Really need to clear my debts but debt charity cant help. What next?

aneres

Do you have a Card Factory near you? You can buy a roll of wrapping paper for £1 which should do a few presents, they also do cards much cheaper than £2.50.

For presents check out The Works you can buy books at reasonable prices.

BeingMe

There is a card factory in the nearest town but once parking and petrol has been factored in then it's cheaper just to go to tesco. I'd love to be one of these super organised people who has a card and present drawer in their house and stocks up on cheap presents when they're on offer. In reality I find the invitations the night before the party in their book bag, scramble to tesco where I pay way over the odds for a piece of plastic tat

Another problem I have is knowing how much to spend on debt repayments each month. I have a lot of expenses this month so I'm scared to spend any money even though I have it in my account right now, in case I need it later. How do people decide how much to pay off each month?

[Deleted User]

You could try making an extra payment, at the end of the month, with whatever is left.

BeingMe

This is the thing - I never have anything left over at the end of the month.


I have just applied for a 0% interest card. I doubt I'll be accepted but if I am then I can hopefully clear a couple of cards and then snowball the payments I was making towards those into the next debt. Even if I don't clear it during the 0% term then the interest is still much lower than I'm currently paying.

heartbreak_star

You're trying to continue your current lifestyle.

You can't.

Harsh but true, I'm afraid. And if your debt current totals half your salary, you're not going to get that card.

Stop the kids savings for a year. Halve their presents. Hand their clothes down. I know that sounds horrible, but kids need love, a home and food. Material things are nice but not necessary if you're lying awake at night worrying, you're not on tip top form.

They will manage as adults by working and saving their own money. Anything you can generously give them will be a bonus

You need to pull the purse strings tight for now in order to benefit long term.

Good luck - I think you sound like an awesome parent and really want the best for your kids

HBS x

BeingMe

Yes, you may be right. I think I have a lot of guilt over the children. Before I separated from their father they lived in a very nice house, had a room each and everything they could want. They've already had to make sacrifices due to our split and I'm keen to minimise this as much as possible.


They don't have nice clothes, they're not good enough to hand down. I also had to leave most of my elder children's clothes at my XH's house. I buy them cheap clothes that they quickly ruin plus they are growing faster than I can keep up with. I probably spend quite a lot on activities and days out for them but I'm going to find it hard to cut back in this area.


I think I look better off on paper because it doesn't take into account all the money I've had to spend in recent months on furnishing our new home. We left with very little.


Part of my issues surround the fact that I don't really understand money. I get a kind of blurry head feeing when I think about it. I'm going to start recording my expenditure again and see if that helps me understand where my money is going. I would really like to start paying things off now but I've no idea how to best go about it.


I have one card that I make above minimum payment on. It's Capital one where the minimum is £70 with bout £30 interest but I pay £100. This is slowly making a difference. Other debts have higher minimum payments such as Next where my current minimum is £114 so that tends to reduce quite quickly. But the others are the ones where I am clearing by £1 or £2 a month. If I can find a little extra to put to my debts each month, where do I focus it? The biggest? Or spread out amongst the ones which take longest to clear so I'm making at least some impact on the balance?

BeingMe

I've input all the data from last month's bank statement and I spent the following:


£2,276 on general such as food, bills and debt repayment
£391 on entertainment for the children and cigarettes for myself (I've now quit smoking)
£149 on the children's savings and other things
£130 on travel (including £45 train tickets to see a relative which was a one off)
£126 on business expenses
£20.45 on eating out
£15.59 on gifts for a birthday party
£12.50 on clothes as my son needed new school trousers


I had £3,053 in income which included £75 from the business.


I don't know if this gives a better picture of how I spend my money? Although there were some unusual expenses last month like the train tickets and I took the children to a few more activities than usual because I found theme park tickets on offer and the circus visited our town.

thewhiteavenger

BeingMe wrote: »

This is the thing - I never have anything left over at the end of the month.


I have just applied for a 0% interest card. I doubt I'll be accepted but if I am then I can hopefully clear a couple of cards and then snowball the payments I was making towards those into the next debt. Even if I don't clear it during the 0% term then the interest is still much lower than I'm currently paying.

Making a lot of applications can itself be viewed negatively.


Try Martin's pre-eligibility checker first on this page


http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards


There is also a guide to improving your credit rating here


http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score

[Deleted User]

BeingMe wrote: »

This is the thing - I never have anything left over at the end of the month.

So your question, "How do people decide how much to pay off each month?" is moot.

[Deleted User]

BeingMe wrote: »

I have one card that I make above minimum payment on.

Is this the debt with the highest APR?