why I think I need a loan

firesidemaid

hi there

if you list all your incomings and outgoings, the good folks on here can help you by letting you know what extra money etc you may be entitled to and also by helping you reduce your outgoings.

for example, £45 a month on sky could be £26 a month on sky including phone and internet also - that would save you £228 a year which would pay for christmas ( i know not this year).

there are so many threads on this site on how to save and make money you won't believe.

this is your lightbulb moment x

t4hodgy100

thx In search of me for the advice I really do appreciate it. the time for crying has come and gone and i'm at a loss what to do next, I have been looking for work but to no avail at the mo. Our eldest is 20 but he only works part time and he gives us money each week which we put on to the electric as we are PAYG meter. I know it might sound silly but i have been chatting to my hubby about dissapearing lol, and him using my life insurance to pay for stuff. I do stress this was a sort of jokey conversation.

In_Search_Of_Me

I now its hard but its only money! More crying time may come yet when you work it all out its often more than you thnk - I cried for 2 days, didnt sleep & felt physically sick...but I got through it and so will you.
Despite what DD thinks it wont kill her not having loads of present - she'll learn the value of things and so will you plus you can use ths opportunity to teach her about budgetting! All good me thinks!
I hung on to cable for ages & wish I hadnt - manage fine with the freeview that I get from NTL & its al [EMAIL="!!!!"]!!!![/EMAIL] tv these days anyway! Sit down, post your SOA & people ca help you save loads of dosh! WOuld rings CCCS tomorrow though as its gonna be busy as loads of people have lightbulb moments before, during & after Christmas for obvious reasons...

nearlyrich

Don't even joke about doing something silly, it's only money and there is a way back from deep levels of debt... post your full SOA and let the great DFW community help you to have a better Christmas than you think you can.

t4hodgy100

thx all for the advice i will post my SOA on here shortly

silkglade

Also, learn to trust us and that we are all here to help and a majority have been in your situation.... or worse, you can learn from our experience too.. Once you have done what seems like a very scarey and almost impossible task posting your SOA then it is a huge relief!!!! trust me, I stupidly took ages to post mine and suffered alone thinking I could do it alone!

Squirrel29

Hi, honestly I was posting about bankruptcy and even ending it all as recently as August. By this Xmas I am on target to have paid £2000 of debt off .... that is 1/8th of my debt gone and I haven't even made hugely drastic changes to my lifestyle - even have Sky+ with movies but have got really good at haggling deals! My Xmas is all paid for, a lot of it by using cashback sites, all these things you will learn on this forum! Get that SOA posted and trust us!

t4hodgy100

Ok well here it is, my Soa as promised.

INCOMING

Wages: 275 a week or 1191 a month.
Child Benefit: 72 month.
Working tax: 22 month.
Child tax: 185 month.

Total: 1470 month

OUTGOING

Mortgage: 166 month
Endowment: 54.50 month
Rent: 150 month ( I live in a part rent part buy house )
Gas: 27 month
Electric: 40 month
Sky tv/broadband: 45 month
Council tax: 101 month ( owe 480 from last year cause they messed up our direct debit which we had for the past 8 years )
Phone: 50 quarterly.
Loan: 165 month ( with Northern Rock, 7 years to go )
Pension: 40 month
Settee: 48 month ( interest free, 2 years left )
Curry's: 4.50 month ( insurance for washing machine )
Water: 90 quarterly
Capital one cc: 260 month ( apr is 6.9 i think, limit is 9300, spent 9150 minimum payment )
Tesco cc: 35 month ( apr is 15.9 i think, don't use this card anymore but haven't cancelled it. Pay minimum payment )
TV license: 35.12 quarterly
Mot: 35 yearly
Car insurance: 170 yearly ( we put it on the capital one cc )

All of this adds up to: 1136 month...175.12 quarterly.....205 yearly
which should leave us with 334 month ( but we don't see this cause of the overdraft )

Overdraft limit is 1500, which we are over. We are with HSBC and have been for nearly 25 years.
£25 every time we go over. most is 175 in fees in a month.
Haven't started paying for the arrears in council tax yet.

Shopping: 80/100 week
Plus any extras all come out of the capital one cc.

I hope I have made sense with this, thx all for the encouragement so far.

chevalier

Have a look at www.whatthecost.com and their snowball calculator. Put in all of your debts, the apr's and the repayments. This will tell you what your debt free date is and how much interest you will pay.

Then put in the loan amount that would cover the debts, the apr and repayments. See how much more interest you are paying. That is why an loan is not usually the way forward.

Have you been looking for work in a specific area, or just any work? Even stacking shelves in the supermarket would make a ginormous difference to your income.

Have you got things you can ebay? Like your daughters outgrown clothes. If they are in good condition, clothes for older children go quite well. Or books that you could sell on amazon.com?

You may also want to think about getting another bank account to pay your income into. That way you can pay off your overdraft at a rate that is good for you.

But if you are really stuggling, then calling CCCS or Payplan about a debt management plan may help relieve the stress. They are FREE and give impartial advice. Don't go with one of the tele ones as they charge.


There are also lots of sites on the web that pay you to take surveys, do searches etc. Every little helps. There is a whole thread on the freebies board about Pigsback, where you can get vouchers for signing up to things.

best of luck
chev

chevalier

Ps your shopping (taking £80 as the amount) amounts to £347 a month. I pay out about £250 a month to feed two adults, two children and two cats! So I am sure you can save a lot here by using up what you already have in the house, plus meal planning and sticking to a shopping list etc. If you go over to the old Style forum they have loads of ways of cutting the shopping bill down.
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