Help feel so sick amount of debt we are in.

van22663

Hi Angeleyes,

Sorry to hear about your debts...stop beating yourself up...we have all been there, or are still there, the fact that you are on this site shows you want to deal with it , so best of luck to you.

I cant offer much more advice than you have already had, but I am in alot of debt too ( 2 kids, horrendous mortgage rate, divorce etc ) and I have had some good advice from the CCCS .
Also have you approached all of your credit card companies individually ?
I did this with 5 different cards and they have all agreed to freeze the interest and accept lower than the minimum payments for a period of 6 or 12 months. I know it is not lowering the debt, but it is freezing the interest while you get your breath back.
I also do mystery shopping and Avon, good little earner and you can fit it in around other jobs.
With regard to Ebay, another of my little earners, you may not get alot of response during the summer holidays, also although Sunday night is supposed to be a good night to end listings, I have learned from past experience that it is so busy that alot of the time, you cannot get logged on. because of this, I now end my auctions on a Monday night. Get better results.
Hope my little bit of advice is useful to you. Best of luck.

Adrasteia01

I guess that leaves claiming back bank charges...

misspoppy

Hi

Some years ago my ex oh and I had a 4 bed house, we called up about changing to a water meter and they told us it would cost us more. I soon found out why I went ahead and saved approx 66% on my old rates bill, water co's make a lot of money out of people staying on rates. I went on to have a dishwasher and it still saved me a lot of money.

angeleyes

well just a quick update
still waiting to hear from the bank regarding overdraft (if dont hear this week been nearly 3 wks so will phone up cccs )

Sold bout £200 worth stuff on e bay with some more stuff to go on , opened another bank account for this to go until know whats happening with royal bnk scotland overdraft.

got the part time job went after 16 hrs a week (2shifts) even better still get to keep my weekends free so can do overtime in my main job when its on,, part time job will bring in approx pick (after bloody taxes -why do you get taxed more (23% )on a second job- of course you wouldnt be doin it if you didnt need the money !!!!) £90pw plus £40pm bonus
havent been food shopping - been living out of freezer,so thats been a bit of a saver , just gonna do a top up next wk of fresh stuff to go with rest of freezer stuff

oh and just won £100 doing free betting on casino 888 (with their money) so things finally looking bit better..
does anyone have any futher ideas that i can look into , would be most grateful - ((so would the credit cards!!!!))


Thanks for the kick up the bum everyone:beer:

rheme

Have you looked into changing your light bulbs to low energy. The bulbs are pretty cheap now and available in the big supermarkets. Start with the rooms where you have the lights on the the most hours. This will bring down your electricity bills.

In the meantime make ensure you turn the lights off in rooms not occupied and don't leave the t.v., sky box, microwave, etc. on standby as this is like handing your hard earned cash to the energy companies.

Have done it right through my house and the savings are great.

Adrasteia01

I remember reading that people on certain benefits could get them free (which doesn't really apply), but I would have a look around the net and see if you can get them free elsewhere or very cheaply anyway.

They seem to be extremely expensive in the shops here (Ireland) but I'd say they'll improve as time goes on..

Tamara

postingalwaysposting

angeleyes wrote: »

Sky tv £15pm - (downgraded to lowest basic 2 packages)
lottery £23pm (you got to be in it to win it!! - play automatically on line so no temptions in going to shop to put on)
£39- gym membership -not up til jan -trying to canc by saying moving too far away
ING acc £40pm - emergency fund -(just used up so bal is £40cr)
£200pm food/toiletries etc - for 2 of us 1 dog and 1 cat

right i am known for my honesty and here we go ~ after reading this thread (missed it first time) i dont belive you have had your full lightbulb mommet. Knowing you have debts and you cant make the min payment for that and the comming months isnt a lightbulb mommet. You need to relise that you need to sacrifice a lot of spending and also drop your lifestyle to accomodate your debts. Once you have done this you can then pay all your debts off and start leadinga more expensive lifestyle.

sky tv ~ this is a luxaury and has to go... £15 even though its the lowest package is £180 per year, that can just about pay off barclays. Get a freeview box for £30ish and get the same/simmler channels. If your oh wont let you cancel it get him to add it to his 'personal' bills

lottery ~ ditto above use http://www.whatsthecost.com/lottery.aspx and put in your numbers (i guess you have set ones) and see what you have won for a year... i bet you wouldnt have made your contribution of £276 to the lottery per year

gym ~ cancel asap, this is a luxary too. You can do free excercise evrywhere not to mention the dvds you can now get for £5 second hand that has lots of reuse value

ING ~ you cannot afford to save if you have debts. No savings account will pay more interest than your debts are occuring so your money isnt working for you. emergancy fund or not thats only £480 per year. A considerable amount to put towards your debt but if you need your boiler replaceing i doubt it will cover the cost.

£200 per month for 2 adults and 2 pets ~ please go over to the oldstyle board and get tipops for cleaning and food. I would guess you can at least 1/2 that if not more. Some people with far less debts than you live on approx £40 per month for food/cleaning (couples). It can be done you just need to be re educated

good luck with it all and i hope you become debt free very soon :grinheart

millionaire_in_training

I missed this first time around too. I noticed you were paying loads for your car but only spending £30 pm on petrol. Do you really need a car if you are using it that little? I would check this out as it would save you a fortune. Good luck x

FelOn_2

solventguy wrote: »

My calculations on your SOA are as follows:.....

Good post .

seoal

Hi,

Would it be possible to either sell up and use capital release to clear debt and start again for both of you or to remortgage. Make sure you cut up all cards so the temptation is not there again.

Understand how you feel have been bankrupt twice. Just moved house and hey guess what there again but managble. Debt is a disease. Good money management should be taught in schools at a young age then maybe we wouldn't get ourselves into such a mess and also credit should never be so readily avaliable in that you can't afford to pay it back.

My sympathies are with you and I hope it all works it out.