Can't believe our SOA and our debt!!!!!!?

kazwookie

Any chance of shifting some of the debt that has high % interest, on to 0% interest, to help save some money?

Killick

Hi Darcey


First of all, don't panic about your debts, if it helps, there is always someone in a worse position than you and managing to sort it out....take a bow Killick :-) and if you don't believe this, take a look at my signature. Horrendous isn't it? :-)
I hope you feel a bit less stressed now.
Ampersand has given you some good advice in an earlier post and I urge you to take it. There are loads of people on here who can help you, not only with practical advice but moral support so you are not alone.

Sazzie23

darcey1105 wrote: »

I think it may be better if we work in cash and don't take our cards with us (we both have the habit of just popping it on a card and not really taking much notice) also we withdraw cash and hence don't seem to really know what this is being spent on. I myself can see I do alot of top up shops so my £300 figure I thought I was spending was way out!!!
Am glad I've seen where we are going wrong as over the last 3 months we could have easily cleared half our debt if we had just been a bit more sensible!

Hi Just thought I'd drop in to say there are a number of No Spend challenges and grocery challenges if you wanted to change the way you think about shopping and head towards more frugal living, these challenges will really help you out, & can be fun. I was a multi-trip shopper and always at the ATM, it has stopped now but its easier to do it with a bit of support.

japmis wrote: »

Forgot to say......one thing that has REALLY helped me is having a completely separate bank account for "paying myself" e.g. I have a standing order from my main current account where my salary gets paid into, so every Friday I get "paid" £50 that has to cover food and any luxuries I might want. I've even set up this peripheral account to my paypal/eBay account so I can't sneak anything from my salary

Thanks Japmis, I quite like this idea, so you have one account for bill paying and another for spending?
Maybe I could use on of my (under used) card savings accounts for this - Thanks for the tio

Killick wrote: »

Hi Darcey


First of all, don't panic about your debts, if it helps, there is always someone in a worse position than you and managing to sort it out....take a bow Killick :-) and if you don't believe this, take a look at my signature. Horrendous isn't it? :-)
I hope you feel a bit less stressed now.
Ampersand has given you some good advice in an earlier post and I urge you to take it. There are loads of people on here who can help you, not only with practical advice but moral support so you are not alone.

Very true, and well done Killick:eek: at knocking many 00 off that debt. What has been your motivation to keep at it?

Pennydropped

The top up at the supermarket can be a budget killer. I budget £40 a week for groceries, but only spend £30 on the initial shop. The extra tenner is for a midweek topup. Sometimes I don't need it, so it gets saved or put on the next week's shop for treats or put aside for something else. I've found I'm much more careful about what I pick up later in the week (or even if I pick anything else up) when I've just got that tenner in cash. It generally gets used for milk or toilet roll or fresh fruit if it's used.

Killick

Sazzie23 wrote: »

Very true, and well done Killick:eek: at knocking many 00 off that debt. What has been your motivation to keep at it?

I suffer from depression and had a gambling problem so it took a while to get my head together in order to set about sorting things out, as for motivation, I would say watching that number decrease would be it really.
The first three years were really hard as I was just existing, I lived off virtually nothing, I ate very little, I didn't look after myself and all the money I made went into paying off the debts where I could.
I realised at one point that I couldn't go on living that way and I had to find a better way to do this, bankruptcy was an option but that is an absolute no way route unless I really have to do so.
I discovered this forum and got advice and help from people and Stepchange, who have been amazing.
I prioritised myself a bit more whilst paying what I could afford to my creditors.
I still have times when I have to pay less than the agreed monthly DMP payment when things happen like building maintenance, breakdowns and such, my creditors don't like it but I have to do it in order to keep working so that I can pay them in the future, this is a concept that they have a problem in understanding for some reason :-)
So that's it.....onwards and upwards :-)

pleasedelete

Why do have you have so many 'bad debt' credit cards? are you refused credit from decent lenders? a 0% card from a mainstream lender would be obvious solution but the cards you have- all with low amount suggest you have old bad debts?