holy moly soa

plum44_2

Well done for posting.

If you are still increasing your debt on a credit card and paying minimum payments you have not really had your light bulb moment and unless you do you are heading into serious problems.

You absolutely must STOP using credit before you are in crisis. It's only a matter of time.

Ebz

Hi and welcome

Just wanted to say re your house insurance that you might be able to claim some money back. At one point we had house insurance (buildings & contents) through the postoffice, but then realised that my hubby had insurance through the mortgage (buildings), so we contacted them and got half the premium back from each because we'd had the two policies running concurently... So could be worth looking into..

mildred1978

freshtimes wrote: »

the only plus point i can think is that i have 26 payments left on my loan. once that finishes i'll have nearly 300 month more so can really hammer the debts down

Do you have any idea how much your debt will be if its 2 years before you start doing anything about it? Your interest rates are extortionate. £300 a month isn't going to touch it.

What us your partner doing with his spare money every month? If saving it at 1-2% it's not even covering the cost of inflation (so is worth less year on year). Can he throw his spare cash at your debts to get you debt free sooner and more cheaply? You can always agree to pay him back later.

Put your figures into a snowball calculator and see how much bigger they will be in 26 months.

freshtimes

mildred- sorry wasnt implying i do nothing till my loan finishes, i need to do something NOW . i just meant i'll have more spare cash when it does finish.

okay, cards are now in freezer!! i've just opened an ebay and paypal account. closed my national lottery ac. opened a new hotmail ac as my current one gets inundated with credit card junk.

today is the first morning i havent applied for credit

i just hope i've stopped the rot before its too late....

plum44_2

You can do this but it needs to be at the head of everything you do.

Pay off even a tiny amount EVERY day. No more, coffees, magazines, takeaways etc.

Watch your debt reduce and start to change your future.

Checkout my signature...it's been painful but it will have been worth it when I am finally debt free.

Good Luck...it's all downhill from here....

bargainbetty

freshtimes wrote: »

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
nw cc..........................3700......82........6. 2
barclaycard....................6500......129...... .16.9
barclaycard....................2000......68....... .24.9
joint cc.......................3000......90........0
loan...........................7200......291...... .6.9
very...........................1300......65....... .32.9
next...........................200.......15....... .29.9
halifax........................500.......14....... .15.9
overdraft 2 ...................1000......15........17.9
overdraft 1....................2800......49........17.9
asda...........................950.......23....... .24.9
capital one....................450.......14........20.9
vanquis card...................500.......24........34.95
Total unsecured debts..........30100.....879.......-

Amount left after debt repayments....... 127

I have to echo a few comments on here about reducing your outgoings. If you haven't stopped buying lunch when you have a fridge full of food, you aren't addressing the debts. Start trying no-spend days. When you get home, think about how much money you saved by taking a pack-up lunch, or cooking a proper home-made meal and then pay that much off a card using online banking - you won't miss it as much that way.

Start by going through all your cupboards and doing a full inventory. Most of us shop on auto-pilot and just add the 'usuals' to the trolley. Do a proper list of what you have, food and household stuff, and have a proper think about meal-planning to use things up. (It's a weird thing, having a list on the side of the fridge/freezer, but you get used to it).

See what you have in the way of pasta, rice, noodles, proteins etc and plan your meals around them. It doesn't have to be boring, because you can make big vats of things and then freeze them up for later use.
I batch cook twice a week. I use veggies and pulses to pad out some mince/meat to make huge chillis, shepherds pies, curries etc, and use take-away tubs/foil trays to make up home-made ready meals for the days when I can't be bothered to cook. All you need is a microwave, most nights.

I also reduced the amount of household stuff I had. One woman living alone did not need seven bottles of bleach and 36 loo rolls. Six bottles of shampoo and five bottles of body wash later.... I started buying it again.

Start doing online surveys, clickthroughs, using cashback sites and entering competitions. It keeps you from spending money, earns you vouchers that you can sell or use for presents, and you might win a few treats too. Set up a junk email address for it - save cluttering your real one!

If you start ebaying/car booting/selling your unwanted stuff, you might find that you have a new, cheaper hobby - keep a small portion of the money for yourself (you'll go mad without an emergency fund) but put all the rest towards the debts. Do you have any stuff that you can return for full refunds rather than selling for cheap deals? Try that first, you never know.

Where you reduce your income/make extra cash, start throwing every spare penny at the highest interest debts. Start with Vanquis and get that cleared as soon as possible. I'd be tempted to clear off the Next card after that, just because it is a small balance, even though the Very interest is higher. As you clear each one, close it down so you can't run it up again. If you can clear a card that will offer you a low-life-of-balance deal, then aim for that instead of 0% - it would still be a good saving for you.

This is a long-haul process, but you can make it tolerable if not a bit of fun. Set your self small acheiveable goals (Vanquis paid off in three months?) and go for it.

Good luck

[Deleted User]

I'm not going to comment on the spends in the SOA, as I think you've already got lots of great advice here.

I think what you need to focus on is stopping spending on the CC's and finding the existing (and any further through savings) surplus in your SOA.

First of cut up the CC's - you have said already that if a true emergency cropped up, then your OH would help out - remove the cards and you'll remove temptation.

Find your surplus - keep a spending diary (either use a notebook, or your mobile phone) - note down everything that you spend money on, from the really small things that cost pennies to the really expensive things including DD's etc

Once you know exactly what you are spending and where you'll be able to decide if your spends are necessary or not and you can modify your spending as necessary.

Once you have found the surplus in your SOA continue to pay the minimum towards all debts, but over-pay on the most expensive, once the most expensive is gone, move on to using any surplus in your SOA to the next most expensive.

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
vanquis card...................500.......24........34.95 This is your first priority
very...........................1300......65....... .32.9Then this
next...........................200.......15....... .29.9
asda...........................950.......23....... .24.9
barclaycard....................2000......68....... .24.9
capital one....................450.......14........20.9
overdraft 2 ...................1000......15........17.9
overdraft 1....................2800......49........17.9
barclaycard....................6500......129...... .16.9
halifax........................500.......14....... .15.9
loan...........................7200......291...... .6.9
nw cc..........................3700......82........6. 2
joint cc.......................3000......90........0When does the 0% end? What will the balance and rate be then?
Total unsecured debts..........30100.....879.......-

Also, have a clear out, you have mentioned yourself that you have things BNWT that have never been worn/used - get these on to e-bay and start using this to pay of some of your most expensive debt a bit more quickly.

Comments above,

HTH

D9

Tabatha_Kitten

You live together, you have a mortgage together, you have a child together.
You are a team.
All this "his money" "her money" "his debt" "her debt" is not working as a team.
The only way to sort this is to work together.
You pay both wages into the account. You then make sure all the bills are paid, you have a roof over your heads and that you and your child are warm and fed.
You then pay at least the minimum payment on your debts. All of them. Not "his" and "hers". Its in both of your interest as the teamyou are to ensure that the other is not dealing with this alone.
Its only then, after all this has been taken care of that you can decide if there is any left for the fun things in life and if or how it should be be split between you.

thehappybutterfly

Tabatha_Kitten wrote: »

You live together, you have a mortgage together, you have a child together.
You are a team.
All this "his money" "her money" "his debt" "her debt" is not working as a team.
The only way to sort this is to work together.
You pay both wages into the account. You then make sure all the bills are paid, you have a roof over your heads and that you and your child are warm and fed.
You then pay at least the minimum payment on your debts. All of them. Not "his" and "hers". Its in both of your interest as the teamyou are to ensure that the other is not dealing with this alone.
Its only then, after all this has been taken care of that you can decide if there is any left for the fun things in life and if or how it should be be split between you.

^^^^ this. 110% this! Does your OH know you're struggling and is he aware of the level of debt/how much the repayments are every month?

I'm not judging. I was there for a long time and wish I'd been more honest from the beginning with my hubby before we got to PTD stage. I too was a spender but now I'm a money hoarder and reluctant spender!

freshtimes

thanks for your input everyone.
re my other half, suppose i just feel a bit awful having to ask him to help out more on debts that are totally 100% my stupidity. but i agree, a helping hand would be useful.
i just would love to be in a position to be able to save one day, or not use my daughters child benefit to service my debts, how shameful