Newbie - making a start & SOA

afoolandhermoney77

Hi Everyone

I was reading the posts on here last night after having a look at my credit report and then getting a panic on and then totalling my debts!!!
My debts aren't horrendous and tbh - I actually never considered myself in debt until yesterday!

I am getting married later in the year, all the money for that is in a Joint account we have £19000, we have both been paying money into it.

We don't live together, I live at home as does he.
My fiance is brilliant at saving and has never really put any pressure on me to, but of course I know I should have been
So after a mention of a house yesterday that is a possibility & him asking did I have any money towards a deposit and me just saying yes (thinking I can give him £4000ish - cos I get paid in a week and get a bonus so that will be 3k and then will use £1000 overdraft) then he asks if I have any debts - I said no, he said a credit card? I said oh yes maybe £1000. He said well these are the things they ask you. So off he went and I decided to have a look at my finances!!
Imagine my horror when I realise my credit card is £2900, my overdraft is -£1850 and I have a personal loan of £1640 left!!!
Total Debt £6500ish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See I never considered any of it debt as I easily pay them every month, have never missed a month and pay over the amount on the cc. I don't even miss the money on the payments, I should have been paying more but I always liked to have the money in my bank (even though I now realise its an overdraft = not my money! Doh!)

So now instead of giving any money for a deposit I am frantically trying to work out the best way to drastically reduce my debts in the next two months - as I read something about they prefer you to be only so much % up to your credit limits? I am not too bothered about having £0 debt by then as I am sure people get mortgages if they have a little bit of debt - and I need to have some money saved also - can I do this or am I dreaming here???

Also I had a default on my file - which I can't even remember ever getting, but it is mine - but that was put on 17/02/2005 - so comes off next month? Does anyone know if it comes off actually on that day?? The amount was only for £900 and is marked as settled so it has been paid in full

My fiance doesn't know about this yet :-( I only realised it myself yesterday and I really don't want to tell him, he will go mad!

Heres my SOA



Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . £1,850.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..0.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150.00
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .300.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..140.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,850.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,803.00


So I will be cutting the £300pm food and groceries to £10 per week. i live at home and literally buy crap in supermarkets that I don't even eat!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also will knock eating out and magazines on the head.
Also planning to get rid of alot of the crap I have bought and got myself into debt with. Have put some on ebay already and then getting rid of a load of cds that have been sat in a wardrobe for a few years on that magpie website, its a bit of a rip off - cos when you hav paid on average £9 for cd's and they offer you 30 pence for them!!! But I doubt I would shift a used copy of now 2000 on ebay would i??? So for 21 cds that were average £9 each I am getting £6odd!!! What a waste of £183 down the drain, but even that £6 is going off my debt!

My credit card is Capital 1 - balance is £2980 and limit is £3200
My overdraft is Santander - balance is -£1800 and limit is £2100
Personal Loan amount left is £1640 - i rang up yesterday to see as I actually had no idea how long I had left on it - that is how irresponsible I have been :mad:

So what shal I do? When I get paid next week I should get approx £2500+ I was thinking of paying £500 off the CC, Paying £250 off the personal loan (thats including the £140 i pay anyway) and reducing my overdraft by £200

Should I pay more that that? Also - since I am not up to my lomit on my overdraft I was thinking should I pay say another £150 off my credit card using that? Not wanting to borrow off peter to pay paul, but the interest is much higher on the CC than on my overdraft. I pay around £10 in interest compared to £45 per month on the credit card.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received

xxxx

lvm

You should decide in total how much you can pay toward overdraft/credit card/loan and use the snowball calculator http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx to work out how much to pay for each.

As you are currently paying £1000 a month on food/groceries/clothes/eating/drinking/presents - could you cut this down to £100 for the whole lot and put the rest on the debt?

I'm not sure if all mortgage companies are the same but mine told me I had to pay all credit cards in full before mortgage went through - but they never even checked this and I didn't pay but still got the mortgage. Strange!

You should definitely tell you fiance though - he's marrying you for better and for worse so I'm sure he won't mind. You can't marry him and keep all this a secret...

wookiebob

Hi there,
I agree with Lisa, I think you need to speak with your fiance and let him know the situation as if you are going to get married, you wouldn't want something like this hanging over you. The longer you keep it in, the harder it will be to tell him. I can't really advise on your SOA as I'm very new to this, but haircuts, beauty treatments, work & other clothes, alongside birthdays, drinking and eating out works out at about £500, if you could make some adjustments to these areas, that would go a long way to reducing your debt.
Good luck. xx

MFWannabe

afoolandhermoney77 wrote: »

Hi Everyone

I was reading the posts on here last night after having a look at my credit report and then getting a panic on and then totalling my debts!!!
My debts aren't horrendous and tbh - I actually never considered myself in debt until yesterday!

I am getting married later in the year, all the money for that is in a Joint account we have £19000, we have both been paying money into it.

We don't live together, I live at home as does he.
My fiance is brilliant at saving and has never really put any pressure on me to, but of course I know I should have been
So after a mention of a house yesterday that is a possibility & him asking did I have any money towards a deposit and me just saying yes (thinking I can give him £4000ish - cos I get paid in a week and get a bonus so that will be 3k and then will use £1000 overdraft) then he asks if I have any debts - I said no, he said a credit card? I said oh yes maybe £1000. He said well these are the things they ask you. So off he went and I decided to have a look at my finances!!
Imagine my horror when I realise my credit card is £2900, my overdraft is -£1850 and I have a personal loan of £1640 left!!!
Total Debt £6500ish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See I never considered any of it debt as I easily pay them every month, have never missed a month and pay over the amount on the cc. I don't even miss the money on the payments, I should have been paying more but I always liked to have the money in my bank (even though I now realise its an overdraft = not my money! Doh!)

So now instead of giving any money for a deposit I am frantically trying to work out the best way to drastically reduce my debts in the next two months - as I read something about they prefer you to be only so much % up to your credit limits? I am not too bothered about having £0 debt by then as I am sure people get mortgages if they have a little bit of debt - and I need to have some money saved also - can I do this or am I dreaming here???

Also I had a default on my file - which I can't even remember ever getting, but it is mine - but that was put on 17/02/2005 - so comes off next month? Does anyone know if it comes off actually on that day?? The amount was only for £900 and is marked as settled so it has been paid in full

My fiance doesn't know about this yet :-( I only realised it myself yesterday and I really don't want to tell him, he will go mad!

Heres my SOA



Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . £1,850.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..0.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150.00
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .300.00 - Cut this to £100
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 you need to put something in here
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 - you need to put something in here
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..140.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150.00 - what do you spend this on? This needs to stop and be paid off the debts
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100.00 - could you halve this?
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00 - per month??!!!!! This surely can't be right??!!
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50.00 - again this is a huge amount every month
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 - - wear what you have for now
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 - wear what you have for now
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,850.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,803.00


So I will be cutting the £300pm food and groceries to £10 per week. i live at home and literally buy crap in supermarkets that I don't even eat!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also will knock eating out and magazines on the head.
Also planning to get rid of alot of the crap I have bought and got myself into debt with. Have put some on ebay already and then getting rid of a load of cds that have been sat in a wardrobe for a few years on that magpie website, its a bit of a rip off - cos when you hav paid on average £9 for cd's and they offer you 30 pence for them!!! But I doubt I would shift a used copy of now 2000 on ebay would i??? So for 21 cds that were average £9 each I am getting £6odd!!! What a waste of £183 down the drain, but even that £6 is going off my debt!

My credit card is Capital 1 - balance is £2980 and limit is £3200
My overdraft is Santander - balance is -£1800 and limit is £2100
Personal Loan amount left is £1640 - i rang up yesterday to see as I actually had no idea how long I had left on it - that is how irresponsible I have been :mad:

So what shal I do? When I get paid next week I should get approx £2500+ I was thinking of paying £500 off the CC, Paying £250 off the personal loan (thats including the £140 i pay anyway) and reducing my overdraft by £200

Should I pay more that that? Also - since I am not up to my lomit on my overdraft I was thinking should I pay say another £150 off my credit card using that? Not wanting to borrow off peter to pay paul, but the interest is much higher on the CC than on my overdraft. I pay around £10 in interest compared to £45 per month on the credit card.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received

xxxx

Hi
I've made some comments above; with these cutbacks you have the ability to knock approx £600 off the figures above to pay off these debts and could soon make a dent in them
You need to come clean to your husband to be; it's better to hear it from you than to hear it from somewhere else; such as a failed mortgage application. (I'm not saying that's going to happen by the way). Sit him down and show him that you have made a plan to pay off these debts.
How much is your wedding actually going to cost? Would it not be better to use some of the money saved to pay off these debts? Then you will start married life with a clean slate

theoretica

The good news is there is a LOT that you can cut down on. You need some food (take sandwiches to work) but other than that everything below is discretionary spending. It adds up to £1125! If you really want your debt gone you could cut out pretty much all of it : leave yourself maybe £100 for food and as little as you have the self control to manage for other comforts and luxuries (£50?, £200? it is up to you). Even £100 on food and £200 on stuff would leave you £825 in addition to your usual debt payments.

Also you say you are expecting £2500 in your next pay cheque, £750 above what you entered as your monthly income. This is another £750 off your debt.

£750 extra this month+£825 every month would clear your entire debt in 7 or 8 months, less if you get other overtime.

I hope you realise that when you are living in your own flat it will cost considerably more than the £150 rent you are now paying, so you will need to be prepared to cut down on a reasonable amount of this permanently.

afoolandhermoney77 wrote: »

Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .300.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

afoolandhermoney77

Thanks for the replies :-)

Yes I will be telling my fiance - but I literally only realised all of this late last night, I honestly just hadn't even thought that I was in debt as my income thats available after I have paid the essentials was over £1000 - thats why there is sooooooo much wasting of money going on that soa!!! To me I always imagined a person who was in debt to be someone who is struggling to pay and I'm not.

I will speak to him at the weekend about it as I am away till then now. There is no way I would keep this from him and I certainly wouldn't let it go as far as a mortgage application without him knowing - he would see my bank statements and whatever you put on the form ( do you even fill in a form - I actually have no idea!)
I like to think I will have paid this off by March anyway - the credit card AND overdraft. It just means I have nothing as yet to add to his savings for the deposit :-(

The reason that there is nothing in the car tax or insurance is that I have a company car and the insurance/upkeep/tax - literally EVERYTHING is paid for by the company.
I pay for private fuel only which comes out of my wages and this is never more than £25 per month - which I have accounted for - so really that probably shouldn't even be on there as it is taken at source - I am still left with £1850 as the fuel payment has already been taken.

The wedding is expensive - i don't want to say how much as I don't want to be shouted at!! I would have just quietly done it but my fiance wanted a big wedding. I wouldn't use any of the money that is in the joint account for the wedding as this is my mess and I need to pay for it myself. And so long as I stick to thi and pay it then we will start off with a clean slate.
I said, we have signed contracts so we would have to pay anyway even if we downscaled. Everything is accounted for in so much as we won't be paying out anything unexpected leading up to it.

I am going to cut the £300pm groceries etc to £40pm as I really don't need to get anything, I live with my parents whi have a well stocked kitchen. I wouldn't have thought I spent £300 in supermarkets but I was looking at the receipts and I have been so that has ended with immediate effect!!

Shopping for fun is cut to £0 pm - literally this was just wasting money on bits of nonsense, like a lipgloss or two, new pyjamas (I have 20+ pairs - i don't need any more!)
The hair is not something I can go without at all :-O that will stay but at a reduced amount :-( sorry I have been at this hair dressers for years and was having it coloured every 3 weeks and a wash and blow here and there - will stop all wash and blows and hair will be done every 6 weeks -
Again I will not buy anymore New clothes for work or otherwise. I have plenty that I don't wear already!! so that will be cut to £0
Beauty treatments - I have had nails done for 13 years or more, I will only go once per month so that cuts it by £25!!!
I will definitely cut the drinking out to once per month so that should cut it to £25 and I won't eat out at all. I will not have meals out at work in lunch and just take fruit etc from the house

Sooooooooooooo potentially so long as I stick to this I will be able to pay

£260 (saved from not grocery shopping)
£150 (saved from no fun shopping)
£60 (saved from less trips to Hairdressers)
£25 (saved from less trips to nail salon)
£100 (saved from no clothes shopping)
£75 (saved from drinking out only once per month)
£50 (saved from no eating out)
£40 (saved from not having lunches out in work)
£20 (saved from not buying magazines)
£5 (saved from not buying as many itunes!)

a total of £785 off these debts and that is in addition to what I pay out currently.

Should I do a bit off each or just concentrate on one for now? To be honest I think I could afford to put £1000 per month off these - as my outgoings (which include cc payments and loan payment) come to £515 so that still leaves £300ish for the other bits, hair, nails etc or is that just daft? I could put the £250 away, i know you shouldn't save when you have debts but I will need to have some money saved

Thanks again everyone - must check ebay see how my bits are getting on :-)

afoolandhermoney77

Thanks Theoretica - that is a very good point - I need to get used to not spending so flippantly as I think I would end up paying at least £800 or more per month with mortgage and bills.
Something else for me to worry about now - I will never ever be able to spend like this again :-( in one way but glad in another -
today is the first day of self restraint!
Infact it really is - I haven't even spent 10p today since I got up this morning. Feel proud of myself! :-)

rising_from_the_ashes

I'd start by paying the one with the highest interest .... try the snowball calculator and see what it comes up with http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

Good luck and congratulations in taking the big step of even realising there's a problem and tackling it head on straight away (and not burying your head in the sand as I did!)

MooBag_2

Hiya, your situation isn't as bad as you may think....Thought I'd add a couple of tips;

1) Not all loans will allow you to overpay your monthly amount so you may have to check this (if not already). If they don't allow overpayments, I'd focus on the CC and overdraft first (if your loan interest rate is fixed, this is relatively safe).
2) One of the biggest reasons for getting out of your overdraft and and then living within the black for at least three months is that mortgage lenders like three months worth of statements and like to see that you can manage your finances on a monthly basis.
3) Discuss your credit score with your bank and see what they suggest in terms of bringing it up (if it's below average). I'd also query the default direct with the lender who placed it as I had this happen to me and queried it and it was removed because it was an error.
4) Mortgage lenders can provide an agreement in principal which tells you how much (incomes and debt combined) you are able to borrow. They do this to give buyers an indication of how much they can go spend on their dream property! By having debt and managing it, you are proving you are credit worthy to a lender so worry not - they like it when you have obtained credit and manage it. The only thing the debt you have can affect is how much a lender is willing to lend to you.

All the best for clearing it all as quickly as possible

afoolandhermoney77

Thanks everyone
I felt all empowered before - think it was the adrenaline of getting myself sorted but now I feel a bit low - like why on earth did I let myself get into this mess????

True its not a huge amount and I am lucky in that respect and that I can pay so much off it. I know a lot of people have it much much harder.

I feel really disappointed with myself - because this is not just going to affect me now but my fiance as well - as it will delay us buying a house for another few months.

I am definitely going to go for clearing that Credit Card first, its is already out of my purse and in a draw! I Know I know - cutting it up is the next step!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I will not be putting another penny on it!!!

thanks everyone

theoretica

afoolandhermoney77 wrote: »

I could put the £250 away, i know you shouldn't save when you have debts but I will need to have some money saved

If you pay money off your overdraft it counts towards paying off your debt but is also easy to get hold of if you need it.