Absolutely dire situation

enthusiasticsaver

As others have said on your income you should be able to pay this debt off reasonably easy but it is worrying how you have built this much up in spite of having a reasonable income. As you have said you have spent regardless of income but good you have come to your senses now.


I would say your 5 year old son does not care about family experiences which are expensive. Young children are just as happy with a cheap day at the beach with an icecream as a £5k holiday in a posh hotel abroad. He would suffer more if this debt continues to increase to such a level that you are spending most of your monthly income on debt repayments. Get the interest rates as low as possible. Resolve on a cheap holiday a year for the next three to four years until the debt is repaid and look for cheap days out, picnics etc or groupon offers. Your son will thank you for it in the end as heavily indebted parents are not a good example to set.

caliew

Hi, look at your percentages and your hidden percentages. Can you consolidate cards to a lower percentage with around the same outgoing spend? Have you heard of peer to peer lending their loan rates are very low check if they will entertain a consolidation. Can you switch your gas and electric supplier on a comparison site? Can you go on the lowest satellite package and concentrate on free legal streaming to watch films and then sell your dvds on say Music Magpie? Can you pay your insurance in one go as sometimes on monthly they tend to have an extra 20%? so the short term hit can make long term savings. Perhaps cut own hair or find a willing trusted student who would charge less for experience. Do you need the car? Walking keeps you fit and healthy and only use car in emergencies. Can you move your cash assets over to wipe out highest interest then build your cash assets up again?, the only thing is it is removing your emergency fund. Also to bring in more cash perhaps allocate a couple of hours each day selling on mse recommended sites like eBay and Gumtree your clothing, household goods and things you never use anymore one mans junk is another mans treasure. Hope this helps I am a right scrimper as my partner and I both work but our wages haven't gone up much over the years so we have had to find other ways to enjoy the life our family is used to.

mildredalien

chaplin80 wrote: »

If it were just my wife and I then I would have no issue with cutting out the entertainment and holidays etc however I have a 5 year old son and I am worried that he is going to miss out on family experiences due to me being rubbish with money! I totally get your point though

Family experiences don't have to be expensive, and shouldn't get you in debt. If you want to treat him and your family that's fine, especially as your income is good - but the mindset needs to change from putting it all on credit to saving up for holidays and seeing them as a nice treat to work towards not an life necessity! Even if you halved your holiday budget that you have put in your SOA that's still enough enjoy trips away and fun with a 5 year old if you are savvy about it!

Butti

My friend took her sons out to a stately home with lions etc. She asked the youngest (about 7) his favourite part of the day.
It was the ice cream he had.

My cousin tells me her sons best Christmas (as described by them) was the one where her husband had been made redundant and the £400 redundancy money had fallen out of his back pocket. She knitted them 3 'action hero's!!!!' and they spent Xmas day with them clothes pegged over the washing line as a zip wire bashing into each others.

You don't get to decide what they remember. You just get to try and help them feel happy and secure.

Bouncybubbles

Most of my fondest memories were Blackpool eating a stick of rock on the seafront

LionessInWinter

I would definitely use the £6k you have in cash along with £1k out of your surplus and pay off your two creation accts. There is no point paying 18 or 19% if the money you have is only earning you about 5% in the bank.

After those are paid, pay minimums to all accts except for the CC1 at 10%. On CC1 throw all the surplus at it, once it's paid off go the CC2 at 7%, etc. However, if any of your 0% ones expire and their interest is higher I would shift my focus on them, unless of course you can find other 0% offers.

Good luck, stay focused and you'll get there

DCFC79

chaplin80 wrote: »

If it were just my wife and I then I would have no issue with cutting out the entertainment and holidays etc however I have a 5 year old son and I am worried that he is going to miss out on family experiences due to me being rubbish with money! I totally get your point though

He's 5 years old so wont be wanting nor expecting holidays with bells and whistles. There's a lot of options you can do for family time eg the park and as for holidays you can spend a day at the beach (if 1 is easy to get to) or maybe you book a b&b (done cheaply, go at the weekend) for a night on a coast near you.

I agree about using the £6k in savings to pay off the creation accounts.

andyfromotley

Hi i wont add to the many sensible comments about your soa other than to say that your phone/internet are far too high, as is your house insurance

You need to learn to live by a written budget. You sit down at the beginning of every month and decide how much you are going to spend in each area of expenditure, including putting away for christmas etc. Every penny left over goes to debt repayment. You then live to those budgets, you cannot go over without moving money from another area, there is NO spare money for you to dip into. This focusus your mind and puts you in charge of your spending not the other way around.

This is the key part of debt repayment, not jsut !!!!ing away your money each month, but making your money do what you tell it to. There are many ways to do this, pen and paper, spreadsheet or a budgeting program like YNAB which i and many other on here swear by.

Master this one trick and you will smash this debt. Yes you are have a big hole but you have a big shovel, so get to it!!!

uncreative

plus one for YNAB.

one year later from debt free (total debts £38k) I will give you an example.

This morning after the kids and OH were fed we had no bread, no milk and no cereal left. We need to go to the shops today as we take part in the Grocery challenge each month. I was hungry. I looked in the fridge and there was 1 sorry looking bit of ham, 1 mushroom (best before 18 March) 1 red pepper, 2 eggs and some lettuce. Beyond that our fridge was litteraly bare apart from some condiments.

Did I jump in the car and go to the shops?

No, I threw the lot chopped up into a wok and put in some chilli flakes and had a cracking omlette. It has kept me fed until we do our planned expenditure. Was that a hassle? yes. Did I particularly enjoy having to scratch about looking for it? not really.

Did I stick to my budget, save money and not waste any food? absolutely.

You have a hard journey ahead, there will be some ups and downs and some sacrifices along the way.

You can do it!

foxgloves

Just to second all those people who have said that children don't need expensive trips & gear to make them happy. Last year, we had 2 children come & stay for the weekend. We planned trips out, all sorts of things, including paying extra for an added experience at a local attraction. And which activity caused the most merriment & enjoyment? We bought them each a little plastic catapault gizmo from Wilko's for firing little rubber men. When they discovered they could get them to stick on the kitchen window, they were unstoppable. The cost of this bringer of happiness & mirth? £1 each! Young children value quality time spent with them more than expensive holidays & theme parks. As adults, this is what they will remember, not what you spent.
Best of luck with your debt-busting. It can be done (our debt was around 30k at its worst) but your mindset needs to change. Learn to budget & that budget will become your friend.