New Debt free wanna be!!! SOA included

Sunny_Bear

Hi Guys,

I've been an avid lurker of this site for ages now and thought it time to post!!

Me and my hubby have got around £25,000 of debt, its really scary and we really want to try and pay it back. Unfortunatly my husband isnt working at the moment but is hopeful he will get one of the jobs he applied for recently. Once we have a wage coming in from him things will be loads better.

Anyway, here is my SOA

Income:

My wages £1200
Husband wages £0 (has been getting SSP of around £400 per month but the last payment is tomorrow)


Outgoings:

Rent - £425
Council Tax - £94
Water (on a meter) - £10
Electric (on a meter) - £40
Car insurance - £30
Petrol - £125
Food - £100 (trying to stick to this but its hard!)
Catalogue repayments - £40
Husband councelling session - £80
Personal money £100 (includes mobile top ups, the odd lunch at work, occasional takeaway) We nearly always use more than this.

Debt repayments:

Egg loan 7.9% - £16000- £322/mth over 5 years, only 3 months in
Egg CC 0% until Sept - £2700 - £54/mth
Asda CC 0% until Jan - £3000 - £60/month
MBNA CC 0% until Aug - £1800 - £40/mth
Halifax CC (not sure of APR, about 15%) - £1700 - £50/mth

Total £1570 (eek!)

Once husband gets ajob all will be fine and we can hopefully pay off more on the credit cards each month but until then, what do we do?? He gets the SSp this month so that covers it and then hopefully he'll get a job.We also have an ovedraft that is a limit of £1000 and usually go into it buy £600-700 per month.

Any advice gratefully received!!

Lucy1982_2

Hi Sunny

I'm relatively new myself but someone will be alone soon to help. But welcome and well done for getting this far

ccastley

Hi Sunny,

Also new and was in a similar situation foillowing my partners head injury last year. he's gone back to work and now I've fallen ill!

At least we're here and trying to sort it out anyway.

Good luck!

And if you haven't already and it's relevant, reclaim your bank charges! It'll pay off a debt if not bring some extra cash.

Cheers,

Crystal

Storm

As your OH has been on SSP, which sounds like it's ending, it's worth him applying for any benefits he might be entitled to, just in case he doesn't get a job soon. Check out https://www.entitledto.co.uk to see what you might be able to claim.

It looks like you should just about be breaking even with the £400 SSP coming in, but presumably there will be a break between this ending & a new wage arriving. Try the Old Style board for recipe ideas & how to make lovely stuff out of what you've already go in your food cupboards.

Can the petrol be reduced at all? Walking to the shops, car sharing with colleagues to work etc? If you're both on the insurance could one of you come off for a while to reduce this?

Check you're getting the best deal on your electricity - Martin's got an article about switching utilities and you can get cashback too (I got £30 for changing, but that was dual fuel)

Finally, well done on getting most of your CC debts onto 0% deals - is there any space on these for you to transfer some of the Halifax one to?

hypno06

Hi, longshot I know but is there any way of getting the counselling through the NHS. It may be that there is a waiting list, but surely if he is on SSP he should qualify for it. Might be worth asking. Or speak to the local MIND as they are often able to arrange discounted sessions with their panel of therapists/counsellors.

briona

Hi Sunny

My first thought is this – and I may be wrong here (people in the know, please feel free to correct me) – but if your husband isn't working then shouldn't he be exempt from paying council tax? You may be able to apply for a temporary discount...

Probably the problem with sticking to the £100 for "personal money" is that it's all a bit vague – you need to assign a specific amount of money to each item, e.g., only allow yourself £20 on mobile top ups and when that's gone, then you have to wait till the following month to top up again. I found I could very easily fritter money away on repeatedly topping up my phone with a fiver here and there! With things like takeaways, I guess they would have to be your treat towards the end of the month IF there was money left over.

It may be worth keeping a spending diary – a record of EVERYTHING you spend down to that little pack of chewing gum!

Re. the catalogue repayments, you don't mention which ones they are but catalogues generally have much higher APRs than other debts. You haven't said how much is outstanding but if there was any way you could clear these at a greater rate than £40pm you would save yourself masses of interest as well as freeing up that £40 to put towards other debts once the catalogue is cleared. After all, three of your CCs are 0% so you could reduce their payments slightly to pay off the catalogue faster, then put the money that was going to the catalogue towards the Halifax CC to clear it faster (as it has the highest APR).

That's all I can see for now – gotta get back to work...

Hope that helps.

Briona

Sunny_Bear

Thanks everyone, your replies are fab!

The good news is that my husband got a new job today starting on Tuesday. Hes gonna be earning around £15000 per year so we should be able to crack on and make a dent in the debt (even if its a little one to start with!!!)

Lucy1982_2

Hi Sunny

That's great news!! Well Done.

At least you can get things going now.