Place backside in gear and make the coffee stronger!

GixerMoss

So after doing the head in the sand act for a couple years too long I finally called the national debt advice line... lovely people.
Then Got excell open and the stack of (unopened) mail and started to sort myself out.

Spredsheet created with mine and OH's incoming and all of our outgoings and a tot up of exactly what we owe and to who....
£13.5k ouch! and whoops

And surprise surprise outgoings exceeding incoming by a good couple hundred quid eeek

I hace also phoned CAP, they are coming out on the 5th Jan but I thought I'd be brave and get phoning everyone I owe and trying to negotiate myself some lower payments at least until CAP can help out.

So a strong coffee made, couple cigs inhaled (yes I know quitting would help big time but untill I'm stress free that is rather unlikely)

And I start phoning....
and my £380 debt payments per month are now down to £200

I was quite impressed at the respect I got for being able to tell each company all my essential out goings and what proportion on my total debt their debt represented

Yay!

even more astonished when one company actually accepted my offer of £11 per month.... my existing payments were £42 result

So the road to recovery has started, and man it feels good!
I've got 2 of my 3 credit cards to reduce their interest from 24.9 and 27.9 to 6% each

I know my credit score is now in minus figures but balls to it, I know now exactly what I have money wise each month for fuel and food and one baby boys expenses and it feels great.

friday is payday, and my allowance will be withdrawn and placed in my wallet and my debit card consigned to a safe place and thats it, if the wallets empty its creative cooking with pasta and cans of toms lol

IF anyone has suggestions I'd love to hear them but in the mean time I'm off to scour the boards

crapwithcash82

Hello There & Welcome!!

Well done for going through your mail and listing everything in excel, its the hardest step but once you do it, it feels like you are more in control! Double well done for calling all your creditors and negotiating the interest with them, that can sometimes be a scarey thing to do!!

If you search on here for SOA calculator you will find a link to doing your income and outgoings, which you can post on here. Sometimes people will be able to advise areas you could cut back on, and sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can find things you can cut back on that you've just overlooked.

Do you sell on ebay? I always find a good clear out and a night listing stuff on ebay is good for motivation - its sometimes amazing what sells on ebay!! I also use Quidco for all online purchases to get cashback.

A good way of cutting back on food shopping is to do a meal plan and only buy what you need to make those meals each week. I cut our weekly food shop from around £80/90 per week, to only spending £45 per week. I have no shame in going round my local asda with my phone calculator out, tallying up my spending! If there's surplus left from my budget, then there's room for a few treats, or I stock up on bargains.

You've come to a great place for help, advise and motivation and I'm sure there will be more people along soon with some good suggestions!!

GixerMoss

Thank you.... Where is best to post our outgoings? I'll list it here too but I doubt there is much we can save on
I'm the woman you fight with in tesco to get to the reduced meat lol there is a list on our freezer with what everything inside is to be used for.... once thats done I'll be doing propper meal plans on a fortnightly basis.
The rare bit of online shopping we do is via Kidstart for the cashback there
Ebay blitz booked for the weekend! although its mostly baby boys clothing that will have to be turned into the next size for him

Right then anyone want to play spot the savings.....
All figures are monthly
Mortgage £300
Rent£210 * Shared ownership
Council Tax £108
Electric £55
Water £22
Vivs Car ins £24
Dans Car ins £40 both renewed less than 3 months ago and def on best deal
Vivs Car Tax £11
Dan's Car Tax £15
Fuel Viv £90
Fuel Dan £90 both filling as tescos for points (also most convenient fuel)
Dan car pay £98 (11 months left to pay)
Internet £11
Phone£11
Viv Mob £22 6 months left on contract
Dan Mob£30 13 months left on contract
Dan tools £110 (he's a mechanic)
CICA £40 (health/sickness/accident cover)
Food £125
Clothing£50 (rare we spend that much so would be nabbed onto food budget I expect)
TV Licence £12.50
inhalers £14
childcare £326

GixerMoss

well so far so good joint account now open and payments going in for all our bills etc we both know exactly what we have for food fuel etc

had a nice surprise from my mum (she knows we're skint but not the extent of our debt issue, I've too much pride/shame to go into detail with her) But I was chatting to her about our fridge freezer situation. When we moved into this house I already had all the white goods we needed but I have under counter units and the kitchen only has space for a single upright.... so they got stacked fridge on top of freezer... not ideal and its started to damage the freezer and the door doesn't always shut properly... which in turn leads to some defrosting of contents and extra leccy being used. well Mum & Dad offered to buy us a fridge freezer & dad xferred the funds to me esterday to go shopping with - will probably buy via a cashbiack site and my mother in law who is about to move home has asked to buy our existing fridge and freezer for £100 bonus that £100 will pay off my smallest debt and what I currently pay there will then go onto my largest debt
tis a nice feeling! 1 down 10 to go

looking forward to being able to update that status hehehe

andilouise

Well done on getting off to a great start !! Seems like you're in control and focused...keep up the debt busting !

GixerMoss

ugh feeling down about this today
I get pai via cheque.... they were due on Tuesday... work has been closed all week. Boss has tried to get to the bank for us but nw can not even get off her own drive!
Asked about Bacs and told investor will not allow it (long complex story too much company sensitive info for me to go into there)
My bills start going out of new account next week..... Hubby has his share in, and I've moved the money given to me for our xmas pressy of a fridge freezer into the joint account, get my child benefit tomorrow and that will get moved also
I've advised my child minder I will be late paying and she's fine with it
I've informed the housing assoc (we're on shared ownership) that I am currently unable to pay our rent and why and they've given us until the 10th to cough up...
seriously scared now that all my good work will be destroyed due to sodding snow! arggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

one positive though seems selling old manky holey socks on ebay is a lil money spinner! averaging £5 a pair (one pair went for £15!)

beanielou

You have made a fab start & hopefully you will get your pay cheque soon.
Tell me the story of the manky socks?

GixerMoss

Er, ,any socks..... just search ebay for used socks, from there its kinda self explanitory (and a little icky) but I'm happy for the pennies!! (some of which are buying new socks lol)

I've clamed down now! was chatting to childminder this morning (work still off but I'd have to pay for the day anyway so thought I'd take advantage of babyless house and tidy it!) she says to pay her when I can so thats £250 I can stop panicing about for now

feels great to waffle on about all this in here, takes the weight off my chest