Trying our best

continualdiamond

How long do people give before admitting defeat on paying off debt?

Where 1st time debt free wannabe's, finally facing up to the fact we need a plan in place. We desperately wanna repay everything ourselves, like people have said on here, repay the highest APR's first, the others just the minimum.

So as from friday when my fiancee got his weekly wage, we've worked out a budget and had our 1st day (today) sticking to it. Must admit he found it harder than i did, i straight away stuck £60 away in our online saver.

Though how long do you give yourself to try and repay 1 debt then moving onto the next etc? Basically we don't wanna a DMP or IVA etc yet.

Is repaying debts yourself achieveable? We have debts of roughly £22,000, with £200 extra a month that used to be spent on god knows what. So end of each mth this will be going onto a 1st debt where going to clear.

At the moment a DMP seems the easier option, but we do wanna try and pay our debt off ourselves before considering anything else.

Just looking for other peoples thoughts really. Where only 25 and 24 so this is a big step for us.

Mindy_2

Have you been onto https://www.whatsthecost.co.uk and setup a snowball? After you enter in all your cards it will sort them out into highest apr first and you can see what your expected debt-free date is.

We have over £60,000 worth of debt and are repaying ourselves (ie without a DMP or IVA).

You could also try setting up a spending diary so that you can work out where those little bits of money go to.

How about posting an SOA as well, see SouthernScousers sticky on this forum, that will give other posters the opportunity of helping you. There is a wealth of experience on cutting back/down on this site.

Good luck and keep us posted as to how you get on.

fatbelly

Before someone suggests you post an SoA, I notice that you already have one here

If you're trying snowballing have you put your data into the snowball calculator at https://www.whatsthecost.com

lynzpower

can I ask what you are putting the 60 in an online saver for?

continualdiamond

Knew what would happen???

Put the £60 into the online saver, to do exactly that save. If it's not in the bank account it can't be spent, that way when a cheq comes out (had some work done by a friend for £120, let us give him a post dated cheq for the 22nd of this mth).

Basically thought it was best to put it away and then some next week so we know we have the £120, then put it back into the bank account.

Is this not a good idea? Where just worried if we don't take the money out of the bank account it will be spent and then won't have enough money for bills or direct debts etc...

continualdiamond

Thanks so much for the whatsthecost link, just done it....phew....61mths its telling me to clear out debts.....going to follow this thats for sure.....thanks so much...

GirlRacer_2

Every time you feel like your going to cave in and spend money on unnecessary items come on here and confess your urge. The guys here are great for support. I actually put my cards in a container with some water and froze them in the freezer (it was suggested on here!). When I have the urge to spend I've got to defrost the cards which takes ages (I've tried) by which time the spending urge has passed.

A simple bit of advice - but it really works.

continualdiamond

What an excellent idea, would never think of that.

Basically we have no cards we can spend on, except visa card (bank). We were both just so nervous we'd spend that £60 this weekend, i just had to transer it to the online saver. If we'd spent it, we wouldn't of had enough money for the cheq.

I'd already worked out a weekly budget and printed it off, with what we need to save each week to make direct debts.So that is what the £60 is going towards.

Might seem like a silly way and a pointless way of using the savers account, but its just refeshing to know the money is safe else where and we'll have enough for bills etc etc.

continualdiamond

Oh, also thanks to this thread, have decided to send back my catalogue shopping. Got a credit amount of £125 and only have £12 left, i sent some things back to exchange them for others (diff sizes) but after seeing its going to take till 2009 now to pay it off, im sending everything back and cancelling what id ordered in the diff sizes.

Asda tops here i come......

GirlRacer_2

Well done on sending the items back. Asda have some really good value clothes, I buy quite a lot from there.

Have you checked your with the cheapest suppliers for Gas, Electricity, Phone and Broadband? If your not, you can change through Quidco and get cashback.

Lemon_Tree

I think that you are doing a good thing by putting money for DD etc aside in a savings account. I have a bills account, a separate current account, that all mine come from which i pay into once a month and never touch, it's my only way. I suspect you may just have confused people by calling it a savings account but you are doing the right thing.