I need to stop wasting my life and money!

bucberas

Hi all,

I'm 24 years old and I live with my partner who is 24. We have lived together for 6 years now and have spent and spent and spent. Looking back when we first bought our home everything seemed so much easier. If we did'nt have the money we did without. Then after been in the house for a while you are offered credit and think hey what the hell one credit card won't hurt ill have it incase of an emergency. Then you say well ill just buy this with it and pay it off when I get paided - then of course you don't.

Then I consolldated the cards and spent on them again.

I cant believe i've been so stupid all this time! You just feel like your wasting your life just working to pay stuff off and never getting anywhere.

I feel very ashamed of what has happened and am writing on here to try and get some support and help on my way to being a DFN (hopefully)

Between myself and partner we have racked up £32570.03 as it stands atm. I hope to become debt free by Jan 2010 but want to have payed off all except Sainsbury loan by Feb 09 as my mortgage fixed rate is up and I want to start a family.

Here it is,

£14463.21 A+L Loan - £600 p/m
£12667.82 Sainsburys Loan - £404 p/m
£4493 barclaycard try to pay £100 p/m
£946 barclaycard £50 p/m

Income:

between us is £2170

Outgoings

Food £200
Petrol £80
Smoke £40
Council tax £70
Electric £30
Gas £50
Water £25
Tv £10
Net / phone / TV £30 - 9 months contract left
Mortgage £280
Insurances £35

Thanks for reading my thread and any help and support would be welcome

xxxx

savvykaz

Hi bucberas and welcome to mse :hello:

Firstly, DO NOT be ashamed as most of us on here can relate to your story of borrowing, consolidating, then borrowing again. It really can become a vicious circle. The good thing is you have identified the problem and are willing to tackle it, that is the biggest hurdle.
I'm not much good at advising what you could cut from your soa, but rest assured, there will be some 'experts' along soon.

savvykaz

Just one question....

How do you intend to be debt free by Feb '09?

Have you 'snowballed' your debts?

OK that's 2 questions

bucberas

Thank you very much for your reply. I wasn't sure if I had done the tread right. Thanks for your support.

I know what you mean it is a vicous circle and hopefully I will be out of it and on a straight road to freedom.
xxx:o

bucberas

I know after i wrote it I meant to say i wanted everything thing payed off by Feb 09 except the Sainsburys loan of £12667

I hope to be completely free by Jan 2010

Thanks for pointing that out for me:D
xx

angelavdavis

Hi and welcome.

Just spent a while replying and it got lost (grrrr)

bucberas wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm 24 years old and I live with my partner who is 24. We have lived together for 6 years now and have spent and spent and spent. Looking back when we first bought our home everything seemed so much easier. If we did'nt have the money we did without. Then after been in the house for a while you are offered credit and think hey what the hell one credit card won't hurt ill have it incase of an emergency. Then you say well ill just buy this with it and pay it off when I get paided - then of course you don't.

Then I consolldated the cards and spent on them again.

Have you cut them up now?

I cant believe i've been so stupid all this time! You just feel like your wasting your life just working to pay stuff off and never getting anywhere.

I feel very ashamed of what has happened and am writing on here to try and get some support and help on my way to being a DFN (hopefully)

Between myself and partner we have racked up £32570.03 as it stands atm. I hope to become debt free by Jan 2010 but want to have payed off all except Sainsbury loan by Feb 09 as my mortgage fixed rate is up and I want to start a family.

Here it is,

£14463.21 A+L Loan - £600 p/m What are the aprs for these debts?
£12667.82 Sainsburys Loan - £404 p/m
£4493 barclaycard try to pay £100 p/m
£946 barclaycard £50 p/m

Income:

between us is £2170

Outgoings

Food £200 This could be lowered easily to £100 - check out Old Style forum for ideas
Petrol £80 This is high - could you carshare?
Smoke £40 Stop stop stop. Switch to rollups to save money if you can't stand the idea of cold turkey
Council tax £70
Electric £30
Gas £50
Water £25
Tv £10
Net / phone / TV £30 - 9 months contract left
Mortgage £280
Insurances £35 What are these for? Might be worth seeing if you can get a better deal elsewhere.

Thanks for reading my thread and any help and support would be welcome

xxxx

1) I can't see any costs for car maintenance, mot, tax, haircuts, birthday/christmas, mobiles, lunches, socialising, etc.

2) Having totted up your outgoings v incomings, you have £166 left over every month - where is this going? Might be worth you both keeping a spending diary for a couple of months so you can find out for yourself where the spending is going.

3) Do you have anything to eBay?? Might be worth getting cracking and throwing the money at the lowest Barclaycard debt. It will boost your confidence and help you declutter too.

Hope that helps!

liz105

bucberas wrote: »

Here it is,


£14463.21 A+L Loan - £600 p/m
£12667.82 Sainsburys Loan - £404 p/m
£4493 barclaycard try to pay £100 p/m
£946 barclaycard £50 p/m

Income:

between us is £2170

Outgoings

Food £200 this can come down, get over to the old style board for tips etc. 2 ppl will be quite ok on £100 p/m for food
Petrol £80
Smoke £40 quit! this is £480 per year!
Council tax £70
Electric £30 now, in comparison to your mortgage (I figure bigger mortgage bigger house? smaller mortgage etc) leccy, gas & water are all high. I'm in the south and mine are £29 leccy £25 gas (or vice versa) and £17.50 water. Thats 2 bed flat 2 ppl.
Gas £50 see above
Water £25 see above
Tv £10 is this tv license?
Net / phone / TV £30 - 9 months contract left
Mortgage £280
Insurances £35 cars? house? contents? life? which one is it? please detail

you havent included birthdays, car tax, car service, xmas etc. Is this really all your spending?


Thanks for reading my thread and any help and support would be welcome

xxxx

Start a spending diary to check where any left over money goes

you are lucky, in my mind your mortgage and council tax are low, so make the most of that while you can and pile cash onto those debts. I know you can do it. x

liz105

hey angel, I just did the same thing as you! Took me ages as it wouldnt let me post!

bucberas

Hi all, Thanks for your comments

I have got a diary today to make a note of where all the extra money is going. We both started taking packed lunches to work which as daft as it sounds saves us over £10 a week.

I think once I get into the swing of things and can identify where the extra cash is been wasted I can then pour it in to paying off the smallest debt.

The rest of the money i have left over I was think of the things that were mentioned above i.e haircuts, social and car etc. its just the list can seem go on forever.

I tried ebay but to be honest I am really rubbish on computers and cant figure out how to use ebay as yet - i was thinking of maybe doing a car boot instead it seem less complicated for me he he

fablad75

I don't think packed lunches are daft at all. I ALWAYS bring food with me - even if it is just a tin of baked beans and a big jacket potato (that I nuke in the office micro). Eating out every day is just too expensive.

ms_london

Hi & welcome to MSE!!

It is a viscious circle alright, but at least you have acknowledged it & want to get out of debt - thats always the biggest step!!

As well as the points other people have mentioned:

* Could you call your creditors and ask them to a) stop your interest, b) lower your interest, and c) cancel PPI if you can? It might seem like a long short, but there is no harm in asking.

* What is your credit rating like? Could you get a credit card or loan with a better rate & do a transfer? (cutting up the original cards of course!!)

* Your repayments are quite high each month. Will you be able to manage paying this until your estimated debt free date? What if your circumstances changed? (not trying to depress you here!). Could you get a 2nd job? Get a lodger? Get a better paid job?

* Well done on taking your lunch in. It makes a HUGE difference, I cant think of the last time I bought lunch out.....

* Definately carboot your stuff if ebay scares you. Ebay is pretty quiet at the moment anyway and since carboot season has started this would be perfect, just try not to buy anything when you're there !!

* You need to budget for EVERYTHING. If that means you are struggling to meet your minimum repayments, call your creditor & propose an amount you CAN afford. It just means it gives you a bit of breathing space as you need to be able to afford to live. It probably wont affect your DFD too much, as when your circumstances change (payrise etc) you can throw more at your debts & use the snowball method.

* Dont be ashamed. As you can see from being on this site - you are not the only one out there, and this is a great place & everyone is so supportive!! It really helped me get debt free and its fab to know that you are not alone!!

Good luck & let us know how you get on.

xx