not like moozie!! - i just don't get debt

scaredy_cat_2

well have spent the last few hours sorting this out and feel sick. My dh has taken our 2 little girls to park but i decided i needed to stay and sort this out - good step for me. i feel like i have let my family down and although dh is not always hands on with money neither does he really do the spending. He has been great this morning though ringing stuff that is his but generally all is joint or even solo jointly dealt with. so here goes

First Direct Loan originally £6000 over 66 months at 6.9%
Monthly payment £109.02 and 41 payments left (so £4469.82) but resettlement figure today is £4048.27. They say I can’t make overpayments on this.

First Direct o/d not sure about this really or how to come up with definitive answer!! limit is £2900 but is always over about £3300 but this month I had some car accident expenses (£220) and I did a short amount of work before Christmas so got paid just over £500. So am going to say £2900 as did spend some of wages over chirstmas (working spending out is next job)

Next directory APR 26.49% £150 generally pay minimum payment on this

Scottish Power (old gas bill) from transfer mess up £268.64 paying £30 a month

Graduate loan – Barclays resettlement figure £4503.92 an enormous 72 payments left at £78.77 at 7.9%

Husband’s o/d we think this is still 0% but will clarify. it is £1907

virgin cc just transferred 0% £2600
Halifax cc just transferred 0% £765

so £16874 which is a bit of a shock we also have mortgage and student loan which comes out of my husbands wages and there is nothing we can do about it so not even thinking about that yet.

monthly outgoings (fixed dd not including food and petrol)

Mortgage £541 (we are having a 4 month payment holiday to give us a kick start starting in January)
Water £70.50
council tax £104
tv licence £11.37
to clear dh od £12
house insurance £33
phone £30
charity donation but need to keep as doing some training and this is membership £2.50 will lead to paid work
Norwich union life cover £17
british gas electric £59
british gas £20
bg service contract £26
orange internet £17.99

we also have swimming lessons for my 2 dd at £360 per year.

I don’t work I am at home looking after 3 1/2 year old and 1 1/2 year old. I am a teacher and have put my name forward for some odd days supply. I have just over £600 coming in January for some work I did in December.
My husbands wage is £1237 a month take home and we also get some other income of around £520

I was going to say that I don’t feel low about this as I am a generally happy person but have to say seeing it all laid out in front of me I am close to tears and so frustrated at myself. still new year new spending habbits and I’m off to look at martin’s planner.

thanks for taking the time to look any help would be appreciated.

moozie_2

Hello again

I know it seems very daunting seeing it all like this, written down and added up BUT, trust me when I say that you will feel tonnes better when you start dealing with everything in a proper DFW fashion!


I am running our of the door for my mystery shops but here are my quick throughts on the soa - will come back on the rest

Mortgage £541 (we are having a 4 month payment holiday to give us a kick start starting in January)
Water £70.50 This is very high. Does it include arrears? Perhaps a meter will help - I am getting one and it will lower my bill
council tax £104
tv licence £11.37
to clear dh od £12
house insurance £33 Is this content and building? Mine is 26.61 for both - shop around!
phone £30 What is this for? Shop around for a better deal.
charity donation but need to keep as doing some training and this is membership £2.50 will lead to paid work
Norwich union life cover £17
british gas electric £59 British gas are very expensive. Look at uswitch.com for comparisons, you must be able to do cheaper!
british gas £20 As above
bg service contract £26 This is expensive! Is it worth it?
orange internet £17.99


I think you can make quite a few savings there. Just start looking at all your bills, one by one and read Martin's articles! He does all the work for us and makes everything sooooooooo easy

Once you lower your bills, you will have more to pay off debts and less coming out of the overdrafts. Just tackle things one at a time and it will not only help your spirit but give you results quickly!

You can do this!

Back later xx

lynzpower

hi there

I also noticed you havent put in what you spend on food? Car costs? clothes?

The most important thing I find is to look at your debts, and pay them off ( more than the min) by the APRS. The key one here is that next card. No more min payments! Its costing you a fortune and I bet the balance barely goes down.

I would chop this into a million peices and find a way, any way to get this paid off. Be it a days supply? Or selling a few bits on ebay or amazon.

Could you do some mystery shopping. Even if its just a lunch you will get paid for going and its a free meal you dont have to pay for at home

scaredy_cat_2

thanks to everyone for positive comments and also help - i really do find it amazing that people are so unjudgmental and supportive. I haven't yet done a budget but have had problems downloading martins - i have posted on help board so waiting for reply if not will do online one tomorrow - but in meantime will go to os and do grocery challenge and start my spending diary. I have some supply money coming end of jan so could use a days worth to clear the next bill and then save the money before next sale in summer - i do get some real bargains so loathed to get rid as well as early sale invite - i know sounds lame but good way to get low priced clothes - my husband only buys shoes in sale!! but maybe could start 20p club and £2 coin club for that!

i have also had a big toy sort so will put on ebay. thanks again everyone

scaredy_cat_2

can someone point me in direction of mystery shopping? thanks

lynzpower

try grassroots or gapbuster.com

lynzpower

scaredy_cat wrote:

thanks to everyone for positive comments and also help - i really do find it amazing that people are so unjudgmental and supportive. I haven't yet done a budget but have had problems downloading martins - i have posted on help board so waiting for reply if not will do online one tomorrow - but in meantime will go to os and do grocery challenge and start my spending diary. I have some supply money coming end of jan so could use a days worth to clear the next bill and then save the money before next sale in summer - i do get some real bargains so loathed to get rid as well as early sale invite - i know sounds lame but good way to get low priced clothes - my husband only buys shoes in sale!! but maybe could start 20p club and £2 coin club for that!

i have also had a big toy sort so will put on ebay. thanks again everyone

where do you live? Dont you have a next clearance anywhere near you? I go there and recently Ive spent some Xmas money on
leather belts quid each, bags 2 quid, I got 2 bras for £1 ( marked 19.99 each) they had stacks of stuff too. All shoes were a tenner or less all jeans 5er or less. etc etc

I like next quality but now I wont even pay sale prices - but sales in next clearnace are out of this world!

tyllwyd

scaredy_cat wrote:

Next directory APR 26.49% £150 generally pay minimum payment on this

This is an obvious one to get rid of asap, even if it means transferring the debt to a card with a lower interest rate. Then phone them to cancel your account - not only are you paying a ridiculous APR, you are paying them just to receive the catalogues - I've no idea how much it costs nowadays, but when I had them I was paying about £10 a year for the catalogues, which is just money down the drain.

HazelEyes_3

scaredy_cat wrote:

thanks to everyone for positive comments and also help - i really do find it amazing that people are so unjudgmental and supportive. I haven't yet done a budget but have had problems downloading martins - i have posted on help board so waiting for reply if not will do online one tomorrow - but in meantime will go to os and do grocery challenge and start my spending diary. I have some supply money coming end of jan so could use a days worth to clear the next bill and then save the money before next sale in summer - i do get some real bargains so loathed to get rid as well as early sale invite - i know sounds lame but good way to get low priced clothes - my husband only buys shoes in sale!! but maybe could start 20p club and £2 coin club for that!

i have also had a big toy sort so will put on ebay. thanks again everyone

Welcome and well done for taking the first steps on your DF journey.

I understand completely what you are saying about sales as I am a bit of a sales-aholic myself (or rather I was before my LBM ). However if you recalculate the prices with the interest rate you are paying added on then they may not look so attractive - and if the debt lasts for more than 12 months then you are paying even more........

And of course there is no reason why you can't pay off the card, cut it up but keep the account open for the special offers and then pay cash on the day. This does take some discipline but it can be done.

Have to agree about the clearance outlets - often these are on shopping complexes where there are a number of discount stores so a day trip once or twice a year could be worthwhile.

The advice about treating the overdraft as a debt is "spot on" and helped me enormously. When I first worked out my total debts and DFD I didn't include my overdraft - big mistake which meant that in my first month of being a DFW my total debt (including the OD) went up not down. :eek: Do look into opening another bank account with a guaranteed OD facility such as A&L, not forgetting to either go via Quidco or the referrers board on this site where there are people who will split the referral fee with you.

Good luck and keep posting - it's the best support there is.

nelly_2

dont do minimum repayments on credit cards read this ----> click