Loads of debt, help please!

charlie_d_3

Well this is us:

(all monthly totals)
In
DH earnings: 1670 after tax
My earnings: ranging between £500 and £1000 (new business)
Child benefit: 116
Child tax credit: 46
Total: 2332 - 2832

Out
Mortgate: 837 (repayment)
Council tax: 97
Gas: 50
Electric:19
Water: 30
Phone: 20
Sky: 24
Childcare: 101
Car insurance: 50
Life insurance: 14
TV license: 11
Food: 240
Home insurance: 24
Misc: 80
Total: 1597

Overdrafts
Natwest overdraft: 1500 (advantage gold charge plus 16%)
My old student account overdraft: 2800 (paying minimal interest as they think I'm still doing my PhD)

Loans
Student loan: 76 per month 5000 over 5 years (3 months to go) 8%
Sofa loan: 30 per month, 1080 over 3 years (2 years and 5 months to go) 0%
Northern Rock Car loan: 72 per month, 6000 over 10 years (7 years to go) 8%
House loan: 205 per month, 10000 over 5 years (4 years and 5 months to go) 7%
Total: 383

Credit Cards
M&S (1): 3000 4.9% life of balance
M&S (2):1500 4.9% life of balance
Cahoot:1800 12% I think?
Egg: 900 22%
Virgin:300 16%

What I've already done
Selling stuff on Ebay making 50-100 a month
DH applied for new job (find out on tues) an extra 500 a month if he gets it
New current account with Alliance and Leicester
Got the M&S credit cards and transferred balances
Checked out reducing term of car loan, even though it said no redemption penalty, all interest would be payable so no saving to be made
Cancelled broadband and charity and reduced sky package
Reclaimed bank charges
Swapped energy suppliers
Shopping online/with a list(!)
Reduced childcare requirements

So any other ideas? Would be very grateful if someone could tell me what I should do with the rest of the credit card debt, life of balance or 0%? Only making minimum payments on the credit cards, which should I chuck extra money at? Total of about 400 - 900 depending on my income to get paying it all off.

Sorry this is so long - I have found writing all this so liberating! Have hidden all of it for so long now it feels quite therapeutic to finally come clean!

lynzpower

hi there :wave:

Whos in your family- how many of you are there?

Have you recieved your bank charge money back then- what did you do with it?

Welcome
Lynz
x

charlie_d_3

Hi Lynz

There's four of us, dh and I plus our two boys aged 3 and 1.

Bank charge money went on a quarterly water bill (have now set up monthly DD) final bills for gas and electric when we changed supplier and the rest on a month when I didn't get any salary and still had massive childcare costs.

So all gone!

Bunnyinthelights

morning Charlie,
This isn't my area of expertise (what is I still wonder, lol)
But I wanted to say welcome to DFW! They are a great lot here, very helpful.

good luck,
Bunny

poodlehorse

Hi, well done to facing up to your debts and taking the first steps. HAve you looked at the snowball calculator on whatsthecost.com? Good luck to DH for Tuesday, that would help a lot, and also good luck with growing your business. As always I would suggest looking at the Old Style boards on here to see if you can reduce your groceries and other bills just that little bit more. Every little helps, have you joined the cashback sites like Quidco etc? Or thought about doing online surveys etc for some extra cash. I think the attitude is pretty much before you spend ANYTHING you check out the cheapest way of doing it. What does the £80 miscellaneous actually cover? Are we talking the odd Starbucks on the way to and from work, newpapers etc. If it does then look very hard at these expenses as quickly to odd coffee and magazine adds up. Where are you with your SOA now you have made some changes already?

lynzpower

(all monthly totals)
In
DH earnings: 1670 after tax
My earnings: ranging between £500 and £1000 (new business)
Child benefit: 116
Child tax credit: 46
Total: 2332 - 2832

Out
Mortgate: 837 (repayment)
Council tax: 97
Gas: 50 ( see if you can now start to reduce your usage, turn your thermostat down a bit, and use every tip on https://www.est.org.uk to reduce your usage.
Electric:19 ( i fear this is underpayment)
Water: 30
Phone: 20
Sky: 24 ( it seems silly you are selling whatever you can and half your ebay income is going here! Id cancel it, its not helping)
Childcare: 101
Car insurance: 50 (checked this is the cheapest)
Life insurance: 14 ( achecked this is the cheapest?)
TV license: 11
Food: 240 ( i think you can easily get this down as you have littlies, I expect you could probably save 80-100pcm here alone- head over to the old style board and pick up tips from there
Home insurance: 24 (
Misc: 80
Total: 1597

Overdrafts
Natwest overdraft: 1500 (advantage gold charge plus 16%) ( cna you move bank accounts to get a 0% overdraft?)
My old student account overdraft: 2800 (paying minimal interest as they think I'm still doing my PhD)

Loans
Student loan: 76 per month 5000 over 5 years (3 months to go) 8% ( is this a SL co loan or a grad loan?)
Sofa loan: 30 per month, 1080 over 3 years (2 years and 5 months to go) 0% (is it 0% for the whole term, watch out, mine was 0% for 12 months then 27% after :eek:)
Northern Rock Car loan: 72 per month, 6000 over 10 years (7 years to go) 8%
House loan: 205 per month, 10000 over 5 years (4 years and 5 months to go) 7% ( is this secured?)
Total: 383

Credit Cards
M&S (1): 3000 4.9% life of balance
M&S (2):1500 4.9% life of balance
Cahoot:1800 12% I think? ( try and m,ove this)
Egg: 900 22% ( try adn move this onto somewhere lower interest)
Virgin:300 16% ( ditto!)

What I've already done
Selling stuff on Ebay making 50-100 a month
DH applied for new job (find out on tues) an extra 500 a month if he gets it
New current account with Alliance and Leicester ( good! you beat me to it )
Got the M&S credit cards and transferred balances
Checked out reducing term of car loan, even though it said no redemption penalty, all interest would be payable so no saving to be made
Cancelled broadband and charity and reduced sky package
Reclaimed bank charges
Swapped energy suppliers
Shopping online/with a list(!)
Reduced childcare requirements

Well done youve made a sterling start, now its just a question of really slicing back wherever possible- and thinking- do I need this when buying anything

Let us know how you go on

hypno06

Try putting all the figures into the snowball calculator - https://www.whatsthecost.com this will tell you what to pay off first, and will give you the all important Debt Free Date which is, IMHO, a great motivator.

Good luck and keep posting, you seem to be on the right path.

charlie_d_3

Thanks for all the encouraging replies and comments on my outgoings. Have just done the snowball calculator and feel so much better. You were right it is such a relief to see that you can get rid of the debt and that small amounts added to what you pay off make a big difference to the debt free date. Makes you want to actually do something about it rather than just stick your head back in the sand.

Thanks again everyone, plan to stay reading all the inspirational posts on here and will let you know how I get on.