Debt worries, I want rid of my credit cards!

bargainbetty

I think you have to face the fact that while you cannot cut back that much, there is no limit to the extra you can earn, if you are willing to work for it.

If you are working full time, then you might be earning under minimum wage. Please check your payslips, because this is illegal.

Regardless of your hourly rate, you need to look at taking on second jobs to bring in extra money to throw at your debts. once you have cleared them, you will need to learn to live within your income.

Two weekend shifts in a bar/restaurant might bring in £70 per week (more in tips if there is a waitressing aspect). Deliver local papers, catalogues, stuff envelopes at home, stack shelves overnight at the weekends in supermarkets, walk dogs, mow lawns, wash cars, all while you ebay and carboot all your clutter away. Apply for every part-time job you can find, and be prepared to be knackered for a while.

As you get money in, pay the minimum plus £1 on all the debts, then throw all the extra money you can find at the Wonga loan - that needs to be cleared and never taken out again! Move onto Vanquis, and work your way through the highest interest to the lowest until all are gone.

One note, when you clear a debt, don't think of it as spare money - when you clear Vanquis, the £15 goes straight to Captial One instead, you see? You will be amazed how fast they come down when you target them properly.

Good luck, and be prepared to work your butts off for a bit!

Fay_elizabeth

Thank you all for all the suggestions and advice.

I forgot to mention that I am self employed, hence the phone and the internet being paid for by me. I am a freelance illustrator but I also work 30 set hours for a online baby shop which is my income. I work pretty much flat out, but I'm new to illustration and at the moment it doesn't bring in a regular income. Getting another job in a bar or something would mean giving up the illustration (I really hope it'll make me money some day.)

Yes, we live in Crystal palace and £650 a month is the absolute cheapest rent around.

Fay_elizabeth

Tixy wrote: »

-Do you have a TV? you have nothing budgeted for TV licence. We have a tv but my boyfriend paid the license outright at the start of the year.
-You have nothing budgeted for clothes - which is not sustainable over a long period, put a small budget in just for essentials. I don't generally spend any money on clothes, if i desperately need something I'll buy it on the credit card - hence never paying them off.
-Medical - do you never spend anything on prescriptions, dentist, opticians etc? No, we never go.
-Contents Insurance - do you have any? No, we don't have anything worth stealing!
-Presents - try to work out your annual spend and put 1/12 in your monthly budget. I make presents. haha.
-Haircuts - unless you do them yourself then budget for them. I do them myself

Your incomes both seem low, especially compared to housing costs. Is there any way for either of you to increase your pay? overtime? better paid job? a part time job evenings & weekends?
See above reply.

Have you stopped all spending on the cards? are they cut up?
I haven't, I pay them off every month and then use them again. Bad, I know.

Are your rolling over the wonga debt each month? and how much is this costing you to do - again that needs to be in the budget.
The wonga loan is 1 month old. I have no idea how I'm going to pay it.

What were the debts run up on? is there anything you could sell to help you clear the wonga loan? If you could get rid of that and not keep renewing it then you would at least stand a chance of being able to meet your repayments and not having to reuse credit.
Literally, we have nothing worth selling, except out computers which we need for work.

Some extra info for you all. I've ebayed/amazoned/musicmagpied everything I own pretty much.

19lottie82

Fay_elizabeth wrote: »

Thank you all for all the suggestions and advice.

I forgot to mention that I am self employed, hence the phone and the internet being paid for by me. I am a freelance illustrator but I also work 30 set hours for a online baby shop which is my income. I work pretty much flat out, but I'm new to illustration and at the moment it doesn't bring in a regular income. Getting another job in a bar or something would mean giving up the illustration (I really hope it'll make me money some day.)

Yes, we live in Crystal palace and £650 a month is the absolute cheapest rent around.

Hi OP - What about your OH, his wages seem very low?
I can understand you don't want to give up the illustration, but if it's not making you any money, do you not think, you should maybe put it on the back burner , or cut it back for a bit and concetrate on finding more work that is actually making you money? Until the debts are paid off at least?
Unless you can see it definitely turning a profit soon? I'm guessing it is a very competitive industry.


I know that prob not what you want to hear, but it is realistic, especially you have pay day loans that are just snowballing and you have no idea how you're going to pay them back

Tixy

You took out the wonga loan last month - what did you use the £750 for? - its not something that was budgeted for on your SoA.

Start by assuming you can no longer use the cards - you need to budget for everything you pay out - so assume that next years tv licence and clothes cannot go on cards and that you still need to pay for them - its the only way to be realistic about the situation you are in.
And its also a real possibility that your card providers will stop new spending on the cards or reduce your limits - especially if you default on payday loan.

You need to get rid of that wonga loan somehow.

Are the cards all up to their limits? If not then you need to use one of the cards for buying all your general spending, your groceries, travel costs etc instead of using your bank account - and then use the money in the account to pay off wonga.

If you could pay off wonga and effectively move the debt to a credit card you would be in a better position.
If you did that and then estimate you have £340 towards your debts each month (thats the £380 on yours less a budget for the tv licence and clothes).
It would then take you around 25 months to clear all your debts (but that assumes you buy absolutely nothing that isn't on your SoA and don't use the cards for anything at all).

If you cannot stop the spending on your cards or if you cannot get that wonga loan cleared somehow then you will simply be unable to meet your debt repayments and if thats the case I would suggest you talk urgently to one of the debt advice charities.

YORKSHIRELASS

Fay_elizabeth wrote: »

Thank you all for all the suggestions and advice.

I am a freelance illustrator but I also work 30 set hours for a online baby shop which is my income.

Hi, if you are working 30 hours a week every week for the same Company then you should almost certainly be employed by them. This would give you sick pay, holiday pay and other employment rights. It might not directly help your debt situation but you should do a bit of research into this.

19lottie82

YORKSHIRELASS wrote: »

Hi, if you are working 30 hours a week every week for the same Company then you should almost certainly be employed by them. This would give you sick pay, holiday pay and other employment rights. It might not directly help your debt situation but you should do a bit of research into this.

I think the OP means she has 2 seperate gigs. The baby shop and her freelance work, not that she workd freelance for the baby shop.

sticky23

Have you checked if you're entitled to housing benefit? You should be on such a low wage.

bargainbetty

Fay_elizabeth wrote: »

I work pretty much flat out, but I'm new to illustration and at the moment it doesn't bring in a regular income. Getting another job in a bar or something would mean giving up the illustration (I really hope it'll make me money some day.)

You need money right now. Once you have your debts sorted, you can go back to it. But right now, you need money. I'd love to do something else in my work, something fulfilling, creative etc, but I have to pay the bills.

If you both took part-time paid work for six months and threw every penny at the debts, you might find you are in a position to clear the more expensive debts, get the others under control and go back to the illustrations, but right now, if you're not earning enough to meet your commitments, you need to rethink the priorities.

This obviously isn't what you want to hear, but part of the Light-Bulb Moment is recognising what you want versus what you need and sadly, that can involve dreams too. Right now, the possibility of income at some random point down the line has to get in line behind actual money for work done.

I wish you luck x

geoffky

Your earnings for london are the worst i have seen...You need to look for better paid work...you are not even earning minimum wages..