Debt free by Christmas 2007!

immoral_angeluk

Salary: £1500 (based on average) 2nd Job? Overtime?

Rent: £387.50
Mobile: £45 Go pay and go or cut down to lowest tariff. Or sell the phone on ebay and use the landline!
Electricity: £12
Gas: £14
Water: £4.10
Phone/Internet: £15
TV License: £3
Charity: £6 Stop this for the time being until you've cleared your debt. That £6 could be going on debt!
Magazine subscription: £3.33 Join a library!
DVD Rental subscription: £12.99 Cancel this and take advantage of the free trials and other offers.
Travel: £60 Can you get a monthly ticket? Might be cheaper?
Mum & Dad: £20 What's this for?
Lottery: £24 Give up. The chances of you winning are slim and if you did win anything you'd have paid more than double what you'd get anyway!
ISA: £5 Stop this until you've paid off debt then you can more than make up for the £5's you missed!
Cardguard: £1.67 What's this? If it's card protection cancel it as your cards will be covered by your house insurance!
Food: £80
Misc: £100 (includes beauty/haircuts, toiletries, clothes etc) Break this down and see where you can make cut backs.
Socializing: £100 Can you have more nights in? £100 is a lot of money!

Total: £893.59

Debts owed:
HSBC card 15.9% APR: £2813.19
Diners 14.9% APR: £1373.97
OU 8.8% APR (course fees): £207.90
Freemans 0% APR: £105

Any chance of tranferring some of the debt onto a lower APR card?

Good luck!

Em1982

blondie7, £45 is the highest mobile bill I've had, most of the time it is less, plus I've just cancelled the £6.95 insurance on it, so that should make a difference to the bill amounts.

Your the second person to suggest cancelling the charity payments so I think that is something I should probably do, just temporarily at least!

I do enjoy using the DVD rental service, but haven't been using it as much lately. I tried downgrading the package (was paying £14.99 before) but think I will cancel this for the time being.

The magazine subscription is for a magazine that I have always bought so thought it was money-saving to get a subscription and save some money off the price. However, I will certainly consider whether I can do without it until Christmas!

Thanks for all your ideas :T

Em1982

Well as I said in my opening post, if it means getting debt-free sooner, then I'm prepared to do it!

So I am going to:
Cancel my magazine subscription
Cancel my DVD rental scheme
Stop my ISA payment
Stop charity payments (until debt free)
Stop playing the lottery

The last one is going to be tough but over the years have definately paid out more than I've got back (thanks to Immoral_Angel and SlowlyFading for convincing me on this one!)

Doing all this should save me £51.32 a month! :j

Em1982

southernscouser wrote: »

Simple solution. Don't check the numbers.

Now why didn't I think of that before?! :rotfl:

Em1982

Immoral_Angel,

Overtime can be hard to come by, but I try to get it as much as I can (if I'm lucky once a month, but its financially worthwhile!). A second job is impossible, as my hours and days off vary and are often subject to change!

My mobile is important as I'm often away for work, but have been considering PAYG for a while. Only problem is I'm tied to a contract for the time being.

A monthly travelcard actually works out more expensive at the moment for some reason!

Finally, your right about the Cardguard but it was actually a one-off yearly payment which I made in February, so won't be able to cancel it, but thanks for pointing this out!

Thanks for the advice, as you can see from my earlier post I have taken the rest of your advice on board too!

Emma x

Em1982

Here is my revised SOA, very streamlined! I think the only improvements I can make to it now are to cut down on the food, miscellaneous and socializing budgets, I plan to cut them down to at least half! The mobile bill should be much less from June onwards, hopefully nearer £30! In June I am going to a music festival so will need an extra budget for that, expecting to spend a fair bit! Need to find some extra money somehow!

Salary: £1500 (based on average)

Rent: £387.50
Mobile: £45
Electricity: £12
Gas: £14
Water: £4.10
Phone/Internet: £15
TV License: £3
Travel: £60
Mum & Dad: £20
Food: £80
Misc: £100 (includes beauty/haircuts, toiletries, clothes etc)
Socializing: £100

Total: £840.60

Debts owed:
HSBC card 15.9% APR: £2743.19
Diners 14.9% APR: £1373.97
OU 8.8% APR (course fees): £102.64
Freemans 0% APR: £105

slowlyfading

Good afternoon
what do you give your mum and dad £20 for? You've said it yourself, you need to cut down on socialising and your mobile
sf x

jo1972

Hi,

Just wanted to say good luck

You've got me thinking now, wondering if I could do it before Christmas too, certainly gives me a good incentive to take it seriously and not be tempted with unnecessary stuff.

I'm gonna go dig out all my paperwork and see if I can do a SOA!!

Thanks for the kick up the butt :D

Jo.

Em1982

Hi SF,

Unfortunately the £20 I give my mum & dad must be paid, and I wouldn't want to ask for a payment break, they've been so good to me!

If it were up to me, my spends on going out would be minimal, as I do like cosy nights in. Sadly, my BF can't sit still for 5 minutes and has to be doing something! He does pay for most things when we go out but I won't let him pay for everything, cos I end up feeling guilty! Am going to be firm from now on though and insist I can't afford it!

For the next few months though I have a few social events such as weddings and the music festival, which I worry will end up costing too much. Anyone have any advice for minimal spending at events like these?

Emma x

Em1982

Hi jo1972,

If I can do it, anyone can! It's not going to be easy for me, especially as my snowball shows I will still have a large final payment in December, leaving me little money for Xmas! Am hoping I will be able to make a couple of overpayments before then, to make it a bit lower, although where that money is going to come from is a bit of a mystery at the moment! But I will try!

Good luck with clearing your debts, glad I inspired you!