newbie

hrhmjh

Hi all i have been a member but not posted before.As my signature states those are my debts.
Theres me ,my oh and 3 kids .Oh works full time i work everyday too in 2 different part time jobs.
Just never seem to be able to make ends meat.
My trouble started with credit card few years ago paid the balance off in full once then despite saying i wouldn't during period of no work raising young kids i did use it and then couldn',t make the payments every month.I was threatened with debt collectors and they told me i had to pay in full or they would take me to court.After getting info from the money saving expert board i contacted National debtline who sent me loads of info and i completed a soa and approoached Natwest with an offer off regular payment every month via standing order ,thakfully they accepted.
I just now live off my overdraft every month and as my oh and i never got a joint account he too has an overdraft.
We don't want to be like this so are trying desperately to get out of it.

pureaswhite

Well Done!! You have already taken a step in the right direction and you really will come out of it. There were loads of little things you can do to help you earn a bit of extra money. I'm sure you have already considered some of them but here goes anyway:

- Car boot sales - if you have children they grow out of toys and clothes fast so selling there old ones on Car boots sales always goes down well.
- Ebay for any old bits of furniture you have lying around. You'd be surprised what people will buy. When I first bought my house I had no furniture and no money so I bought stuff to make do on Ebay. (table and chairs for £25 for example).
- Ann Summer/Body shop/ Avon party organisor, fits really well around having children and usually if you can fit one or two in a week.
- mystery shopping - you can sign up online and do it in your own time. once you build up a good reputation with the company they give you the better paying jobs too.

Good Luck and I hope this helps

Tixy

Hi and welcome

A good place to start is to write out a statement of affairs (a monthly income & expenditure account) to work out how much you have coming in, what essentials you have to spend it on and then how much is left for debt repayments).
You can then look through each cost item and see if you can reduce the cost/tariff etc to see where savings can be made. If you are struggling to find savings then if you post the SoA up on here others may be able to come up with ideas. Here is the template we suggest - http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html
and hopefully between you and us we can come up with an action plan to reduce your debts.

Good luck