I need to get a hold of this..!

mrsd1984

You know what, you will be able to afford the extra luxuries.........after you pay off your debts. If you were to cut out all these extra things in the short term and throw the money at your debts instead, you would be debt free pretty quickly.

Money is tight with us at the moment. I have just started maternity leave and in another 5 weeks will be getting the minimum £130 odd a week. Dh brings in £220 a week (but does get bonuses every 3 months, depending on how busy work is - he's self employed.). We have debts and are paying them every month. Never missed a payment. We have budgeted for when I am on smp and initially it looked like we wouldn't have enough to cover the basics. After cutting non essentials, being strict with grocery budget, only giving ourselves a small amount each month for 'luxuries' (£25) and looking at things like insurances to make sure we are on the best deal we will now have a little money left every month after all our debts have received their minimum payment. In our budget we also manage to put money away for Christmas, birthdays, I have budgeted in money to baby D's savings account (when baby D decides to make an appearance - no, I'm not getting impatient. Honest!!) and money for a takeaway or 2 (depending what we get). Any money left over will be thrown at our debts.

Also, are you looking at ways of making a little extra? Do you use cashback sites? Sell things? Have you got tons of DVDs where you can get rid (we got rid of around 50 last month, still have about a million!) etc.

Basically as someone else has said, you'll know when you'll get your true lbm. I personally don't think you're there yet.

MEM62

Sorry if I sound harsh OP but from your responses I believe that you are aware that you have a problem but that you are not really prepared to make the compromises needed to sort it out. You have some extravagant spending in your monthly budget that should be cut if you are serious about sorting your situation yet are finding justifications to keep spending. If you have been training for any period of time you'll know that the main benefit from a trainer is motivation - you already have the knowledge to train effectively. You could cut this out for a while to get your debt under control and go back to having the odd session with a PT a couple of times a month when you finances are better. And as for protein shakes, you might as well throw your money in the bin. They are a triumph of marketing over science.

I am sure that deep down you appreciate the reality of your spending situation and you will eventually sort it out. However, at the moment you have not yet reached the point where you are prepared to be hard enough on yourself to do that and, until you do, little will change.

fyggy

mrsd1984 wrote: »

You know what, you will be able to afford the extra luxuries.........after you pay off your debts. If you were to cut out all these extra things in the short term and throw the money at your debts instead, you would be debt free pretty quickly.

Money is tight with us at the moment. I have just started maternity leave and in another 5 weeks will be getting the minimum £130 odd a week. Dh brings in £220 a week (but does get bonuses every 3 months, depending on how busy work is - he's self employed.). We have debts and are paying them every month. Never missed a payment. We have budgeted for when I am on smp and initially it looked like we wouldn't have enough to cover the basics. After cutting non essentials, being strict with grocery budget, only giving ourselves a small amount each month for 'luxuries' (£25) and looking at things like insurances to make sure we are on the best deal we will now have a little money left every month after all our debts have received their minimum payment. In our budget we also manage to put money away for Christmas, birthdays, I have budgeted in money to baby D's savings account (when baby D decides to make an appearance - no, I'm not getting impatient. Honest!!) and money for a takeaway or 2 (depending what we get). Any money left over will be thrown at our debts.

Also, are you looking at ways of making a little extra? Do you use cashback sites? Sell things? Have you got tons of DVDs where you can get rid (we got rid of around 50 last month, still have about a million!) etc.

Basically as someone else has said, you'll know when you'll get your true lbm. I personally don't think you're there yet.

Thanks for this. Baby planning will be next on the agenda. We're hoping to start trying in a years time.

I have been selling some things. Sold about 80 DVDs the other month. Some things on eBay but they didn't sell despite relisting twice, but third times a charm eh? We have a set of wheels to go on Gumtree which we're photographing and sorting today - they'll hopefully bring in £200 if not more and currently sat collecting dust at my Mums. I was thinking of selling all my CDs too.

I think perhaps I haven't hit that LBM, but I think making changes now whether I've hit rock bottom yet isn't a bad thing, perhaps I just don't come across as committed as you guys. I think we had been coasting for a few months but its crept up since Hubbys pay has dropped down that £200. I am going to have a look at Dooyoo and I don't really want to do Agency but I could and I would be more lucrative than Hubby as my job is more specialised, but I still feel bad doing it as I know how much they overcharge the NHS for the service.. Such a sap I know!

mrsd1984

It's definitely not such a bad thing only making small change now, provided you are not getting further into debt each month.

You mentioned a cashback credit card, how about a cashback debit card where you get cashback on your direct debits? You won't get loads but it all helps. Drop a brand in the supermarket. Make sure you write a list before going (and food plan for the week/month). Make it your aim to spend less than a certain amount eg £30 a week. Anything you've got left over then can be out in a jar or use the savings stamps ready for Christmas food/drink. If you're wanting extras like wine/chocolate (I know you're into fitness, I'm thinking of my pre pregnancy self!!) use your own personal 'pocket money'. We take our grocery money out of the bank at the beginning of the month and once it has gone, it's gone. We don't suffer, though. We eat pretty well. I've craved fruit juice through the pregnancy and have a big glass every day, if we have bolognaise or lasagne (homemade - dont touch ready meals) we have a Big salad and garlic bread with it.

John1993_2

fyggy wrote: »

Re the gym. Having two gyms would be a dream, haha. Currently we don't pay for a gym membership. Our building has a gym, pool, jacuzzi & sauna on the ground floor, hence the large service charge.

Well then there's something else that you can change; move to a place without these facilities. Although, that said, your service charge woudl seem pretty cheap to some. Mine's a little over £11k/pa, for example...

emmaglet

I completely understand wanting to treat yourselves to things you view as essentials, like the PT. As nurses, you both work really hard and deserve some nice things.

I think you need to decide what is most important to you now. You can't keep the PT, cleaner, gym fees, Sky, etc etc etc at once. As someone who is overweight it is VERY important to me to keep my gym membership. It is almost £50 per month (I could move to a cheaper gym, but because the facilities aren't very good I'll only be saving £7 per month but I'd hardly go). If I were to post a SOA then I'd be told to get rid of it instantly. But I won't. The same with Sky - we pay £36.75 per month but we don't go out very often - it works out cheaper than visiting the pub, cinema, etc.

Maybe instead of cancelling most things, you could downgrade them? The cleaner, for example. My bf and I work opposite hours and I'm so stressed about the state of the house that I've considered getting a cleaner. Maybe you could reduce this instead of getting rid of her? The same with the PT, Sky, etc etc etc.

Good luck on your journey. You've got some great advice here.

LannieDuck

Fyggy, you're really not in a bad position. Yes, you have a lot of debt, but you also have a lot of over-spend, so you have options. It should be possible to retain most of your luxuries and still pay down what you owe. Well done for catching it now before it spirals.

You already pay £933/mth from unsecured debts. To pay off the whole £27500 debt in 2 years would require monthly payments of £1145 (assuming interest is frozen). That means you need to find an extra £212/mth. There are loads of ways you could do this:

* Switch cleaner to fortnightly (£50 saving)
* Switching satellite TV to freeview (£52 saving)
* Half your holidays (£50 saving)
* Stop the wine club (£25 saving)
* Half your entertainment (£100 saving)
* Cheaper/fewer haircuts (£60 saving)
* Cut OH's subs (£31 saving)
* Drop the PT (not sure what saving this would be)

Or you could increase your pay (e.g. by going agency) - there's nothing to stop you doing this for the period of debt repayment, and then going back to the NHS afterwards

...or a combination thereof. You and your husband need to have a chat about which things you're willing to give up, because it's easily doable.

FBaby

Will you be debt free by the time you try for a baby? If you think this is hard now, bare in mind it will be much much tougher to tackle any debts after you have a baby, when either your income will significantly drop in addition to some extra costs, or your costs will rise drastically. You wouldn't be able to afford a baby with your current budget and would struggle to repay your debts now, even on your income.

fyggy

Thanks again for the replies. Some new thoughts and ideas on reductions and cuts and some calculations too! Thanks for taking the time to work all that out, LannieDuck! Nice to hear some people in similar situations and what they've done to help.

Re baby planning, finances and houses have a lot of impact in that decision to start trying. And also I've thought deeply about my maternity leave etc so I'm staying put in my job at the moment and we're seeing how Hubby's job goes and further promotions or opportunities available to him.

So, an update of stuff done today in between gym, tidying, a trip to town, visit to my Mums and just before I go for an evening run...

-Cancelled our cleaner- one months notice = £87-100pcm (dependant on 4 or 5 week month)
-Cancelled Hubby's Equifax subscription = £6.99 PCM
-Cancelled Virgin Wines monthly package = £25 PCM
-Hubby rang Sky to haggle a better deal/downgrade (for now) = £8 off PCM
Total = £127 PCM

Small tweeks making little ripples

Katzen

Assuming that SOA is 100% accurate, then with the cutbacks listed above and the hair at half what you've listed like you said, then you're just over breaking even.

If you slam that whole £400 from paying off your holiday onto your CC debt then it will take you about 12months to clear those, which gets you clear just before the 0% is up if you do them in the right order.

Your loans are then totally manageable, even if you go back to old spending ways.

This is not the path I would choose as I hate owing money and would cut back everything to clear the lot ASAP but I think those people saying you're living WAY beyond your means are being a touch harsh. That said, your attitude does sound likely to lead to more debt, not less, so good luck to you!