What Can I Do??

Gemmzie

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

Gemmzie,

You yourself said in an earlier post that there was £702 before debt repayment and that amount is more than enough for an IVA or DMP.

Yes I confused myself.

MrsTinks

First of all YOU'RE NOT A FAT UGLY PERSON so stop that right now! You obviously have a boyfriend who loves you very much so you can't be ugly now can you? Fat... hey I'm harly a Kate Moss and I have lost a fair amount of weight (mainly thanks to coming of the Depo injections which caused me to pile over 2 stone on... TWICE! (Doc didn't believe me the second time that it was what had made it pile on the first time - second time I present him with a full eating diary and he could see the weight gain him self!)) so it can be done. I'm guessing from what you're saying that your weight gain is partly medical if not all medical? Is there anything the docs can do to help you with controlling this?
In addition to any help the docs can give you then dieting is obviously a way forward - you're already doing soups as you say from Costco (dangerous place btw... I ALWAYS buy stuff I didn't intend to... grrrr) Much better for you and cheaper is home made soups... get over to the OS board and look up some of the recipes and keep an eye on portion control - this is where I fall down all the time *sigh* I think it tastes to darned good and then I just HAVE to finish it! DOH!
If you want a diet buddy then let me know... I have a wedding dress I want to fit into for May next year and I could do with motivation And I have a bunch of soup recipies
As for the finances... IT CAN BE DONE! but don't forget to look at keeping your spirits up

HairyHandofDartmoor

Well I think that keeping on with your OU course is good then, if it is close to the end of it. Then you will have the free time to take on a second job if necessary. Will it help you to earn more once you are finished? Also you mention a possible pay rise soon, so that is 2 positive things ahead of you.

In the meantime, use the excellent advice on here to cut back on your spending. Do not feel ugly becausw of your weight. Think of all the overweight people you know who are really confident and happy with themselves (Dawn French is an obvious example). There is nothing to stop you being like them. People are not obsessed with what you look like, personality is more important to most people.

I would consider talking to your family. Why would you be dragging them down? That is what families are for. I suspect that once you take control of your finances you will feel more positive about all the other areas of your life, including your weight.

Novalie

Hi, I am currently suffering with a mobility problem which has not helped my weight at all! Through my doctors I have had a referal to a local leisure centre where I can have a 3 month program where I can go to the centre only paying £1 a time and use the gym doing tailor made exercise for my problem. Is there anything similar near you and would it be suitable.
I know its hard but try and turn your negative thoughts into positive ones. You have taken steps to sort out your problems,you are working and completing an OU course which I would say takes discipline and motivation,I couldnt do it!
Also you have asked for advice on here and having read various threads it seems there are a great bunch of people who will be able to give you loads of advice for finance. Finally not wanting to sound cheesy but Im gonna! You are not alone, keep us posted on how you are doing.

red74

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

Life Insurance

When someone dies their debts die with them unless as someone said you have an estate.

So if your life insurance paid out say £150,000 then your family will not receive all that as some will have to pay the debts whereas if you have no life insurance or assets then they won't get a penny.

I am also a great believer in insurance but only the necessary ones and at the moment life insurance for the OP is not necessary and although it is not much, by cutting down other things it will all add up to stop the deficit she has.

EE

I'm no expert on this, and I know it's rather morbid but I guess this is what life insurance is about, but isn't it the case that if you die and there is no money in your estate to pay for your funeral, your next of kin has to bear the cost (unless they disown you - which generally families are loathed to do), I think the local authority may help with a grant if your family are on benefits but it still leaves a bill of a couple of thousand that needs paying. There is also the fact that bubbles boyfriend has £2k of her debt on one of his credit cards. God forbid, if the worse happens, without insurance wouldn't he be left paying this too?

lemma1968

ms_london wrote: »

(excuse the dollar sign, am in OZ!)
xx

Whereabouts in Oz are you? I used to live there but came back.

Eager_Elephant

Hi red74,

If the OP is worried about covering the cost of her funeral (which hopefully won't be for years yet) then you can buy a funeral plan from any funeral directors for a set amount per month until you have enough for a funeral. Even if you live for another 25 years the funeral cost will not go up.

If next of kin don't want to pay for the funeral then local councils will arrange for a very simple funeral (sometimes known as a paupers funeral).

As for the fact that some of the OP's debt is on her partner's card - well more fool him.

I'm not trying to be harsh but the OP is getting £200+ further into debt each month and this cannot carry on.

I note she has not responded to my question about the loan - possibly consolidation. Maybe she didn't read it but hopefully she is thinking about it.

EE

ForeverBlowingBubbles

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

Sorry forgot to say to OP that I am assuming the bank loan was taken out very recently to pay off other debt???

If this is the case did you not pay everything off or have you run up further debt?

EE

Hi EE

bank loan was taken out 2 years ago (7yr loan) to consolidate a previous ridiculously rated loan and car finance

i ran up extra debt on the cc's as i was stupid enough to not get rid of them, however they have now all been cut up to avoid any more spending and in fact 2 cards have been fully paid off and closed.

ForeverBlowingBubbles

sophiesmum wrote: »

For a psychological boost could you transfer the balances on the three smallest debts (studio etc ) onto your first direct card? It would reduce your creditors from 11 down to 8 and the monthly payments should be less overall.
Then close the accounts straight away, this will also help your credit score.
I'd be tempted to BT the barclaycard gold onto one of the lower interest cards too, then close that.
If you did this you would be paying less interest in the long run and have reduced from 11 creditors to 7 which would make things easier to deal with.

Thanx sophiesmum, I'll call up Egg or one of the others tomorrow and look into getting the BC Gold transferred and closed. Have made payments to both simplybe and studio with the firstdirect card today so within the next week those debts will all be on FirstDirect.

ForeverBlowingBubbles

ms_london wrote: »

(grab time out, you can usually find 8 issues for the price of one on here!!).
Thanx, in fact thanks to you i looked on their website earlier and managed to find somewhere cool to take the OH tomorrow night as part of his bday celebrations for free

Your income isnt too bad (the same as I was earning actually!). Could you increase this? Get a better paid job elsewhere? I'm going to be covering someone elses job for the next few mths so that should get me an additional £80 per mth (plus once pay increase have been agreed a further £50/60 on top of that) .. also permanently looking for a bigger better job!

Could you move to a place with cheaper rent? We're looking into this as where we are is a bit out of the way for OH's job but it seems that the rent we pay here is actually reasonable compared to other properties advertised in papers and loot etc

You say the joint outgoings have been cut down as much as they can?! Is it worth relooking at them? I managed to save us money on our contents insurance last night by going through quidco and getting £120 cashback so now we only have to pay £7 a mth rather than £17 (its a start!)

Phone? Mobile? Could you change tariffs or get a PAYG? Not able to change my tariff till March 08

Food - pretty high for 2 of you, this could be halved. You should try and cutdown on meals out and lunches. Even if you were to take your lunch in 4 out of the 5 working days, this would make a HUGE difference. Taking lunch into work with me now comes as second nature and dont think anything of it... Putting this into practice now hopefully, going to look into recipes for things we can make in batches at weekend and freeze in portions for lunches/dinners etc

How much will your car insurance be when you do have to start paying it? It is worth sticking this in your budget so that creditors can take it into account. (will come back to this later). Probably around £600 if this year is anything to go by.

Petrol - could you cut down on how often you use your car? Any colleagues you could ride share with? I appreciate you having mobility problems, but just thought I would ask :0) I'm attempting to walk to work as often as possible but have only managed it twice this week and havent managed since as my legs are so painful (even driving is killing me at the moment )

Life insurance & Charity - Cancel. Charity - Done ... Life Insurance - still dithering over (no idea why)

Platinum Account Fee - check the T&C's again and see if you can get out of it. I went into the branch to ask about it but no luck

I would also recommend that you arrange for most or all of your repayments to come out on the same day, just after payday, so that they are not scattered throughout the month. I always struggled with this and would "forget" about payments nearer the end of the month when I was more broke..... i've already done this so i know where i stand (then just avoid looking at the internet banking for rest of month!)

Can you cancel any Payment Protection Insurance from your current debts? Already done ... got told the loan was a no-go though

I would transfer what you can over to the Egg Credit card and close the other cards.... transferring the BCgold and closing

I hope some of this helps. Look forward to hear how it goes for you.

xx

thanx for helping x