it brought more money this would be the wise thing to do - needs must.

why don't you show OH this thread - maybe that'll snap him out of it, because the more this is ignored the worse it will be - however if you both get motivated now you'll clear your debt so much faster, and its not fair that you have to worry by yourself with no support.

Oh yeah the £259 left over - what exactly does that cover cos if its all food - its way too high, but I suppose its bits and pieces - however if you give yourself an exact budget for each area of your life eg food £30 per week, then you'll save more.

Also keep a spending diary so you know exactly what you are spending your money on - it'll shock you!!

Have you taken a look at the snowball calculator - http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx it'll show you which debts to pay off when and how much - it'll keep you right. And as I said try your best to lower those APRs - there was a guy on here yesterday who phoned his CC companys and switched things around a bit and in about an hour he had dropped how long it was going to take him to be debt free from 50 months to 41!!

littlejen_3

Hi, I had a barclaycard on 19.9% APR, I phoned them up and stated that I was thinking about transfering my balance for a better deal with another bank they reduced it to 14.9% straight away! It has to be worth a try! Also have you considered consolidating? It may not be the best option for you, you need to sit down and work it out some loans give you 6.5%, it would mean you could reduce your monthly payments and have a set debt free plan. If you have a bad credit rating it may be better to do it in your OH name if his is better?

Hope this helps

nadnad

no I don't think consolidating is the way to go - it'll cost you far more interest to do it that way - check out the snowball calculator it'll tell you how much more it would cost to consolidate.

you're not that badly off - at the current rates your paying you have £250 left over.

if you either sell your car now or even if you don't by November you'll have another £295 to go towards your debts and thats brilliant.

plus if you cut down in certain areas - like either cancel sky when you can you switch to a cheaper package, then you'll be debt free even sooner.

you said above about getting a part time job - tell your OH to get one as well - if you both did this then your debts will shrink incredibly.

i did a quick snowball for you - (i guessed at the APRs and I guessed you've paid a year off your wedding loan) just to get a rough clue - and it said your debt free date would be May 2009 - which isn't too bad at all - 3 years. It also said if you consolidated you would pay "For example, according to the figures you've just entered, you currently owe £32,073.00. If you consolidated that into your mortgage at, say 5.5% over 25 years, you'd end up paying £27,013.88 in interest. By snowballing correctly, you'd pay £5,089.00 "

do the snowball yourself with the correct figures (the aprs etc) or let us know what they are and you'll probably feel relieved to see a light at the end of the tunnel, I would really show this all to your OH to try and make him understand.

pozalina

I am sure you could get cheaper life insurance if you shop around. Mine is only £6 a month, although I am only 31 and don't smoke or drink.