Grr Why Can't A Debt Management Company Help??

Emmzi

You also posted that you have rent of £200 a month.

So monthly (approx 4.5weeks)
rent..200
cigs.. 90
food..90
electric.. 22.50
lifts to work.. 45
house/ phones.. 90

total living = £538 ish
debt min payments =£264

Total outgoings = 802

This leaves approx £100 extra per month to throw at debt.

I reckon it'll take you 6 years to get debt free at that rate. Which you could halve if you cut back on beer, cigs and mobile.

What are your chances of increasing income?

It is also possible to set up your own debt management plan, without help. This website has useful advice.

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/debt_advice.php

lynzpower

Dave

Do a structured list as per southern scousers first time posters sticky like this

rent
electric
gas
and so on

Use martins budget planner at the top of the page to remind you of anything that you use.

dave23ni

Emmzi wrote:

You also posted that you have rent of £200 a month.

So monthly (approx 4.5weeks)
rent..200
cigs.. 90
food..90
electric.. 22.50
lifts to work.. 45
house/ phones.. 90

total living = £538 ish
debt min payments =£264

Total outgoings = 802

This leaves approx £100 extra per month to throw at debt.

I reckon it'll take you 6 years to get debt free at that rate. Which you could halve if you cut back on beer, cigs and mobile.

What are your chances of increasing income?

It is also possible to set up your own debt management plan, without help. This website has useful advice.

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/debt_advice.php

God my wee drink at the weekend is the only thing that keeps me sain with this debt..

dave23ni

lynzpower wrote:

Dave

Do a structured list as per southern scousers first time posters sticky like this

rent
electric
gas
and so on

Use martins budget planner at the top of the page to remind you of anything that you use.

I'll have to have a read and post back later

lynzpower

cool, thats probably best Dave. As we dont want to be giving you advice based on half the info

ONe piece of advice I would give right now is start a spending diary right now, an old notepad will do. Write down everything youve spent today, and what on, and the date and write down everything from here on in. It will help you gain control over whats going out, you will now KNOW where the money goes.

Hang tight, dont panic

Anwen_2

All this 'one monthly payment' is all very well and so on, but it's not really that much more complicated to pay by direct debit. If you're snowballing then just set up all your cards to take the minimum payment by DD and ask nicely if they could maybe amend the statement date so the DD would go just after payday (if monthly) so that the money will definitely be there. Then either manually pay the snowball amount as soon as those have gone (so as not to accidentally spend the money first...) or set up a standing order to whichever card you're snowballing to for the amount (though this will go up a little bit each month).

The best advice I've had with money is to make it automatic as much as possible, and to ensure that the unavoidables go as soon after payday as possible. That way, whatever's left I don't have to worry too much about.

kuohu

Whilst the OP is working out his SOA, I'd like to comment on the original point about managing payments and joining a management company to make them into one "easy to manage" payment.

I have about 16 direct debits per month and all these go out of a different bank account to the one that my wages go into. So, in effect I do make one payment every month from my main bank account to my bills bank account. No need to pay any management company a fee to do this, I do it free and easy on the internet banking. The amount I have to transfer every month is pretty stable, but I keep an eye on it and have a £50 agreed OD facility just incase I ever did slip up and have a heavier month of DD's than normal.