Credit card debt problems - need help & advice!!!

desperadoV2

CLAPTON wrote:

how much is your 5% deposit??

Its £8,000/- I have set aside £2,000 for all mortgage related expenses.

CLAPTON wrote:

without knowing your full details its impossible to say whether it makes financial sense to even consider buying a property now (will you be buying with OH, what will the total mortgage/Council Tax/Water/Utility bills, insurances etc) be compared with your current situation.

I will be buying on my own.

The following are my SOA (AS IS):

My Income: £1,800
OH Income: £0 (Looking for job)
Overtime & Part-time Job: £200 - £500

£500 - rent
£100 - council tax
£300 - food
£200 - entertainment
£200 - minimum payment on cards
£ 20 - water tax
£ 30 - electricity bill
£ 60 - health insurance
£ 60 - server host
£ 40 - broadband
£ 50 - 3 mobile (wife's)
£ 50 - orange mobile (mine new)
£ 50 - vodaphone mobile (mine old)
£ 80 - onetel landline phone
£ 20 - accidental insurance
£ 10 - crictical insurance

=====
£1,770
=====

The real boost to my income comes from my overtime & part-time work. I earn £200/- (guarnateed) minimum a month and on a good month it can go upto £900/- a month. All based on project work I get.

Also I save some amount on food & entertainment. I just leave these money on my current account.

CLAPTON wrote:

usually owning a property works out more expensive than expected.

That's one of my fear and that's why my wife is also looking for job.

I expect the following increase:

Mortgage - £850/- (additional £350/-)
LifeInsurance - £20/-
Car Petrol - £75/-
Household Insurance - £25/-

This adds £470 to my total current outgoings of £1,770/- makes it £2,240/- and I have lost my will to live

Where can I cut my expenses and how can I cut my expenses? I'm locked in mobile phone contracts for two companies. I can cancel one of them. Remaining, I'm locked until early 2007.

In the future I'm going to go for Pay-As-You-Go. Its much much cheaper.

any advice or suggestions please.

When I was single, I was reckless and was spending! spending! spending! and I could have saved a lot at that time. But when I realise my faults, its too late to save because now I'm married and its two people instead of one.

So little margin for saving unless my wife starts to work. I'm so crossed with myself. I've been so stupid.

chevalier

Hi there
I would suggest that £300 for two people for food is way too much. I don't spend that on 2 adults 2 children and 2 cats! You could halve that easily and still eat well. If you go to the old style board, then there are plenty of tips on eating well etc.

I would also suggest that you don't go out for a while £200 for that is way to much. If you didn't go out as much between now and Xmas then you would £1000 extra. And if the reason is your are taking out your other half then suggest she tries harder to get a job to pay for it...:rolleyes:

Another essential step is to start a spending diary. Do that for a couple of weeks then total up all the odds and ends. You will be surprised how much can be frittered away on that 'essential' coffee/news paper/ danish/ lunch for later etc!

Why do you need a server host at £60?

Best of luck
chev

tomstickland

£ 60 - server host
£ 40 - broadband
£ 50 - 3 mobile (wife's)
£ 50 - orange mobile (mine new)
£ 50 - vodaphone mobile (mine old)
£ 80 - onetel landline phone

That better be one hell of a broadband connection.
Waaay too much money on mobiles there.
Money saving expert is not about stopping things, but about maximising efficiency.

Bloke_with_a_simple_life

OUch.... those phone bills seem out of control... I'm always amazed how people spend so much money talking to one another... why not wait till you get home at night and have a good chat??!!!


There are lots of ways to cut back this £300+ monthly bill - its not difficult, e.g:
- why have you got 2 mobile phones?!
- do you not get better rates if you and your wife go on to the same supplier?
- get a combined "land line and internet" package - and maybe a mobile one too?

Without this £300 bill, you may not need the 2nd job,

Get some advice from this link:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1095003038,99872,

How much food do you eat? Take a look at your diet and what you buy/cook... do you mostly buy pre-packaged/takeaways etc? Another easy way to re-adjust and save some money quickly!

C'mon . . . make those changes quickly!

desperadoV2

Hi all, thanks for your response. Its very much appreciated.

chevalier wrote:

I would suggest that £300 for two people for food is way too much. I don't spend that on 2 adults 2 children and 2 cats! You could halve that easily and still eat well. If you go to the old style board, then there are plenty of tips on eating well etc.

I have put £300 as a approximate figure. I don't know the actual amount we spend on food. I'm going to start my daily expenses diary and sort this out.

chevalier wrote:

I would also suggest that you don't go out for a while £200 for that is way to much. If you didn't go out as much between now and Xmas then you would £1000 extra. And if the reason is your are taking out your other half then suggest she tries harder to get a job to pay for it...:rolleyes:

We have kept aside £200 for entertainment expenses but we are cutting it down. We didn't spend last month and hopefully we wont spend this month as well.

chevalier wrote:

Why do you need a server host at £60?

Best of luck
chev

That's used for my extra income. I design & develop web applications using latest technologies during evening & weekends. My day job is also the same. The real boost to my income comes from working part-time, evening & weekends. So I need that hosting environment.

Thanks.

desperadoV2

tomstickland wrote:

That better be one hell of a broadband connection.
Waaay too much money on mobiles there.
Money saving expert is not about stopping things, but about maximising efficiency.

The broadband provider is basically robbing me. I have 10Mbps broadband connection and there are providers who charge only £17.99/- a month for 10Mbps.

I called up my broadband provider and threathen to cancel. They said they will give a special offer of £17.69/- a month for one year and told me the next direct debit will take £40/- but we will credit back half the amount. But it never happened.

I called up and they pretend as if that call never happened. Its basic cheating!!!

I'm calling them again today and sort this out once in for all.

Mobile phone providers are other big robbers!!! Last month my mobile phone bill shooted upto £160/- (vodaphone), £45/- (orange), £180/- one tel landline.

Vodaphone charged me £1/- (appx) a minute for setting a call divert to orange phone when my vodaphone mobile ran-out of battery.

One tel charged me £0.60p/- (appx) a minute for calling mobile phone from landline.

I'm putting an end to it all.

Cancelling my vodaphone. Don't need that anymore.
Looking for other providers for landline.
Strictly no calls from mobile other than emergency.
Switching to Pay-as-you-go after mobile contracts.

tomstickland

It's good to see you sorting this out.

seraphina

Speaking as someone who's been there, done that you need to get the idea of buying a house out of your mind for the near and medium term future. Wanting to buy a house was what promted DH and me to look at our finances, realise how much we had to pay off on CC's before we could begin to save for a deposit.

I really, really want a house. It seems like everyone around is jumping on the property ladder with dire warnings about how we're missing the boat. But until we have a clean slate and no debt it is a waste of our time and money even thinking about it. Sure, it's my long term goal, and it's what keeps me going when I get down about having no money each month, because it's all gone on CC repayments.

But if you think it's difficult trying to repay your CC's now, just wait until you have a house and a mortgage to meet every month. Trust me, you'll find loads of stuff that needs to be bought for the house, or the shower (or worse still, the boiler) will pack up and that needs to be fixed now, so yet again you find yourself making the minimum payment on your CCs.

My advice to you would be to batten down the hatches for a year. Concentrate on getting rid of your CC debt and getting your spending under control so you know you are in control of your day-to-day spending over the long term. I would use your savings to clear the CC debt, keeping aside maybe £1K-2K for an emergency fund. If you don't use it, then it can always go towards paying some of your deposit.

Respectfully, from what you have told us here, your wife needs to get a grip on the reality of finances.

desperadoV2

Bloke_with_a_simple_life wrote:

OUch.... those phone bills seem out of control... I'm always amazed how people spend so much money talking to one another... why not wait till you get home at night and have a good chat??!!!

Phone bills easily run out of control. I think its always some kinda emergency or knee jerk reaction which makes me use my mobile when I shouldn't

It needs discipline, courage & determination. I'm concentrating on just that and trying to save loads on phone bill.

Bloke_with_a_simple_life wrote:

There are lots of ways to cut back this £300+ monthly bill - its not difficult, e.g:
- why have you got 2 mobile phones?!
- do you not get better rates if you and your wife go on to the same supplier?
- get a combined "land line and internet" package - and maybe a mobile one too?

I just got two mobile because I thought there was a good deal from orange on latest model nokia. After buying and tied into contract I found its a crap phone which needs charging every 30mins and I'm paying way too much money on it and its 1 year locked.

Bloke_with_a_simple_life wrote:

Without this £300 bill, you may not need the 2nd job,

Get some advice from this link:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1095003038,99872,

How much food do you eat? Take a look at your diet and what you buy/cook... do you mostly buy pre-packaged/takeaways etc? Another easy way to re-adjust and save some money quickly!

C'mon . . . make those changes quickly!

I've started to take some serious steps now. Got my puk code and going to transfer my mobile no and cancel one mobile with immediate saving of £50/-

Fingers crossed and hope to achieve my target.

desperadoV2

seraphina wrote:

Speaking as someone who's been there, done that you need to get the idea of buying a house out of your mind for the near and medium term future. Wanting to buy a house was what promted DH and me to look at our finances, realise how much we had to pay off on CC's before we could begin to save for a deposit.

It is very true. The same reason has prompted me & my OH to start to seriously look into our finances.

seraphina wrote:

I really, really want a house. It seems like everyone around is jumping on the property ladder with dire warnings about how we're missing the boat.

Thinking about not being on a property ladder makes me really depressed. I had lots of very good oppurtunity to get on property ladder but I threw it all away. I could have made loads and loads of money but instead I'm on debt.

I want to move on and forget the past of not making money but I'm being punished constantly about my past which is totally unfair and very very hard on me.

hope I can sort these things out. I need courage & strength to do this and that's what I'm building myself.