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Newbie here. Love the boards; hate my debts.

Hi

I'm new. Although I am actually a newly registered poster, I have been lurking for about 8 months. I will post my SOA later this evening or tomorrow (read as once I've completed it). I am a yound single mother on a low income, private renting, trying to complete a degree. My main debts are:

a car HP agreement £110 a month, settlement of £3380

credit card debt £270, paying off £85 a month

student loan £1400?

overdraft £600

council tax - not very much but it's gone to final notice and summons to court letters etc. (but don't panic- I've called off the court action by agreeing minimum payments...)

Details such as interest rates, income, spending etc. to follow...

My main aim is to find a way to make my credit card and car payments less crippling (sp?) and to get them paid off the quickest way too.

Thanks for reading and I'm grateful for and appreciate any advice. We're in it together guys! So, although my debt seriously, horribly gets me down (cry everyday), I am sure I can get it under control...
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Comments

  • Just wanted to say well done for posting and it does get better. I am still in early stages and am feeling better each day. Good luck and someone with bit more knowledge than me will be along soon and give you good advice.
    DFW NERD 276: Proud to be dealing with my debts.
    Champagne taste and lemonade money!!! ;)
    Light bulb moment May 8th 2006
  • shopsalot
    shopsalot Posts: 154 Forumite
    I'm a newbie too - done so much re-jigging lately!

    Nothing seems as bad when you share it - give us the deail later and we will see what help we can offer!
    DFW Nerd 156 :hello:
    April Grocery Challenge £31.38/£200
  • kwisstan
    kwisstan Posts: 44 Forumite
    welcome to the boards. Hope you can post the SOA (see Southern Scousers sticky) and we should hopefully have some advice and help!
    £2 savers club = £52 - spending money for holiday
  • Thanks for the encouragement. I'm just having a nosey around the boards now that I can post! Will battle on with SOA too. (hmmn, anyone else thinking "procastinator"? lol)
  • My income/outgoings are variable so I've muddled this together:

    debts:
    £146.11 council tax arears, includes £68.11 arrears from last year
    £2553.20 credit card, £6500 limit(statement says interest at 1.240% per month- is that what I'm supposed to look for?:o )
    £201.67 overdrawn, £800 limit (not sure what the interest rate is but usually pay between £3-£1 per month
    £110 per month HP car, 37 months remaining, settlement would be £3380, (19%APR and interest rate 8.5%- I soo don't understand this, someone please explain)

    I made a spreadsheet with as many outgoings on as possible, I'm a receipt horder and notebook maker so it wasn't that bad BUT it is bad and embarrasing really so I've lumped stuff together:

    £495 rent
    £60 gas & electric (direct debits)
    £90 credit card (minimum payment by direct debit and I throw the occasional quid at it...)
    £110 car HP, as above
    £9.83 Home insurance (last month of this though coz I've already bought next years as lump sum, through quidco with cashback- see I'ma learnin')
    £39 Council Tax
    £33.8 SF loan repayment
    £33.14 Car insurance
    £21 approx phone line, p&g mobile for texts, and calls inc.
    £60 approx petrol
    £240 approx food and household stuff
    £130 approx childcare, it's more during holidays, reduced it to nothing this week by working at night- hence the random time of posting, but it'll be £90 next week... :(
    £7.99 dvd rental- no TV so I have this instead, have used up free trials

    £1329.76 TOTAL so far

    other expenses this month will be:
    £44.50 MOT test, expecting to pass
    £110 or £60 road tax
    £??!?!?!?!? school holiday entertainment
    £30-ish new shoes & clothes for mini-me
    £50 council tax agreed amount to pay off arrears, reducing to £11 next month

    £1564.26 SHOCKING OMGZ TOTAL


    income:

    £1370 expected for this month, average is £1300, last month I cried..

    income includes self-employed earnings, child benefit, child tax credit, working tax credit, housing benefit and child maintenance jokes. (I haven't spilt it up for fear of being vilified- posted for help about council tax on a board before and got cut to shreds for claiming benefits...)


    savings for christmas presents and Nov birthday and maybe a weekend at the beach this summer hol: £181.51

    savings in 'penny jar': a little over £80

    friend's loan that I'm not expected to pay back until I can: £500

    So, this month adds up ok. Looking at it I can see that I should try to make reductions on the food & household expenses. Apart from that, any ideas? I really want to shake off the credit card debt...
  • cookie9
    cookie9 Posts: 764 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker
    Use the money in your penny jar to pay off part of your credit card debt. This will help reduce the amount of interest you are having to pay. You could have your children count the money up for you and place it in bags keeping them busy and thus kiling two birds with one stone.

    Look to reduce your food bill by picking up tips from the OS board. Why not use up everything in your freezer and cupboards for a month. The money saved can be use to repay your debt.
    MFW 91 op 2014 £410/1000
    MFW 91 op 2015 £4051/4000
    MFW 91 op 2016 £4040/4000
    MFW 91 op 2017 £812/4500
  • dlb
    dlb Posts: 2,488 Forumite
    Just afew ideas for FREE entertainment for the kids in the holidays! ( i have 4 of the sweethearts!!!)

    1- I have given them all the old cataloges that they keep sending me even though i dont use them anymore, to cut up and make pictures with.

    2- Started making xmas gifts- early i know but kids got quite excited about this one- they helped me make lists and started decorating boxes to make up hampers with all the freebies iv been getting.

    3- Design a board game competion.

    4- Pack up a picnic ( using only what you have in) and go down the park with a footy ect. Can Kill hours of time and they are so tired they drop to sleep early!

    Good luck, im a newbie posted too, although i have been reading the posts for some time now, im finding it all quite exciting changing the way i do things.
    But im sure we can all reach our goal with everyones help on here!!
    Proud to be DEBT FREE AT LAST
  • Gemmzie
    Gemmzie Posts: 14,876 Forumite
    Also, you should be paying a TV license, as I assume you watch your DVDs. Be careful, a friend of mine got a massive fine out of nowhere over this
    No longer using this account for new posts from 2013
  • Graham_Devon
    Graham_Devon Posts: 58,560 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Gemmzie wrote:
    Also, you should be paying a TV license, as I assume you watch your DVDs. Be careful, a friend of mine got a massive fine out of nowhere over this

    Probably watches the DVD's on the PC. As long as the PC does not have a TV card in, it should be ok.

    It's why the beeb were looking into implementing a PC licence a couple of years ago, but it never materialised. (They said at the time it was because if you had no TV but had the internet, you could use their website....then they figured that the whole world could look at the website, and they can't make the whole pay a PC licence just because of one single website!)
  • Gemmzie
    Gemmzie Posts: 14,876 Forumite
    Possibly. My friend had a portable DVD player and laptop (no TV card) when she got fined.

    The whole thing should be scraped!
    No longer using this account for new posts from 2013
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