Friendly advice please?

rhapsody7

Positive news! I received a promotion at work today, yippee!!!

Niv

Grats!!!!!

rhapsody7

Funny day! I won a tenner on the lottery (better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!) and my promotion, hopefully a third is on the way!!!

BrownBear9

Hello...

I am a 'newbie' but will try to give advice...

I am asuming that if you entered into this 'debt free plan' you would damage your credit file - I think (-but not 100% sure ! -so please seek advice elsewhere) that you have to default on an account before companies will accept reduced payments ??

Also, your HP loans and Barclaycards are 0% -so you're not paying any interest- so there's nothing to freeze- if I understand it correctly ??!!

My point is, the difference between what you are already paying and this plan is only £27 -is it worth damaging your credit report for this small amount- can a saving not be made somewhere to cover it?

I agree with TonyMMM- where is the spare £236 according to your SOA ??

Best Wishes!

rhapsody7

Yes I do have spare and even more now cos of the promotion today (am very lucky and has come at the best time!)
I won't be going into the debt free plan as it didn't benefit us in any way.
Our spare wasn't stretching far as we were trying to pay off our debts quicker, thankfully things should work out now.

geoffky

good luck..But do not forget why you came here...

emmie26

Hi there you situation sounds quite similar to mine about two years ago, number of children, amount of debt, etc. It seems like a massive hill to climb but now I have cleared all my original debt and all I have is hp on 0% (not long left). You need to decide which way you want to do it, I couldn't face the thought of having the debt hanging over me for a long time so I really tried hard to earn as much as I could and spend as little as I could over a short period so that it was all gone. I would agree that the grocery bill is quite high, I spend about £200 a month on groceries I cook from scratch most nights and do me and hubby lunchbox for work, if you get a discount as well you should be able to cut down at least a bit. Good luck with it all!

rhapsody7

I actually managed to save £20 on my weekly shop this week so really pleased! All four of us have packed lunch for school/work. My weekly shop does include toiletries and cleaning stuff though which I usually get from the reduced section anyway.

Barbeduk

Well done Rhapsody, looks like your luck is turning!

Come over and join us over on the grocery challenge. There are 4 of us and I used to spend around £500 a month on shopping, like you including toiletries and cleaning stuff. I've cut that to £260 and all the saving have been used towards paying the debt quicker.