Any help would be appreciated

lins192

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,884.97
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). . . . . . . . . . . 81.20
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
ged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
john. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.91
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.39
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411.30
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36.10
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275.58
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155.13
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
ged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
weight watchers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
eis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.17
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,151.17

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,142.70

[Deleted User]

lins192 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

How many people is this SOA to cover?

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax) . . . . . . . 1,884.97
Benefits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81.20
ged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
john.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00

Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.00 How many is this for? If One, or even two it seems on the high side - if stuck in contracts see if you can downgrade a tariff. If/When out of contract look at SIM only and PAYG deals - there area some good cheap call and text bundles for £10pm
TV Licence. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00 What does this cover? You should be able to get home phone and internet for £20-£25pm
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152.00 This seems very high to me, are you in arrears? If so when will they be fully repaid. If not, are you in credit whith the company? If so claim in back. make sure that you're using your electric efficiently - turn down temp on heating and boiler by a few degrees, turn things off instead of leaving them on standby, energy efficient bulbs etc
Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Don't you pay this? (ignore if you are in Scotland - as this is included in CTax there)
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 How much is your OD for, and do you use it?
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.91 For most people (although not all), this is generally not worth it - downgrade or switch your account if you don't use the benifits it provides. And if you do use them, can you get them cheaper elsewhere?
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.39
Mortgage/Rent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411.30
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36.10
Food and Household Shopping .. . . . . . . . . . . 250.00 Hard to advise if savings can be made here without knowing how many people you need to feed from this, but try cutting back a bit if you haven't tried rescently - try dropping brands, meal planning, batch cooking, try Lidl/Aldi

Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Don't you need this?
Car Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Probably need something here

Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275.58 How many cards? How much is owed? what's the APR's? And, is this the minimum payment allowed?
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155.13 How many payments left?

Family
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 How many kids for?
ged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100.00 Ged gives you £35, and you give ged £100?
weight watchers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 Any way to cut this back?
eis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.17 What's this? Any way to cut back?

Entertainment
Shopping for Fun. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00 WHat does this cover?
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00

Clothes, Health & Beauty
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00 Every month? Any way to cut back? Cut down? go and extra week between cuts? Try a local college for cheap/free trainee cyts

Big One Offs
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 every month?
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 can this be reduced?

Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 read online for free
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 This is a lot monthly, what does this cover? Can you cut back, bring your own?

Total monthly income . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,151.17

Total monthly expenses.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,142.70

Hi I have made some comments above. But to really be able to offer advice depends on what you aim to achieve? De debt free? Pay down debt? save? Make cutbacks?

HTH

D9

lins192

Thank you so much for your comments so far. I am a single parent with two teenage daughters so the soa is for 3 people in total (thus the high monthly mobile phone bills!)

I am really looking to reduce my monthly credit card repayments as at the moment I have 3 cards with a total of £12,500 on them and can only afford to pay off the minimum payment per month. Have been declined for several balance transfers over the past few months and am therefore paying a helluva lot in interest without actually reducing the debt by very much! This is really where I need to make savings so I can afford to pay more each month towards the outstanding balance.

I have been declined for a remortgage, a loan and new credit cards but according to experian I have an excellent credit rating, although I am maxed out.

I live in scotland so we don't pay water rates and thanks I did miss out my car insurance monthly payment of £28.00 (ish). The eis is a trade union i choose to subscribe to (need the protection).

I have a grand total of £8 left per month once all my payments have been made and this means my poor car is neglected! The car was bought two years ago brand new and is on one of those deals where after three years you can pay a final payment towards the cost, hand the car back, or trade it in for a newer one.

Any further comments are VERY welcome. Cheers!:beer:

Experian_company_representative

Sounds like you've kept up your credit repayments so far hence your good credit report score. However, lenders tend to also look at income and outgoings and I suspect it's affordability where they have concerns.

I'm sure many others will chip in with helpful suggestions but I suspect the gist of it will be to look for ways to increase your disposable income, by getting more money in or cutting your expenditure (or both) and then starting to pay down your existing debts. I know this is much easier said than done!!

If you have a good relationship with your bank you could, assuming you haven't done this already, get a face-to-face meeting and enquire whether they'd be prepared to help you consolidate your existing debts into one lower cost loan with them.

Good luck.

James Jones

KiKi

lins192 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
ged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
john. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00

What are these, please?

Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.00

Even for three of you (is it for three?), this is high. If you're in contract, call and beg to reduce. If you're not in contract, swap for SIM only at £10 per month - you can get LOADS with that, now.
SAVING: £22 A MONTH

Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00

Are you in contract? Probably not, and if that's the case then change supplier, as you can get internet, home phone line and freeview for £20 a month. Find the cheapest deal first. THEN go to one or two of the cashback websites, and the uswitch website and find out if you can get cash for switching (almost definitely).
SAVING: £15 A MONTH

Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152.00

This is HUGE! Appreciate you're not using gas, but you can halve this. Turn everything off (don't leave on standby - you still use 80% of elec when things are on standby!), switch to energy saving bulbs (you can get them free from some web sites), limit shower time, use heating sensibly etc.
SAVING: £50 A MONTH

Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00

Is this because you're living in your OD? Or because you have to pay a fee to have it? Can you negotiate a smaller one with your bank if you don't need it all, or change to a bank that doesn't charge you for it?

Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.91

Unless you use the benefits associated with the account (and I've yet to find anyone who does!), this isn't worth it. Get a free account (or a fee-paying account that you can get for free if you take out a savings product. Eg, the First Direct bank account I have is free if I have an e-saver, too. So I do, even though I hardly use it!)
SAVING: £12.91 A MONTH

Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36.10

Is this necessary? I appreciate you want your kids to be provided for, but if you can't provide for them right now, then this has to go. You can always take out another life assurance product later - and cheaper. You don't need life insurance to have a mortgage (although some lenders will pressure you to).
SAVING: £36.10 A MONTH

School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00

Consider changing to packed lunches. Could you provide sandwiches and fruit etc for less? (I don't know how much your kids eat, so not sure!)

Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00

How old are your kids? Could they have a bit less (say, £20 a month) and get Saturday jobs? Might seem like such a small amount, but you need to make cuts.

ged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00

What is this for, please?

weight watchers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

Now you have all the info, do you really need to pay this? Do you use it? It's not an essential, so consider cutting unless you're really benefiting from it.

eis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.17

What is this, please?

Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00

This is £220 a month on stuff that's non-essential. I'm not saying cut it all, but you can get free haircuts at a hairdressing college, you can take snacks and sandwiches out, and you could limit yourself to £20 shopping for fun.

This money could almost pay your CCs each month. Imagine how many inroads you could make if you put this towards your CCs instead! Perhaps keep a spending diary to see where it's really going.
SAVING: £110 A MONTH

Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00

£900 on birthdays and Christmas each year is a lot. You might be used to it, but you can cut it. There are some FABULOUS ideas and really great bargains on the Grabbit board for really lovely birthday and Christmas presents. Perhaps try cutting it to £700 for now, and see how you go.
SAVING: £16.60 A MONTH


In total, I reckon you could save around £262 a month - and that's going easy. You could save more if you really cracked down on groceries, but for three of you that's not bad.

I hope some of these ideas help you, best of luck.
KiKi

foxgloves

It's the electricity bills that really jumped out at me. £152 each month is very high. we are paying £66 a month total for gas and electricity. Ours used to be a lot higher......in fact, much closer to what you are paying, but we decided to stop wasting it....it's so easy to waste energy but with the costs being so high these days, it's just chucking money away. We changed all our bulbs to energy saving ones, switch lights off when we leave the room, only boil the actual amount of water we need in the kettle (I used to be the worst person in the world for boiling a whole kettle for one mug!), we turned the heating down a little, in the depth of winter we concentrate on heating one living room well, rather than all downstairs rooms adaquately, we put another layer on instead of sitting in a heated room in a t-shirt all year round, use timers to set breadmaker, slow cooker (sometimes) and washing machine on the cheaper night time electricity tariff and never leave things on standby. We don't have a tumble drier but we only put heating on to dry washing if we absolutely have to and dry it on the line as much of the year as we can. Our energy provider gives out free electicity monitors so we set one of those up and it really shows you which appliances are the most costly. Something else I started (anoroak-levels of tightness here!) is reading electricity & gas meters every Sunday night & jotting it down, then working out how many units we've used. Being able to compare is helpful & also, if it shoots up, I can stop & think about what we did differently that week. It might sound obsessive, but it's halved our bills and could maybe shave a good bit of your high payment too? Hope so. Good luck with it all x

beecher2

If you're a teacher can you take on exam marking or tutoring next term to help?

KingElvis

Mobile phones and "shopping for fun" are obvious candiadtes for the chop?

lins192

Just to say a big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to reply to my post. You have all certainly given me lots to think about and I will be looking into ways of reducing my monthly outgoings. I realise my electricity is ridiculously high but this is for both gas and electricity and I have recently had a new boiler installed so my consumption is now a lot more efficient than previously. I look forward to cheaper bills in the very near future but in the meantime I need to pay off a long term underpayment.

I have approached my bank for a loan to consolidate my existing debt but due to going overdrawn on my overdraft by a very small amount last month (due to my overdraft and account fees being deducted just before pay day ...aahhhh!) I was declined on the grounds of my "poor account history" and advised to wait 3 months before reapplying.

Like I said, I am now carefully thinking about my spending on everything and will be using this site a lot more to find ways of saving even the smallest amount of cash to pay off my credit cards. Ebay is rapidly becoming my favourite website to raise some much needed cash. Thanks once again for your advice, it's so reassuring to realise that there are thousands of others out there experiencing sleepless nights over the same problems!

[Deleted User]

lins192 wrote: »

Just to say a big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to reply to my post. You have all certainly given me lots to think about and I will be looking into ways of reducing my monthly outgoings. I realise my electricity is ridiculously high but this is for both gas and electricity and I have recently had a new boiler installed so my consumption is now a lot more efficient than previously. I look forward to cheaper bills in the very near future but in the meantime I need to pay off a long term underpayment.

If this is historically high billing, then I suggest that you shop around using comparison sites (eg USwictch), and if switching company is benificial then try going through one of the cashback sites for financial incentives (eg Quidco, onepoll cashback, topcashback). Also you bills might be cheaper without even switching company (which you are unlikley to be able to do if you are in arrears) but they should allow you to switch tariff with the same company, check if a different tariff would be cheaper and also online duel fuel taiffs where you pay by DD are often the cheapest

I have approached my bank for a loan to consolidate my existing debt but due to going overdrawn on my overdraft by a very small amount last month (due to my overdraft and account fees being deducted just before pay day ...aahhhh!) I was declined on the grounds of my "poor account history" and advised to wait 3 months before reapplying.

not getting a consolidation loan is most likley a blessing in disguise - if you check around on this board there are many people who have said that these types of loans have been the begining of their debts spiralling. So probably a good thing to have happened.

Like I said, I am now carefully thinking about my spending on everything and will be using this site a lot more to find ways of saving even the smallest amount of cash to pay off my credit cards. Ebay is rapidly becoming my favourite website to raise some much needed cash. Thanks once again for your advice, it's so reassuring to realise that there are thousands of others out there experiencing sleepless nights over the same problems!

E-bay has a free listing this weekend.

Glad you're getting organised and things are getting better with that,

D9