My lightbulb moment

kev7n84

It Just Happend....

Ive sat here tonight after browsing for a couple of weeks and have tonight wrote a letter to natwest requesting all my charges in the last 6 years, i also sent them a cheque for £10, that may bounce though...., this is so that i can try and reclaim these extorniate charges, and this is what originally brought me to this site.

Anyway, ive also sent letters to Natwest credit card and Mint credit card explaining how much i can afford to pay (i.e. not as much as they would like).

Tomorrow morning im phoning a debt collection agency thingy to sort out a £60 payment for not paying my online dvd rental thing. Won't have to worry about that in the future, dont think they'll take my custom again... and how did all of this start??? well i opened my post to find a debt collecting agency letter on behalf of... Ebay!!!

Who ends up getting these from Ebay! i didnt even realise i owed them money, its gotten to the point where i dont even check my emails let alone my post! (i owe them £28 in case your wondering, for selling a few things ages ago).. that what made me think, i gotta sort this out.

Im 22, and 4 years ago i was bringing home £200 a week (whilst living at my mums) and paying £25 a week keep... for everything. Then 30 months ago i had the bright idea of moving out... i now take home £210 a week and have outgoings of roughly £195 a week... I guess i haven't got out of the life of luxery lifestyle and that woudl explain my credit card balances and overdraft...

Im guessing lots of these types of messages are posted everyday from newbies but thought id add my 2 cents, ive been reading alot of posts and will be starting my no spending days soon and will be saving my £2 coins from tomorrow :-)

Tomorrow is my lifestyle planning day, goina work out how not to spend so much money.... and yep i'll be taking a packed lunch with me to work...!

Also sorry about any spelling mistakes... its 4am and i cant be bothered to spell check this!

good luck to everyone whose trying to achieve anything!

kev

devizes18193

your not alone ,cant help much but best of luck

richardvc

The old lightbulb moment is quite something isn't it ??!! - all of us have been through it and understand how you feel.

Welcome and good luck !!

gallygirl

Welcome!!!!

1st piece of advice is always to post your SOA (statement of affairs), see the post at the top of this board on how to do it. We can then[strike] rip your spending habits to pieces and give you a good telling off [/strike] advise on where you can save money. Every little counts.

Don't despair - you've had your lightbulb moment before things have got really really bad, though I'm sure they seem bad enough to you.

Phoenix79_2

Well done for having your lightbulb moment and welcome to the site Kev :beer:

Willsnarf1983

Hello mate

Well done for realising ur in the cack!

first look at cutting ur spending but also maybe look at a part time job at night if thats possible or maybe overtime at work!

Will

kev7n84

Cheers everybody for your support, this is another reason why i also joined the boards, for the encouragement, otherwise im left to my own devices 'forgetting' that i shouldn't be spending my money!

Im thinking about the part time job, i work 40/45 hrs at the moment, with hours being wither 6-3 or 3-11, so if i could get a part time job from like midnight til 5am that would fit in perfectly, i know the royal mail sorting office here is looking for seasonal staff so may enquire about that tomorrow.

anyways im about to type out my statement of affairs, its bad... and i know it'll get criticised, but thats a good thing and will show me where im spending to much (pub probably!).

kev

Willsnarf1983

Kev on here you should never get criticised just advised!

show us ur SOA and people will suggest improvements

Will

kev7n84

MY SOA....

Income averages £210 weekly
Outgoings all worked out weekly.

Housing Costs
Rent £42.00
Council Tax £12.62
Electricity £10.00

Food £17.00
Cleaning materials £1.16
Toilitries £4.00
Newspaper/Mags £1.15
Alcohol £5.50
Other Small housekeeping items £3.00

Leisure
Pubs/Clubs/Cinema £40.00

Other
Clothing £7.00
WorkMeals £12.50
Household goods £3.00
Tv License £1.68
Telewest (phone and internet) £3.46
Sky £4.15
Loan £31.38

Total:199.60 leaving on a basic week £10.40 spare. I normally get a few hours overtime in though but cannot garuntee on these everyweek.

With this 'extra' money left over i need to start paying the debts in my signature, however loan is a set amount and therefore included above.

yesterday i wrote letters to Mint and Natwest asking them to suspend any interest and charges on my account for at least 6 months, and that i would currently be willing to pay them either £5 a week each or £22 a calender month thus allowing me to get a foothold on these debts.

Sorry about the layout of this message, looks a bit of a mess to me, any questions or commments would be appreciated, cheers :-)

skintas_2

how about trying to get a evening job in a pub, then youdont have to spend money in the pub, and u are still socialisng after work, sell stuff on ebay

kev7n84

i cant realy do a pub as i work til 11 most nights, so i was thinking a club, but they normally need experienced persons don't they? im goina find out about that.

Dont know if you saw my sig but im owing ebay money that i didnt even realise i did, it got passed onto a debt collector, so am in process of paying them back, not too sure if im allowed back on ebay now... will have to find out about that as well, shoudl keep me busy!