Debt Advice- SOA Posted

theoretica

westlothian wrote: »

Think I still have a 1000 zloty upstairs from a trip to Poland in 2012. Did not think it would be so cheap!

That is about £200 - and that amount extra on your credit card for four years has cost you about £160 in interest. Just for not changing it back and paying the debt off.

Placitasgirl

It's an old saying and a bit of a clich!, but if you change nothing, nothing will change. Having said that you can only change if you're both fully committed and on board, which isn't really coming across in your posts. Small changes can make a difference quite quickly and at the end of the day what's more important, your wife being able to keep to 2 days a week to raise your boys or manicures and hairdos? A team effort here could make such a difference and quickly too. Good luck!

itchyfeet123

westlothian wrote: »

I think that I need to present my wife with a plan to avoid adding to debt and to find maybe £250-350 a month extra to attack the credit card. That will involve sticking to a budget and planning which is something we have never had to do before.

Not knowing you or your wife, I would suggest involving her in *making* the plan. Your SOA is unlikely to be accurate if it doesn't include both of your little cash expenditures that don't appear on the bank statement. The discussion and eventual plan won't be as productive if it seems like you're telling your wife she can't go to the hair salon any more. And the sacrifices toward the end goal are more likely to be equitable if you both figure them out together - as an example, your lunches are costing almost as much as your wife's hair, but didn't even make it into the SOA

Smodlet

OP, are you and your wife ever prime candidates for the BBC's "Eat Well For Less" programme - rhetorical. It is available to view now on iPlayer, for free! You might actually learn something.

Martin Lewis keeps banging on about getting financial education into schools: From what you have said, it seems as if some teachers are in greater need of it than the kids!

ERICS_MUM

To be honest I don't think the OP is serious about this.

Vikipollard

westlothian wrote: »

Not sure my wife would agree!

Sorry, but if this is true, your wife needs to seriously grow up.

It's been pointed out that your debt is costing you more than her salary. What if either of you lose your job?

You have multiple "£10-40" withdrawals from your bank that neither of you can account for.

Sad to say that neither of you are in the mindset to either change or tackle your debt. You want to piecemeal at it without dealing with any of the hard stuff (dealing with sulking about Having To Cut Back, and Not Having Everything You Want).

See you back here in a year or two.

ViolaLass

You've just spent £19k on a new car. Could it go back?

horseygirl2014

You've got lots of solid advice here already, but you and your wife need to tackle this problem now, whilst you can, before it gets any bigger. when you look at an expense, add it up to a montly or annual fee, like someone said £4.00 day on lunches isn't much, but £80 per month and approx £800 per year is huge.
be more honest with your SOA, and im sure you'll find where a lot of the money is disappearing to at the end of the month - it wont be the big bills, its all the little ones that are eating away at your money.

Something no-one has yet mentioned - your got about 1000 zloty upstairs from a trip to poland in 2012 - Cash it IN! its doing nothing sat upstairs, and isn't earning you any interest. Use the money - however little/much it is to get rid of some of the credit card debt!

Karonher

I would think that there have been enough suggestions about cutting back to allow you to sort things out without giving up too much. You can pay the bills and the bailiffs aren't at the door so as long as you are careful you can still do all the family things.

If you cut back on groceries and lunches, reduce entertainment/eating out, spend less on holidays and less on presents there is no need to cancel things completely. An extra couple of hundred a month paid off the credit card from the savings should see it paid off in about 15 months - less if your wife's extra hours happen.

I would have an emergency fund however just in case something does go wrong.

MrsSave

I don't think that they've had their lightbulb moment yet, and don't think that they're ready to deal with their debts and make the plans needed to move forward successfully, but that does not make me think for a moment that it will after their careers or the pupils they are teaching.