my mind and money!! - what next?

kraft_2

My LBM was septmember last year, and since then i have:

At point of LBM, over the last couple of months i have had enough of debt and changed stuff around. Below is what i was paying, and then below that is what i pay now.

Life Insurance £45.42
Gas £42.00
Electric £31.00
House phone £35
Broadband £22
Sky £58
Mobile £45
Lottery £35
Bank Charges £80

Total : £393.42

I set to reduce this by:

Changing Life cover to £41.45
Gas/Electric £60
House phone/BB £45
Lower package sky £35
Chaged mobile contract £12.50
No more lottery (i am not going to win)
Paid off overdraft, only £12.50 for my account now.

Total now: £206.25, saving of £187.17

It just goes to show, if you dont dive into what you spend, you really get ripped off.

Our loans left are:

AA Loan -left £6657 - 7.2% / ends Nov 2009 / £243.93pm
GE Loan -left £3500 - 0% / ends Oct 2008 / £291.34pm
GE Loan -left £7688.99 - 12% ends Nov 2010 / £232.52pm
DL Loan -left £9766.94 - 7.6% ends Apr 2011 / £222.18
Natwest CC -left £2100 - N/A % paying £60pm

What is best to get rid of these loans now?.

Is it worth changing my 12% loan and paying a little more to reduce term, or should i just be patient and wait the 4 years until everything is paid?

Its driving me crazy, i am so desperate to be DF and in a funny way i hate being so tight with money.

Is there anything i could do?

cheers

duchy

Have you tried looking at the snowball calculator and working out how much sooner you'd be debt free by increasing your payments even by a small amount each month ? It can be an eye-opener and spur you on to ebaying/carbooting mystery shopping etc to find that little bit more each month to be able to do that.
A spending diary might help you identify where you could painlessly cut back too.
What about food bills ? Is there room to trim there ? I spend a lot less when I plan ahead and weekly shop (on-line to avoid impulse buying) and refuse to top up and do without til the next shop if I run out of anything as popping in for one thing always ends up with a full carrier bag !

kraft_2

yeah, i have done the snowball calculator, but i am uncertain how much i can put in to help, its not a lot.

My 12% loan.. is it worth taking a different loan out on a lower APR?.. its still got 3 years to go, but i think it would only save £10pm to change to a lower over the same term!!.. or shall i go back to a 5 year term as the monthly payment would be a lot lower?.. then maybe i can concentrate on other loans as well.

Mad_old_tory

If it doesn't involve too much hassle then why not? £10 is still £360 over three years which could be used towards your other debt. Not massive but still a nice difference for no extra work!

Gemmzie

Have you looked into Sky BB? It's free or £5, might be cheaper

Ignatius_A

many loans won't let you make overpayments - but you can often reduce the total owed by settling in full (ask for a settlement figure)

I'd suggest putting all your spare cash into getting rid of the credit card. Then apply for a low lob credit card and see if you can use it to pay off that 12% loan in full.

Maybe the natwest one will give you a low lob transfer once it's been emptied of existing credit.

kraft_2

I have looked at SKY BB, and it would save me a small fortune, but i have only just changed my BT package, and am tied in..:(

@mad old tory, very true, if it saves anything its worth it i suppose.

@ignatius, Yeah, i want to target to CC, as its a real Pain. I will also look into Low interest deals to change from the 12%.

Gemmzie

How much do you actually have available to pay these loans per month?

Is there no interest on two of them?

kraft_2

Gemmzie wrote: »

How much do you actually have available to pay these loans per month?

Is there no interest on two of them?

The £3500 GE loan is 0% over 12 months.
and the natwest CC is % but i dont know what the rate is..:eek:

I am not sure how much i could pay extra, on most months i would have maybe an extra £100?.. but some months more.

Every month though, there ALWAYS seems to be something that costs money, i got married 2 months ago, then there was the honey moon, then our family holiday is next month, and then its bloomin christams!! so all spare money seems to get written off..LOL

Gemmzie

Right, the issue is then that the "extra" actually isn't, so your SOA isn't complete. Have a look at SS's list on the sticky, include everything.

Loans often aren't worth repaying early unless you give a F&F (full and final) settlement but this will affect your credit rating.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Ignatius's suggestion is a good one.

Maybe you should avoid holidays until you have paid off the cc? I know that I always overspend when I go on holiday, whatever I plan to spend there is always something you didn't predict that makes it cost more!

Christmas is tough but just spend less on everyone. Warn them first if you want, in case they want to spend less on you!

Also take up the spending diary suggestion as this does help you to keep track of it all.