Living in La-La land

bingoplayer

HI folks

Been using the forum intermittently for the last 12 months or so ……mainly lurking for tips because I haven’t been able to accept im in debt

Anyway I am 22, work full time and recently began living on my own …..

ive made some pretty bad financial decisions over the last 2 /3 years and hadn’t really accepted how bad its got up until now

my debt stacks up as follows

Halifax Credit card 17.9 % - £1200
HSBC Credit Card 17.9 % - £1000
HSBC overdraft - £400
Halifax Loan - £5,830 remaining on loan
(works out at £188 pcm 2 ½ years left of this )
Thompsons £364 ( remaining balance of summer holiday )

Total - £8794

Not entirely sure how I have built up nearly 10 grands worth of debt at 22 its pretty freighting when you say it out loud

I take home just shy of £1200 a month

My fixed outgoings are as follows

Rent & all bills are £345 pcm
Phone – £31 pcm ( contacted until next july)
Gym - £30 pcm
Loan - £188
Travel to work – £90 pcm ( this varies as I mainly have to get the train to work everyday)
Petrol- £ 50 - 60 pcm

Total - £ 744

This Leaves me with about £440 a month that is disposable

( and has mainly been spent on alcohol for the last 4 years)

In my mind I would like at least 300 to live off for the month aswell as buying all my food but after reading countless threads this is probably too much and I wonder if I was on best behaviour and went to lidl/ aldi for my food if I could possibly cut it down to £240 pcm

my only other assets are 1500 pounds worth of shares but i cant cash these in until they reach theyre full potential towards the end of may

I am praying that these will solve all my problems

However worst case scenario I shall still be able to pay about a grand off that debt possibly wiping out one of the credit cards ?

or shall i pay the overdraft first

i see all these challanges around the forums but I'm not really sure where to start....does anyone have any suggestions

i just need to be put on the right path

theoretica

Firstly fill in one of these - in as much detail as you can. The more information the better decisions follow. http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

You will need to order your wants. You want spending money, want to be debt free, probably want more holidays. What about car savings, house/rental deposit, savings for a new computer... You probaby can't have them all on a short timescale, which do you want most and first?

dancingfairy

There is a snowball calculator around somewhere which will show you the difference between throwing 100 a month at your debt, against say 140 or even 200. This will give you some idea whether you think it is worth going for the short sharp tactic or whether you need a little longer.
Assuming you are meeting the minimums (I assume this is covered in bills?) then you should throw the 140 or whatever a month at the highest interest debt (check out the apr - it should say on your statement). If you are not meeting the minimums and that 140 is all you have then you should split that 140 fairly between your creditors.
Best of Luck
df