My turn

pivotalgubbins

Bubblewrap wrote:

Sorry i should of put this bit in first of all! I have just moved to the beautiful island of Jersey. The rent is standard there are some that are a little cheaper but within my wages i get a subsidy so even if i went cheaper it wouldnt matter as they would then lower my rent subsidy causing the rent to be exactly the same! Im fixed into Sky until May 2007. In regards to phone and broadband there is only one company on the island at the moment which is Jersey telecom im a little bit upset as Cable is just arriving on the island and im stuck in contracts till 2007!

Thanks for explaining this a little more. Is there still no chance you could move out now (or at the end of the contract) and house share? I think this is a really good option in the short term, as you could have a lot more money to chuck at your debts straight off. If not, then can you at least rent out a spare room or something? £1,200 is crazy money, Jersey or not!

Little_Miss_Winner

You must have crossed posts gp, it's there now.
She/he ? lives in Jersey

youngandreckless

Ok so the Jersey situation can't be changed, so maybe selling some stuff is an option? Also the car, anything you can do cheaper?

Bubblewrap_2

Im tied into my rent for 12 months and I didnt really want to rent the small extra room out as my family and friends try and visit me as often as they possibly can. Id hate the thought of them not being able to come over and visit as they cant afford the expensive hotels over here. However this i may need to really think hard about! In some ways i now think moving here may not have been the greatest of ideas although i love it, money wise its not so good! Some of the ideas that people have come so far have given me a lot to think about so thankyou for this. Im going to contact sky tomorrow to see about downgrading the package i have and im also going to downgrade my internet speed which will save me a bit of money, i hadnt thought of these two things by doing it ill be saving myself at least £17 per month! Im so glad i come on here the cloud seems to already be lifting a little!

CFC

You have a good income. Bearing this in mind, you need to do a bit of debt shifting so that the enormous interest you are paying on the CC debts comes down. Move some, or as many as you can, onto a different credit card with a 0% balance transfer. I believe that Mint is now offering nearly a year with 0% interest on transfers. This is called Credit Card tarting.

When you have done that, pay the minimum on that card and use ANY spare money to pay off your most expensive debt first (look at the apr and you'll see what is most expensive. This is called snowballing.

Do a search on the main board and look for snowballing and tarting to learn more.

Why not let your spare room for a limited time only? That way you will still be able to have friends and family to stay (please add me to your list LOL) but earn a bit of moolah too. Spend the moolah on the most expensive debts.

Your car - if it's a super flash flash spinny wheels with stripes and expensive insurance, you might want to consider selling it and getting a grannymobile with cheap insurance and parts, like a micra or equivalent.

piglet6

Hi Bubblewrap, just wanted to say hi, and welcome to the boards, and well done on posting your SOA!:T

Piglet

calleyw

I know you already have the car.

But Jersery is only 5 miles long by 2.5 miles wide. So do you really need to run you car that much if at all.

Somethings you are limited to but downgrade what you can.

And try to get some 0% balance transfer cards and see if you can shift the balances.

Is there anyway to increase income second job selling on ebay etc.

All the best.


Yours


Calley

Bubblewrap_2

calleyw wrote:

I know you already have the car.

But Jersery is only 5 miles long by 2.5 miles wide. So do you really need to run you car that much if at all.

Somethings you are limited to but downgrade what you can.

And try to get some 0% balance transfer cards and see if you can shift the balances.

Is there anyway to increase income second job selling on ebay etc.

All the best.


Yours


Calley

Thanks Calley and all the rest of you for your responses. I couldnt do without a car as Jersey is quite deceiving, its 5 miles by 9 miles but the time and distance to drive to and from places are quite long and not walkable at all. Some of my clients which i visit regularly are 40 mins drive (I know i was shocked with this). I have however been thinking about down grading my car and am currently looking into how well cars sell over here and how much i would get back from mine so this is one option i hadnt thought of! The other things ive been doing today is ......
1. I have looked at downgrading my sky to a basic package which would save me £19 per month but cant get hold of them yet but will keep trying.
2. Im downgrading my internet speed which saves me £7 per month
I know this dosnt sound much but an extra £26 per month will help out no end.

I have also just been chatting with one of my loan companies who have offered me an £18,000 loan paying back over 6 years at £309.78. Now with this i could pay off my egg card, Natwest Card, Overdraft, Cahoot loan and my student loan. This way instead of paying out £443 each month for these bills it would be £309.78 a total save of £134 per month. And further more i will actually be paying back these items instead of just the interest. I have been a credit card tart for a long time but have only managed to get myself further into debt and havnt the energy for this anymore. I need to get rid of those credit cards and the flexible loan for definite, as they are so easy to use. Does this sound like a good idea?

Oh and as for the advice about selling on ebay, i have a store cupboard full of unwanted items and i have now started to sort through them Great idea THANKYOU!!

climbgirl

Bubblewrap wrote:

I have also just been chatting with one of my loan companies who have offered me an £18,000 loan paying back over 6 years at £309.78. Now with this i could pay off my egg card, Natwest Card, Overdraft, Cahoot loan and my student loan. This way instead of paying out £443 each month for these bills it would be £309.78 a total save of £134 per month. And further more i will actually be paying back these items instead of just the interest. I have been a credit card tart for a long time but have only managed to get myself further into debt and havnt the energy for this anymore. I need to get rid of those credit cards and the flexible loan for definite, as they are so easy to use. Does this sound like a good idea?
!

DON'T take out the consolidation loan! You're borrowing £18K, but over the 6 years you'll pay back a total of £22304.16! Tthat's the reason why your monthly payments are lower, they spread them over more time so you end up paying more in the long-run. It may seem like it's helping you by easing off the pressure, but you'll lose out in the long-run.

There will be other ways to cut back and make changes, you earn an extremely good wage and there are ways around this. You're making excuses a bit at the moment - not wanting to rent the spare room so friends etc can stay. You can't afford an empty room right now if you don't want to move to cheaper rent!

lynzpower

I agree with climbgirl

Do you really want to be paying out all that extra money.

You say you dont have the energy to card tart. Not being funny, but its not really a big deal. I believe that M&S have a low life of balance as 3.% ish someone told me the other day. try adn get that, then you wont need to card tart again.

Ive just had a quick look on the internet and there does seem to be a fair amount of property at WAY less than you are spending. http://www.jerseyinsight.com/classified_1.asp?category=11&id4=11439&id=7779&id4=11447