Fed up

dancingfairy

I think you are currently overspending by 176 each month (adjusting for the 250 personal loan you forgot and the fact that you are only actually spending 50 a month on presents). Come January the fact the personal loan and car loan should finish this should mean you have a surplus of £344 a month , although I suspect your soa is missing some things like clothes, entertainment, holidays, contents insurance etc. I suspect realistically they will come to over £100 which would leave you with £244.
You need to decide whether you want to use that spare money to overpay your debts quickly and get shot of them or whether you want/need to move and to overpay the debts slower.
Good luck whatever you decide.
df

wigglers

I'm just not sure what to pay off first and how much or weather to balance transfer or not ?? we don't have holidays and do try and save wherever possible our contra ts don't end unil Jan 16 so stuck with them until then... I barely see my family as it is and work mon-sat with a day off in the week so not sure I could get a job also what I earn would be taken in tax credits.

James_B.

wigglers wrote: »

not sure I could get a job also what I earn would be taken in tax credits.

Really, 1:1, are you sure?

ViolaLass

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

It's not £1200 on presents.

It's £2400.

I know. I blame baby-brain. I don't know why I thought there were 6 months in a year.

wigglers

Yeah as I have to declare what I earn at the end of the year and the more I earn the less tax credits we get as it's child tax credits not working tax credits

[Deleted User]

wigglers wrote: »

I'm just not sure what to pay off first

First priority is the capital 1 credit card.

The APR is terrifying. :eek:

At your current rate of paying, it's going to take you nearly 3.5 years (and cost you £96.00 in interest), to pay off less than 175 quid.

Next to deal with, is the two 19.9% debts.

wigglers

OK so do the balance transfer then pay the minimum Off that clear the capital one card and then pay more to the 19.9% ones whilst essentially the barclaycard and the virgin card will be at 0%?

MrsSave

Do you have family nearby who could help with childcare which means your wife could work more? We have a young son and debts similar to yours. To pay off our debts ourselves, without it impacting on us for an extra 6 years, I have had to go back to work and am pretty much full time. It's not what I want to do with a young child, but it means we can pay our debts, save and have money for days out, etc. We pay nursery fees (over £300 per month), but are fortunate to have help from family members some days.

Looking at your soa, your food bill could easily be greatly reduced. We have a set budget of £160 a month. We eat lots of veg (a lot of which is frozen, but has the same nutritional value) and also eat fruit every day. However, we don't buy strawberries, or anything like that unless they are greatly reduced as they are just too expensive. As someone has already mentioned, check out aldi's super 6. We bought our apples from there at 69p a pack last week. We eat meat with every meal, take packed lunches every day and also have treats. Pop over to the old style money saving board for lots of tips on saving here.

I'd personally take another look at the soa, as there are lots of sections where you state that you don't spend anything (entertainment, etc), but if you were to look back over your last few month's debit/credit card statements, you may find that you spend without realising.

Keep a spending diary for the next month to see how much you spend. You say that within a few months, you will have a few hundred extra. Are you able to cut back completely until then? It's not going to be easy, but think long term and how things can be. Best of luck.

wigglers

Have started looking at more hours for my fiancee as that's looming like the only way out of the debt have also started keeping a spending diary think that's a great help thankyou for all your suggestions will balance transfer the barclaycard and capital one to the virgin 0% then if we pay off £350 a month will be cleared in just over a year then just have the 1 virgin card to clear... hope I'm doing the right thing as it's getting me doen

quidsy

Great moves to sorting yourself out. Well done.