Nibbling away at Debt....

scholt

Hello

Did you consider the scooter idea? My OH drives to work (20 minutes each way) on his 5 times a week and puts just £6 of petrol in.
And if its not gone off how about a cheesecake

Mice_Elf

LOL...yes, I did mention the scooter to my OH...he was less than enthusiastic, shall we say....

In a way I can't say that I blame him - I used to ride a moped and then a motorbike and the amount of gear that you have to wear to be safe out there, plus contending with muppet drivers that can't / won't / don't see you and then having to carry all that gear around on the tube with you.....and back again that night..well, I'd be less than enthusiastic as well.

I know that it would help reduce our debt but I think that a second car is a luxury that we'll have to keep for now. Thank you for your help - it's a good suggestion. We are thinking of downsizing it though, so the petrol costs would be cheaper.

BettiePage

Is your OH willing to help you deal with your families debts, or is all the hard work and cutbacks going to be down to just you? Tell him you need his support in this and (I know I'm being blunt here) stop making excuses for him.

Mice_Elf

It's not so much that I'm making excuses for him, but he works really odd hours and while a scooter would save us some money, it's not terribly practical and I can't force him to ride a scooter when he really doesn't want to. He does have to carry an awful lot of stuff around with him, (laptops, screens, network drives, hard drives, cables etc) which is ok in his bag in the car and is unwieldy but possible on the tube / train but would make riding a scooter inherently unsafe.

He is making other concessions towards saving money like not having coffees at work and not buying snacks (doesn't sound like a lot, but it saves us about £20 - £25 per week, if not more. He's also stopped buying his weekly treat of a Hi-Fi magazine, which is another £3.50-odd.

Did another Mystery Shop today, tied in quite nicely as it was near a friend of mine whom I haven't seen since before Christmas, so it enabled me to counter the petrol towards going to there to give my friend her Christmas presents and buy some cat food & milk and be re-imbursed for it!

No reply from Halifax yet. They sent me their usual "we'll deal with you within 4 weeks" letter, but I'm not going by their timelines so they have until next Wednesday to reply before I send in the 7 day letter.

No reply from Lloyds regarding my OH's account or Halifax regarding the second account that I have with them. Those only had the first letters sent on the 16th January though, so there's still time for the statements to come through within the 40 day deadline.

Paid off a credit card today. It was only £35 but it's £35 that's no longer earning interest and it does feel good to be able to say "that one's clear!" It's now in a place of rest, never (hopefully) to be used again. So, one down, 3 to go....

Not sure whether to concentrate on the Barclaycard next, as it's the smallest amount, or hit the big Skycard first as it's the largest amount. In terms of interest, the Barclaycard one is the worst (I think), so it may kill 2 birds with one stone to pay that off as early as we can and then concentrate on the 2 larger ones. Paying off B'card doesn't release that much money to go towards the other cards, though. But at least it'll be another one that's gone.

Think we're going to concentrate on Credit cards first as they have the worst APR, then OH's loan, which is a really competetive APR and then the mortgage. Each bit we pay off is less earning interest and more that we can pay into the remainders.

Can put a little more into Doshin today, courtesy of the Mystery Shop ... just unfortunate that I have to wait until nearly the end of Feb before they pay me.

Ne'er mind...onwards and upwards. Or downwards, rather in terms of Things We Owe.....

climbgirl

I don't mean this to be nasty, more of a quick wake-up call. You seem to me to be making excuses a little bit - about the second car, things like that. I'm not sure you realise quite how serious this is.

Let me put this bluntly - you're £26,000 in debt, you're currently overspending by £350 odd a month which is only adding to the problem at a very quick rate, and your mortgage is £850 and interest only :eek:

I think it's that last part that scares me most.....that's an expensive mortgage and to be interest only??? Well, that's just not good.

You need to do something about this and fast. Every month you don't pull it back to within your means, you are only making it worse. And not only do you need to pull it back within your means, you need to find enough to make massive inroads in that debt so you can start actually repaying the capital on the mortgage. You really don't want to end up in a bankruptcy situation with negative equity on the house.

Sky and all other luxuries have to go. Takeaways, the lot. You simply can't afford them. Saving in any form is a complete waste of time here. It's no good having a few hundred pounds in the bank for your daughter if you can't afford to feed her or put a roof over her head.

Check that your utilties and insurance are the absolute cheapest you can find. That goes for the mobile phone too - £88 is way, way too high, even if that's for the two of you. I'm sorry, but you just can't afford it at the moment. Cut way back if it's one phone, or consider cutting one out if it's for two. People survived before mobiles, it won't kill you!

I think you really need to consider ditching the second car (or getting a scooter as someone suggested). This is a very easy way to save a lot of money, cars are total money-pits.

Cut way, way back on your groceries. The people on the Old Style Board can live well off the smell of an oily rag, it's amazing what they can do. Follow their example.

I know it's not appealing but you have little choice but to cut back and scrimp and save on everything. You've got a big debt to clear and then something needs to be done about that interest only mortgage. You're effectively just renting off the bank right now, you don't own your house at all.

As I said, I don't mean this to be harsh. Just not entirely sure you've grasped the seriousness of your situation.

climbgirl

Is there any way you can work to bring in some more money? I don't just mean bits here and there from mystery shopping - they help, but I think you need to stop nibbling away at the debt and start chomping!

There are data entry jobs that can be done from home in your own time, things like that. Apparently monster.co.uk is a good place to look for these.

MisterDDB

climb girl is right. you are 26k in debt, your mortgage is interest only and you are continuing to overspend.

you want two mobiles, sky, two cars, broadband etc etc etc.

you just have to realise that you can't afford these things and cut down or cut them out.

yes, its nice to have them but people in debt - like you and me - can't have them. once you accept that, you will cope better.

I actually laughed when i saw the three savings accounts. are you insane?????

Good luck though.

Mice_Elf

climbgirl wrote:

I don't mean this to be nasty, more of a quick wake-up call. You seem to me to be making excuses a little bit - about the second car, things like that. I'm not sure you realise quite how serious this is.

Let me put this bluntly - you're £26,000 in debt, you're currently overspending by £350 odd a month which is only adding to the problem at a very quick rate, and your mortgage is £850 and interest only :eek:

Oh I realise how serious this is, don't worry. If I come across as a little flippant it's because mainly I'm embarrassed at getting into so much debt. Trust me, with thought, discussed and talked about every aspect of where we spend money and while it may come across as making excuses, it's not. Don't know if you've read my previous posts on this thread but having only 1 car is impractical for our lives for many reasons, only a few of which have been outlined above.

I think it's that last part that scares me most.....that's an expensive mortgage and to be interest only??? Well, that's just not good.

This much we know. We are currently looking at possibly downsizing.

You need to do something about this and fast. Every month you don't pull it back to within your means, you are only making it worse. And not only do you need to pull it back within your means, you need to find enough to make massive inroads in that debt so you can start actually repaying the capital on the mortgage. You really don't want to end up in a bankruptcy situation with negative equity on the house.

It's true, we don't. And we have made a start on our debts. Recognising the issue is Step 1....re-adjusting is step 2. We have re-worked the mortgage so that while it is not a repayment mortgage, some of the money we pay goes against the capital. It isn't a huge amount, but anything is better than nothing until we can get a proper repayment mortgage. This does not increase our terms, nor leave the interest gathering any more than it did previously, so it's a better deal.

Sky and all other luxuries have to go. Takeaways, the lot. You simply can't afford them. Saving in any form is a complete waste of time here. It's no good having a few hundred pounds in the bank for your daughter if you can't afford to feed her or put a roof over her head.

Again, see previous posts. We don't have takeaways, not even 1 since moving into the house. We don't eat out at all, we've been to the cinema once in the last year and that was because my brother paid for us all to go.

The savings have been taken out and utilised against the cards. OH's savings have stopped and mine are being ploughed into other stuff to pay them off.

Check that your utilties and insurance are the absolute cheapest you can find. That goes for the mobile phone too - £88 is way, way too high, even if that's for the two of you. I'm sorry, but you just can't afford it at the moment. Cut way back if it's one phone, or consider cutting one out if it's for two. People survived before mobiles, it won't kill you!

Utilities and insurance are the cheapest. That was one of the first things we did. we've even had Powergen admit that they can't match our current suppliers when they rang to ask why we were leaving them.

As per previous posts, the mobile bill is for 2 phones and most of the calls are from OH for work and no, they won't refund the money because yes, we have asked them. And it's easy to tell OH to not ring work or use his mobile but the way his job is deems it impractical to NOT have a mobile phone. This has been the object of many a discussion between us. Including the fact that if work needs him to have a mobile, they can get him a company one, but his work won't do that. Put it this way - he's just had to spend a week down in London for work - getting into the office at 5:30am and not leaving the office until gone midnight. Work found a hotel and booked him into it. OH had to pay for it upfront and then claim it back from expenses. Work have paid over £200 LESS than it cost OH because "they could have found another hotel cheaper." Yes, even though WORK found the hotel and WORK booked him in, they will not cover the costs incurred. OH is currently wrangling with them over this.
It's one of many reasons why OH is desperately trying to find another job.

I think you really need to consider ditching the second car (or getting a scooter as someone suggested). This is a very easy way to save a lot of money, cars are total money-pits.

Again, it's impractical to have just 1 car or 1 car and a scooter, as I've gone through above. We are thinking of downsizing the car to a smaller, more economical model and insurance, petrol & tax aside, the cars are maintained by family, so cost nothing.

Cut way, way back on your groceries. The people on the Old Style Board can live well off the smell of an oily rag, it's amazing what they can do. Follow their example.

This is what I'm doing now. I'm constantly reading the Old Style Board as there are some incredible suggestions on there that are so so helpful. I've gathered quite a few recipes which I'm using with the food that I have in the freezer and have already begun to see an improvement in the amount of food that we consume.
I bought a rolled shoulder of lamb for £4.72 which did us 2 dinners and 2 sets of OH's sandwiches for work. One night a week we're going to have as veggie, to stretch the meat budget a little further still and I've cut down on portion size for both OH and myself.
I have a personal No-Shopping goal until the 9th February and it looks like I'll achieve that easily, so I'm considering moving that to the 23rd February, which is next payday and will therefore mean that I haven't bought any food in a month, which is excellent for me.

It's all small steps, but at least they're steps in the right direction.

Mice_Elf

climbgirl wrote:

Is there any way you can work to bring in some more money? I don't just mean bits here and there from mystery shopping - they help, but I think you need to stop nibbling away at the debt and start chomping!

There are data entry jobs that can be done from home in your own time, things like that. Apparently monster.co.uk is a good place to look for these.

-=nods=- I'm applying for everything that I can. I know Mystery Shopping doesn't bring in much, but it's currently the ONLY thing that I have bringing in any extra money.

I'm registered on 8 or 9 job agencies and check every night for new jobs, my mum keeps the local papers that she gets and rings me if there's anything suitable in them for me to apply for.

Just have to be careful about what I apply for as my mum can only look after my daughter so often, not every day, so there's no point in me getting a job if it means my daughter has to go to into nursery which drains away all the new found money.

The door-to-door delivery job that I mentioned in a previous post has accepted my application but they haven't yet got any work in my area at present. I have rung them 2ce this week just to keep me fresh in their minds and hopefully be the first to receive any jobs that come up.

Any Mystery Shopping jobs that I take on, I do so if they won't cost me anything in terms of petrol. If it's out of my way, or won't cover fuel costs then I don't do it, as I didn't take on Mystery Shopping to lose money.

Mice_Elf

MisterDDB wrote:

I actually laughed when i saw the three savings accounts. are you insane?????

Not insane, no. The savings accounts were set up before we got together many years ago, so became background expenses, I guess.

As per my post above, these have now been emptied and contra'd against debts incurred and they will not have any more money put into them until we are back on our feet again.