would really appreciate 2 minutes of your time folks....

dave318

1. Get rid of the Gym membership. Go running instead.
2. Phone seems a lot. Is this mobile or landline. If landline, get onto something like https://www.call1899.com and a carrier service with free evening and weekend calls. See Martins article about cheapest phone solutions.
3. Cleaning. Is this your house, or something like Dry cleaning. If you are paying someone else to do it, stop it. Yes it is hard work and you might not have the time.
4. Don't have the time to clean because of spending £145 per month socialising. Cut it down, even to £100. It will make a big difference.
5. Music, yeah we all like new stuff. But come on. You are on the internet, there are plenty of radio stations on here playing what you like, when you like. OR download from allofmp3.com. Really cheap, about $1.50 per album. Although they are looking in to the legalities of it all.
6. What you have saved so far, throw at your highest interest rated debt. ie MBNA, on top of your normal minimum payment, whilst still paying minimum payments to the rest of your debts. As soon as that is cleared, snowball that onto the next highest interest debt

It is not easy and will require some sacrifice, but it is all for the good in the long run.
Good Luck

CLAPTON

at first sight doesn't seem too bad to me as you have a decent income.

can you say something about your situation i.e. are you flat/house sharing or living on your own etc.

also post full details of debts..i.e. debt amount, minimum payment and APRs

for the student loans can you say how much you need to pay each month?

antpugh

Wow!! So many replies! first of all - thanks for all the feedback guys. I was expecting more feedback on actually dealing with paying off the debt and not on saving money! But I'm sure you are all right that I need to do both.

I should also tell you all that I am actually living out in Malaysia at the moment, which is why I have random things like £8 for satellite tv etc.! May sound all very glamorous, but it's the first time I have had a steady job where I can monitor my income and start paying off some debt.

Here is the adjusted info... 3rd time lucky!!!!.... thanks gain for any help folks

Monthly Income:

My salary - £1,883.33

Total - £1,883.33


Monthly Outgoings:

Rent - £333.33 (can’t change)
Electricity/Water - £36.23 (working from home at the moment)
Satellite TV - £7.97 (very basic package)
Phone - £30 (both mobile and landline)
Food - £145 (yes just for me)
Transport - £44 (taxi’s, buses and trains, don’t have a car here)
Clothes - £29 (averaged out over a year)
Cleaning - £29 (have a cleaner once a week)
Medical - £19.50 (put aside some money each month, have had loads of problems with my back recently through playing too much sport)
Contact Lenses - £13 (think that’s quite cheap to be honest)
Dentists - £15.65 (my practice just changed to paying per month, was scared of losing a dentist if I didn’t sign up)
Internet - £14.50 (need this for work)
National Insurance - £10 (registered as self employed before but am not anymore but they still take the money!)
Gym - £21.50 (really don’t wanna give this up as I use it loads)
Music - £15 (couple of CDs - I can manage with 1 then!)
Socialising - £145 (only £33 per week - is that really too much?!)

Total: £879.68

Income - outgoings = £1,883.33 - £879.68 = £1003.65

Debt:

Credit Cards:

Egg Card (limit £5000) - £2253.30, interest rate 15.9% variable - paying off as much as possible each month, this is the only credit card I currently use, so have been trying pay off whatever I spend each month
MBNA Sony Card (limit £2500) - £2457.33, interest 22.9% APR on £1710.99, 15.9% APR on £769.59 - last monthly payment £56.56
MBNA Virgin Card (limit £2500) - £2350.00, 0% interest until 24th Nov ’06, 15.9% afterwards - last monthly payment £5.00
Lloyds TSB Platinum Card (limit £5000) - £4481.02, 0% interest until 22nd Dec ’06, 14% APR afterwards - last monthly payment £92.00

Overdrafts:

Cahoot Overdraft (limit £1000) - £1003.99, 10.8% average interest per year, £8 interest per month but nearly always get £30.00 fine for being late (am setting upa standing order to rectify this as we speak, and alos going to start the small claims procedure to try and get these back).
Lloyds TSB Interest (limit £2500) - £1125.28, 18.44% average per year, last interest payment was £31.45

Loans:

Owe a friend £3650, no interest but pay off £200 per month
Student Loans Old Style (paid from salary) £3268.96, 2.4% interest per year, nothing currently paid
Student Loans New Style (paid direct debit but deferred at the moment) £5729.83, 2.4% interest per year, nothing currently paid

Total debt = £26,319.71 - (my god I didn’t think it would be that much!)

tyllwyd

I think you should look into the National Insurance thing - it is madness paying those NI contributions if you are no longer self-employed. Are you resident in Malaysia - do you even need to pay UK national insurance?

antpugh

no I am still a resident in the UK, I will look at getting it cancelled - thanks very much

lynzpower

How long do you envisage living in malaysia for

antpugh

will be here for at least 1 year, but maybe longer - it is up in the air at the moment. My work has taken me all over the place which is great but means that my speding and earning is never consistent, one of the reasons I'm sure I'm in so much trouble.

CLAPTON

the debts

the general principle of repaying debts is to pay the minimum payment on each debt except the one with the highest APR . on the one with the highest APR pay the maximum possible until its paid off . then apply the principle to the next debt with the highest APR (called snowballing).

there is a snowball calculator you can try out
http://www.whatsthecost.co.uk/snowball.aspx

if you are going to reclaim bank charges etc. you need to be prepared for them to either close the account or remove your overdraft facility...so that may influence which debts you tackle first.

as you're paying nothing to the student loans you can really hammer the other debts.

have you contacted the SLC to explain your situation and earnings to arrange payment?

lastly your surplus for debt repayment is shown as 1003 per month..in practice do you actually find you have that and do you in fact repay 1003 off your debt?
if you do then great.
if not i would suggest you start a spending diary and find out where all the money goes .. you have a real opportunity to pay of those debts without a lot of pain.

antpugh

thanks for the advice - I think that snowballing idea is great, will have a go with that calculator thing. And in answer to your question - no!!!! I never find I have anywheere neear £1000 to pay off debts with!!!!!!

Think I'd better start a diary - haven't got a clue where hal my money goes to be honest with you.

On the bright side I just phoned the Inland Revenue who have said that because I never started to work as self employed, they will refund ALL the National Income contributions I have been paying! Then they told me that's £160!! Thanks sooo much guys!

grown_up_girlie

No expert here but a bit of advice with the mobile phone: Switch to PAYG and prefferably go with O2. They have genie sim cards which offer cracking deals. I currently top up £10 a month and get the following:

• 300 free texts
• 10% credit back every 3 months
• 500 free minutes to any UK number every month (Cross network)
• Free local landline calls Friday - Monday
• 10% of all calls
• Free WAP access

The £10 top up I then use for whatever I like - that would be a great saving of £20 a month for you. (Sim cards are available for free from O2 just do a quick google search).

Hope that helps a bit with something.