Update on my situation.

Lucy5781

Hi again all,

Reviewed my finances again today and was really pleased to know that my CC debts are down by £1108.43 since this time last year to £13,686.59.

The Housing Benefit over-payment debt is now £550, (this was caused by staff in the Jobseekers office filing incorrect paperwork in 2008 and yes I've appealed it twice to no avail) but I've just reduced the repayments by half to £25 (they have no set amount required, I just originally did £50 as I could afford it at the time but things have gotten tighter).

I'm also hoping to reduce my contact lenses payments which could save £10p/m and discuss token payment offer to Egg, who some how managed to keep getting minimum payment off me..... That could save me another £30-40p/m.

Today I also ended my BT, instead I signed up for Broadband from Sky, this means instead of a combined monthly spend of almost £70p/m(for Sky TV & BT) :eek: it's £32.36p/m for three months and then £42.36 afterwards, which is still quite a saving.

I'm hoping to go over full expenses with OH very soon and see if we can consider a joint account for our rent (as he's now officially on the contract with me) and utilities.

When he moved in I budgeted that half of the joint bills/rent would be just over £600p/m but he only arranged a £500 Standing Order to my account so it's no wonder I'm screwed by £80-100p/m!!!!!

Lxx

beanielou

Looking good.
You need to chat to your OH and get him to increase his payments by at least £100.

Lucy5781

It's looking good, OH has had a £500p/a pay rise this month and will get the same increase again after Xmas, at which point he will be increasing it.

From the sound of it we need to do a CC shuffle for him, get him onto some 0% rates, looks like he's not been as on top of this as I was.....

turbo.jet

You should be cancelling sky and using Freeview for a couple of years until you are debt free.

Niv

I havent followed your situation previously but I wanted to say well done. It is good to see when people can manage what (to many) is a large debt.

Keep up the good fight - you can do it!

Just think about how good you will be with money when your debt is gone - loads of money!

Niv

Lucy5781

turbo.jet wrote: »

You should be cancelling sky and using Freeview for a couple of years until you are debt free.

Yes, we should..... Still also trying to convince OH to quit Lovefilm (which is cheaper than him buying DVDs and games...) and doing something about giving up/reducing his gym membership (had to give mine up long before we got together ).

Have gone onto a dual-fuel arrangement via links on MSE which will save another £13.24p/m and will get £15 cash back....

Lucy5781

Well, OH's debts are bigger than mine.... :eek:

But, he does have the bigger salary to manage them, however, he's well past any promotional rates on his CCs and when his bank account has been overdrawn he's been paying his mobile bill and spending small amounts on them :eek:

Made him set up a DD with his mobile company to pay the bill as soon after pay day as possible and he's now going to sort out getting his CC debts onto new 0% cards so he's actually paying off his debt not his interest!!

He's making quite large payments to his loan (which is only six months old)so that's going down pretty quickly.

Glad we've been able to be so open about our money together

Figured that due to his not paying me the £600 budgeted, and only £500 every month, I've been paying £157p/m more than him towards the joint bills. So, I've been short another £50 p/m than I thought I'd been so I can see why I've been so much further into my overdraft than previously figured.

turbo.jet

Have you now agreed to both pay half of the bills each? I have a flatmate and we pay half of the bills each, we both have a direct debit set up on our paydays to pay half of the total amount of all the bills to a seperate account that isn't used for anything else. That way what is left in our own accounts we know is usable and if we were to run out, the bills would still be paid.

Don't suppose it'd be too cheeky to ask your OH to backpay his shortfall

Lucy5781

Once he gets his second-part pay rise in December it will definately increase, perhaps sooner if changes to his monthly CC payments allow.

A joint account may harm his good credit, mine is not great. Best keeping seperate for the time being...

I'd love to get it backdated, but the satisfaction of being the one who's 'right' about it is good enough for me atm

Supposedly we will have £160p/m to spare once the new savings kick in next month, hopefully that'll stop my bank account slipping into fee charging territory......

turbo.jet

It needn't be a joint account, ours isn't. The important thing is its a seperate account, with only Direct Debits (no debit card and no overdraft). It could be in either of your names.

Its just a something that has worked really well for me for many years. The whole time I was in debt I never ever missed a payment for anything. My credit report looks great as a result

Lucy5781

Yes, definately needs to be considered, still on some baby steps with OH, though he seems to take reasonably well to new things...... lol