Lightbulb moment

slowlyfading

I have a feeling you have to do it all in one go? Hope you're feeling better this morning

moneywaster55

I'm not feeling any better as I have no money and don't know how I am going to get through 3 weeks but happy I have made the decision to turn my life around.

My rent is paid up until payday and may gas and electricity is paid for this month.

LannieDuck

Given how much interest wonga charge, I would try and get rid of a that one asap. Do you have anything you could carboot/ebay to raise some extra money this month? Could your OH get some temp work/do odd jobs etc to raise a bit of cash as a one-off?

One the wonga debt is gone, the others will be much more manageable, and hopefully your SOA will help find some places you can save cash to start repayments in a more sustainable way.

moneywaster55

118 is gas and electricty payment for both is £77, the rest is off arrears.

58 for telephone, is sky, phone and internet. I do not want to cancell my sky as its our only form of entertaiment, we do not drink, smoke or go out.

I realize from reading here that groceries can come down.

I am hoping to get a smaller car in january with some pre christmas work I do every year, this will earn me 1200. But realize need to sort payday loans first.

Life Insurance is a joint policey for both of us.

£25 for presents, includes what i need for christmas which is only 9 weeks away.



Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 950
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 300
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1250
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 88
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 20
Electricity............................. 118
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 58
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 21
Car Insurance........................... 45
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 14
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 36
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25
Haircuts................................ 4
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 781

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 200
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 200

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
provident......................250.......50........399.7
wonga .........................451.......451.......4214
Total unsecured debts..........701.......501.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,250
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 781
Available for debt repayments........... 469
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 501
Amount short for making debt repayments. -32
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 200
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -701
Net Assets.............................. -501

moneywaster55

This situation gets worse month as I have to borrow more to get by.

Do I write or mail wonga and ask if possible to make a payment plan and also change banks ?

I have not renewed my payday express loan but have no money and have 3 weeks to get through. I should be able to get a loan against some stuff at cash converters or something like that but have nothing to sell completely.

So angry with myself :mad: for letting it get this far.

happycamel_2

I agree with Lannie, rather than trying to fund past expenditure with current income (ie paying back loans) and finding the money for interest and finding the money for the current month's expenses you have two choices:
1) go on a debt management plan which will negatively impact your credit rating but should freeze the interest and allow you to make managable payments on your debt or

2) sell enough stuff to get rid of the pay day loans (clothes you don't wear, spare furniture, computer games or IT stuff, you'd be surprised what people will buy.

In the longer term your husband could look for Christmas seasonal work or may have skills he can sell (gardening, driving etc) and you need to do your SOA so we can identify areas you can cut back until you are living within your means. Easy targets are things like Sky TV or other subscriptions and membership fees, grocery and clothes spending and sometimes car/travel expenses.

Good luck

Asiacat

Just feel lucky that your light bulb moment came when your total debts are still under a thousand pounds.

Many on here have racked up tens of thousands of pounds of debt before realizing the error of their ways.

Two comments.

1. The only item on your SOA where itlooks possible to cut down (apart from your sky package) is the 25 pound a month you spend on presents.

2. Is it possible for you to borrow off one of your family or friends and offer to pay them a monthly payment which inlcudes a very good rate of interest? For example you borrow 700 pound and offer to pay them 70 pounds a month for a year. They get a far better return than if the money is in a bank and you get back on your feet because even the attractive rate of interest you pay them is much less than you would pay the payday loan companies.

I live in Thailand where there is no loans available to ex-pats.

I have been approached by people having cash flow problems and have given them informal loans at good rates of interest for me but has also helped them out of a sticky situation. Everyone is a winner.

LannieDuck

Do you really have nothing you can sell? I cleared two rooms of rubbish last year and got about £400 for it all from ebay.... and that was stuff that I thought was worthless.

Do you have an attic that never gets cleared out? Might there be some stuff in a shed/garage that you've forgotten about?

moneywaster55

Lannie, I cant see anything that looks of any value ? Don't know what would sell ? Never done it before ? No idea how to go about it ?

This all new to me but willing to give anything a go.

LannieDuck

Check out the ebay boards. These are good threads to start with:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/343625
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2949734

I had a lot of success with OH's clothes - he tends to buy too many and then decide he doesn't want them, so they were all in good condition. My clothes sold less well, but I still got a couple of quid for some of them.

I sold all sorts of odd ornaments, old computer discs that OH didn't want any more. Old console games did very well. Old comics from my childhood and some old New Scientist magazines. Unused&unopened toilettries, some old gifts that we didn't really want (mostly boxed aftershaves), some sandals, 'classic' toys from my childhood (things like good condition transformers should do well).

You really have to just have a go and see what sells. Use free listing weekends, and check out the 'completed listings' on ebay to see how much similar things went for. Generally if it's in good condition, you should be able to sell it (exceptions are books, DVDs, CDs which don't do too well). The trick is to find cheap packaging and make sure you don't undercharge on postage.

It's quite addictive once you get going!