£1500 debt owed to multiple people - help!

sallytheteamonkey

Hi everyone :j

I'm really looking for help for my boyfriend. He is terrible with money and has so far racked up debts of £1,500 (not inc his student loan which is a lot more of course). I've never dealt with debt before and want to help and hoping seeking advice from here is the best place to start. So far he owes:

£186 to Abbey bank loan
£250 payday high street loan
£500 t mobile
£119 uni fine (they are chasing this but don't think interest on it)
£40 Orange
£100 1 and 1 loan
£100 to his dad
£100 to me
£50 to his mate

His income is £1200/month after tax and we worked out that after rent, travel and basic groceries he has £561 a month. That is before any of the debts come out. At the mo he spends about £10 on food each work day as he works long shifts and has two meal breaks - he buys food from fast food places mostly. I suggested he starts cooking food at home but realistically he's not sure if he'll stick to that. So that leaves his with about £330 a month to pay debts and buy anything else he needs (no savings so far).

PAYDAY loan have said they're taking the full £250 this month so that debt will be cleared but doesn't leave him with much to live on and pay off the other debts.

Any advice on what he should pay off or if there's a simpler way he can do it would be really appreciated. We are aiming for £500 of debt by Christmas and I really hope he makes it!

Thanks guys and gals very much :T

HappyMJ

With £561 per month spare he just has to cut his spending money down to nothing. Well £61 per month will be OK. Just for 3 months then it'll be all paid off then he needs to keep within what he earns. Good luck. The £186 to Abbey is that the total of the loan or is it a payment of a larger loan?

mr.ton

Surely his dad, you & his mate could write off what he owes to the 3 of you...that would make things easier for him for starters

NorthernLas

Without wanting to appear rude, this is his debt. Do not take his problem on your shoulders as he may continue to be useless with money. How much does he want to get rid of the debt (or is it that you want to and he is agreeing with you)

Can he take food from home for one of the meal breaks?
Is there anything that he can sell on ebay or recycle for cash - like phones??
Anything he can do now like going out less?

mr.ton

I would ensure that the Payday people do not take the full £250 if its gonna leave him with next to nothing for anything else....

dancingfairy

Hi - a couple of thoughts from me:
1) can he keep a spending diary - it's amazing what seeing it all in black and white can do and it helps you see where is best to cut down.
2) maybe he could take sandwiches, fruit and crisps/chocolate bar for one meal at work? is he able to heat food at work? maybe he could take ready meals? or jacket potatoes to heat? Also if he was really super organised he could make a big batch of say chilli/spaghetti bolognese one day and split it into several portions and take one to work to heat up - say one portion a week? he would have to remember to take it out to defrost first though.

If he can survice this month and avoid any more payday loans then next month he should have at least 300 pounds to tackle the rest. Making minimum payments to each would be a good starting point so they don't start taking legal action. Hopefully if he knuckles down he can get them cleared relatively quickly.
Also as someone else suggested can he ebay/car boot anything to kickstart the process.
Good Luck
df

DarkConvict

Those him at the SOA tool to work out "really" what his has left. http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Then throw the snowball tool at him. Put in his "surplus", and all the debts + interest per debt - http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx
Drawback of snowball tool is it always does £5 repayment per month, per debt. When in reality debts to friend can do several months at £0.

Alternative snowball calc - http://www.makesenseofcards.com/snowcalc.html

andys15

mr.ton wrote: »

Surely his dad, you & his mate could write off what he owes to the 3 of you...that would make things easier for him for starters

What a silly comment. Why should they write off the loans. Maybe accept them last, but not write them off.

theoretica

Not being sure he will stick to taking food from home to work is a really poor reason not to start doing so and attempting to stick to it. Taking packed meals in occasionally would save more money than doing so never.