What is the best piece of advice you got regarding sorting out your debts

beanielou

Online banking is youre friend as is a payment a day~however small~ to your current target debt.

snookey

Best advice , if you dont need it then its not a bargain at any price. Iv lost count of the number of things Iv bought in sales and never used. The budget planner is one of the best tools Iv used for looking at my spending habits.

notafan

The best bits of information i heard were from my dad long before debt was an issue...

''remember its so easy to spend but it'll be so much harder to pay back''

''just because it's there doesn't mean you have to spend it''

It didn't seem important at the time but hey you learn your lessons!

The best bits of info i've heard after you owe out are...

-Be Realistic - in terms of everything, affordability (to live and to repay), how long it will take, what you spend on etc.

-Snowball/Avalanche debt repayment

-Take a long hard look at your outgoings and cut back everywhere you can

-Know your finances inside out, you should know what you have going in and out, when they are due, balances, rates, companies you have things with etc

-Do something about it right away, don't put it off.

-Keep at it!

Asiacat

1.Not so much advice but when someone pointed out that if you buy a 2000 quid sofa on a credit card with an APR of 20% and a minimum payment of 2% it will take over 35 years to pay it off it certainly made me think twice about these big purchases.

2. It's a lot easier to stay out than to get out (applies to debt, gambling, drinking and cigarette smoking).

3. Never make an impulse purchase. Write it down in a notebook and only go back for it if you still want it in 72 hours time.

4. If you can't save money you will never achieve anything in life.

5. Cover the danger zone. Basically means look at your weekly schedule and look not only at what you spend but when you spend it. Once you take into account sleep, work and travelling you probably find there are only 8-10 hours a week when you are actually spending money.

For most people this will be Saturday afternoon and 1-2 hours on certain evenings.

Once you have pinpointed the danger zone simply find something else to do instead, exercise, play football, jog, surf the Internet, make love, read, catch up on your DVD collection anything but tour the shopping malls or pubs.

6. Plan your spending in advance for each day and unforeseen circumstances apart stick to it.

7. Never borrow money with interest to buy something that will only depreciate in value.

8. Learn to live on 80% of your salary.

9. Always ask for a discount they can only say no.

10. Define the areas where you waste money (library fines, late payment penalties, food thrown out as it's gone past it's sell by date, lottery etc. ) And each day write out "I have wasted______so far this year." . Focussing on this figure every day will help you eliminate waste completely.

riverboat2001

Work out where your money is being "wasted"
For me Microsoft Money was a revelation.

IHaveNoMoney.com

Some more excellent advice there thanks, i think taking control has got to be the biggest issue once you are controling the debt everything else can fall into place, the way i look at things have totally changed yesterday i got £28 on ebay i have transfered it to my bank from paypal but usually intend to pay it off something i wait till it has cleared and it is just wasted so this time it won't be cleared til friday so i am going to pay it off a debt before it clears

david_hellier

Plan a spending diary to prevent overspend. The encouragement of overspending by the banks is the main problem with the economy, and they will look for ways to perpetuate this, for example by the introduction of contactless cards. The complete elimination of paper money is their long term aim so we as consumers must pay hawkish attention to exactly how much is available to spend.

One of the best ways to tackle this is to use the weekly subtraction method. Firstly work out all your income. If your income is monthly then divide this by 4.33, this will give you your weekly income. Note it.

Then work out your monthly essential outgoings, but exclude food (more later). Divide this by 4.33 to give you your weekly out goings. Note it.

Take the outgoing figure from the incoming figure. This is the weekly Start amount available to spend on anything else including food.

Get any little notebook ( a spending diary) and write the Start figure in it at the start of the week. As you spend or withdraw cash deduct it as you go. Try to get to the end of the week with some left in it and carry this forward to the next week and add it to the new Start figure.

Using this method ensures you do not overspend. I suggest you include food in the Start figure because the amount we spend on it can vary widely. My personal experience shows allowing a specific amount for food is impractical, however, it's up to you.

This method also requires you to effectively ignore your bank balance, because it is meaningless on a day to day basis. What you should see is it increasing steadily.

Also remember to include any OD charges, interest or other fees in the essential outgoing list, otherwise overspending will continue.

Other top tips: stop using credit cards for further spending and make FIXED repayments, never the minimum.

I have an excel spreadsheet which can work out the Start figure if you PM me with an email address.

Odette

riverboat2001 wrote: »

Work out where your money is being "wasted"
For me Microsoft Money was a revelation.

Ive seen Microsoft Money mentioned a couple of times, is it really that good? Thanks.

WRINKLES

IHaveNoMoney.com wrote: »

The best piece of advice i got and what changed the way i looked at what i was doing with my money was to start saving some money, it was a member here who said it and until then i never saw the point of having savings when i was in so much debt but i do need an emergency fund.

Everytime something goes wrong car/washing machine etc i end up using more credit to fix/replace often paying more than i would have done had i have had the cash to buy it.

I am so excited that in three weeks i will have £80 going into a seperate account every 4 weeks i don't think we will notice the money going and once we have £500 i will start using that £80 to pay off debts knowing that if something goes wrong i have the cash to replace, once it goes below £500 i will wait until it is back up to £500 again before i start using that £80 for debts

Thgis website has totally changed my life and my perception of the debts we have if i hadn't of joined we would still be living in the clouds thinking we were coping, i am just glad we realised the mess we are in while we are still able to manage it.

Thanks to everyone with all your wonderful advice

The best advice i can give you is , dont confuse what you need with what you want , buy only what you need , you will soon find there is more money in the pot .

Saintconor

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