Its time to come clean

martinstewart99

Evening guys, i've decided that I need to take the bull by the horns and sort my life and money out. Its gone on for too long and been swept under the carpet.

I currently owe:

Virgin Card £5000
Egg Card £4000
Egg Loan £889

and i'm £1500 Overdrawn (£1670 limit)

My SOA are as follows:

Monthly Income: £890

Monthly Expenditure:
Car £70
Rent £70
Card Payments £235
Loan Payment £100
Gym £40
Mobile £35
Socialising £160

Total: £710

I know where my problems lie, going out too much with my mates and gambling. Really really need to stop both of those, especially the gambling side of things. Unfortunately you can never win enough to pay off your debt, I need to learn that lesson straight away!

I've already made a list of things I need to do:

Re-Claim Bank/Credit Card Charges
Check PPI (can I claim and should I cancel?)
Balance Transfers


It feels so much better getting this off my chest.

D&DD

Hi Martin welcome to MSE well done for posting your SOA .Now you just know what I'm going to say don't you .........
Do you really NEED to go to the Gym??
Socialising could definately be cut down at least and my main concern would be working to get that overdraft down to a more manageable level.
I got rid of ours by selling stuff on Ebay and throwing everything at it for 2 months.Do you have the APR's handy for your cards and loan?

martinstewart99

Thanks D&DD, i'll try to get my APR rates on here at the weekend. Really need some help and hopefully coming on here and doing this is the 1st step.

I DO need the gym membership unfortunately, got to lose 3 stone to cut my diabetes risk etc etc and i'm tied in with them for a year.

InTheRed

Hi Martyn!
Welcome to MSE! I'm sure you will find this site a source of great information and support. I know I have.
Well you know we are going to pick up on the going out, it needs to be kicked to the curb.
Is there anyway of increasing your income? Additional part-time work? mystery shopping? Check out the Increase your Income board for some ideas.
Does your rent cover bills? Water/Heating/Lighting/Council Tax? If so well done sounds very cheap! If not edit your SOA to see if these can be reduced.
Have you kept your bank statements to check where all the money is going in terms of dd's and so's. If so then further refine by keeping a spending diary of where the £10 withdrawn from the bank goes..... I found this very enlightening:eek: .

Anyway Good Luck and I look forward to seeing your progress

InTheRed x

martinstewart99

cheers, i'll have a look at the extra income section. A part-time job is possible, but i'm going to work for BT Tech Support in 2 weeks and the shift patterns with that could prove a problem.

But i'll look into it, mystery shopping is something i'm used to, had experience of dealing with them plenty!

CLAPTON

some things to think about although it would be better if we new a little more about your circumstances..
.. what sort of job do you have,
..why is your rent so low..
..what caused the debts in the first place,
..are the debts growing or are you reducing them



a. can you increase your income which is rather low... say a parttime job (maybe bar work which would also help you reduce your socialising bill too.)

b. fill in the gaps in your SOA ... at the moment you are showing a surplus of over 170 each month, but presumably thats not actually correct .. so where does it all go?
-start a spending diary and write down everything you spend
-also think about all the one offs like xmas, presents, holidays, clothes or whatever else you spend on.. for these work out an approximately yearly total divide by 12 to get a monthly figure and start to actually save this amount each month so you actually have the money when you need it rather than just use credit cards.

-think about why you are in debt.. what did the money go on.. have you anything to show for it that you could sell on ebay to help reduce the debt

-stop using credit cards all together.. if you dont have it then dont spend it.

-get hold of the APRs of the debts and post them (often only the monthly rates are shown on the CC bill.. the APR can be worked out by multiplying by 13 (only approximate but good enough).

- what does 70 for car cover...break this down into the different parts so you can see what you spend on petrol, insurance, tax, MOT, servicing, repairs fund, RAC/AA, car finance etc.

- only when you have worked out a proper comprehensive SOA can you see the best way of tackling the debt problems

martinstewart99

.. what sort of job do you have.....Rental Manager for a Vauxhall Dealer, but starting in Technical Support at BT 2 weeks on Monday (unless something better comes up in the mean time!)

..why is your rent so low....because I still live at home,£70 per month to my parents.

..what caused the debts in the first place........credit card when I was
20,stupidly maxed it out on nothing and now still trying to pay it back.

..are the debts growing or are you reducing them.......they are slowly reducing, but not greatly.

I know exactly where my money is going, betting websites, thinking I can win my fortune and all this will go away. Its dawned on me that this isn't the case. I've been stupid and its nearly cost me my girlfriend. We had a proper heart to heart and its gave me the kick up the backside I need.

I'm doing this for our future, not just myself.

Little_Pickle

oh, good for you Martin!!!

You know what? stick it out here... honestly. You're going to be just fine!

Good luck, it's gonna be a bumpy ride, but we're all on it together!

LP
x

lunar

Hi, wanted to say well done for posting, thats the hardest bit. well it was for me, i love seeing the debt reducing every month. Have you tried the snowball calculator at www.whatsthecost.com ive found it really motivating trying to find ways to reduce my debt free date.

keep on posting and you will get loads of support here

martinstewart99

Thanks guys, I calculated my debt free date using the snowball calculator, now its time to put it into practice!

martinstewart99

Is there anything you guys do on a dialy basis to inspire you to behave, save and keep motivated?

Feeling really down today and finding this quite hard.