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

IrishSean

WhySeaEm said:

Obvious targets are food, entertainment and doggy care.

That's a good idea, I'll play with some figures later. 

We could definitely try to cut down on food but we already do most of our shopping at Aldi. I could try harder though to do less shopping at Sainsburys mid week. 

Entertainment could be cut down too but I still want us to be able to live a little with our son.  But I could cut it down. 

Doggy care no such luck. He needs the doggy daycare as he's only a puppy and we're both key workers so out of the house long hours. It's the cheapest one I could find in our area. 

Woah... your grocery bill is still pretty lean! £400 a month for 3 ppl isn't crazy expensive.

I know the pooch thing is a tricky one but when you add in doggy costs with entertainment, lotto, presents and cinema its £800+

I can't really advise; we took the heartbreaking decision to re-home our pup as he was a barker when I left the house. Attempted training but pedigree terrier blood it was to no avail. He's living contently on a farm in the mourne mountains with other dogs 😮

Mumoffourkids

IrishSean said:

WhySeaEm said:

Obvious targets are food, entertainment and doggy care.

That's a good idea, I'll play with some figures later. 

We could definitely try to cut down on food but we already do most of our shopping at Aldi. I could try harder though to do less shopping at Sainsburys mid week. 

Entertainment could be cut down too but I still want us to be able to live a little with our son.  But I could cut it down. 

Doggy care no such luck. He needs the doggy daycare as he's only a puppy and we're both key workers so out of the house long hours. It's the cheapest one I could find in our area. 

Woah... your grocery bill is still pretty lean! £400 a month for 3 ppl isn't crazy expensive.

I know the pooch thing is a tricky one but when you add in doggy costs with entertainment, lotto, presents and cinema its £800+

I can't really advise; we took the heartbreaking decision to re-home our pup as he was a barker when I left the house. Attempted training but pedigree terrier blood it was to no avail. He's living contently on a farm in the mourne mountains with other dogs 😮

£400 a month on groceries for 3 people is high. In my house it’s 7 people and my budget is normally £100 a week but has been increased in lockdown to £120 a week. I find online shopping better than going to Aldi as I can see what I am spending. 

WhySeaEm

Mahsroh said:

I would seriously look at where you’re living. Not sure where in the country you are but you SOA has rent at £1500pcm but you later say it’s a 2 bed property.

We live in the south east (commutable to London) and we pay £1100 for a what I would call a “large/luxury” 2 bed house) 2 double bedrooms, en suite, decent sized garden). 

I know the cost of moving (even when renting) isn’t cheap but if you can save £300/£400 a month you’d soon recover your initial moving costs. A more energy efficient modern property could help your utility bills too. 

We're definitely in a bargain for our area unfortunately. It's an outrageously expensive town (just outside London). It's just an average sized 2 bed house but we moved to get into the catchment area of a secondary school for our son. We're definitely not moving again, it cost us 5k to move in here!

DrEskimo

WhySeaEm said:

We're definitely in a bargain for our area unfortunately. It's an outrageously expensive town (just outside London). It's just an average sized 2 bed house but we moved to get into the catchment area of a secondary school for our son. We're definitely not moving again, it cost us 5k to move in here!

I'm not sure if you mentioned in the thread, but what was the cause of the debt? Would I be right in thinking that it was simply living beyond your means before your partner got a substantial pay rise?

WhySeaEm

DrEskimo said:
I'm not sure if you mentioned in the thread, but what was the cause of the debt? Would I be right in thinking that it was simply living beyond your means before your partner got a substantial pay rise?

Pretty much. Started off with a big wedding that we couldn't afford, but felt sure we could pay back as we both had good jobs. BUT then unexpectedly I was in and out of work for a couple of years due to repeat hospitalisations which meant we really relied on credit. Wife's income has gone from 50k to 110k in the last couple of years amazingly, when it was on the lower end we barely coped.  

macman

£3.8K p.a. on a dogsitter? Plus food? It would be cheaper to send it to boarding school...

Willing2Learn

I'm in the wrong job lol...I never contemplated being a dog-sitter when I thought about which degree to do....lol 

WhySeaEm

 

£20 a day, 4 days a week! 

DrEskimo

WhySeaEm said:

DrEskimo said:
I'm not sure if you mentioned in the thread, but what was the cause of the debt? Would I be right in thinking that it was simply living beyond your means before your partner got a substantial pay rise?

Pretty much. Started off with a big wedding that we couldn't afford, but felt sure we could pay back as we both had good jobs. BUT then unexpectedly I was in and out of work for a couple of years due to repeat hospitalisations which meant we really relied on credit. Wife's income has gone from 50k to 110k in the last couple of years amazingly, when it was on the lower end we barely coped.  

Sorry to hear. Hope you are in a good place now health wise.
Your past decisions have led to you being in the place you are now. The best way to think of debt is that it is borrowing from your future self. As a result, you are making your future self (now current) poorer. You are in the fortunate position to see your household income rise dramatically to offset this, but it does leave you in a relatively perilous position financially. Should anything affect your partner's income, you would be in serious trouble with the level of debt you have.

Whilst your increased income does mean you can afford some of your current lifestyle, your reluctance to make sacrifices in the past does mean you need to think about making them now to break debt cycle.

I would certainly try and aim for £2,000 surplus to throw on top of your current £1,270 debt payments. You should have little problem clearing £45k debt in under 2-years with a £120k salary.

• Get a written budget, and stick to it.
• Save a couple of grand as a safety net incase anything happens in the near future.
• Find any way you can to earn extra money and throw it all at the debts.
• Become debt free, stick to your budget and begin to start building wealth and assets you should be benefitting from given your household salary (house ownership, savings, investments, pensions, etc.).

Best of luck to you and your family

WhySeaEm

DrEskimo said:

• Get a written budget, and stick to it.
• Save a couple of grand as a safety net incase anything happens in the near future.
• Find any way you can to earn extra money and throw it all at the debts.
• Become debt free, stick to your budget and begin to start building wealth and assets you should be benefitting from given your household salary (house ownership, savings, investments, pensions, etc.).

Best of luck to you and your family

Thank you so much! I definitely need to do this. Yesterday was my lightbulb moment for sure. We were up til 2am just talking/thinking/talking it all out.