Young and Hopeless!!

Beautiful-Moose

Hi all!

I want to be a Debt Free girl by my 28th birthday. I am 25 now. I need some help and just somewhere to vent my frustrations. I am about 6.5k in debt. I live at home with my parents and they are up to their eyeballs in debt too so I get no help or sympathy from them. All my friends are very judgemental about money issues so I don't feel I can talk to any of them about my problems.

My debts consist of

Natwest Card - £2,750
Barclaycard - £3,370
Overdraft - £400

Although to some people this may not see this as much debt I don't want to live with it anymore. I want to start saving for my own place and be moved out in about 3 years time but I know I need to clear this debt 1st.
I don't know where to start or what to do. I checked my credit rating and it's good which is a small plus in this situation as I am still making all my payments, just about! I am thinking of transfering my cards to one card with a long 0% balance transfer and starting paying £250 a month off. Is this the right way to go? Does anyone else have some other suggestions?

I just feel so hopeless about the situation and want to sort this now before it gets any higher.

DragonAK

Hi Moose,

I am in a very similar situation to you and can offer some advice.

First things first. Get an SOA filled in. You haven't mentioned where the debts have come from, so I will assume overspending over time (like me).

A detailed Statement of Affairs will show you exactly where your money is going, and how much you have available to pay off your debts. People may have suggestions on where you can cut back.

As for clearing the debts. Once you know what you can afford to put towards debt payments, you need to work out which option is best. Are there 0% offers left on either of the credit cards?

Doing a balance transfer would be a good idea as long as you are not tempted to spend any more money, but you may struggle to get one with a big enough limit (depending on your income)

2 of my cards still have 0% running on them, so I have decided to snowball the payments. Basically if you assume £250 is what you have available for payments, you pay minimum payments to the ones with lowest interest (or most 0%) and use the rest to get the highest interest one paid off.

Hang in there and well done for deciding to get your self sorted! Any questions just ask!

Beautiful-Moose

The debts have come from helping my parents out (about £2k is their debt as they needed the money to fend of people repossessing the house so obvs I just handed my card over) the rest has come from me spending when I got made redundant last year and just before xmas too.

What is an SOA? How do I do one? Sorry if that sounds really dim.

I've started to cut back by not buying lunch at work. Limiting my nights out/socialising. Next month I have a budget planned for each week to start to teach myself to live within my means. I also have a car loan but I pay that every month and that will finish in July 2013 so I am happy with that. I have arranged for all my bills to come out around the same date I get paid so I know how much I have to play with each month.

I did get an offer from Barclaycard to add a new balance for 12 months at 0% so that might be best to transfer the balance from the Natwest card and close the card down and then start to reduce the debt then try for a 0% card when the total has been taken down?

downsizer3

There's a sticky at the top of the DFW board with the SOA link on it.
Just wanted to say well done for facing up to the debt - you'll get lots of help on here and you can maybe show your folks a thing or two!
Good luck.

Beautiful-Moose

Thanks I just did it and it's told me I can be debt free by April 2015 if I make payments in all the correct places. That seems like a lifetime away but I am sure it can be done and hopefully I will be able to hit my target of being debt free by 28!

Here is hoping they learn not to see me as secondary bank account anymore!

It is nice to come on here and get actual help as aposed to anger and judgement like I know I would get from some on my friends.

Heffi1

That is the good thing about being on here, we have all made mistakes in the past and are in no position to judge you on your mistakes, but offer solutions that you can live with and over time you will learn how to make things go further.

Do you parents still expect you to dig them out then they struggle, as this could be cause for stress for you. Maybe it would be better to say, you are attempting to get rid of your debt so would not be in a postion to help them in the short term so please do not ask. It is difficult saying no to parents, but if you want to be debt free then this is something you might have to consider at some point.

Well done on taking the first step, it is usually the hardest part.

slowlyfading

:hello: and welcome to MSE!

The first thing to do is post an SOA and see if we can cut back anywhere to make it easier for you the link is at the top of the DFW board

Beautiful-Moose

My parents encouraged me to get a credit card. Looking back I now kinda see it was more for their benefit than mine as it gave them a back up option when things got bad. Even last weekend I ended up handing over my card to them to pay them for their road tax. We have had such blazing arguements (me and my mum mainly) over money that I just find it easier to cave in. But I can't anymore as it is making me stressed and ill. Next time they ask I will have to say no as I am determined to not sway from my plan.

It was scary actually seeing the totals on my cards and taking my head out of the sand.

I am open to all suggestions and tales from people who may be the same ages as me and in the same boat? Or people who have had to deal and take on their parents/parents money probs and what they did to cope.

Thank you all for being so nice so far

JayC1987

Hello Beautiful Moose,

Firstly no not hopeless at all. Your in a bad situation. Don't use negative words to describe yourself. You have to stay positive

You've done the right thing, were all in the same boat here.

I'd advise you to call the CCCS (I do mention them a lot in my posts, don't worry I'm not endorsed by them, I've just had wonderful help and advice from them).

I'd do a budget use the CCCS and use their advice.

dancingfairy

Whilst you love your parents it must be hard when they are clearly struggling as well. Hopefully your new found budgetting skills will start to rub off on your parents as well. I think probably the best thing you can do to help your parents is to get them to phone one of the free debt charities such as CCCS, National Debtline or get them to visit their local CAB. They are probably like a lot of people and have got their priorities wrong - ie instead of paying the most important bills first ie mortgage, car tax etc they are paying the credit card companies and possibly unsecured loan companies and leaving themselves short? They're probably paying the people that scream the loudest rather than those that need paying first? or perhaps they are just all over the sop and constantly robbing Peter to pay Paul. Anyway hopefully you can encourage them to take control back and get some help - maybe you can get them to sign up on here as well?
You sound very determined and organised and I have no doubt that you will get the debt sorted.
All the best.
df
P.S to be fair perhaps your parents only taught you what they knew and they were suckered in by credit being the answer? and thought that the answer was more and more credit?

woohoo_postingid

ok, as has been said, get the SOA filled in and post it on here, that gives us all a starting point so that we can give you advice. The obvious first questions that will be asked are: 1) Do you pay your parents rent/keep ? 2) Are your parents making any attempt to pay you back the £2000 ?