azjh77's debt diary...

azjh77

Is this right? I can open this thread and add to it as I sort myself out?

Okay, hello everyone, my name is Azjh and I am in debt.

Having looked at it, I don't think things are TOO bad, but it pan's out like this:-

Credit card - Barc. £1,500 (£45 pm)
Credit card - RBS. £2,000 (£45 pm)
Loan 1 secured on the house! £10,000 (finishes 2013) (£131 pm )
Loan 2 secret one I pay to my Mum! £7,000 (Finishes 2010) (145 pm)
Mortgage with Abbey at 5.9% £62,000 (24 years!*) (£355)
Council tax arrears £260 (£30pm for 10 m's i.f)
Woolwich Over draft £620 (Costing £7pm in interest, but i'm not actually paying )


* it was 13, but we had to extend the term to save us £200 p month to live on..

The depressing thought was the fact that these debts are costing me £751 per month....and I earn..£383. Luckily (?!?) I have 4 children, so I am paid obscene amounts of child benefit (£215) and child tax credit (£550)

However, we as a family cannot cut our spending any more. I am fed up of programmes that suggest you can 'save' thousands a year my 'cancelling, gym membership, and selling the silver hidden in your attic' We do not drink, go out, smoke. We don't even have a telly so we could save £10 a month on the licence fee !!! There is no way we can cut our house keeping budget down any more (currently £40 per week for 6 of us! although we do get £8.40 per week to spend on milk and veg)

So, inspired by the 2007 challenge, I have decide to seek 'extra income'. I have been dabbling with Ebay, have packed up 6 black bags worth of toys and clothes for a bootsale in the Summer. I have also joined some of the survey sites and hope to make some cash that way.

I hope to 'raise' £500 by the end of the year. (£50 per month till dec) and throw this at the barc. card. once I get it down, I will continue to pay the £45 per month, and hopefully it will make a dent.

So just a quick question...does birthday/Easter/Christmas money count as earned? It's my 'big' birthday on Friday (30 !!) and I have received £65 so can I count that towards my £500?

I also got £10 from a great aunt for sorting out all her debts and bills (I can give advice, just not so clever at acting on it myself!)


So
March 2007 - £75 /£425


I would be better off using it towards my bill when it comes in, rather than waiting till the end of the year wouldn't I? I'm thinking compound interest here...

Anyway, thanks for reading. And good luck to all other DFW's

azjh77

Something very strange has just happened.

I found this months CC bill - my son hides them! (lucky I've set up a DD !)

Anyway, I notice that the payment for this month is £37, yet next month It's going up!! I don't even use the card how can the debt be rising. I jumped straight on the phone. For a year I have been trying to cancel the payment protection, which costs £12 per month, but was always fobbed off, however today, the nice young lady I spoke to cancelled it straight away AND agreed to set my DD to £45 so I will pay that amount every month, even when the Minimum payment goes down...and this is the best bit. She even dropped my interest rate for me! I was paying well over the odds anyway at 22% but can't transfer because of my credit rating. She dropped it to 18%, which is a lot more than most people pay, but will certainly help me pay this debt off quicker.

Feeling a lot happier now....and got another £10 in the post!

:j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j

mrsspendalot

well done!!!! Sounds like a very productive day!!!

azjh77

Just got hubby's CC bill in and MBNA are charging us 27% !!! When did that happen, I always thought it was 16.9%, teach me to pay more attention. However, having phoned them up they have also reduced our rate to 20.9% (not great, but a fair saving from previous!) and set up a direct debit to pay £50 per month.

Having found that 'snowball site' I calculate that I will be rid of Barc. card in 17 months & Master card in 73 months...hopefully sooner, as once barc is gone I'll pay £100 a month onto the card...

Change of sig..again!

azjh77

Just when it was all going so well.....:mad:

I have to fork over my birthday money to buy a tumble dryer & petrol to drive the OH's dad back home to Wales!!!

So there goes ALL my savings for this month - sob!

Never mind - I have saved by getting bothe the rates reduced, I've also moved my Gas/leccie to a tariff where I earn Argos points.

AND got a pay rise (£12 a month!)

So it's not all bad, I'll start again in April....and I still have all those things to sell.

Where is the best place to sell books? online? locally?

GirlRacer_2

Lots of people on here use Green Metropolis. Don't quite know how it works but apparently it pays a bit more than Amazon. As I say I'm not really the best person to ask but have replied just to bump your thread up and hopefully someone else will be along to help you out.

Good luck and don't give up. Paying off debt sometimes seems like one step forward and 2 steps back, persevere it does eventually get to be 2 steps forward and 1 step back!

Seaxwyn

Hi azjh

I've sold lots of books on Amazon, it's really easy. It's not so good for very popular books as there are lots listed already, but if you have text books or anything not so common, it's great. There's a thread on the 'ebay, amazon & carboots' forum here with lots of advice.

Well done on getting your interest rates down. And yes - definitely pay money off bills as soon as it comes in rather than waiting, interest is calculated by the day.

Good luck

QueenB.

The positive thing is that had your birthday money means the tumble dryer and petrol will not hit you so hard as it could have done.

Well done on getting your CC interest rates reduced we tried this but just got outright nos from all:rolleyes:

Keep up the good work.

azjh77

Finally got around to doing a SOA


£355 Mortgage Abbey fixed @5.9 £62,000 o/s
£131 Secured loan ever increasing rate! £10,000
£141 Council tax including £30 arrears payment for 10 months
£145 Another loan - TSB? Mum took out, non payment NOT an option!!

£ 44 Electric *
£ 25 Gas
£ 27 Water
£ 50 Phone/internet
£ 38 contents/buildings insurance

£ 38 Car insurance
£ 50 petrol - only work 2 days, tend to walk a lot..
£ 8 Online game - husbands ONLY hobby

£ 50 MBNA credit card @20%
£ 45 Barc. Card @18 %

£1147

Income

£394 Wages
£550 C T Credit
£215 Child benefit

£1159

* electric, I have not used the gas this winter - heating broke! - so we had an electric heater. So I can transfer my gas credit to the electric in April.

Leaving £12 a month for food!! for 6 of us!! I'm frugal, but not that frugal! We do get milk/fruit/veg vouchers so I can keep the kids in apples!

My obvious problem here is not enough income. Any suggestions? Are paper rounds considered employment when I declare my hours to the tax credit people?

I'm applying for Council tax credit which may save about £20 per month. I've joined lots of survey sites, have bagged up lots of clothes and toys to sell.

I am also slightly worried as I do not get paid when ill, and am due to go and see a cancer specialist this Friday. If I have to have months off work we will be truly stuffed!! First things first though..lets work with what we have got!

Any other suggestions will be happily received!

bandraoi

I suspect that you're not claiming all the benefits you're entitled to.

azjh77

I thought that, but apparently I earn too much to claim IS (a couple only needs £90 a week to live on according to the Government)

We're looking into DLA for me (it's my health which prevents me from working full-time now)

I don't want to go down the 'benefits' route - I had a friend who kicked out her husband purely so she could claim more money! But we do need to increase our income....