We are so ready!

thegreenone

Hi Oasis,
There's no mention of rent or mortgage, do I assume you are still living at home?


As well as YNAB have a look at snowballing whatsthecost.com. Just to get an idea because even without the payday loans, I can't see how it's doable. You have to cut your daily spending. But then, you know that!!!


As you love takeaways, have a look on Amazon for the Hairy (Bikers) Dieters book, the white one, they have them secondhand for £1.92. Please don't take offence, but the Fakeaways section is amazing. I need to lose weight, my family don't but we all eat it. Fab. simple recipes. Or the trusty MSE friend, a slow cooker????


Good luck.

Oasis10

..................

GSRcat

Hi Oasis10,

I completely agree with Lemonsqueezer78, you need to restructure your debts- move to 0% cards and set up minimum payments and negotiate with other creditors about your current situation because it's currently not sustainable. Also I find it slightly concerning that you pay off a credit card with your wages then use the credit throughout the month which puts you back to square one!
I know sometimes SOAs can be a little off sometimes but £350 on food? Is this just for you? I spend about £150 a month on 4 of us, so I think you could shave off a little bit here. £290 on entertainment and smoking is a lot also, maybe as suggested plan your outings for the month and budget accordingly, this takes time to get used to but it keeps you in control.
I second making your own fakeaways, we very rarely have them now because we make our own pizza, curries etc but if we are feeling really lazy we will get take away style meals from Mr Iceyland which are a fraction of the price of a takeaway and they are pretty good.
It sounds like you are in the right frame of mind though and your are determined to get things straight, the folks on here have a wealth of knowledge and experience so keep posting and let us know how you get on.
Good luck

Lemonsqueezer78

Can I ask, how are you planning to address those PDLs? Will you be able to pay those off this month? Is this what you are planning to sell furniture for?

Regarding your SOA, I really can't see how you can realistically reduce this enough to be able to start paying these debts off.

Even if you were (optimistically) able to

- give up smoking (+£90)
- reduce your grocery bill to £150 a month (+£200)
- reduce your entertainment budget to £100 (+£100) and
- stop buying clothes (+£50)
- get rid of the Pay Day Loans (-£628 to your debt repayments)

All of that would still leave you with

Income: £1440
Outgoings £1870 (£972 Debt + £892 Expenses)
A shortfall of £430

So even if you could reduce your expenses to this level and quickly (somehow) get rid of £630 of Payday Loans, how will you close that remaining gap? At this rate you are not just servicing your debt you are INCREASING it every month.

You only have 2 options at this point I'm afraid; either drastically cut your expenses as I have outlined above AND significantly increase your regular monthly income (by at least £450-500) somehow - OR - you will need to contact your creditors to come to arrangements with them to make these repayment more manageable. There really aren't any other choices. You can only sell your belongings once... so that is a only going to be a temporary help.

elaine12022

Hi Well done for posting, it sounds like you and your intended are being honest with each other which is a huge thing and really positive. :T Nothing wrong with working together, deciding priorities together, and supporting each other. Good practice for later on.

Don't feel bad for messing up, think of it as a learning curve, and with finances it's always good to have a bit of flexibility. No one can be perfect all the time

One thing others haven't suggested, and it may not be practical at all i realise is looking at your travel - can you get car costs lower or do you actually need your car? Would public transport be an option, even if occasionally? (I see you're working long hours so may not be an option).

You can get a free trial with YNAB so you can play around with it first. And have a look at the 'rules', you might find it helpful to get a different way of looking at things.

I echo whoever mentioned you paying off a cc then using it again for the month. That perpetuates the cycle. Better to pay off less and keep enough to live off. You could speak to one of the free debt charities to help you negotiate payments with your creditors if you're not confident of doing it yourself.


And what about seeing if you can get a better deal with another bank as regards the overdraft?

And do you qualify for tax credits? https://www.gov.uk/qualify-tax-credits

Hang on in there

littleskintdragon

Hi well done for posting,

I just wanted to make a point about the clothes budget. If you dont have a clothes budget for 4 months (thats only 16 weeks) then cc1 would be paid off? it's a small start, but I think it puts things into perspective.

I'm only using the clothes as an example of how something small can make a difference.

PS: if you do this and manage it, then get rid of the card!!

lambda

Hi There!

You've come to the right place. I wish you all the best on your debt-busting journey!

I've noted a few things with your SOA below. I think you can trim quite a few things in your budget (as others have mentioned as well).

Best of luck to you!

Oasis10 wrote: »

Mobile phone............................ 50

Dump this and go to giff-gaff. You can easily cut this by £40 a month.

Groceries etc. ......................... 350

For a family of 2, we spend about £35 a week on groceries. That's about £140 a month (210 saving). Check out the resourcefulcook,com

Clothing................................ 50

Cut this completely. I must spend about £50 every two years on clothes. You really don't need to be spending £50 a month on clothing.

Petrol/diesel........................... 120
Road tax................................ 12
Car Insurance........................... 115

Why is this so high? You spend 1380 a year on Insurance!?

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0

If you have a car, you must budget for this.

Entertainment........................... 200

Can you please break this 200 down?
I would say entertainment is a complete luxury to anybody. £200 on entertainment seems
incredibly excessive. Use the library for free, for example!


Smoking................................. 90

As others have said, you can cut this out completely.
]

If you take my suggestions into account, you can save at least £590 a month, not including dealing with your car insurance (which seems very high to me).

poppasmurf_bewdley

Your food bill needs cutting drastically. Try shopping at Aldi or Lidl.

And cut your entertainment bill. What do you spend £200 a month on? One night a week at the cinema is about £8, and even a visit to the Chinese is about £15. So two nights a week out is £23, multiply that by four gives you a monthly entertainment cost of £92, less half your present amount.

andyfromotley

Hi Oasis,

No fiddling ariund with your SOA is going to solve this. (although you should follow the great advice given above).

You are in a cycle of debt hell where you have to increase your debt to survive each month. This will be the case even if you make severe cuts to your budget. You cannot sustain this. The wheels will come off, and pretty soon.

You need to do the following. Can you increase your income? New job? Promotion? second job? Third job? This will help enormously.

I would suggest shifting your debt to 0% but i doubt that you can get those cards.

You need professional debt advice. Phone National Debtline, Stepchange, or Christians against Poverty. (you dont have to be a christian. These organisations get great reviews on here and will not charge you a penny for doing so. NEVER pay for debt advice. They will be able to help you make good decisions about the best way forward for you.

when you do this you should think about a couple of points. Your credit history will be rubbish for about 6 years. Thats ok, Credit isnt working for you too well at the mo!
You need to completely re think youre relationship with money. You have built up substantial debts and bravely admit that this is in part down to you just having no real self control abbout spending, and no plan for your money.

You have had some hard but accurate advice on this thread. Dont let it get you down. There is no debt situation that cant be resolved. It wont happen overnight and it wont be plain sailing but you will make it through this and your life will be great when you do.

Good luck, stick with it.

sourcrates

Hi OP,

Lots of people are giving you advice to cut your outgoings, but as Andy says above, your debt problem is much greater than that, knocking a few quid off your shopping bill won't make much difference, a much more radical solution is going to be needed to break your cycle of borrowing.

That is the crux of the problem, paying off one debt, then needing to borrow again to survive till payday, you cannot sustain this behaviour indefinaty, drastic action is required.

The only way to do it, if you can't increase your income significantly, is to default on all your accounts, and simply not pay them, for at least 3/6 months, or if you prefer, you could pay each £1 a month.

This will allow you time to save up some money, if you allow each account to be sold on to a debt collector, you can then settle each one in turn, as money allows, DCA's will bend over backwards to offer discounts of around 30%, no problem.

Your credit file will be ruined, but you will be rid of the cycle of debt.

A simple letter sent to each creditor outlining your financial circumstances, will keep them informed as to your situation, this is what I would do, but it's up to you how drastic you want to be.