Newby here

Mrs_Sparkle

Hi everyone from a newby, I've been lurking for a while reading your excellent success stories.

I am very ashamed to admit this but I have somehow found myself being 35 years old with debts of £24,850.24.

This consists of:

Egg loan £16,787.41
Egg card £4,792.62
M&S &More card £1,990
First Direct card £1,271.21

The only good thing is that I'm on an ok salary and I take home £2300 a month after tax. I have taken a few steps so far- I've got lots of stuff on eBay and I've registered with a few market research companies which I found on here so I can earn a bit of cash. The idea is to throw as much of my salary into paying off my debts as possible and use eBay and market research jobs to pad out what's left.

I know what my biggest problem is- shopping. I'm one of those people who can't come out of Tesco without having spent £80-90 (there is only my husband and myself in our household) and I love buying clothes and shoes. So the only thing I have to show for all my debts is a full wardrobe and shoe cupboard... which is really embarrassing.

Thanks for listening if you've reached this far. Hope to chat with you soon.

C

Sea78

Hi,

Welcome! Don't feel ashamed - lots of us in the same boat!

Why dont you post your SOA (see sticky thread at top for first time posters) and we'll see what you can do. Remember, at least you have plenty to sell on ebay!

Sea xxx

Mrs_Sparkle

Thank you!

OK, my SOA is:

Incomings:

Salary: £2311.36
From husband: £650

Total: £2961.36

(Hubby pays all household bills + car costs so I cover greater share of mortgage and all insurances)

Outgoings:

Mortgage £1555.30 (in process of remortgaging at the moment which will bring this down to £1400)
Mortgage protection £56.83 (we were made to do this due to 95% mortgage 2 years ago)
Life Insurance (x2) £22.55
Home & contents insurance £41.34
Cancer Research £5.00
Egg loan £399.25
Gym £36.95
Insurance for 2 cats £14.00
Monthly train ticket £120.00

Total: £2251.22

This is going to sound absolutely ridiculous but I've never totted this all up before- no wonder I'm sinking deeper into debt.

southernscouser

Sorry what is that £650 from your husband for?

If you remortgage will you still have to keep mortgage protection?

Mrs_Sparkle

Sorry, should have been clearer. The £650 is my husband's contribution to the mortgage.

No, I won't have to keep mortgage protection so that will save me £56.83 a month in addition to £150 on a cheaper mortgage.

Also I forgot to mention a couple of things which have an important impact financially- (1) I have a company mobile so don't pay bills and (2) I rarely pay for food at work and get free tea and coffee.

southernscouser

You still have around £700 a month to throw at the credit cards though which is excellent!

However if you find you don't have this at the end of the month then you need to start a spending diary to see where all those pennies are adding up and believe me they add up to a lot! :eek:

Sea78

How about things like birthdays, christmas, haircuts, clothes etc? Are you going to cut all these from your budget (I don't have haircuts but save £20 a month for birthdays and christmas). Does your OH pay for all food?

You can pay this off quite quickly given those figures! Have a look at https://www.whatsthecost.com and look at the snowballing section as this will give you a good idea on how quickly you can pay off the debt and what you can pay off most effectively.

Sea xx

Mrs_Sparkle

Thank you to both of you- my first encounters on this board and you've both been really positive. Hubby and I share food bills at home but since we cut out takeaways almost completely and have started making cheap soups and pasta bakes I'm finding I don't spend as much. Christmas I don't find a problem as I don't have many people to buy for... birthdays on the other hand are a nightmare. This month I have one wedding, one christening (my god-daughter's) and 2 close friends' birthdays... aaaargghhh!

Clothes should not be a problem but haircuts sadly are- I work in an area where personal presentation has to be spotless. I plan to cut costs as much as I can and cut out non-essentials like a magazine for the train journey or a bottle of wine during the week- at one stage hubby and I were drinking a bottle almost every night and when you work out the cost of that it's actually scary. So all that has to go obviously.

Thanks again for your helpful responses x x

lynzpower

Start a spending diary. Im not joking it is revolutionary! the fivers here and there, the odd tenner at the cash point, money was literally runnin gthrough my fingers.

If you have a diary, or a notebook, jot down literally every penny you spend a newspaper, chewing gum, popping into boots, whatever you do, write it down. It helps to slow down and stop, and look, whihc I found really helpful

Welcome
Lynz xx

southernscouser

lynzpower wrote:

Start a spending diary. Im not joking it is revolutionary! the fivers here and there, the odd tenner at the cash point, money was literally runnin gthrough my fingers.

If you have a diary, or a notebook, jot down literally every penny you spend a newspaper, chewing gum, popping into boots, whatever you do, write it down. It helps to slow down and stop, and look, whihc I found really helpful

Welcome
Lynz xx

When Lynz says "every penny you spend" we don't want to read about your toilet habits though!

Mrs_Sparkle

southernscouser wrote:

When Lynz says "every penny you spend" we don't want to read about your toilet habits though!

:rotfl: OK, I think I can remember that! Good advice Lynz, I do carry a notebook everywhere anyway so I will put that into practice rightaway.

Feel better already having spoken to you guys. Oh, and Sea that website you directed me to is great- I've done the snowball calculator and can see that I've been doing the wrong thing by getting consolidation loans all these years.