Newbie to MSE - looking for support and advice. Please tell me all is not lost!!!

claire03

Hi there,

I'm new to MSE as the title says and looking for information and advice on how to improve my financial situation and get out of debt and end up with a little money in the bank for a rainy day.

My situation is pretty bad at the moment - I'm about 15k in debt at the age of 27, live with my husband and 3 children and work 3 days a week earning about £8k a year. My kids are all under 7 which makes doing extra work difficult.

My aim is to pay this debt within 10 years and start saving, but I would like to go to University at some point to train towards a career in social work - meaning a much better salary coming in. Not sure how to do this...

My aims for the moment are to reduce the amount I'm spending and increase the amount I'm earning. I want to pay what I can off my bills from these savings. I'm planning on selling a few things (junk around the house etc and am growing some plants from seed to sell later in the year at car boots etc).

I'm finding it all pretty scary at the moment as all my debts.. (yes all of them!) are in arrears and I'm getting some pretty nasty correspondence. Up until now my head has been firmly buried in the sand. :eek:

Any advice on how to increase incomings and decrease outgoings would be great - and again any support to help me to achieve this would be wonderful.

Scary times ahead me thinks.. thanks for reading my ramble! :rotfl:

sillyrabbit

First thing is to say WELL DONE on taking the first step of coming on here and wanting to sort it all out! Secondly, go to https://www.makesenseofcards.com and complete a statement of affairs (referred to as SOA on here) then post the results back here. People will comment on it for you to try and help you cut your outgoings, lower your bills etc etc

Not sure what to advise about the arrears but I know others will be along to give you lots of helpful information!

Tixy

Hi Claire and welcome to the board

The first step (as sillyrabbit says) is to write out a detailed statement of affairs- which is effectively a detailed monthly budget to see what you are spending at the moment and what your debts are. If you use the link provided above its an easy to read format and reminds you to include expenses you might otherwise forget about. It takes some time to get it right but is worthwhile.

Once we have seen that we should be able to offer all sorts of money saving advice.

Regarding your arrears - are you in arrears on any priority debts such as mortgage/rent, council tax, gas & elec. If so these need to be tackled first before any unsecured debts.