Please help, now i've owned up to the Debt i have!

miss_corerupted

you have forgotton to put in council tax and water on your SOA these will make a differnce,

theoretica

Looking at your SOA you should have £740 left over every month (£500 more than is shown because of the annual figures for the car). If you cut down on groceries and entertainment this should be more. So your first and biggest challenge is probably to find this money- it is probably getting frittered away. Look through past bank statements or keep a spending diary to see where your money has really gone and stick to your budget. If you cut entertainment to under £50 a month and put £800 a month to your debt and then savings you could be completely debt free in just over a year and have plenty of savings for a wedding with no worries the year after. If you want to spend more on entertainment/new computers/oddments then sell what you have on ebay or otherwise fund it from extra money.

LexieLou

Hi Lisa,

Welcome to the forum and good luck along your journey. I started mine over Christmas and it's come about cos I want to have more kids and with debt like mine I couldn't afford a nappy for a baby let alone a baby plus gear!

I've started ebaying, it's addictive and it's good.

I've sold pretty much anything I have that I'm not using or have never used. Those clothes you mentioned with the tags, will you honestly ever wear them? if not sell them!!

Do you have perfume that you aren't using, haven't opened? Sell it asap!!

I had a target to reduce my OD by £700 by 18th April. By the end of this month, i'll (hopefully) have it done! Still a long long way to go but I want the end result.

And do you have any old mobile phones lying about? Sell them, I googled recycling mobile phones and went from there, but there is advice on forum on this subject too.

Postpone your wedding for a year, what's one year compared to another year of debt? You both live together and are happy, so you can wait another year.

Use the snowball calculator, some of the pros on here will hopefully post the link. I used it for my CC (credit cards) by paying an extra £12 a month, I will reduce paying my debt from 217 mths (yes two hundred and seventeen months) to 44 mths!!

Spend time searching the forum, subscribe to a few diaries and stay positive. Some days you are down, some you are buzzing...but we are all here for you.

I'll pop in and say hi and see how you are.

Keep your head up hun.

LL xx

richardvc

Well done Lisa - you have taken the hardest step. It will only get better from now on !!

The usual experts will pour over your SOA and find places to reduce it without too much sacrifice.

I too think your fiance is right saying you should postpone your wedding. Why ? Wouldn't it be better to start married life debt-free or even with a small nest egg already saved ?

That way you both go in equally and have a savvy knowledge of home finance.

niccatw

Can't sleep, can hear neighbours telly, aaargghhh! Here's the link LexieLou was talking about it, have a play about with it. And do what most of us do - see the potential debt free date as a challenge and work to reduce it http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

Sorry, too tired to be more coherent right now, but hope it's going ok and I'll pop back once I'm fully refreshed

miss_corerupted

a spending diary is a good suggestion, you want belive how all those minor puchases add up!!

LexieLou

Hi Lisa,

How are you today hun? I've done my PAD, for me it's only a £1 a day, but still helps.

Keep up with all the info everyone is giving you...you'll get there in the end.

LL xx

Lisa1978

hi everyone, thanks very much for the advice again.
To answer a few qus above from i've been last on :
I had someone around interested in my house to let and i currently get £415/month for it, i've advertised it at £460/month and he hasn't questioned it , so hopefully if i could get the £460 and the mortgage is £430. The problem is that i have been paying the rates for the other tenant and should really do the same for this tenant as the house isn't worth £500/month to him. Either way i guess it will only cost me at the most £15/month to keep the house. I can't sell, its repayment mortgage at £96k, only valued at £100k, no point selling. Think be better keeping for a few years???

I live in N.Ireland, we don't pay council tax and water - i know, lucky

I have started a spending diary, thanks and also for the link

Also, on the brightside, we have brought our wedding forward to this year instead of next. Im sure your wondering how i coud do this when couldn't afford it next year, but going to marry at home and it's costing £4k as opposed to £9k. My parents, after telling them about my debt on Tuesday, are so concerend that they said if i married this year in hotel near home (deal on to get married, feed 4 course meal to 100guests, overnight stay in wedding suite, hire cake/knife stand/red carpet arrival etc all for £1k!!!), they have offered to pay for 1/2 of it as my they would rather i got out of debt... its worked out well as instead of 25 going to cyrpus theres now 100 going at home all for less that 1/2 price :)

xxx

LexieLou

Hi,

You sound really positive, that's brilliant. I live in NI too and also lived in England as well. We pay rates here which is similar to the CTax in England, also be careful about your water rates, that might come thru soon so just keep it in mind when working out your bills as you mightn't budget for it. You know what I mean.

I don't meant to sound horrible, but because you can see light at the end of the tunnel, don't get lazy and not do your spending diary and SOA etc, they are all so crucial to making you become a debt free lady....

Have you seen the thread about a payment in 100 days? It's finishing on the 18th April, it's not 100 days for you now, but still a good few days to get a good go at something.

Take care hun and I'm looking forward to hearing all about your wedding plans.

LL xx

RAS

Lisa1978 wrote: »

I had someone around interested in my house to let and i currently get £415/month for it, i've advertised it at £460/month and he hasn't questioned it , so hopefully if i could get the £460 and the mortgage is £430. The problem is that i have been paying the rates for the other tenant and should really do the same for this tenant as the house isn't worth £500/month to him. Either way i guess it will only cost me at the most £15/month to keep the house. I can't sell, its repayment mortgage at £96k, only valued at £100k, no point selling. Think be better keeping for a few years???

Firstly, go interest only for a while because you are borrowing the money to make the repayments at 17.9%.

Secondly, although you are not making any profit, you need to let the Inland Revenue know what you are doing. You may actually be able to accrue a tax loss now that you can set off against any profit in future years.

Finally, tenants expect to pay the rates. Just inform the council what he is called and they will send the bills.

Have you asked for a deposit and inventory? if not, please go over to the renting forum here and learn how to sort things out, as you are very vunerable to a professional tenant who refuses to pay, cannot be got out and wrecks the house and can still sue you for things you did wrong.