Help required in debt dont know what too do

lynzpower

OK,

Welcome to Debt free wannabee :wave: to Mrcorsa & family :wave:

A few things from me:

I agree about the food. With a bit of effort and lots of looking on the moneysaving old style board, clever shopping, and only buying what you absolutely NEED for the week ,you can really get this reduced down.

For example there are lots of codes on MSE for free asda delivery, which would save you the taxi fare home. Another angle is vouchers & tokens from the newspapers, magazines, ( i sometimes scavenge them from Drs surgery magazines!!) at tescos and I believe asdas you can get these taken off your shopping whether you buy the things or not.

Have a google for Pinecone research, they may not be recruiting at the mo, but they are an online survey company, and for each survey that you do you get £4 in luncheon vouchers - theres 4 quid off your shopping, and the surveys are quick & interesting.

By meal planning, me & my partner spend *about 100* a month, last month we spent 115, but we make great effort to keep the food bills low. Ive made a cake for about 10p that would cost a quid in the shop. Use value brands etc if you are not doing so already.

I am certainly not about to have a go at you for claiming benefits, & I too have a disability, but Im wondering what this disability is, and if there is any way that you or your wife could work- even if its just a few hours a week.

Can I ask what you spent all this money on?

What do you have to sell? Anything can go on ebay, books, cds, dvds, furniture.

Best of luck with it, and welcome again
lynz
x

toontastic

mrcorsa wrote:

Thanks for your comments prioritise which debt we pay 1st is good idea will take that into consideration it would feel much easyer to pay the bigger debts when all the smallers one where gone.

as for the shopping maybe get it down to £200 a month but could never live on less that than have allways tried to make that lower.

Never say never Honestly if you check out the baord that was mentioned it's amazing some of the ideas people come up with and greats ways to save money on your shopping. What some people do is set a budget for the weeks shop and then keep trying to knock that down each week even by a very small amount.

Have you cut up all the cards you have? I don't know how benefits effect your APR on cards but it might be worth getting in touch with them all and see if you can get them to lower this a little. It all helps.

Could you not trade your Sky box for Freeview ?

xx-Tina-xx

... Also how much do you spend on taxis to and from ASDA? Why not change to a supermarket selling cheaper brands? If thats not an option, why not shop online instead? Yeah, theres a delivery fee to pay, but its much easier to make a strict list of things you want, buy them online, and the temptation to put things in a trolley that you don't particularly need is taken away from you

southernscouser

Hi MrCorsa and welcome to MSE. :beer:

What are your minimum payments on your credit cards and catalogues? I work out that you have £437.85 to pay to these debts after you have paid your outgoings and your Mint loan. This is based on a monthly income of £1,184.65.

Also had to be the bearer of bad news but I kake your debts £15,062! :doh:

Is it a permanent thing that you and your OH are unable to work?

As others have said your food bill is high. I reckon you could knock at least £100 of this. I know you said you have to pay for cabs to and from the supermarket but have you considered getting it delivered to home?

You can get internet for cheaper than £20 a month. Are you tied into a contract?

HairyHandofDartmoor

I didn't think I could get my food bills any lower but I did. I spend £260 a month for 5 of us (used to be about £500) by buying value brands, seasonal vegetables, etc. I won't buy something if it isn't cheap, for example fresh salmon is too expensive, so we go for tinned tuna, chicken only when it's on special offer and then stock up the freezer.

I agree about burning the catalogues, too much interest and too tempting. Also watch freeview until you are debt free. Good luck.

dancingfairy

Hello and welcome. Here are a few thoughts:

Firstly you don't seem to be spending that much on outgoins (excluding debt) so that's a good start. There are some ways to cut back which have already been mentioned -ie food / phone etc.

As has already been mentioned if you can produce a fuller SOA - include haricuts/birthdays/meals out/school expenses/clothes/christmas etc. The more detail you put in the more realistic your budget will be.

Also can you post the minimum payable for each debt each month so we can see if you are able to make just the minimum repayments at the moment or not.

When you are in a position to be able to make all the minimum payments you need to chuck any spare money at the debts with the highest interest rates.

Other popular though not as good financially is to clear a few of the smaller debts first so you can really feel like you're tackling your debts.

Another point is how you got in this position in the first place - you need to make sure you have addressed this problem and can now move on.

Also if you are disabled (I may be making the wrong assumption here) - is there any way you can even do a few part time hours a week?- I think you are allowed to earn a small amount. Also if you are able to it can give you the oportunity to get out and meet some people which can be vital if you are trapped at home the rest of the time. Apologies if this is something you are unable to do / unwilling to discuss and please don't take it the wrong way.

Good luck

Pooky

Can I also ask why you need a mobile if you're at home with access to a mainline phone? Another £19 a month to chuck at debts.....

cupid_s

Hi there mr corsa

I have just got NTL. Costs £20 a month for broadband and digital TV. Was £30 for the same with unlimited local calls but I have a good mobile package so didn't go for this. Depending on where you are in the country you could hopefully get either telewest or NTL. This could save £67! And I would say is the first thing you should set about doing.

That would save you a fair bit. Also with shopping, you could do it online and get it delivered which would at least save the taxi fare and might stop you impulse buying things you dont need. Or at least go shopping at the end of the day when loadsa stuff is reduced and bung it all in the freezer.

Also do you have a water meter or pay a standard amount? I am changing to a meter soon as it should save me loadsa money!

You're gas and electric seems high compared to most peoples, but if you're in almost all day it's actually seems not too bad but there might be a cheaper company you could switch to.

To be honest if you don't go out much, don't run a car and don't have that many luxuries you might have to accept you'll just be paying these off for quite a while. You are already only spending £518 so have over £500 gonig off your debts (I assume) which is good going.

Are your housing costs all covered? As you don't include these on the SOA

Don't forget about selling things on e-bay to increase the amount of money you have coming in. And is there any work you could do from home, internet based stuff or anything - just to earn a small amount without affecting your benefits.

Don't forget about quidco and other such sites for when you're buying things and also doing online surveys gets points which can be exchanged for shopping vouchers (handy coming up to xmas). If you're not working you will probably have more time for these than me and it's money for nothing almost.

Good luck!

mrcorsa

thanks for all your comments so far
since posting i now have sky half price for 3 months and after that will be on a cut down package saving £55.50 over the next 3 months then saving £12 a month after thats a saving of £144 over the next year.
i've also contacted payplan and will be talking with them in the week
will be trying to look at the way we prepare food ect.. to save some money there 2
thanks once again.

briona

mrcorsa wrote:

thanks for all your comments so far
since posting i now have sky half price for 3 months and after that will be on a cut down package saving £55.50 over the next 3 months then saving £12 a month after thats a saving of £144 over the next year.
i've also contacted payplan and will be talking with them in the week
will be trying to look at the way we prepare food ect.. to save some money there 2
thanks once again.

Well done – and as a well-known supermarket would say, every little helps!