Light bulb moment......I need help though!

Tixy

Hi Poppy and welcome

Well done in starting by posting your statement of affairs. Thats a good starting point as at least it shows that you can afford your minimum payments on that budget.

The challenge now is to work out what you can change to get debt free quicker.
I see you have put September 2014 as your target - to be able to reach that you'd need to be paying well over £1000 to your debts each month, which will mean some fairly massive cutbacks on your current spending.

So its worth going through each item to see if it can be reduced and how essentially it is to your personally

Poppy93 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 675 is this a competitive rent for where you live? do you have room for a lodger and would you consider one?
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 117 do you claim the single occupier discount?
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 20.23
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 47
TV Licence.............................. 12.18
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 29 is this just tv? or broadband as well? would you consider switching to freeview?
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200 is this just food etc at home? or does it include eating out? Perhaps try setting yourself a target of £150 this month and then £120 next month and try the grocery challenge?
Clothing................................ 100 how much do you think you could cut this by? cutting this in half would be a start? but if you have lots of clothes already you could try being money neutral for a few months - only spend what you make from selling old clothes.
Petrol/diesel........................... 50
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 try to work out an annual cost of this for servicing/mot/tyres etc
Contents insurance...................... 7.25
Life assurance ......................... 5.69
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 35
Entertainment........................... 400 this should be the place you can save the most, although it will take a rethink on how you spend your time. Try to halve to start.
Car insurance savings................... 40 do you have this saved?
Christmas Savings....................... 50 have you been saving this up or is this new?
Car Payment............................. 226.02 how much longer until this is paid?
Total monthly expenses.................. 2074.37

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Student Loan...................1770.78...169.......1.5
Barclaycard....................364.41....5.........18.9 focus on clearing this one first. If you can cut enough out your budget you could clear this in full next month.
FD Credit Card.................790.89....24........0
Mum............................200.......100.......0
Virgin Money Credit C..........11812.8...138.......0
Total unsecured debts..........14938.88..436.......-

Try the downshift challenge for groceries and in terms of entertainment try to think of some free or cheap activities you could do with friends. Could you spend more time going round to each others houses and less going out and spending?

Poppy93

Hi all,

I have had a change in circumstances and most of the debt I created from my messy divorce where I paid through the nose to get rid of him in the end as I couldn't deal with him in my life any longer. Also I then met someone who thought I could pay for everything as I earned more but obviously I had alot to pay out for too.

I think some of it's come from the odd month or two or six where I have just gone out more to stop me feeling so rubbish about being on my own and to forget the debt but obviously that made the issue worse. I am intelligent I don't know how this has happened really :-(

My rent is very competitive for my area and it also means I can walk to work most of the time so I cut back on petrol. My car is on a PCP deal but I am looking to maybe get something smaller but currently tied in for a year.

My TV is with sky and tied in till April 2014 and have it on a 50% off which includes TV, Broadband and Phoneline. I need internet for work but I can cancel sky when I am out of contract as can't afford it when it goes up to full price anyway.

I claim single persons council tax already.

I can stop buying clothes for a bit but as I am losing weight I have been buying more as nothing fitted. I am sure I can stick with what I have for now.

I do go out a hell of a lot and I am trying to stop that. I will easily spend £100 on a night out which I know it too much and probably why I am here now.

I know I have wasted money and I do try to cut back but where I have fallen down in the past is that if I am down I will treat myself on my CC to a New designer handbag or designer makeup and perfume. This needs to stop.

I can't have a house mate on my current tenancy and due to the nature of my work this is also not possible really. Obviously I would revisit this is needed but I would like to avoid as much as possible.

There is something I have forgotten to add and that is my PT sessions, This is £25 a month for three sessions a week and has actually helped me stay in more since I started. Believe it or not £400 on entertainment is far less than it was.

The christmas money and Insurance savings are how much I put away each month for Christmas, car insurance and tax. I don't have servicing costs as I paid for a deal up front.

Thanks for all your help, I am going to look at this tonight and start with the suggestions today.

John1993_2

Poppy93 wrote: »

I do go out a hell of a lot and I am trying to stop that. I will easily spend £100 on a night out which I know it too much and probably why I am here now.

This is something that you will really need to cut back on. I'm in quiite a different financial situation to you, love a good night out, but still tend to do that for a fair amount less than you are getting through there. You can blow money on gold-laced cocktails, michelin starred restaurants and cabs everywhere when it's truly spare money, but it's not a great idea at the moment.

If stopping going out entirely is going to be a non-starter (and I'd not advocate sitting in a darkened room staring at the wall as part of a sustainable lifestyle change), then at least make the vast majority of your nights far cheaper. Friends will hopefully understand that you have no choice, so knock back the frequency a bit, and ask everyone if they are OK with going to a bit more frugally on the nights when you come along.

Poppy93

Thanks John,

I know deep down that the socialising has to be reduced alot and that I need cheaper hobbies. Exercise is helping as three nights a week I get home really late from that meaning going out isn't an option and I have also been working longer hours to stop me from going out on the other days. It's the weekends I find the hardest and I have been known to come to work just to get out of the house lol. Sad I know.

I am going to plan more, and I love cooking so that wont be an issue cooking meals from scratch. I think my main food cost is meat. I seems to find this expensive but with working out I need the Protein.

Poppy93

Ps I bought something at the weekend on my CC that I can still return. I am guessing I should return this while I still can.

nicp60

Hi Poppy,
Well done on posting your SoA and on taking the advice on board. You've had some great advice already, so I won't repeat anything, but I noticed you asked about ebay and thought I'd share...

I ebay an awful lot of old clothes, bags, shoes etc (well, I used to until I sold them all! :rotfl:). I would totally recommend it. It's also a good 'hobby' - glass of wine, music on and take pics of your clothes and then list them all!
Ebay is really hit and miss for clothes - if it's a designer or high-brand item in excellent/very good condition, then I would put a 99p auction on and you'll hopefully get a few aggressive bidders.
For a lot of my items, they're nice, but not really 'competitive' - just high street stuff I've really looked after. I just want a sale and to make room in my wardrobe. For items like that (and non-branded shoes), I put them on for 2-4 quid buy it now. It does cost to do listings like that (I think it's normally listing fee - 20p ish plus 10%. So for a £4 top it'd be something like 60p), but you don't pay until you get an invoice about a month later and you can pay straight from your profit. I leave all my sales money in my paypal account until I've paid the invoice, then bank transfer it. It's instant and I get the cash.
Just be careful with postage costs - they've gone up recently and it can be costly to post stuff. If you do shopping online etc keep the wrappings that stuff comes in - saves a fortune.

Although there's not a massive profit to be made in it, and sometimes it's tedious when you have to relist items etc, I'm getting money for stuff that would literally be sitting cluttering up my house. I know some MSE-ers won't agree about the listings (especially paying for them), but that's just my opinion and one way of getting rid of stuff. Have a look over on the MSE ebay board if you're interested:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=40

Also, it's easy to be intimidated on ebay, but when I started I just put something at the bottom of my listings that said I was new to selling and would do my best to resolve any issues asap.
I hope this is useful and that you're successful on your journey!!

debt-freeoneday

Hi Poppy93

Some great advice here already on how and where to cut back, I just wanted to also add in a little something about budgeting going forwards.

I had a monthly spreadsheet that I called a budget that was neither use nor ornament! My budget was full of holes because I didn't keep it updated, wasn't realistic to start with or I simply just forgot about it.

One way to truly recognise how much you're spending and where is to track every single purchase. This might sound tedious but keeping the receipts and logging every transaction will soon tell you where you're overspending and where you could make savings e.g. over time you might notice a direct debt increasing so make time to shop around for new providers etc. I check my budget and track my expenses everyday now.

I actually feel in control at last despite my huge debt!

Hope this helps somewhat and good luck for the next 17 days until pay day!

Best wishes

Poppy93

Thanks so much for the advice on eBay. It's something I think I might see if I can get one of those free listing days and start by sorting though my wardrobe now.

I found a small note pad today so I've popped it in my bag to record any spending and I have updated my spreadsheet today to make room for recording every purchase.

I also realise that the direct debit for my lottery isn't on my SOA. I'm not sure what to do about this. Should I cancel it? It's £36 a month on two lines. Twice a week and I've had the lines for years. Won a few £10 but nothing more? Should people in debt pay the lotto?

Xxx

Poppy93

Thanks so much for the advice on eBay. It's something I think I might see if I can get one of those free listing days and start by sorting though my wardrobe now.

I found a small note pad today so I've popped it in my bag to record any spending and I have updated my spreadsheet today to make room for recording every purchase.

I also realise that the direct debit for my lottery isn't on my SOA. I'm not sure what to do about this. Should I cancel it? It's £36 a month on two lines. Twice a week and I've had the lines for years. Won a few £10 but nothing more? Should people in debt pay the lotto?

Xxx

Poppy93

Right I have been working a few things out.

My phone is expensive but with a help of a friend I can reduce this to £37 a month but I am stuck in my contract but it's still a reduction in my monthly bill which is positive

I have worked out that a more realistic DFD is 31st December 2014. Giving me 443 days to do it in. That's £33.72 a day so let's call it £34. Which is £1020 a month to pay off. God I'm starting to worry however on a positive note theirs two Christmas bonus's from work which I can pay straight off that as long as I work hard. I don't get overtime so can't even work extra to increase my pay. Anyway it's all progress :-) xx