Dilemma....

mrsmag

Ok I feel like a total spammer here, I tend to do this with my finances though - become obsessed with them for the first 2 weeks of the month, then forget about them. I am very grateful to anyone reading this! Maybe I should get this thread moved into the diary section?

But here's my new question:

If we decide to keep at it with the repayment of the CC, a sensible way of reducing outgoings is to get a more cost effective car. If we sell the cars we have, we will get about £6000, trade in value even less. So to get a family, good quality, safe, car I will need more than that but not significantly more.

I need a new mortgage deal anyway as my deal is up and now tracking below base rate, which is fine for now but rates can't go down! Need tied into a new deal at some point.

Should I get a new car by taking £ out of the mortgage current account, then when I get my new mortgage deal absorb that into the new mortgage, leaving the credit cards on 0%?

That would leave me with a mortgage of still less than what I originally took out, but I wouldn't be paying 4% on the current acc - more like 3 ish percent for a decent mortgage deal?

atush

re do your SOA with changes and remove the CC debt which you have put in twice so we can get a better grip on things.

I have a cut and colour too, w/HLs. Mine costs 50 quid. So maybe your HD is expensive? I try to go 12 weeks when I can or at least stick to 10 weeks, never 8 weeks.

Phones. you dont Want to reduce them but you have to. And you can reduce a tariff under contract- I just have with an Iphone on Orange that was months away from renewal. Check and change.

mrsmag

To reduce the payments on the phone, would they change my T&C presumably? I could do with less minutes and texts actually, but I like having the internet available, and I'm not techy enough to know how reducing my internet allowance from unlimited (not really unlimited though is it?) would affect me. I might end up paying more? Or is that just what they want you to think?

I know the hair thing is a problem, I go to my mum's hairdresser and she babysits for me and I don't really want to tell her I have to change because of money of she'll give me money! OMG - I am actually so spoiled, I think this should be re-named as MrsMag's wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee diary. I'm off to pick up my daughter now, thank you to anyone who has replied so far!

edinburgher

mrsmag, don't you have access to the internet at home/work? I ask as you don't really *need* internet access from your phone, it's something you like to have, right?

It's these sorts of little things that will have to be cut if you're serious about getting rid of the £400/mth deficit you're facing.

Between yourself and hubby you spend 60% more than what my OH and I pay for home phone, internet and smart phones with data packages. We earn a little more than you and don't have any debts. Not preaching, just pointing out the fact that you can't afford all the little 'treats' that you think you can.

Also, sorry hubby commutes so far for work, but this doesn't magically entitle him to an iPhone. I did read your post about him not spending any money elsewhere (good man, reminds me of myself ), but the fact remains that a £10/mth PAYG or sim-only contract would cover the basics. If he's anything like myself, he'd probably agree with me....

Other examples would be OHs Honda - can't he sell it and buy a banger for driving to the station?

As regards commuting, have you looked at getting an annual ticket for hubby, or can he drive to one of the bus routes between Glasgow and Edinburgh? My OH is currently looking for a job and she was actually better of taking jobs that paid less but weren't in Edinburgh as the annual cost would have been something ludicrous like £3k.

Excuse the random thoughts, but it looks like there's still plenty of fat that can be trimmed from your budget. I like fun as much as the next person, but if you're losing money every month, it sounds like you need to cut back to the bare minimum and be realistic. There's nothing to stop you re-introducing fun spending when the situation improves in future.

All the best

atush

Call your provider and ask how many mins, txts and data youhve used each month for the last 3 months. I found I could downgrade to the next lower one and save 5 quid a month even under the contract t&cs as i wasn't using enough per mlnth and am sitll under the limit for my new lower plan.

I don't think you can 'turn off' data if this is an intial contract for your smart phone? But if you can, tyrn off roaming data and just use free wifi.

And like i said, repost your SOA w/o doubling up things like the CCs.

I am concerned you are spending more than you think, so you should start (both of you) a spending diary each day to see where your money goes. You will be surprsed.

January20

I'm going to be blunt - sorry so don't think I'm being nasty (and correct me if I'm wrong )

- I think you've got it in your head that you want to be debt free as painlessly as possible and you want to re mortgage so are not really open to other solutions. You can't be debt free without pain. If you are struggling now, how will you cope with a bigger mortgage and another child in future?

- I don't think you're really on top of your budget: your cc payments should not be where you put them, even in your 2nd soa. It confuses things. You said you don't really have an emergency fund so why put in the £60 in your soa? Again it confuses things. Write out a proper soa of what is really happening to your finances, not what you think should or will happen. (For instance: you said you are giving up the gym. When? because that £37 makes a big difference in your soa.)

You need to accept that for the foreseeable future, if you want to get out of debt, you have to make some sacrifices. It's unfair I know. You need to decide which expenses are essential and which are not and play around with your budget a little. The amount you spend on travelling to work is incredible. My motto is that I go to work to earn money not to spend it, so can you find ways of reducing these expenses? You earn £29400 between the two of you and spend £6660 on petrol and on other travel costs! Nearly a 4th of your combined salaries.

redbull5

mrsmag wrote: »

Ok I feel like a total spammer here, I tend to do this with my finances though - become obsessed with them for the first 2 weeks of the month, then forget about them. I am very grateful to anyone reading this! Maybe I should get this thread moved into the diary section?

But here's my new question:

If we decide to keep at it with the repayment of the CC, a sensible way of reducing outgoings is to get a more cost effective car. If we sell the cars we have, we will get about £6000, trade in value even less. So to get a family, good quality, safe, car I will need more than that but not significantly more.

I need a new mortgage deal anyway as my deal is up and now tracking below base rate, which is fine for now but rates can't go down! Need tied into a new deal at some point.

Should I get a new car by taking £ out of the mortgage current account, then when I get my new mortgage deal absorb that into the new mortgage, leaving the credit cards on 0%?

That would leave me with a mortgage of still less than what I originally took out, but I wouldn't be paying 4% on the current acc - more like 3 ish percent for a decent mortgage deal?

You have a smallish mortgage for a large value house. Pretty good, and its at a really good rate at the moment.

Some how you have over £25000 of secured or un secured debt.

But yet you dont think you can get a reasonable sized family car for under £6000.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201127396274392/sort/priceasc/usedcars/maximum-age/up_to_5_years_old/fuel-type/diesel/price-from/5000/model/passat/make/volkswagen/radius/1500/page/1/postcode/ox42lz?logcode=p

or if that isnt good enough for you

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201127399187391/sort/priceasc/usedcars/fuel-type/diesel/maximum-age/up_to_4_years_old/model/mondeo/make/ford/radius/1500/page/13/postcode/ox42lz?logcode=p

both are diesel cars, both are similar, both not older than 5 years old. Both safe and reliable. Both are good on fuel and would probably achieve double the honda civic type r

What more can you want, oh wait, i know your problem, you want too much and want it now.

If you have such large debt, you have to sacrifice other assets to pay these.

To reference your other question, i would personally sort out your accounts and finance, continue paying the minimum payments and maybe build up a small emergency fund say 1k plus. Do you have any other savings at all to help pay off these debts.

Pay the debts off as much as you can monthly, then you will be glad you didnt remortgage.

mrsmag

edinburgher wrote: »

mrsmag, don't you have access to the internet at home/work? I ask as you don't really *need* internet access from your phone, it's something you like to have, right? I have internet access at home, and restricted internet access at work, not that I have time to use it there. I tend to use it on the train to work. But not sure why you're pointing this out - its not very constructive when I can't do anything about it now that I'm tied into a contract.

It's these sorts of little things that will have to be cut if you're serious about getting rid of the £400/mth deficit you're facing.

Between yourself and hubby you spend 60% more than what my OH and I pay for home phone, internet and smart phones with data packages. We earn a little more than you and don't have any debts. Not preaching, just pointing out the fact that you can't afford all the little 'treats' that you think you can. Point taken

Also, sorry hubby commutes so far for work, but this doesn't magically entitle him to an iPhone. I did read your post about him not spending any money elsewhere (good man, reminds me of myself ), but the fact remains that a £10/mth PAYG or sim-only contract would cover the basics. If he's anything like myself, he'd probably agree with me....

Other examples would be OHs Honda - can't he sell it and buy a banger for driving to the station? Have already said we're selling it so he can cycle.......

As regards commuting, have you looked at getting an annual ticket for hubby, or can he drive to one of the bus routes between Glasgow and Edinburgh? My OH is currently looking for a job and she was actually better of taking jobs that paid less but weren't in Edinburgh as the annual cost would have been something ludicrous like £3k. Annual ticket is the same as 12 x monthly tickets. OH has a job which is quite specialised, which he retrained for and there aren't any jobs in Glasgow, or anywhere closer. He lived in Birmingham right up till I had our daughter, then was made redundant and ended up in Nottingham. Believe it or not, we were THRILLED when a job came up so close to home. We are both painfully aware that he could work in Tesco and earn more net each month, but some things are more important than the speed at which you pay off your debts. Whether or not we pay them off is not the point, we are more than capable - its just the speed at which we pay them that stings as someone mentioned below, no pain no gain

Excuse the random thoughts, but it looks like there's still plenty of fat that can be trimmed from your budget. I like fun as much as the next person, but if you're losing money every month, it sounds like you need to cut back to the bare minimum and be realistic. There's nothing to stop you re-introducing fun spending when the situation improves in future.

All the best

atush wrote: »

Call your provider and ask how many mins, txts and data youhve used each month for the last 3 months. I found I could downgrade to the next lower one and save 5 quid a month even under the contract t&cs as i wasn't using enough per mlnth and am sitll under the limit for my new lower plan. :cool:

I don't think you can 'turn off' data if this is an intial contract for your smart phone? But if you can, tyrn off roaming data and just use free wifi.

And like i said, repost your SOA w/o doubling up things like the CCs. Already done

I am concerned you are spending more than you think, so you should start (both of you) a spending diary each day to see where your money goes. You will be surprsed. But this budget is a result of a spending diary.......

January20 wrote: »

I'm going to be blunt - sorry so don't think I'm being nasty (and correct me if I'm wrong )

- I think you've got it in your head that you want to be debt free as painlessly as possible and you want to re mortgage so are not really open to other solutions. I most certainly am, if you read my other posts You can't be debt free without pain. If you are struggling now, how will you cope with a bigger mortgage and another child in future?

- I don't think you're really on top of your budget: your cc payments should not be where you put them, even in your 2nd soa. It confuses things. The SOA asks for minimum payments in the credit card section, so that's what I've filled in there, but we overpay - so that overpayment is listed in the section above it....... in what way does that not make sense? You said you don't really have an emergency fund so why put in the £60 in your soa? This is because I actually am on top of my budget? Because I have calculated what I have spent in the last year on household 'emergencies' and unexpected payments, divided it by 12 and budgeted for it? Again it confuses things. Write out a proper soa of what is really happening to your finances, This IS what is really happening in my finances!! I've seen so many people post SOAs with nothing in the budget for emergencies, road tax, servicing - because they don't budget for it - that doesn't mean that they aren't paying for those things all the same!!! not what you think should or will happen. - no- its actually what DOES happen, without me planning for it! (For instance: you said you are giving up the gym. When? because that £37 makes a big difference in your soa.) Cancelled today, one more payment then done

You need to accept that for the foreseeable future, if you want to get out of debt, you have to make some sacrifices. see my original post, I'm aware of that! That's why I've admitted that to remortgage is to cheat, more than once It's unfair I know.haha, not really - I spent it didn't I You need to decide which expenses are essential and which are not and play around with your budget a little. The amount you spend on travelling to work is incredible. My motto is that I go to work to earn money not to spend it, so can you find ways of reducing these expenses? You earn £29400 between the two of you and spend £6660 on petrol and on other travel costs! Nearly a 4th of your combined salaries.

Now with all due respect to you all, and thank you for replying, I think some people may have misread my lighthearted posting as a lighthearted attitude to my debt - it is not. And I am guilty of expressing every thought that has passed through my mind in relation to the debt. Believe me if I was sure I wanted the 'easy' way out I'd already have my new mortgage in place! I needed some support to stay on track and got it in the earlier posts :cool:

mrsmag

redbull5 wrote: »

OK Hunny, i think you have to have a little reality check here. Hey that's not patronising! LOL, no wonder people avoid these boards. Why do you think I'm here Hunny?

You have a smallish mortgage for a large value house. Pretty good, and its at a really good rate at the moment.

Some how you have over £25000 of secured or un secured debt. As explained in the first post, we extended our modest semi detached house into a family home that will last us all our lives if we so choose. Actually, using 0% cards is a calculated risk - but the risk part is coming into effect for us now!

But yet you dont think you can get a reasonable sized family car for under £6000.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201127396274392/sort/priceasc/usedcars/maximum-age/up_to_5_years_old/fuel-type/diesel/price-from/5000/model/passat/make/volkswagen/radius/1500/page/1/postcode/ox42lz?logcode=p

or if that isnt good enough for you WOAH! Judgemental much?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201127399187391/sort/priceasc/usedcars/fuel-type/diesel/maximum-age/up_to_4_years_old/model/mondeo/make/ford/radius/1500/page/13/postcode/ox42lz?logcode=p

both are diesel cars, both are similar, both not older than 5 years old. Both safe and reliable. Both are good on fuel and would probably achieve double the honda civic type r Both are older than my car at the moment, and while I am willing to look short term on many of the money saving decisions we have to make, cur purchases are not one of them. Older cars will have more costly servicing, and neither of these has the fuel consumption or car tax that I'm looking for (although both are undoubtedly better than either of the cars we have at the moment). I am not planning to get a car to change it again soon, what a waste of money.

What more can you want, oh wait, i know your problem, you want too much and want it now. Nice

If you have such large debt, you have to sacrifice other assets to pay these. That's why you'll see a lot of my furniture and personal posessions on Gumtree..............

To reference your other question, i would personally sort out your accounts and finance, continue paying the minimum payments and maybe build up a small emergency fund say 1k plus.That is the plan with the budget Do you have any other savings at all to help pay off these debts. No, I have very sensibly paid all of my savings into the cards as the interest rates are not good

Pay the debts off as much as you can monthly, then you will be glad you didnt remortgage. TBH, I'd have preferred if you'd just said this and left all the 'smart' quips to yourself.

:cool: Forums (Fora?! :rotfl:) are a fabulous way of making yourself feel good if you like to make others feel small, eh?

redbull5

im not trying to look smart, i have very little savings or dont own house etc so you are far richer than me.

again you have said you dont want to change on the car, a well looked after diesel mondeo or passat will last for years upto 250000 miles or more. And the servicing costs arnt that much.. I dont think changing a honda type r to a very very very reliable diesel car is a waste of money. Then again, you will know cause you have the debt.

But then again its upto you. if you want to change and get rid of the debt you can only do what you want and it will depend on how long it takes you to realize