40 months until debt free... musings and meanderings along the way.

tasha-debt

Hey Laura,

Im doing carp myself, I seem to have just hovered around the £14K part.........

I really hope that this time you manage to clear everything. I think getting a second job is a brilliant idea, it will mean you will be debt free quicker and it might give you more confidence and experience on your CV.

Your very lucky to have your husbands support. But I think that now you are married you should look at your salarys as our money, its not fair if one of you is broke and the other has spare cash.

xxxxx

P.s I will subscribe now.

laura2481

Hi tasha! Yay- the old gang is slowly coming together

tasha-debt

I say lets do this together, one final slog to clear out debts!!!!!

I have missed talking to the gang.

laura2481

tasha-debt wrote: »

I say lets do this together, one final slog to clear out debts!!!!!

I have missed talking to the gang.

Yeah, definitely xxx

laura2481

ambyence wrote: »

Hi Laura!
Just popping in to wish you well. In a similar situation atm - the numbers might be a bit different but I do know the feeling of being at the limit of everything financially and the knock-on emotional effects , so just wanted to offer my support along with Rupes and the other lovely poster.
Well done for 'fessing up :T, that can't have been easy to do, and it's great that the reaction was not as bad as you had feared . Paying it off will mean a hard few months I'm sure, but it WILL be worth it and you WILL get there.
Other than all the financial issues, which suck I know, I hope you are enjoying married life and you are both well
Ambs xx

Hi Ambs
How is married life treating you? Not much changed here- when you've been together 11 years you ar practically married anyway! :rotfl: Biggest change has been not needing to spell my surname all the time
xx

laura2481

chevalier wrote: »

My comments are in blue.
Quote:
Originally Posted by laura2481
And here is the my SOA. There are some gaps in here: nothing budgeted for gifts, haircuts, emergencies or holidays. Jeez I wish there was enough in the budget for holidays... (Everything is rounded up to round numbers eg loan repayment= £155.36 rounded up to £156)

Income:
Salary £1130 Any way of getting a second job, selling stuff on ebay/gumtree/doing surveys etc?

Outgoings:
Joint Account £500 (this covers: mortgage, groceries and all bills. I'll do a breakdown of that in a bit) Is this done as a proportion of your salaries? Ie if OH earns twice as much as you then do you pay only a third of the amount? Maybe something to talk to him about? There is no point IF YOU ARE A TEAM for him to be sitting on a cash surplus whilst you struggle. Also do check that all your utilities are with the cheapest providers.
Loan £156
Santander £90
HSBC £31
Virgin £60
Tesco £25
Travel (bus+train travel pass needed for work) £104
Mobile £20

Total out: £986
Remainder: £144

Equivalent of £36 per week. Worth taking this out in cash each week, and when it is gone it is gone?

So that's how the CC debt built up. If I need a haircut one month thats £30, that's a quarter of my remainder budget gone. I know this is only an example, but if you could make the cut last 6 weeks then you save 30 pounds every 3 months...
So it would go on the credit card. My husbad wants to visit his family? That's £29 for a return ticket on the train (can't get coach as last coach leaves before I finish work or that would be about £20 cheaper) That would go on the credit card. And OH couldn't pay this?

Someones birthday? Husband already bought present (without asking me) but wants half off me? That's maybe £30. I'll buy something else to the value of £30 as a trade but pay it on my credit card (eg I might pay his train fare and say- you bought present, I paid for train) So he needs to talk to you about purchases that he expects you to contribute to. Or else you need a way to source cheaper presents.

But now that has to end. Because I cannot do it anymore.

Good luck with sorting this out. I hope that the talk with OH's parents goes well. They may want to give you the whole amount. Don't be too proud to say yes if they offer. It would save you a fortune in interest
chev

Hi Chev, thanks for your comments.

I'm not really in a position to get another job as unfortunately I don't work set days, and it does include weekends so i wouldn't be able to give an employer set times and days I would be able to work and I do a fair amount of travelling (hence train and bus pass. I really hate paying for that every month. :cool:) and the another reason is (and I almost feel like I'm making excuse but this is genuine) if I get too tired I get migraines. Tiredness is my trigger. I would end up calling in sick to old job or new job or both jobs trying to work two jobs.

As for ebay etc. Definitely a thought, I have a few things I could sell.. it's just that they would be sort of one offs and not regular income unless I can think of some great crafty idea to sell on ebay (by that I mean craftbased eg jewellery making or similar, not cunning :rotfl:) But definitely something to think about

Re: haircuts. Not the best example as I tend to get my hair cut very infrequently. I last had it cut at the end of June. Before that was September 2011 :eek: And I think both went on the credit card :eek::eek: I do need to have it done slightly more often though.. it was really dry last time. Unsuprisingly! :cool:

And husband definitely needs to be more communicative about gifts etc. It drives me mad! He is super generous and always puts a lot of thought into gifts.. just sometimes he also puts a lot of money in. It's definitely something we need to work on. Communication. Particularly, about money!

We should be talking to husband parents tonight, or very soon at least. I need to know what is happening for sure. Especially as CC bills are due real soon.

rosered1963

Hi Laura and everyone.

Laura - good luck and I think you did the right thing telling your OH.

You can do this Laura - you are so organised and focused

I am in a similar position financially - Husband has been unemployed for 6 months now. (We moved to be near folks - no jobs here as in the middle of nowhere full of retired people). He ran up debts and I found out. I wish he had told me. It caused a lot of arguments. But now we are tackling it. I don't know where our money has gone - I haven't had a haircut for a year, We never go out, OH has stopped smoking. Anyway - we have still reduced our debt even though we have a very low income.

The more you pay off the better you feel.
Edit Agree that if family will offer money to take the loan x

Good luck and I have subscribed xx

robberbutton

Hi Laura, well done for telling your husband, I hope that really helps with keeping to a budget/plan.

It is hard owing money to family - my parents loaned us £20,000 (which they also got from an inheritance) so we could afford our house. Part of the problem was not having a repayment plan in place - they kept on saying don't worry this month, so we would skip a payment but I felt guilty. If you can work out a plan with the in-laws and have an end date in mind I think that would help a lot. (I'd never heard of snowballing until a couple of weeks ago!)

Also agree about about this being a team thing - can you talk to DH about ways he can help you with this? I know it's v personal, but I would hate to have a separate account from my H and have to pay half for things.

Good luck.

laura2481

Trying to feel positive today but a rubbish and so far stressful day at work coupled with the fact we still haven't talked to OHs parents despite me asking DH twice when we are going to do it.. I need to know. I have bills due on friday..we might but get paid on monday (that's a long story I can tell later when I'm on my laptop and not my mobile) basically it's all too much again.

Heffi1

Keep going Laura, I know it is hard at the moment, but once you have a plan in place, you will feel so much better about it all.

I agree about getting some help from your husband, if he wants to help then he has to talk about financial matters ahead of time, or not expect you to give over money that you haven't planned and budgeted for. That is a hard conversation, but if he knows you are not going to give him the money when he asks for it, maybe he will revise how much he spends on gifts.