22 and foolish! Time to sort it out...

Sallybee_Azelas

After finally maxing out my overdraft and all my credit cards, I think I need to face up and admit I have a problem. I've been trying to live the life I'd like to have but on my minimum wage job (a job which I love and currently have intention of leaving), so I need to change my perspective on things and basically just BUY LESS STUFF. I buy so much 'stuff', things that add nothing to my life, that I don't need. I'm always going out and spending money if people invite me to lunch or coffee etc. It's all these silly little things that have just added up and ballooned into something massive.
The trigger for me was getting a call from one of the credit card companies saying I'd gone over my limit - I said fine, I'll pay off the extra now - I'm sure I have enough (£61 they needed). I looked at my current account and was short by a few quid, and then realised I'd have to split it between my debit and a credit card.... and at that point I knew there was something seriously wrong with me. Having to split the bill between two cards? One of which was another credit card!!! Can't go on like this.
So anyway. Here's adding it up:

Amazon Mastercard - £1125.47
Aqua Mastercard - £750.00
Lloyds Mastercard - £991.43
Lloyds overdraft - £350.00
Lloyds Loan - £1681.27
Arcadia store card - £500.00
Loan from a friend £110.00

for a total of...... £5508.17

Wow. This is the first time I've added it up and looked at it. I always just tucked the idea of debt in the back of my head, figuring it was only a grand or so, easy to pay off... but £5500 is half my yearly paycheck pretty much!

So I think my first steps are..

• Sort out the credit cards - see if I can get them onto 0% interest deals as at the moment I'm paying sooo much interest
• Have a real look at my bank statements and assess what I actually need to spend and where I can cut back
• Try and grab a couple of extra shifts so I can increase my paycheck at least a little bit and use the extra to start making a dent in that credit card debt

Any other suggestions? I'm going to take a look at some of the challenges and see if I can do some of them to help things. I'm new to this and I realise I only got into this situation by acting silly and trying to keep up with all my friends and stuff but I really really want to sort it out and get back on top of things.

jwil

Good luck

If youve got lots of 'stuff' could you have a clear out and sell some of it? Car boot, ebay, facebook etc? Raise a bit of cash to overpay.