All I want for Christmas is to be back in the black!

benjacksmum

Hi everybody, first time I've posted on this forum so apologies if something like this has been posted before.

Amongst all my other bits of debts, my single largest one has to be my overdraft, currently standing at £3154.59 in the red with a limit of £3850. The interest generally costs me around £25 per month and this has been the case for almost the past three years now and to be honest I am getting so tired of logging on to my current account and seeing red!!! I keep selling bits and bobs on Ebay and putting the results into savings accounts when I can but then feeling guilty that it isn't going towards my overdraft. I guess I feel that I've worked for it, it's our stuff I've sold so why should I pay off the bank with it who seem to be happy to keep me where I am so they get their interest money every month. On the flip side my overdraft obviously consists of money which I have spent which wasn't mine so should be paid back asap.

I remember saying (probably somewhat flippently) earlier this year that my main financial goal of 2006 was to get rid of the overdraft by Christmas and then use 2007 to work on my other debts. As per my usual (I annoy myself!!) I have left it to the last minute but I still want to do it.

My plan of action includes joining to Grocery Challenge on OldStyle, limiting myself to £200 per month to feed me, OH, two boys 3 and 6 and one dog. I have been reading the Ebay challenge and will probably step up a gear on that and put it towards the o/d.

I daredn't use what I have in the savings account (approx 1k) as our 140 year old house is developing cracks and buildings insurance think at the moment it could be subsidence, which if it is then the excess to repair it on my policy is £1k. So until the building surveyor comes out next Thursday to see if I have a valid claim or not I had better leave it where it is.

Can anybody else think of other 'money spinning' ideas to get rid of this headache of an overdraft.

Also, does anybody want to join me on my Overdraft Challenge?

Looking forward to hearing from everybody.

Ang xx

Gemmzie

Hi benjacksmum,

Well done for posting and you seem to have bits sorted already. If you post a SOA then I'm sure that the experts here can help lower your monthly outgoings to throw some more at the debts.

Throw the ebay money at it too, and have a look at Quidco and Pigsback - you might find some other ways to make a bit of cash.

Personally, I'd keep the £1k until you know for sure - go with your gut

x_raphael_xx

benjacksmum wrote:

Also, does anybody want to join me on my Overdraft Challenge?

Looking forward to hearing from everybody.

Ang xx

Hey Ang, I'd be interested in a challenge with you, I've been looking for someone to fight!
My overdraft is only £600, but I have 2 loans with HFC, £1149.54 & £2226.64 which totals to £3376.18 if you want to bring it on!

benjacksmum

Hi Raphael,

Would love to start the challenge with you. However, not sure now whether it will be to get rid of the overdraft or some ancient loans (all add to a similar amount to the overdraft) that have been dogging me for at least the past 6 years! OH wondered if it wouldn't be better to work at paying off the overdraft but when there is enough available balance, pay off one of these loans, his theory being that we are good at managing this overdraft but we have been in payment arrangements with these loans for years and surely continuing with these is doing more harm than having a big overdraft.

What do you think?

Also, how do you plan to rise to this little challenge? I'm thinking eBay, carboots (if I can brave the cold) and watching the grovery bill for starters.

benjacksmum

Gemmzie wrote:

Hi benjacksmum,

Well done for posting and you seem to have bits sorted already. If you post a SOA then I'm sure that the experts here can help lower your monthly outgoings to throw some more at the debts.

Hi Gemmzie,

Well my monthly SOA goes something like this.

Income
(We are self employed)
OH £1147.50
I take £637.50.
Child Tax Credit £800 although don't trust IR not to whip carpet out from under our feet - again!
Child Benefit £116

Expenditure
Mortgage (£62k ish) - Platform 8% £447
2nd Mortgage (17k ish) - Future 10% £188
Loan from OH's Dad to raise deposit for house £100 (finishes May next year)
Gas £40
Electricity £56
Council Tax £175 (fell behind so catching up)
Water Rates £37.10
British Telecom £42.00
Telewest Broadbnd £25.00
Camcorder - Wescot (cowboys this lot! probably standing at around £1800) £25 on arrangement
Coop Loan (2 loans roughly £1200 each) £50 on arrangement
Abbey Credit Card (Bal £1200ish) £25 on arrangement
Lexus Insurance 66.00
Renault Insurance 25.00
Life Insurance 25.90
House Insurance 30.00
TV Licence 11.00
Sky Digital 36.00
OH's Petrol 50.00
My Petrol 80.00
Shopping 200.00
Bank Charges 25.00


Of course there is also car tax, repairs etc but the OD gets hit for these everytime, just been lucky do far that there has been enough to cover it.

As mentioned to Raphael, OH wonders if I might now be better to get rid of my old loans from Abbey, Wescot and Coop rather than pay off the OD which is ongoing and has been kept well. All my old loans have been defaulted on in the past and are at least 7 years old.

What does everybpdy think?

Ang xx

x_raphael_xx

benjacksmum wrote:

Hi Raphael,

Would love to start the challenge with you. However, not sure now whether it will be to get rid of the overdraft or some ancient loans (all add to a similar amount to the overdraft) that have been dogging me for at least the past 6 years! OH wondered if it wouldn't be better to work at paying off the overdraft but when there is enough available balance, pay off one of these loans, his theory being that we are good at managing this overdraft but we have been in payment arrangements with these loans for years and surely continuing with these is doing more harm than having a big overdraft.

What do you think?

Also, how do you plan to rise to this little challenge? I'm thinking eBay, carboots (if I can brave the cold) and watching the grovery bill for starters.

Im leaving my overdraft till last, as its (and I bet yours) has got the lowest interest rate, so paying them off will not be as benificial. Also I know that when I pay off my HFC 1 loan it will feel so good, as Ive had the loan for more that 4 years.

How to raise the funds? Any which way I can!! I've got a pile of stuff clogging up the front room, ready to be photographed and stuck on eBay, and I sold my snake yesterday for £40.
And last month I challenged myself with grocery shopping for the 1st time, and I dropped my usual monthly bill from £120-£140 (excessive for just me and the dog) to £66.02!

So....

Ready...
Steady...
...
...
GO!:D

angelatgraceland

Hi-you must find out the interest rates of your loans. Im going to guess that you are paying a fortune for your camcorder. Maybe concentrate on this one-if you can get rid of one of them, you will then be able to pay more off of your overddraft. Do you realy need sky?? Can you get a better deal on broadband and phone calls? A bit here and a bit there is enough to make an additional payment off of a loan of maybe an extra £50 per month. If you realy want to get in the black I think you need to do some trimming on other things than your food bill. Whether OH hits a bill or not makes no difference-download the budget pleanner from this site and list absolutely everything. Then you will see what "trimming" you can do. If you have 50 things you pay out on each month and you could cut £2 from each of them, it would be £100. Now £2 on its own sounds nothing-keep up the good work you are already doing and keep a diary of what you are spending-this will highlight all sorts of little things you didnt realise were costing. You have taken the biggest step by coming on here. Good luck.

mr218

hi good luck with your challenge.
just a few observations from your SOA.

benjacksmum wrote:

Expenditure
Mortgage (£62k ish) - Platform 8% £447
2nd Mortgage (17k ish) - Future 10% £188

is there any way for you to remortgage to better rates or are you unable to negotiate better rates. maybe a free consultation with a IFA will give you a better indication.

benjacksmum wrote:

Loan from OH's Dad to raise deposit for house £100 (finishes May next year)

well that is good. another 100 to put towards to your other outgoings. is it possible to get some more of this loan cancelled as a christmas present, or is it too cheeky to ask.

obviously check if you can save by switching gas and electricity providers using Uswitch or other energy comparison sites.

benjacksmum wrote:

British Telecom £42.00
Telewest Broadbnd £25.00

that is a lot of money. why dont you move completely to telewest. i used to have the 4MB deal with telewest paying 25 pounds a month. unless you are downloading a lot of music and videos, 2MB is very good and you dont notice the difference. i recently switched to 2MB and combined with the tv,telephone and broadband, i am paying about 35 pounds before call charges. also generally telewest call charges are fairly competitive.

benjacksmum wrote:

Camcorder - Wescot (cowboys this lot! probably standing at around £1800) £25 on arrangement

can you get a final settlement figure or something like that. it is dreadful to pay so much for a camcorder.
also, if you are really keen on reducing your debts you should get rid of sky digital. as i said earlier, you can switch to telewest and get the basic tv package there. that would save you 432 pounds a year.


you should try the snowball calculator to figure out which loans to repay first.
psychologically, it is better to get rid of one loan after another is good as well. you obviously will finish the loan with your FIL in may. maybe try to finish off a couple of smaller loans by then as well. it will make a big dent on your outgoings.

obviously there are many choices for you to make and priorities to decide. good luck with it all. keep up your spirit and i am sure it will work out in the end if you keep at it.

lynzpower

hi there

One suggestion Ive got is do you have a seperate bank account for the mortgage & bills to go out of.

If you put in what covers them now, and then make some cuts every month there should be a surplus. That surplus can then be moved back to your current account and reduce the overdraft.

benjacksmum

Right Raphael - you're on. I'm gonna sell some junk this week - it's 5p listing day on Ebay so I'll get as much on as I can before then, might not be much but better than nothing.

Hi AngelatGraceland - The interest on all these loans has been frozen - the camcorder one being the real bone of contention in our house and yes, maybe that is the best one to get rid of before Christmas (if only to get rid of Wescot!!). The interest has already been added and the amount 'fixed'. We bought the camcorder in 1999 and it was then a top of the range digital one worth about £1500 with loads of gadgets with it. We obviously got that on finance and the deal was buy now, pay 9 months later only we didn't/couldn't pay in full so Wescot loaded a ludicrous amount of interest onto it bumping it up to about £2800 (1k paid off so far) Wescot keep contacting me to give me payment offers, i.e. if I pay £1500 today they'll settle at that. I suppose over the years I've been extremely stubborn and aggrieved to pay them such an inflated amount and have refused so far to give them anything more than their £20 per month, although truth is I could probably have afforded more than that all along, it's just my stubborn awkward nature they brought out in me!

Sky is our only luxury and is what keeps OH from moaning. To be fair he doesn't drink, doesn't 'go out to the pub with the lads' and is fairly easy going as long as he has his gogglebox. Fine by me but I probably could do with seeing if I can trim the package a little more. Maybe get rid of Sky Movies.

Also, I already have a very comprehensive Cashflow Forecast showing exactly where my money goes and how it will be spent during the coming year and lets me know to the penny what is in my bank account. Its the only thing that stops me going over the overdraft limit and I couldn't live without it now.

Mr218 - Re-negotiating a mortgage is definitely next on the cards but has to be put on hold until we get this suspected subsidence sorted. Surveyor comes out Thursday to see if we have a valid claim or not.
FIL is a little estranged now and we don't even now where he lives (long family story) but I feel obliged to keep this up and I will pay it off so we don't owe him anything then. Not sure we will even see him at Christmas but that is OH's choice.
I agree Broadband and telephone probably do cost too much and may benefit from being combined. We are currently on a 4MB service but I know they would drop it to 2MB and reduce the payment to £17, I don't know what they would do for the telephone as well. I would like to keep my number. Will look into this, thank you. We have tried Telewest TV before and neither of us were keen but that was 5 years ago, maybe it is worth considering again, will have a word with OH as the TV and all connected with it is his baby.
Will definitely try for a settlement figure with Wescot, would hurt far too much to pay everything back to them!

Lynzpower - Good idea but I only have one bank account and have been refused for new ones, probably due to my history and being self employed.

Thank you everybody for replying - this is really keeping me focused and giving me new ideas. Glad I came to this board.

Ang xx

x_raphael_xx

Rightyho Ang!

Ive made a head start already, I sold my snake for a £45 big ones, and I spotted the 5p listing too! So tomorrow I'll be pulling my house apart for things to sell :rotfl:

Changed my signature to include challenge