Newbie DFW - Hello!!

punka

Hi All :hello:
I've been lurking on here for a couple of weeks and thought it was about time to face up to my debt. I have debts totalling about £13,000 and I want to clear them asap. I've set a target of clearing at least £5k by December 2008.

Debts are
HSBC Loan (APR 7.4%) at £7,900 (Including the interest) at £149 per month till April 2012
Egg Loan (APR 7.9%) at £3, 625 at £150 per month till February 2010
HSBC card (APR 18.9%) at £1678 at minimum repayment till forever!
HSBC overdraft (0%) at £400 (limit agreed at £500)

I've been throwing my money at my egg loan and I've brought that down from £5,000 in the past 4 months but I realise that my credit card should come first. I've also moved back home to save money on bills etc but I am desperate to move out as soon as I can!! A second job isn't an option at the moment as my OH lives 60 miles away so I commute to see him every weekend which worked out cheaper than living together. We are aiming to move back in together after I've paid the 5k off and I'll probably get a second job behind a bar then.

SOA belowas it stands at the moment
Income £957 per month

Outgoings

HSBC loan £149
Egg loan £150
Credit card approx £40
Rent/Board £130 (parents agreed to cut to £100)
Car insurance £30 (but have paid up for the year as APR was nearly 30%!! - renewal in February)
Car tax/MOT/Service £30
Mobile Phone £25 (just extended contract without upgrade and line rental reduced to £5 per month with approx £5 topup on Tmobile Ufix)
Petrol £120 (OH will contribute £40 towards travel costs)
Food £120 (intending to set £25 per week to include work lunches)
Clothes £20 (none allowed till April!!)
Xmas/birthdays/dentist/prescritions/sundries £50 (cut to budget of £20 - cheaper presents!)
Gym £42 (cancelled - last payment in December)
Leisure/Going out £250 (but planning on cutting this to max of £10-15 per week - tried not going out at all, went mad and spent a fortune so new total will be £70)
Magazines/random rubbish bought in shops - £100 (All to stop
Total £1186 (New total approx£680 - £700 per month)

I am due a backdated payrise (bringing monthly pay up to £977) in my December paypacket which should bring an extra £140 which is going straight on my card

I've already looked at some ways I can make savings and get together some extra money and I've put these in red above. I should be able to cut my outgoings out to around £700 per month including minimum repayments if I am strict. I'm the best person in the world for budget planning but the worst for sticking to it!! :rolleyes: I'm also planning on trying to flog a few things on ebay to raise extra cash.

My plan is to throw anything left over onto the credit card which in theory should be paid off after about 6 months, then I can make some headway with the egg loan!
Any other ideas on where I might make savings - please be brutally honest!!

cheers m'dears!

theunknownstuntman

hiya punka, I'm new too. Glad to meet you

Stunty.

Scarlett.1974

Hi Punka and welcome to MSE :wave:

It looks like you've already got some great plans in action and I haven't really got much to add to it You're definitely doing the right thing by throwing as much as possible at the highest APR debt, then once that one is clear move on to the next highest and so on

Definitely give ebay a bash. Yes, it's a bit boring and quite time consuming, but look at my sig to see what I've made in the last month alone It's well worth it!

You might be able to make some savings on your food bill. Have a look on the Old Style board for some hints and tips.

When your car insurance is up for renewal check out www.moneysupermarket.com and then www.quidco.com for some lovely free cashback. Also, check out the Quidco and Pigsback threads on the Freebies board for some ways to make more free money!

Best of luck to you

Sea78

:hello:

Welcome to the wonderful DFW world

You look like you've started to really sort your incoming etc out. One thing that struck me was the no clothes bit - that'll be hard! Can you ask for any clothes vouchers for christmas so you can still get some clothes? Also have you signed up for Pigsback so then you can start to click your way to high street vouchers as well (look on the freebies board if you haven't)

Sea xxx