Want to be a DFW

Mikazaru

There's no quick fix but you need to try and change your mindset and make your debt payments your priority and pay those first in the month. Then what you have left is money for clothes/treat etc.
Once you've made amendments to your budget so you're not over spending each month pay off a reasonable amount to your debts first and then what you have left is for clothing/entertainment. You could easily clear Aqua, HSBC and your overdraft within a few months of serious debt busting and set yourself up to make good progress on the others.
Do you have a lot of clothes you can sell?

Geht_fit

Every little helps! I changed from branded daily lenses to the cheapest monthly lenses with Specsavers and they cost £10 a month. I notice no difference in comfort. If you have surplus, you can also ask to go on a holiday. Make sure any money saved goes straight onyo

Geht_fit

Oops! Sorry!
... Straight onto your Aqua card. That would be a saving of £15 per month, or £180 per year, and £6 in interest every month!

Geht_fit

Terrible maths skills! !!!55357;!!!56834; More like 50p interest for the month. Anyway, you see what I mean, I hope! Best of luck!

Dobbibill

Hi - Welcome to the forum.

Firstly, let me reassure you, we are a friendly bunch here and do not judge you. We will pop up suggestions to help your SOA but this is not judging you personally.

There's already lots of good suggestions, cutting the food budget, taking sarnies to work, buying coffee as a treat and selling clothes or unwanted items. Be brutal with yourself.

Your living in the most expensive city in the country and to get on the property ladder will really need to focus on saving hard but you can't do that while you have debts costing you more in interest than you'll earn - that would just be counter-productive.

Maybe consider giving yourself a different account(s) for spending, nights out, cinema etc - if the only money in that account is for spending then once it's gone, it's gone and you wait until next pay day to top it up. This will give you freedom to spend on yourself but within a limit.

It won't be easy and you will have to be brutal with yourself but the first step is always the hardest.

As you pay off one debt, recycyle the monthly payment onto the next debt to clear it quicker. Pay off the highest APR debt first. Do not re-use the credit cards when you run out of money, that's also counter-productive.

Your total debt is not that much, with a few changes you will be able to clear this quite quickly.

All the best.

determined_new_ms

I think having an account that is just for spending money would help you. work out what you can afford to have as pocket money and then just spend on that account/card. When it's gone it's gone.

Start by having days where you don't spend anything. Take your lunch to work, leave your cards/purse at home. I found no spend days really difficult when I first started cutting back, but even a few days a week helps.

About every 6 months I do a fiscal fast where I try not to spend anything at all for a week or 2. That means just eating food in the cupboards/freezer. It's amazing how long food stores can be stretched when you're doing this and the weird and wonderful concoctions that get made

For me changing my attitude to spending money was a process, I tried little things, that stuck, then something else and so on. It would seem your biggest challenge will be to get out of the mindset of frittering money.

There's lots of advice above about ways you can cut back. Your grocery spends could be cut back massively - at least by 1/2. Clothes can be cut to £0 for a while. And entertainment could be cut back a lot without being zero to help you get out of the situation you are in.

You are lucky to live in London as there is so much to do in the city for free.

Good luck!

Geht_fit

VirgoWhite wrote: »

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Aqua - had for 2 yrs...........300.......50........39.9
HSBC - had for 10 yrs..........500.......50........28.9
Barclaycard....................1471......50........25.9
Loan from husband..............2750......50........0
HSBC Overdraft.................500.......500.......19.9
Total unsecured debts..........5521......700.......-

Hi again, Virgo! I hope you're feeling inspired by all of the advice above! I was thinking about how you could tweak your debt to make sure that you're really able to clear it quickly. Speaking from experience, you could save a lot on interest by balance transferring the credit cards.

Aqua + HSBC + Barclaycard = £2,271 debt

You should be able to transfer all 3 to a single 0% card.That would save you a whopping £54 a month in interest:
Aqua... £9.98
HSBC... £12.04
Barclaycard...£31.75
You could clear the debt in just over 15 months by paying in £150 per month, which wouldn't change your total spend. Obviously paying more each month would shift it more quickly.

You'd have to be very committed to cancelling all 3 cards and cutting up the balance transfer card, so that you're not tempted to spend on high APR again.

If you're not able to immediately cut down your spending, but 100% trust yourself to bring it down in the short term, you could get a 0% spending card and focus on clearing your overdraft which is costing you up to £8.29 in interest. Again, once this is paid off, all of your focus should be on clearing this card and spending within your means. I would be tempted just to try to clear the overdraft though and avoid having a spending card if you don't think you could control yourself! Best of luck! :money:

VirgoWhite

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for all of your replies - 2 months on I am debt free. I was almost there and then I was fortunate to get a bonus from work which has cleared any outstanding. I want to thank you for the advice and giving me a reality check! I have re-prioritised where my money is going while making sure i am still "living" so I feel like i am in a good place now and can maintain going forward.

Thank you so much for all the help!