2 years to get debt free

bobylon5

Hi All,

Got ourselves in a bit of a pickle. We had our first child 3 years ago, and my wife hasn't been back to work since. We've dribbled away around 5k a year, mostly through just living expenses, but we haven't been saints either. There are few nice bicycles in there, as well as some wedding expenses.

We now have a 3 month old as well, and just can't seem to close the month's budget in the black. We haven't for about 3 years.

I have tried a few 0% credit cards, but just seem to be amassing a collection of plastic, and more and more debt. The last one I applied for was to clear a few bank overdrafts, but the overdraft is now full again, which is how it has gone with all of them.

I am now in a position where my job might end around this time next year, so I ideally need to clear the debt in that time. I want to start a business as a tree surgeon as I have the skills and certificates, but not sure how I'll be able to afford the startup costs and insurance. I'm starting to sell a few things, but don't really have much that I can get good money for.

So here it is, my list of shame:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,762.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 120.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.99
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450.00
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86.67
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.42
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Education & Courses
University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One-Offs
Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.17
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116.67
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,882.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,593.69



Debts:
Tesco Clubcard Credit Card:
-£1,535.17 at 18.9% APR
MBNA Platinum Visa Credit Card:
-£4,750.32 at 0% APR
Amazon.co.uk Mastercard:
-£3,706.31 at 9% APR
Barclaycard Platinum Visa:
-£3,877.09 at 0% APR
First Direct Current Account:
-£1989.03 at 15.9 EAR variable

So 15,857.92 as it stands today.

longtermplanner

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,882.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,593.69

There is your problem, you have to tackle your expenses. Sell the nice bikes. Stop eating out. Cancel summer holiday plans - stay at home for a couple of years. Trim your groceries bill by a hundred. Stop the shopping for fun. Stop spending money on hobbies. CAncel the newspaper/magazine sub. Stop smoking

Your kids are at a very cheap age. Take them down the park. Have picnics. Stop spending money that you don't have on a lifestyle you can't afford..

runforlife

Hi there and welcome. Clearly you need to do something and soon which is I guess why you found this place. People will be able to offer you great advice on money saving and where things are clearly a bit on the high side.

I think your financial story is very similar to mine and many others probably as your expenditure is in excess of income. Supplement by credit cards and overdraft to live and you are in a spiral of debt.

Consider snowballing your debts. There's a link to the snowball calculator on the website. I think you need to stop spending on the cards though. Not easy and the best way is to cut them up.

Quickly looking over your finances.

Phones - Can you move on to a pay as you go or GiffGaff offer very cheap rates. You may need to be out of your contracts or negotiate with your provider.

Internet - Is this for landline as well? It's very expensive.

Is the water bill over 9 months or 12?

Now you have a baby you need Life Insurance for both of you. Whilst you are at it home insurance would be beneficial.

Are you renting or mortgage? If mortgage is it a repayment mortgage? If so you must get life insurance.

There's no baby expenses listed?

Drinks for home? Can you reduce this?

Shopping for fun? I would stop this. You can't afford this.

Drinking / Eating out? Again. Can you really afford this?

Sorry, but you are going to have to make some life style changes.

Do you actually save for the car expenses or are they put on the credit card? In other words have you the cash to pay for your car tax, service when it is due?

Look hard at your spending habits and begin to write down a spending diary where you record EVERYTHING that you spend.

I've just gone through your expenditure and if you cut certain things out and reduce food by £100 (just £25 a week) then I could reduce your outgoings by over £700 pm. It won't be an easy journey and you are going to have to face up to change now. However you have realised - a lot sooner than I did so well done!

Good luck

debt-freeoneday

Hi bobylon5

Just want you to know first of all that you're not alone. Myself and my husband have been in debt for the last 15 years and it's only in the last 18 months where we have had success in paying debt off.

In January 2013, we owed in excess of £41K in credit card and loans debt. We now owe £14K and plan to be debt free by the end of the year.

From your budget, your internet fees seem a little high, I'm paying around £20 for mine. Maybe you could get a better deal? Also, your grocery shopping seems a little high too. I'm a childminder and feed myself, hubby, daughter and 4 childminded children on a shopping budget of £250 per month. I do this by planning meals, buying food in bulk and cooking and freezing in bulk too.

Even with some savings though, your expenditure does exceed your income by quite a bit. It might be that you need to look at debt management solutions to give you some breathing space. A Debt Management plan could be one option you could look at. Try National Debtline or Stepchange for some free advice. They will be able to advise you based on your circumstances.

Secondly, is there anyway you could increase your income by taking on work from home or a second job? I have a few different income streams now through a couple of blogs (one of them about getting out of debt - you might be interested in taking a look, it's on my profile page) and freelance writing as well as my childminding work. Selling stuff on eBay is great too but you will run out of things to sell eventually so you need to look at another source of income which you can tap into. It really helps.

You could also look into whether you've been mis-sold PPI if you haven't already. If you need any advice on anything in here, please message me!

Don't worry, you can sort this.

hohum

Hey, well done on actually having an idea where the money is going! I could not have told you where our money was leaking from until I did a spending diary. It looks as though you have a good idea, and there's a fair amount of discretionary spends you could look at cutting.

However as it stands, according to your SOA you have a £711.69 overspend every month. Even with some judicious shearing, I'm not sure even the most diehard money saver could find that much in savings in your budget. So, is yours the only income in the household? Might your wife be able to look at some part time work or working from home?

In terms of savings you could look at:

mobiles , internet (does this include tv?), shopping for fun, possibly gas (look at old style re simple ways to make home more energy efficient), food you could probably cut to £250 easily (I feed to adults on approx £150 a month), drinking out, eating out, etc etc

bobylon5

Sorry: I lumped baby essentials in with shopping and "internet" is virgin media package.

foxgloves

The good news here is that you have lots of room for cutbacks. The ones which jump out at me are:
1)Smoking. Burning money!
2)Internet/Virgin Media - I wouldn't want to be without the internet, so keep that, but ditch the paid for TV package. Its not essential. We changed to Freeview & didn't miss a thing. Extra TV channels are a luxury for when you're debt free.
3)Mobile phones. How much?? You can get a decent contract for £15 with a free smartphone upgrade or go PAYG.
4)Groceries. Very high. £250 would be more like it. Plan your meals weekly, cook as much as possible from scratch, write a shopping list based on precisely what you require, shop around. We use Waitrose, Co-op, Aldi & the local market for fruit & veg.
5)Holiday. Not essential. It may feel as though it is, but its not a priority while you have debts to pay. Investigate some free days out & look forward to a guilt free holiday when you are debt-free.
6)Lunches out. Avoid as much as possible. On a day out, take a picnic. Take packed lunch to work. Popping out for bought sandwiches, coffees, etc, is a sure way of leaking money unnecessarily.
7)Shopping for fun. Don't!! Expensive fun when you are in debt. Find some free stuff to do for fun.
8)Hobbies. Depends what the hobbies are, but think about whether any cuts can be made to help you pay your debts off quicker. i.e. if it's gym fees, can you go running instead? If it's a fitness class, could you replace with fitness DVDs at home? If it's crafting, upcycle things rather than buying in new supplies, etc.
I'm not intending this advice as judgemental. At its worst, our debt was around £30k. It takes a change of mindset to tackle it. I make no excuses, for the cause of our debt. We earned a good income, but never bothered with budgeting & constantly overspent. As you start to see the debt coming down, well, there's no feeling like it. BUT you must put a brake on the overspending now. You need a budget which gives you an underspend so you can throw that at your debts each month. It isn't for ever. For now, being able to understand & accept the difference between a 'want' & a 'need' is going to be the most important factor in going forward. Good luck!

bobylon5

Thanks for your replies. I realsise an increase in income would be a huge help, and I am looking into working at the weekends. I currently have a desk job, so tree work would be a welcome change. I could also work playing guitar or bass for a cover band for cash potentially. My wife would like to work, and intends to start looking soon.

Would love to cancel the summer holiday, but it is our belated honeymoon; we requested that guests provide donations toward it in lieu of gifts. Never had a holiday in the 6 years we've been together, not that that is an excuse.

Not willing to sell the bikes, as I commute on them (2 bikes in case one break, and we only have one car), but definately need to keep it to essentials now.

I was definately shocked when I looked at my grocery spend. I'm confident I can cut this.

Water bill is monthly over 12 months. Pay for everything on the credit card at the moment as the current account is for bills only. Try and pay off as much as I can, but never pay it off atm.

National_Debtline

Hello there,

As you already know, you currently have a large deficit budget sheet. My key concern is that you may not be able to find sufficient money each month to meet the contractual minimum payments on your credit commitments even once you've looked to shave as much as possible from your outgoings. Although it is likely that you could reduce plenty of areas within your outgoings, no-one is expected to live on the bare minimum and not have a life. On that note, please do find the time to have a read of these two excellent pages from the superb Debt Camel blog:

http://debtcamel.co.uk/hard-choices/how-far-to-cutback/
http://debtcamel.co.uk/hard-choices/skinny-snowball-vs-comfy-dmp/

Although it's difficult to say for sure, you *may* need to investigate looking at an arrangement which involves paying a reduced payment to the creditors. There are various ways to do this, and most should allow for the interest and charges to be frozen. We have published a guide to the most popular ten ways to deal with debts, which you can find here.

You may also find it useful to have a go at completing our version of the financial statement. The reason being is that it meets an accepted industry standard, and should show you easily whether or not you're able to meet your minimum instalments. You can find it here.

The aim is to stop you having to use a credit card to get you through the month. It's more than possible, but will take some creative thinking around the budget.

Very best wishes,

David @ National Debtline
@natdebtline

FireWyrm

bobylon5 wrote: »

So here it is, my list of shame:

Not shame...room for improvement.

bobylon5 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,762.00

Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 120.00

Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00 Item 1 : Pay as you go if you can. Get rid of these.
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12 If you exclusively watch Catchup and owned DVD's you can dispense with this.
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Wow! Really? Negotiation and persistence should drop this to something slightly more sensible.

Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 You have your own gardener(s)? If not, what are you spending this on? Stop.


Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 And again...every month?

Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00 About right but you could drop this with a little ingenuity and discipline. Throughout the summer it ought to be no more than £30 each.
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.99 Painful, but I assume you are on rates?
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 There's your first problem. This is throwing money down the drain. You need to get rid of the OD now.
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 You dont have contents insurance?
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430.00 For two adults and two children this is simply huge. With meal planning and bulk buying, you can do this for £250 max.
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33 Just, no.
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86.67 Why the petrol cost if you can commute on the bike?
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 I assume an MOT fund? If so, increase it.
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 OK, bike, petrol and now buses too...what next, planes? You really need to investigate organising your travel better here.
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 For what purpose?
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00 Cut this with immediate effect. You dont need it. There are plenty of free things to do all over the country and with the summer here, even less excuse. Take a picnic to the park with the kids, visit a tea garden etc? Check out National Trust and things to do otherwise that dont cost this.
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00 Sorry. Whatever it is, you cant afford it right now. Throw this at the OD with immediate effect
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00 Nope
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00 Ditto
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33 Glasses replacement or contacts? If the latter, also money down the drain. Get glasses. 6 x contacts would buy you a decent pair of glasses (probably verifocal) and a pair of sunglasses with reactalite too.
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 Every month? Check out the local beauty schools, they often do this for next to nothing.

Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00 As above
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 Every month? How many clothes do you go through?
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 Understandable, they arnt cheap. You need more here.
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 How many new clothes do you need?
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116.67
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00 Read it online or do without.
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00 Packed lunch
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00 Stop.
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 No

So, if you cut out all the truly non-essentials, you would have....are you ready for this....£980 a month spare!

bobylon5 wrote: »

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,882.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,593.69

This is your biggest problem. You are falling into debt at the rate of about £700 a month, or a little over £8500 a year. You simply cannot sustain this. This time next year, your debt will be into the £20K mark and the year after that, almost £30K and you'll never see the light of day again. Best to get control now.

If you get rid of all the unnecessary expenses, you would have at least £200 a month to throw at your debts and best of all, you wont be getting any deeper.

That's the long and the short of it.

delmar39

Apologies if this has already been covered, but can you not consolidate your debts on one BT card (or a couple depending on credit limit?). I see you're not paying 0% on all cards, so my priority would be to ensure I'm not paying any interest. Appreciate you have the BT fee, but this has got to be better than paying interest over time. Then, try to put some money aside to pay the dept into an ISA and get some interest on the money.


I have £9k debt on 0% cards, but £11k in an ISA earning interest. I have 15 months interest free on the cards so will keep saving until I'm ready to pay off, which will get me 2 interest payments on the money in my ISA.


It works for me, so just an idea.


Best of luck.