Can I do it this time?

capoff

Well I'm back on the MSE forums because I need help. I have to admit that I am a shopaholic. I thought that was just a made up word but I now believe it's a disease. I managed to clear most of my debts but have started shopping again and can't seem to stop.

I keep my bills down to a minimum and get all the best deals but working in a city centre and having my cards on me and 'believing' I deserve new things because I've worked hard has meant me running up a massive debt on my credit card again.

So in my first step to getting this under control I have left my cards and cash (apart from £2) in the house to ensure no temptation. Although knowing my passwords for preregistered cards on places such as Amazon is not good.

Right here are the debts, I need to type them for all to see so I am open and honest about my situation:

Halifax Credit Card £4,638(24.5%apr)
Abbey Credit Card £7,200 (0% apr - transferred this from Halifax, it was the maximum limit they would give me)
Halifax overdraft - £1, 473 (17% apr)

Total: 13,311

OMG that is so awful seeing those figures in black and white The sad thing is I have a decent job and am bringing in a reasonable salary which would allow me to treat myself but I have got out of control and instead of using the extra cash to throw at the debts I continued spending so the debts haven't reduced at all.

As mentioned above I am happy with my current everyday bills so I'll just list my income and outgoings and maybe you can suggest how to deal with the overdraft and credit cards:

Wages Job 1: £1300 per month
Wages Job 2: £800 per month
Child Benefit: £138 per month

Total income: £2238

House outgoings including loan repayments: £1400

Disposable income (if I stopped spending it on clothes etc.) £838

I was thinking of paying the minimum on the 0% card and throwing as much as possible at the other two. I know the Halifax credit card has the highest APR BUT my overdraft is just too tempting to keep dipping in to so I was going to try and pay that off first and cut up the card - in fact I was going to cut up the card once I get home to ensure I never dip in to it again.

I feel so down at the moment, there are people struggling on here that don't have my disposable income and would probably do a hell of a lot better than I'm doing. I just can't believe I'm in this mess again. Just shows what can happen if you don't stay on these forums and get support.

Thank you so much for listening.

DVardysShadow

Suggest you do the Statement of Affairs to establish how much money you have to throw at debt. Then you use that info to do a snowball calculation to work out a debt free date and you put focus on the debt free date - monitoring your progress and trying to make it earlier.

Might help you to focus to have a debt free date as a target - and if you keep monitoring, you can see if spends start putting your debt free day back.

capoff

Where is the snowball calculator located?

Ta