Weighed Down by Debt

RAS

Thoughts....

mabbya wrote: »

I'll have WWIII on my hands if i cancel sky. I recently got a one stop package that includes broadband, tv and phone so making some savings compared to previous bill.

YOu all need to understand that you are on the edge of serious financial problems. You need to downgrade and ultimately to go freeview for a few years.

£500 grocery bill also includes, £100 pocket money for me and £100 for kids miscellaneous school and home demands. So really only £300 for groceries

Well the pocket money had to go and do the school and home demands. You cannot afford them. i suggest you and OH have £15 each per month for spends and that is it.

Mobile phone is £45 for my contract which is up for renewal soon and £5 contract for OH

Well ditch the contract and go PAYG.

The £40 donation is for religious reasons. I need to pluck the courag e to do that

Yes you do.

XXSCOTSLASSXX

Just wanted to say well done you for taking control we were in similar position thinking wasnt a problem making the min payments etc each month .... did our SOA and were £163 short each month duhhhhh.... is a real eye opener we wasted so much each month on rubbish non essentials was shocking really.

1st priority would be to cut back where possible to make up the £179.50 shortfall each month..... once youve done that cutting back does become easier and rather obsessive lol I think iv developed SOA OCD ...it does seem really daunting at the start but does and will get easier x

We have 5 in household too (plus dog) and Iv shrunk the monthly shopping down from approx £500 (probably more to be honest just filled the trolley before never ever looked at the prices :O shocking but true) to under £300 per month it really can be done, and this really wasnt by making drastic changes could probably be lower if was very strict but we still eat well and kids have not complained .... yet lol...

The snowball tool is fantastic too, is well worth using ... now that we have a surplus each month ( something we never had before ) it all gets pumped into the highest interest debt and is really making a difference.

Good Luck youve taken the biggest step acknowledging it xx

superted187

mabbya wrote: »

The £40 donation is for religious reasons. I need to pluck the courag e to do that

I'd respectfully encourage you to halt this payment. You can't afford it.

mabbya

RAS wrote: »

The basic expenditure to income looks OK, so how have you managed to rack up that much debt? Unless you understand that, you have no chance of sorting out the situation.

Generally debt equal to one year's salary is manegeable; beyond that things get problematic.



What is the cost of renting a similiar house locally? One option might be to sell up, settle up and rent for a while, then build a deposit. if you can keep stuff at 0% for a while, all well and good but it could get difficult.

Certainly if the cost of your mortgage or borrowings goes up a lot at any stage in the next two years, you may consider this option, or if you cannot reduce your debt substantially in that time.

It is currently cheaper for me to pay the mortgage rather than rent -£1.4k.

On a tight rope at the moment would like to pay off debts wisely and free up money to pay off others more quickly.

mabbya

superted187 wrote: »

I'd respectfully encourage you to halt this payment. You can't afford it.

That made me laugh I will cancel the standing order tonight and may well be able to increase when debt more manageable?!

RAS

mabbya wrote: »

It is currently cheaper for me to pay the mortgage rather than rent -£1.4k.

On a tight rope at the moment would like to pay off debts wisely and free up money to pay off others more quickly.

I think tight-rope is a good way of thinking about it. You might get through if interest rates stay low but it is going to take years.

Are there any early redemption penalties on the loans? You need to know as you cannot target your payments until you know where they will be effective.

This weekend, get OH to go round and find everything that is no longer used. You need to sell as much as possible to raise enough to make a dent the most effective account (which might be a 6.9 card)

prettypaula

what are the "other child related expenses" as you said you give £100 of the grocery money towards those already.

£100 on haircurts per month is a HUGE amount, my hubby pays a fiver monthly and i pay £25 every 8-10 weeks, this is more than sufficient, we both work in corp environments, i often get comments about how lovely my hair looks.

if you dont TRULY have a LBM you WILL lose your house.

Happytogetdebtfree

Hi and well done for posting, plenty of good advice available just curious are the financial repayments minimum or can some be reduced along with some of the groceries bill or at least reduce what you pay your children a month , are they old enough to do paper rounds etc ? it will take time but eventually numbers will start to drop

oldhand

Can only offer you my best wishes,you have a long hard road ahead but as others have said you are making the effort.As for your OH being "not really bothered" do you think he actually realises how bad things are or is he burying his head hoping it will go away? You really need to get him working with you on this but as a last resort perhaps you would be better off without him.

mabbya

prettypaula wrote: »

what are the "other child related expenses" as you said you give £100 of the grocery money towards those already.

£100 on haircurts per month is a HUGE amount, my hubby pays a fiver monthly and i pay £25 every 8-10 weeks, this is more than sufficient, we both work in corp environments, i often get comments about how lovely my hair looks.

if you dont TRULY have a LBM you WILL lose your house.

£300 -School bus money, school dinner money, music lessons, voluntary donation to school, football lessons. Some payments aren't monthly but that is the maximum payment per month.