Any advice greatly appreciated.

lisagaleotalanza

Hi everyone.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Quick breakdown of my situation.

I'm 23, my fianc! is 26, we own our own house on a fixed rate mortgage (£550 a month) which is quite reasonable we think. We've switched lots of our utilities to cheaper options and we make a strict list when we go food shopping and plan our meals.

We don't tend to buy anything we don't need other than the odd treat here and there.

We have two dogs. We have switched dog food brands and changed their insurance to the cheapest we can get.

I have two horses. I rent my own yard and have liveries so the money I earn on the yard pays for my own horses.

We have a budget and are pretty good at sticking to it.

Through a large loan (luckily it's with my mum) a few credit cards, overdrafts and a small loan due to finish this year on a fixed rate.

The problem we have is that the interest on my cards is killing me. I can afford to pay something towards them but one card in particular I can't afford the minimum payment on.

I took out a student loan for maintennce and will use the last installment of that to clear one of the cards. I have another which is 0% interest and another which is £5k and minimum payments are £90 ish which less than half comes off the balance and then goes straight back on.

Question is, I have defaulted on the card as they said they couldn't help me until I stopped paying it.

What would you suggest I do now?

The overdraft isn't a huge concern, we are trying to spend less each month so each month there is a little left in the account so its gradually reducing what is overdraft and the other loan is a fixed for another few months and then that will be finished too.

The main things get paid i.e the mortgage concil tax etc we just are struggling to pay the extra things.

Any suggestions?

P.S I'm not looking at repaying the student loan as the job I have atm is part time and is far less than what you have to earn to repay it.

myteeduck

Why dont you pop your SOA (Statement of Affairs) on here (sorry dont know the link but its on here somewhere at the top I think), then the more experienced members may be able to suggest where cut backs can be made and how to help. I think there is a sticky forum dedicated to SOAs for help.

Myteeduck

lisagaleotalanza

Oh thank you! Will have a look.