More than I thought!! SHOCK!!

acheekymunky

Just totalled up mine & my partners debts. I posted a couple of days ago that I was considering selling our house & clearing our debts with the capital (is that the right word?)

I thought we owed about £30k with my debts & our joint debts.

Just tallied it up...I owe £19300 (excluding a £5k student loan which I presume would be best not being paid off with the capital?)

Jointly we owe £23500 so in total the debt we would expect to clear is £42800!!!!!! I'm in shock, I really didn't think it was that much!!

Throw in the £70k mortgage & our debt is £112,800!!!!! I'm 30 years of age how on earth has this happened??? I don't think swapping from premium to own brands is gonna make a dent in this!:mad:

Think we need to do something drastic but I don't think OH is keen on selling up.

;0(

Time_to_face_the_music

acheekymunky wrote: »

Just totalled up mine & my partners debts. I posted a couple of days ago that I was considering selling our house & clearing our debts with the capital (is that the right word?)

I thought we owed about £30k with my debts & our joint debts.

Just tallied it up...I owe £19300 (excluding a £5k student loan which I presume would be best not being paid off with the capital?)

Jointly we owe £23500 so in total the debt we would expect to clear is £42800!!!!!! I'm in shock, I really didn't think it was that much!!

Throw in the £70k mortgage & our debt is £112,800!!!!! I'm 30 years of age how on earth has this happened??? I don't think swapping from premium to own brands is gonna make a dent in this!:mad:

Think we need to do something drastic but I don't think OH is keen on selling up.

;0(

Hi acheekymunky :hello:

Unfortunately we too were totally incorrect with our estimate of our debt. We thought we owed around £60K and it was actually over £82K

Are you still on a self managed DMP? If so, can you adjust this to deal with your current debts? Or start a new one?

We had a DMP with CCCS now StepChange for around 9 months, then went self managed. On the advice of another MSE member, I have used the NED CAB DMP online plan and think it's brilliant:

http://mymoney.nedcab.org.uk/moneyadvice/dmp.asp

If you are still on a DMP or decide to start a new one, please feel free to come and join us on the DMP & Mutual Support thread. It's full of experience, advice, help and support:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4437925

Good luck and please let us know how you get on

foxgloves

How has that happened? Well, it usually happens when there's a combination of 2 or 3 factors: Failure to budget, living outside our means & then add into that having no emergency fund so that when the s**t hits the fan with a big car repair bill or a new washing machine, we have to stick it on credit. That's what happened to us, anyway & it took decades to sort it. I lived outside my means from the age of 19 (student) to my early 40s! We are all capable of change, though. It isn't unusual to be 30 & owe 70k on a mortgage.....in fact, 70k is pretty low compared to what many people owe. The point I'm making is that change is possible at any age. The first thing is truly recognising what the problem is, what's caused it & putting a watertight plan in place to start turning things round. I wish you all the best with it. It does take time.....we mostly didn't get into debt over night, & unfortunately, it does take a lot of sustained effort to extricate ourselves from past behaviours, but it isn't impossible & as the debts start to come down, the motivation grows. I feel so cross with myself now when I think of all the money I used to fritter away on rubbish, but it doesn't do any good to beat yourself up, onwards & upwards, it's corny, but it's the only way.

acheekymunky

Thank you for taking the time to reply ;0)

I could list all the reasons Foxglove but you are on the money in ur reply (no pun intended!) ... Also I think I was hoping for a quick fox but as you said I didn't acquire it overnight.

Much of my debt is from living away for Uni, then travelling, then failed self employment business & a time living on CC's rather when unemployed. My financial education from school to Uni was dire & it took going on a DMP 5 years ago to teach me a big lesson.

Our joint debts have been for the house...double glazing, central heating etc etc.

I think our main problem now is we don't have a budget. We have over the past couple of months done some stooging, got 0% cards, changed suppliers (unfortunately didn't realise we had debts with current suppliers so on payment plan to clear them!) we don't know what money we are getting in monthly..but what we need to do is sit down and work out the minimum we know we will get in monthly hen anything over that needs to go towards debts.

I feel a bit like I'm drowning at the moment!!! Good news is before i done this calculation today I had planned to pick OH up from work & go shopping for house bits because I have some cash on me...that got cancelled!!!

Suppose main priority now is to calculate what extra we can afford to put towards debts???

I sold lots of things on ebay recently...then someone said they never received a pair of trainers we had sold (worth £120 good as new!!!) eBay awarded in their favour & I had to refund the £42.50 so I lost the £120 worth pair of trainers plus the postage costs. This has massively dented my confidence in selling on eBay now. Took the buyer 20 days to email saying had I posted them yet as they had not been received. Unlikely story IMHO. Rant over ;0) xxx

Pixie5740

acheekymunky wrote: »

I sold lots of things on ebay recently...then someone said they never received a pair of trainers we had sold (worth £120 good as new!!!) eBay awarded in their favour & I had to refund the £42.50 so I lost the £120 worth pair of trainers plus the postage costs. This has massively dented my confidence in selling on eBay now. Took the buyer 20 days to email saying had I posted them yet as they had not been received. Unlikely story IMHO. Rant over ;0) xxx

I got stung with this selling some hair straighteners on eBay that the seller didn't receive. The auction ended on Sunday evening, item in post on Monday morning, Wednesday morning the buyer and contacted PayPal and eBay to get a refund. Looking at their buying history quite a few items they've got from eBay have gone astray in the post.

I had proof of postage from the Post Office but not proof of delivery and the onus is now on the seller to prove the buyer did receive the item. However, as I had proof of postage I was able to make a claim from Royal Mail. I think if you send your item by 1st class you can claim up to £20 back. My claim was successful but 2 months on I'm still waiting for my cheque from Royal Mail.

Items I sell now are either sent recorded delivery or using Collect+.

Pixie5740

I am also starting on my path to becoming debt free. My debts are shocking, especially considering I really have nothing tangible to show for them. Still, if everything goes according to plan I should be starting 2014 in the black. Good luck on your road to debt freedom.

acheekymunky

Think if I do sell on ebay again it will be recorded or not at all!!

That's great Pixie to start 2014 in the black I wish you lots of luck!

Xx

moocowone

I'm not an expert but...

£40k unsecured, (I guess) average APR of 15%, means £6k/year in interest

£70k mortgage, (I guess) APR of 4%, means £3k/year in interest.

That means your debt is costing you, very roughly, £9k/year. I'm sure you can work it out more accurately.

Can you afford that?

Would you be better selling up, clearing the debt, and renting?

Perhaps you should start by posting a statement of affairs to get a clearer picture.

Growurown

acheekymunky wrote: »

Just totalled up mine & my partners debts. I posted a couple of days ago that I was considering selling our house & clearing our debts with the capital

Think we need to do something drastic but I don't think OH is keen on selling up.

;0(

No way would I sell up and use that money to pay debts. You would have to pay rent so why not just carry on paying the mortgage and keep your most valuable asset.

I would look into a DMP with Step Change or Pay Plan. Most of my creditors have stopped charging interest so the debt isn't costing me much at all. If you add up all the costs involved in selling up, moving and then renting, plus all the upheaval and the possibility of not being able to get back onto the housing ladder I would not risk it personally. Just my opinion;)

moocowone

If you have enough equity in the house to pay the debts, will creditors accept a DMP?

tuttifruiti20

I would suggest not selling the house, actually work out everything to the penny, incomings, outgoings, use one of the online statement helpers that many people often post here.

Stop burying your head in the sand and get it done, if you know it is this bad now then clearly you need to start working on it.

With regards to switching to own brands, you could save at least a hundred a month on your shopping I reckon, at least, if you've been not buying own brands already, and every little helps, all those hundreds or even pounds soon add up.

Good luck to you!