Help me to clear my CC debts

james2006

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1,430

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £300
Council Tax - £39
Gas - £20
Electric - £20.
TV License - £10
Phone - £55
Food - £300
Travel - £140

total £885


Egg - £5000 - (LIMIT £5k) 15.9%
Nationwide - £5000 (LIMIT £5500) 14.9%
Citi - £3000 (LIMIT £3k) 15.9%
Capital one - £1k - (LIMIT £1k) 15.9%
Mint - £1500 - (LIMIT £2k) 15.9%


and this month i payed approx £520 back to cc's!!


Overdraft £1k - Nationwide
and i was hoping to get a car soon too!!

jesus it's painful seeing it in print.

scholt

james2006 wrote:

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1,430

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £300
Council Tax - £39
Gas - £20
Electric - £20.
TV License - £10
Phone - £55
Food - £300
Travel - £140

total £885


Egg - £5000 - (LIMIT £5k) 15.9%
Nationwide - £5000 (LIMIT £5500) 14.9%
Citi - £3000 (LIMIT £3k) 15.9%
Capital one - £1k - (LIMIT £1k) 15.9%
Mint - £1500 - (LIMIT £2k) 15.9%


and this month i payed approx £520 back to cc's!!


Overdraft £1k - Nationwide
and i was hoping to get a car soon too!!

jesus it's painful seeing it in print.

how many are you feeding?

james2006

just myself.. is that alot?

lynzpower

certianly is! (Close your eyes regular posters) I feed me & OtherHalf ( aka OH) on about 100 a month including toiletries, packed lunches, and cleaning stuff. That includes a fair amount of organic and "finest"meat. BUt it means not buying anything that you wont use, no waste, being very savvy round the shops and meal planing is a bit part of that. Makig your own pizza for example will cost about 40p, whereas a bought cheese & tomato only one will be near on 1.50. Ive got a left over half from last night in the oven now for a snack

If you managed to get this down to 100 a month for you ( still twice the amount we are spending) then you have a spare 200 at your debts. I guess you could do it for even less, but small steps at a time I guess is best for some although IM an all or nothing person Have a look on the old style board, theres loads of info on feeding yourself for as cheap as possible, from growing your own lettuce, to the cheapest of meals and using up whats in your cupbards. ( i bet you have a fair bit in there )

Also your phone is expensive? Why dont you look into the talk talk plan with the line rental, free internet? Or have a look on the phones board. I bet with a bit of switching youd save money there too. Our phone bill ( just paid it ) was 44.01 for the quarter, with a free talk plan from Primus and theres 3 of us using the phone. We get our internet from tescos & get clubcard points.

If you are going to do any switching, check out https://www.quidco.com which is the best paying cash back site there is. If you go through uswtich you can get about 7-8 quid fror changing to a cheaper supplier, have a good read. And no, its not a scam :beer:

Without being nosy ( ok maybe I am ) what did ytou spend this credit on? If youve got anything ot sell, time to do so. Ive made hundreds on ebay recently from selling cds ( burned them first of course:D) books, you name it, if i dont use it its gone! And the proceeds chucked at the credit cards

NOt a bad start for you, you have a good salary, and with a bit of graft you will be able to do this- I know it

james2006

hey Lynz

appreciate the info and advice.. you dont know how much this is helping!!

anyway, my phone bill is a mobile bill... i could try and change the tariff, but i am about 2 weeks into another 12 month contract!!

with regards to the food... its definitely a priority to lower that, it basically goes on lunches at work...and takeaways.. but i know i can half that with a bit of effort.

basically a lot of the money went on building a recording studio.. which i thought would help me to get a record deal... i've slowly realised that i cant rely on that and am still trying to get a deal, but i realise i need to get my priorities right first.
and a real good clear out is also on the agenda, i hope to raise 800-1000 from getting rid of clothes and equipment.

lynzpower

Oh the phone @ £55 is contract? Do you not have a landline at home then?

Sorry I misunderstood there
I guess that you can wait till you are six months in then reduce your tarriff? Not instant, but worth doing I think.

lynzpower

have a good nose around on here as well theres loads of ideas for Decent lunches for work, we discuss it a fair bit here. Weve taken lunches daily now for a long while, and its just routine for us.

I had a barclaycard with an APR of 19% and a 550 maxed limit.
I bought lunches for approximately a fiver a day ( sometimes more)
If I stopped buying fiver lunches and saved that money alone, I would have paid off my b/card in 22 weeks.

However it didnt exactly stack up a sometimes I would be using the cards for buyin sandwiches with :eek:

scholt

Hi James

Do you, or could you rent the studio out some now it is built? Definately have to cut down on the grocery spending - Thats £10 a day!

james2006

scholt wrote:

Hi James

Do you, or could you rent the studio out some now it is built? Definately have to cut down on the grocery spending - Thats £10 a day!

that was the plan.. but its now in my house and its not soundproofed, so unfortunately at the moment its not viable to rent time out.. but its on the agenda for the future.

and no landline at my house.. i spend alot of time at my parents so there isnt a need for a landline at my place.

a

all_hours

Hi James,

You could phone round your credit cards and ask if they can give you a better rate of interest. Just say your reorganising your finances and are trying to get rid of the higher interest cards, but would really like to stay with ****. They can only say no.

When you've done this apply for a couple of low LOB or 0% card and transfer as much as you can off the cards with the higher interest. Martin's article on transfers has advice to help you work out which would be the best option.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1107182516,76509,

If you're rejected then leave it a while before trying again. If might be worth looking at your credit report and checking everything is correct before applying. I think you can sign up for a free 30 day trial through quidco or pigsback and earn rewards.

Look at the snowball calculator posted by scholt. Put in your existing repayments, then try adding an extra £200 a month - that you could save from your food bill/phone bill and put towards the debt - you'll see the debt free date leap forward and the amount of interest you end up paying go down. It's very motivational.