45k debt... anyone want to help please?

WhySeaEm

SORRY! I deleted the other thread (well edited it to say duplicate). I'm on my iPad and a technophobe and frankly don't know what I'm doing! 

WhySeaEm

monetxchange said:

Good luck, you can definitely do this!

Thank you! I can see the benefit in paying off the smallest first but I think I'll stick to the highest interest first as paying so much interest makes me feel sick!

Willing2Learn

Don't forget that your SOA has to be an accurate reflection of reality.

So, if you are going to spend **gulp** £1,000/month **gulp** on takeaways then that will have to be listed in your 'takeaway' monthly budget category.

shoppingobsessed2020

Takeaways were a big one here as well.  Lockdown has been great for cutting that out.  I dug out an old recipe book called takeaway secrets and we’ve used a couple from that to recreate our fav meals.  We are fond of a pizza as well so I made pizza dough and froze it on the pizza tray so we now have a stack of pre made bases so will take 15 mins in the oven and is quicker than ordering one,  a freezer inventory is also helpful so you can see at a glance what you have.  Batch cooking as well.  I made a huge lasagne and got 6 portions in the freezer for another day so as long as we plan and take it out the freezer that’s another quick dinner and it didn’t take me any longer to do as I was already making one,

WhySeaEm

I'll do another one tomorrow by going through my bank statement properly. It's not 1k on takeaways! We've been putting 1k on debt so I'm "missing" about £400. I need to work out where that missing money is going. I suspect a lot of it was takeaways/eating out- we went out for dinner at least once a week (pretty much every Friday night) which is usually around £60. So that's £240 just from one meal a week!

WhySeaEm

OMG. We've just been through the bank statement with a calculator and counted up all the eating out we did in February. It was over £500. HOLY !!!!!!. Lunches every weekend, dinner every Friday, takeaway once week. Absolutely definitely NOT going back to that habit once lockdown is over. Shocking of me really.

shoppingobsessed2020

Baby steps keep this momentum going and you will be laughing in the end.  There will be blips (I’ve had them already not even 2 weeks in) but it’s how you handle them that are going to make the difference.  I’m going to say don’t stop all takeaways or meals out which probably isn’t what the more experienced group members would say but maybe a takeaway or a meal out once every other week would be enough of a reduction in your takeaway budget to start.  Once you get a handle on that cash and make your bank account reflect your budget you will be zooming on your way.

WhySeaEm

Right, I've done my SOA again and updated my first post. It's much more realistic now as wife helped me along with our bank statements. We're both feeling awful about all the 'wasted' money, it's really shocked us!

It leaves me with £1250 leftover which feels much more realistic. So my original goal of paying around £1k a month extra onto debt can definitely got up to £1250, which is an extra 3k a year. I'm thinking maybe I'll pay out that money at the start of every month rather than waiting til the end... when we get to the end of the month and see that figure it's so easy to think 'oh go on then, lets pop out for dinner' so if the money isn't there then we can't do that! 

Sncjw

Be careful with paying it at the start. You may find you won’t have money to cover amount if they go up slightly such as food. Also you would then need to use credit cards to cover it and thus add more debt. Maybe pop it into another current account so it is set a aside and and there in case you need it. 

DrEskimo

I think a lot of aspects of the budget can be revised to free up additional money to pay this down faster. I would potentially think about making a hypothetical budget based on only £80-£100k incomes and then see how you would cut costs.

Remember this isn't forever. It's just a temporary situation to get yourself out of debt. How much you are willing to sacrifice now dictates how quickly you can sort this out and get back to living within your means and building wealth for yourself, not the banks.

Obvious targets are food, entertainment and doggy care.