big debts

sourcrates

consultant31 wrote: »

Your electricity and gas bills are enormous. Look round for a better deal quickly.

She may get a slightly better deal, but I switched beginning of this year and I got an excellent fixed rate deal, but they were only short lived, I checked recently and there were no deals anywhere close to what I got available, my electric is £50 a month
for two people, after searching again recently the nearest deal I could find even close to that was £100 a month, prices have shot up recently, depending what part of the country you are in.
We don't have gas so cant comment.

mcculloch29

I second all the above, particularly the advice on re-negotiating repayments.

Where do you do your food and household goods shopping?

I would look at switching to discounters such as Aldi and Lidl. They have improved beyond all recognition. Wilkinson's is also very good
It's possible to make many of your own cleaning products if that floats your boat - lots of advice on here.

Spend a little time making meal plans and stick to them, making double amounts of things like spaghetti bolognese so that you can freeze portions. There is a lot of good advice on this on the forums.

Have you thought about home-brew to save on the drinks bill if this is something you can't quite give up?

I spend around an hour a day doing online surveys and make about £350 a year doing this. This mostly pays for birthday/Christmas presents for the extended family - I claim Amazon vouchers. Some survey sites pay cash which is very handy. I also regularly receive free products to test, such as laundry and toiletry items.

Good luck!

surfsister

Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00

why is the mortgage insurance so expensive??
also £440 for food and drinks sounds a lot to me even with 3 teens. When I had two teens at home I never spent that much.

Maybe this is an area to look at as others have commented. There are loads of ideas on this site for saving on food. Basically change brands for shops own. Martin did a money saving tv program and a family changed over to shops own and about 70% of the items nobody noticed as they hadn't been told. Worth a try. I don't know how you shop or cook but buying a £4 chicken and having it roast one day then cold the next and using the carcass boiled up with onions to make chicken soup with a few veg saves loads of time shopping and money. Also buy 5 lbs of mince and bulk cook it with toms, garlic etc then use it for spag bol, shepherds pie, chilli etc and freeze the rest.

Good luck anyway!!

surfsister

mcculloch29 wrote: »

I second all the above, particularly the advice on re-negotiating repayments.

Where do you do your food and household goods shopping?

I would look at switching to discounters such as Aldi and Lidl. They have improved beyond all recognition. Wilkinson's is also very good
It's possible to make many of your own cleaning products if that floats your boat - lots of advice on here.

Spend a little time making meal plans and stick to them, making double amounts of things like spaghetti bolognese so that you can freeze portions. There is a lot of good advice on this on the forums.

Have you thought about home-brew to save on the drinks bill if this is something you can't quite give up?

I spend around an hour a day doing online surveys and make about £350 a year doing this. This mostly pays for birthday/Christmas presents for the extended family - I claim Amazon vouchers. Some survey sites pay cash which is very handy. I also regularly receive free products to test, such as laundry and toiletry items.

Good luck!

love your quote! how true! have you read the poem about how the person dying who would be much sillier if they had their life again eg don't bother with that umbrella, drink that expensive wine not keep it etc. I can't recall the poet at the moment!

Physics

Why are your outgoings so high?

Credit card - £350
Hire purchase - £100
Personal loan repayment - 400.00

That's why your outgoings are so high - you borrowed from your future self some time ago, and now you're repaying.

You should probably try to see if you can move the credit card debt to another one, if you can get an interest free period. You must have an awful lot on that card to make repayments so high.

If you want to get out of this mess:

Summer Holidays: £41.67. No. You're in massive debt! You can't afford to spend ~£500 a year on a holiday!

Mobile phone: £45.00. No. You're in massive debt! You can't afford to spend ~£500 a year on a mobile phone!

Drinks for Home: 40.00. No. You're in massive debt! You can't afford to spend ~£500 a year on alcohol at home!

Christmas: 41.67. No. You're in massive debt! You can't afford to spend ~£500 a year on Christmas!

Your food and energy bills also seem huge. You need to start turning the heating down, turning the TV and the computer off, and buying less food and drink. I think you can shave at least £50 off your energy, and another £50 off your monthly shopping.

shelly71x_2

firstly we were doing fine and had no probs paying some of these however my kids were younger and food is expensive. I do shop at Aldi and hit the pound shops for toiletries. This started because I came out of work. Once back in work 6 months ago, we began to get straight paying everything, however that changed when I found out I had to have major surgery, that was 4 days ago now and is hitting us hard. All advice will be taken on board. 3 credit cards and 2 loans are the killers. Rollercoasting.....

surfsister

shelly71x wrote: »

firstly we were doing fine and had no probs paying some of these however my kids were younger and food is expensive. I do shop at Aldi and hit the pound shops for toiletries. This started because I came out of work. Once back in work 6 months ago, we began to get straight paying everything, however that changed when I found out I had to have major surgery, that was 4 days ago now and is hitting us hard. All advice will be taken on board. 3 credit cards and 2 loans are the killers. Rollercoasting.....

can you get the credit cards/loans amalgamated at a lower interest rate??

snookey

Hi can I ask how come you receive income support if your wages are so high or have you made a mistake.

MrsGSR

shelly71x wrote: »

firstly we were doing fine and had no probs paying some of these however my kids were younger and food is expensive. I do shop at Aldi and hit the pound shops for toiletries. This started because I came out of work. Once back in work 6 months ago, we began to get straight paying everything, however that changed when I found out I had to have major surgery, that was 4 days ago now and is hitting us hard. All advice will be taken on board. 3 credit cards and 2 loans are the killers. Rollercoasting.....

Sorry to hear about the major surgery, hope you are recovering ok?
I agree that with your current debt there are areas that need to be addressed as another poster pointed out which will help.

shelly71x_2

that's total household income... mine and my husbands.