Really hoping someone can help me see a light at the end of the tunnel

ViolaLass

On what basis do you think the car is worth £16k? Is that what you paid for it or have you had it valued more recently?

llcooljayne1

I had the car valued this week. We can sell it on we buy any car for £13,995 and get the money straight away but if we sell privately we would get more so id rather do that.

I would get rid of sky tomorrow! It's the other half paying for sports package 😫 I don't get time to watch TV much now anyway.

Food shopping I agree we can definitely cut down. I actually went Friday and spent under £30 on meals. I didn't buy any junk food!

Unfortunately we can't get insurance any cheaper on that car. So smaller, cheaper car should mean cheaper insurance.

Phone bill can definitely come down. I will be contacting Vodafone this week for a chat to see what they can do for me.

Also do you think it would be better for me to consolidate all my debt into one? Ie a loan so I'm only paying one lot of interest or just stick to how it is?

Thankyou so much for all this help!

llcooljayne1

Also with the pet insurance it's for our dog and unfortunately that's the cheapest we could find

foxgloves

Would strongly advise against consolidation loan. Taking out another debt to pay existing debt tends not to work. We consolidated 3 times! Of course each time was 'the last' but we didn't cut up credit cards, or devise a budget which meant we lived within our means so consolidation achieved precisely nothing. There are very many people on here who would tell similar tales, I'm afraid.

ViolaLass

Looking through your history, getting more credit and moving the debt around hasn't worked well for you. In any case, you currently don't have enough to pay your debts each month - fixing that needs to be the priority.

asparagus1968

don't feel angry at yourself, just learn the lesson:)
are you going to have to pay for childcare when you go back to work as well?


vodaphone-if not in contract, go PAYG as soon as possible. If in contract, tell them you can't afford to pay it and what can they suggest?usually reduce tariff etc. Expensive handset? sell it?


keep working on the SOA as the days/weeks go buy as it takes a while to get a proper picture.Obviously you can't have the spare money at the end of the month,if you did your debt wouldn't be so big.


well done with the food shop,great start.Have you looked at meal planning?


pet insurance-where did you look ? have you tried comparison sites, including topcashback? is the dog rare breed/ill/old? this seems extortionate!


sky-go freeview , you can't afford this at the moment.it won't be forever.


OH- yes, lots of people are struggling. but if you ever want a mortgage you need to get rid and get saving I'm afraid.


welcome to MSE, keep posting, we have all been in debt and like to help each other, it's good to know you have support.

ellesbellesxxx

If you are not in contract with your phone, giffgaff are good - a free sim card, and you pick your package. I get 200 mins, unlimited texts and some data for7.50 a month!!!!!


Are your gas/elec bills up to date with readings? Worth checking you aren't in credit.


Lots of good advice here already x

tlc678910

I think I would be tempted to sell the car and settle all the credit (cancel it/destroy cards) except just keep the Tesco loan - purely because then you have 1 debt repayment and your statement of affairs suggests you can afford it. You should probably look at the interest rates of each first to see if this is sensible though.

You mentioned that your partner is reluctant to get rid of the car or paid for TV. I have just recently discovered YNAB (you need a budget) software and I have found it helped me and my husband to communicate about our finances and budgeting. There is a free trial of the software and you watch videos to learn the technique but basically when you get paid (say £1000) you sit down together and decide how to spend (or save) it. You have to sit down and figure our your plan for your money and if there is not enough it is there in black and white and you are pushed to make tough choices. The approach also encourages you to plan ahead and save for a rainy day to avoid getting back in a sticky situation. Sounds impossible but the approach is very inspiring and is keeping my impulse purchasing in check so far!

Good luck

(Ps I'm assuming the "car loan" is just a loan you used for a car - if it specifically car finance you would have to settle it when you sold the car of course)

JasX

auntloo wrote: »

To be honest I want to get rid of the car, it's worth around £16,000 so I would sell it tomorrow and pay off the loan and some of the debt but other half says it's an asset?!?!

It is an asset, however as with all cars it's a *rapidly depreciating* one so the sooner you can sell it and clear the finance the better before it's 'asset' value sinks below the value of the loan you have against it!!

llcooljayne1

Actually that does make sense, to sell the car and pay off the other debts first then keep paying the loan monthly as that is affordable. It's the other debts with the high interest that are the issue.

Thankyou everyone for the advice. After a long chat with my partner today and putting our in goings and out goings on paper for him to see I think he has finally realised! I also rang Sky today to get our bill reduced and also am going to be calling the wonderful Scottish Power tomorrow to see if they can reduce my bill.

Money really is a pain in the butt!