My soa

Andyjflet

vintagegirl wrote: »

thank you Andy, when i read it back , i realise how it sounds,
i just feel like ive had some sort of debt my whole adult life

As Dave Ramsey says, when you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, now is the time to act.

I encourage you to listen to his podcast which is his radio show basically, its inspirational and may nudge you into the realisation that you can change your life...... it certainly changed my mindset and I'm on the journey myself.

SusieT

vintagegirl wrote: »

thank you Andy, when i read it back , i realise how it sounds,
i just feel like ive had some sort of debt my whole adult life

So instead of looking back think forwards.
To motivate yourself, work out approximately how much interest you have paid over the life of the cards or loans. Then think what you could have done with that interest and how many hours you would have needed to work to take home that amount.
If you stop takeaways and halve the date night money, then with that hit the highest interest % debts first, keep a spreadsheet of interst saved and have a game or challenge yourself to see how much extra interest you can save by finding a £ here or there that you can pay it down by. If you do a daily interest calculation on a spreadsheet you will be amazed at how much you can save.
Also, when you hit a target or clear a card, treat yourself to a bottle of champagne or something to reward the new you for doing well. In a few years you will look back and be proud of yourself for getting into a position where IF you lost your job you would not have the added stress of debt hanging over you

enthusiasticsaver

vintagegirl wrote: »

People seem to be hung up on the term 'date night.'
What that includes is lunches at work, dinners out, trips abroad and spending money when we are there.
I have been here before with paying things off and then running them up again, i suppose the only way really to avoid this is to cancel the cards but im scared of that,
and if im honest, my job isnt that stable. I work in sales so im scared if i lost my job and ive spend all my savings what do i do then?

So date night is really an all encompassing category for spending money between entertainment, holidays etc. The thing is to have got to that level of debt and never getting out of it you must be used now to a lifestyle you really cannot afford. To sort your finances out once and for all you need to do something different to the way you have been living your life especially if your job is not secure and you have no savings. Otherwise if you lose your income you will not have any way of paying the mortgage, utilities or food which are essentials.

Can you stop the holidays abroad for a year or two until you have sorted out your finances?

Can you take lunch to work from home to save on the cost of these?

Can you cut back on dinners out for a while?

enthusiasticsaver

vintagegirl wrote: »

THanks for your replies.
I think my problem is procrastination. I have been here many times before with clearing credit cards and then running them up again so what im trying to do here is live well within my means and build up a savings and have some fun money every month so i dont fall into the same trap

I agree with this to a certain extent in that you should be saving so you are not tempted to turn to credit cards when you have an unexpected bill so you can justify the £250 as emergency savings. I also agree that factoring some entertainment in your budget is a necessity but this will all only work if you stop using the cards. Even more important when you are paying fairly high rates of interest, have an insecure or erratic income and have been in debt a long time as I fear this is your normal state and you see no problem with the level of debt you have.

Can you lock the cards away?

vintagegirl

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

I agree with this to a certain extent in that you should be saving so you are not tempted to turn to credit cards when you have an unexpected bill so you can justify the £250 as emergency savings. I also agree that factoring some entertainment in your budget is a necessity but this will all only work if you stop using the cards. Even more important when you are paying fairly high rates of interest, have an insecure or erratic income and have been in debt a long time as I fear this is your normal state and you see no problem with the level of debt you have.

Can you lock the cards away?

Yes i Have stopped using them, taken them all off my paypal, and will hide them away in a cupboard.
MAybe i should just cut them up.

I do understand the level of debt but at the moment im only concerned about the credit cards.
Maybe i should edit my soa to focus on them.
The loan and the couch dont need to be paid off early as my partner and i pay half each, he isnt in a position to pay them off early and its in his name, so im quite happy with them ticking alone.

I do get a bit blase about my debt as in my job you can sometimes make £2-3k commission a month.
What i want to do ideally is pretend i get no commision at all and once i get to a certain level of savings (ie £1ok, then throw the rest at it?)

Andyjflet

When did you last get £2-£3k per month ? I'm the same, I work in the motor trade. When you did how much of that did you throw at your debts, seems daft to be paying high interest.

monetxchange

I think you’re getting it. If you have an unstable job, credit cards are NOT a good fallback. What happens when they get maxed out? You wonder what would happen if you’d spent all your savings - simple answer: don’t spend them! Only route to security is to clear debts, start investing a good amount into a pension and have savings of at least three months salary put aside. Ask yourself what you’d do if you had a sudden illness and couldn’t work tomorrow. I’m sure you’d much rather have money set aside for a worst case scenario than memories of endless meals abroad while you’re living on rice and beans.

Not sure I follow your last post, but I’d suggest paying chunks off the debt as the money comes in, not saving it all up and then paying it off. That’s a recipe for more interest and/or it ending up getting frittered away.

ReadingTim

vintagegirl wrote: »

People seem to be hung up on the term 'date night.'
What that includes is lunches at work, dinners out, trips abroad and spending money when we are there.

Call it what you want - "date night", "fun money", whatever, it's all discretionary spending which would be better off being put towards paying off what you owe. It's about choices and priorities, not names.

So, what do you want - "date night" or "debt life"?

vintagegirl

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 3
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1573.36
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1573.36

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 122.3
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 58
Electricity............................. 29
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 37.5
Mobile phone............................ 10
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 100
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 17.5
Car Insurance........................... 20
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 7.5
Life assurance ......................... 8.19
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 300
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Son's phone Bill........................ 13.32
Netflix................................. 5
Total monthly expenses.................. 853.31


Assets
Cash.................................... 6000
House value (Gross)..................... 58500
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 64500


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 58500....(122.3)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 58500.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................3754......93.54.....0
Couch..........................670.......33.31.....0
Barclaycard....................2186.21...593.2.....26.9


OK I hope this will make most of you happy. lol/

I have rejigged my soa and have paid off my Capital one CC and my TSb One. I have bitten the bullet
So i only really have Barclaycard to concentrate on.

As i mentioned before the couch and the loan are ticking along.

SO i have cancelled the £250 savings for now,
I have £6k in the bank just now and am keeping the £300 'date night' money/

So i will have the Barclaycard paid off by April by doing the following.
January payment - £593.25
February - £593.25
March - £593.25
April - £475.62

Does this sound better?

vintagegirl

Andyjflet wrote: »

When did you last get £2-£3k per month ? I'm the same, I work in the motor trade. When you did how much of that did you throw at your debts, seems daft to be paying high interest.

I got £2300 this month commission so ive paid off 2 of my credit cards with it.
I earned £12k last year commision on top of my wage and wish to god id saved that