Advice for Getting Out of Debt

Baileyborough

Hi guys,

This might sound like a smaller scale issue considering some of the problems people are dealing with, but here goes.

I'm currently struggling in a bit of a circle with my money.

I've got a Credit Card (about 1500) that I'm slowly paying off (about 100-200 a month).

I've also got an OD on my current account (currently 900) that I'm trying to get rid of. Every month my salary takes me out of this OD, but by the time everything comes out, I'm at 0 by the 1st or 2nd week of the month, and end up back at the bottom by the next payday.

On top of this, my fiancee and I are trying to save for a wedding, so 500 of my monthly pay is going into one of her accounts.

What I'm trying to do is pay into the Wedding Fund, Credit Card, and then curtail spending so I end the month with a little less money in the OD (ie, end the month with 800, 700 etc), but I'm finding that I can't seem to manage it. If I try too hard to avoid using the current, I end up dipping into the Credit Card, which in the end brings me back to square one.

I realise this probably is painfully basic to some of you, but I'm trying to get out of this on my own, as I really cannot burden my finacee with this stress.

Any advice at all would be great.

Thanks,

C

ldhme

Baileyborough wrote: »

Hi guys,

This might sound like a smaller scale issue considering some of the problems people are dealing with, but here goes.

I'm currently struggling in a bit of a circle with my money.

I've got a Credit Card (about 1500) that I'm slowly paying off (about 100-200 a month).

I've also got an OD on my current account (currently 900) that I'm trying to get rid of. Every month my salary takes me out of this OD, but by the time everything comes out, I'm at 0 by the 1st or 2nd week of the month, and end up back at the bottom by the next payday.

On top of this, my fiancee and I are trying to save for a wedding, so 500 of my monthly pay is going into one of her accounts.

What I'm trying to do is pay into the Wedding Fund, Credit Card, and then curtail spending so I end the month with a little less money in the OD (ie, end the month with 800, 700 etc), but I'm finding that I can't seem to manage it. If I try too hard to avoid using the current, I end up dipping into the Credit Card, which in the end brings me back to square one.

I realise this probably is painfully basic to some of you, but I'm trying to get out of this on my own, as I really cannot burden my finacee with this stress.

Any advice at all would be great.

Thanks,

C

Is the wedding date planned in already?
If not, my advice would be to sit down with your partner, explain the situation and you both might realise it'll be better for you to postpone the wedding and get debt free first. By what you have said, it'll be about 5 months until you're paid off if you did this.

ChopinonaBudget

Hi, well done for posting here your first step would probably be to post an SOA so the lovely people here can help you out with how to lower your monthly outgoing.

I really think you should talk to your fianc!e about this though. After all, you are planning on marrying her, so if you can't discuss finances now, you're going to really struggle if the going gets tough when you're together.

Assuming you talk with your fianc!e about things, if you cut the £500 per
Month savings for the wedding, you could pay off all your debts in 5 months flat, assuming the credit cards are
on 0%, and a little longer if now. £500 a month is LOT to throw at a £2.4k debt. Say 6/7 months to be on the safe side, you can then start paying into your wedding savings again, knowing you're clear of all your debt.

Baileyborough

Thanks guys,

Three Things:

1. What is an SOA?

2. The wedding date itself hasn't been finalised, we're currently just saving to have something to work with.

3. It's not that she doesn't know I'm in debt, it's just that we recently had a large issue with my debts (at the time they were about 500 less), and as a result, I don't think it would help at all to bring her in. I see what you mean about being able to throw 500 a month at this though. That would be good.

retepetsir

SOA is a Statement of Affairs, you can find the link here:

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

Then click the 'MSE' option at the bottom and copy/paste it back into this thread.

You'll want to be as accurate as possible as it will show your total income and outgoings, etc. It's a good start.

By saying a large issue, as in an issue in the relationship?

ChopinonaBudget

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

SOA it's a statement of affairs, or statement of account. It takes a while to fill in as you'll need to find all you outgoings etc but it's really useful as it gives you a real idea of what it costs you to live, and it includes things like annual expenses which you tend to forget like car tax, contents insurance etc etc.

Post one up and the experienced forum users will give you ideas on how to cut your expenditure

ChopinonaBudget

Retepetsir explained how to post it better than I did!

ldhme

Baileyborough wrote: »

Thanks guys,

Three Things:

1. What is an SOA?

2. The wedding date itself hasn't been finalised, we're currently just saving to have something to work with.

3. It's not that she doesn't know I'm in debt, it's just that we recently had a large issue with my debts (at the time they were about 500 less), and as a result, I don't think it would help at all to bring her in. I see what you mean about being able to throw 500 a month at this though. That would be good.

What was the large issue? I understand this is a personal question.
You need to be honest with yourself and her, she also has to realise that not being a part of it isn't going to make it go away.

Honestly, you need to trust eachother where money is concerned.

I hid my debt for some time, i was at about £10k when I brought my partner in on the true scale and her support has been invaluable, even when it did carry on spiraling.

Baileyborough

Thanks guys.

Retepetsir, not to get too into it, but yes. Basically, my fiancee is a wonderful person who can actually manage money. I cannot. This came out that she was working super hard, doing extra shifts etc to save, while I was trying to pay off my debts. After all that, I didn't actually make any dent due to not managing spending, which understandably didin't go well. So, the decision was I would give her 500 a month out of my pay for wedding fund, and work through my debts. I don't think I could manage to sit down and explain that those debts have grown worse in the time since.

This might sound very strange or silly, apologies.

JasX

yes, it's crazy to be trying to 'save up' money whilst you have debt as you'll simply be burning cash in high interest payments which, if you prioritised paying off debt *then* saving would be extra money in the savings pot when you look over the longer term (ie 12-18months)

A better / much more cash efficient plan would be to throw everything you (but probably not your partner) can at the debt and defer wedding saving until it's gone.

The come up with a catchup plan for once the debt is gone where you then end up paying £500 in the run up to and perhaps beyond the wedding to keep things fair (eg she's paid for more of the wedding but then you're continuing to stuff £500 a month after the wedding into sosmething like a 'luxury holiday / house deposit / purpose x' pot whilst she stops to balance out the months you didn't put into the wedding pot.) or simply then start to pay more than £500 since you'll then not be paying high levels of interest each month and catch up that way.


Someone will past the SOA link, basically it's a list of income / outgoings so peoplee can pick over where you money seems to be leaking out and identify savings (eg is your grocery bill much higher than would be expected for the number of people it covers, are you paying sky high X insurance because you didn't shop around, does everything seem about right but the £400 you in theory have spare each month doesn't exist because you've not noticed spending area X is hurting you)

JasX

Baileyborough wrote: »

So, the decision was I would give her 500 a month out of my pay for wedding fund, and work through my debts. I don't think I could manage to sit down and explain that those debts have grown worse in the time since.

yes if simply taking money away from debt repayments means the debt isn't going down as fast as it might be (or worst is no longer sustainable and growing!) you're wasting cash in interest and need a rethink.... a very urgent rethink if the debt is increasing!!!!