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

katsu

Have you checked if you can get a better deal on gas and electric? £80 gas seems high to me for a small house (only 2 adults and a child).

Cancel the lottery for a painless extra £240 debt repayments a year. I'd cancel the charity too for now. That's another £360 a year. Go volunteering and/or declutter and give to charity shops instead. 

Do you really need a house alarm? Can you cancel that? I would. Gets you another £420.

Netflix and Cineworld and Cable TV and £300 on entertainment. I'd cut into that. Can you cancel Cineworld for now as it's a lockdown?   What are you doing for entertainment and could you reduce it? If you combined these and saved £100 that's £1.2k in the year. 

Mobile phones at £50 - can you go SIM only?

You are paying 30% on Cap One with have £2.9k debt. If you made changes to: entertainment,  lottery, charity and house alarm you'd have over £2k towards this debt. 

Have a good look at where your money goes and make as many changes as you can and you should find the debt soon starts to reduce. 

Good luck! 

TheAble

As well as the debt repayments, you should really start to consider buying a house before too long, especially while your wife is earning such a high income. Long may it continue but it may not do forever and you don't want to be stuck with the insecurity of renting if you have a plunge in income.
And build some savings too!

WhySeaEm

TheAble said:

As well as the debt repayments, you should really start to consider buying a house before too long, especially while your wife is earning such a high income. Long may it continue but it may not do forever and you don't want to be stuck with the insecurity of renting if you have a plunge in income.
And build some savings too!

That's the dream!

WhySeaEm

Thanks everyone for all your comments. Much to think about!

Probably make many of you think we're mad, but I'm not going to do all of the suggestions. We're going to keep cineworld as it gives us joy (we're not paying for it during lockdown) and the £300 entertainment budget because we need to live a little! It gets spent on visiting family for meals etc, so not being spent in lockdown. I'm hoping we spend less than that though, and anything left over at the end of the month can go on debt. We're also keeping the house alarm (in a contract anyway, but I need the peace of mind when wife goes abroad for work), and the new puppy! Which I fully accept is irresponsible while we're in so much debt, but he brings us his worth times a hundred in the mental health qualities he brings. 

However, I've cut out the lottery and the charity donations, checked my bills are the cheapest (they are!), we're aiming to get the food bill down by going to Aldi twice a week instead of once and Sainsburys once, going to meal plan, etc.

Naomim

I think it's quite sensible.  We've also taken that approach to our debt busting. I put money by for days out etc. If you pull back the reigns too hard too fast, you can end up feeling trapped.  Whilst we're in lockdown, if you are still earning and saving money on your cineworld and other entertainments, then throw that extra at the debt as an overpayment. 

Naomim

IrishSean

Yeah sounds good

Only thing i'd add, as was suggested earlier, keep some of the entertainment but have a goal of what you'd like to put towards debt. Mine started at £50, went to £60, £90, £250, next month it'll be £528 as I'm driven to be debt free asap. I'm dreaming about 4 figure savings each month and watching them grow instead of debt growing.

It's rarified air, i'd imagine. Property ladder would be another awesome goal. On your monthly take you've a lot more options than those of us on significantly less bread (home-baked or otherwise!😂)

Best of luck; keep updating success on debt reduction💪

WhySeaEm

IrishSean said:

It's rarified air, i'd imagine. Property ladder would be another awesome goal. On your monthly take you've a lot more options than those of us on significantly less bread (home-baked or otherwise!😂)

Thank you and yes you're absolutely right and I feel very grateful. Once we get this debt gone next step will be a house deposit for sure. 

runforlife

This may seem crazy (“l love crazy”) But it’s a genuine question. Currently your dog costs you nearly £400 a month including vets/insurance. This means you are going to work for not much more than £1100. Have you thought about a new, temp job, that offers you more time at home for less net pay to look after the dog and eliminate the need for a dog sitter/walker? Just trying to think outside the box. 

Drawingaline

Do it your way. Some people can go full on and blast through it, others take a more meandering approach. Just be careful not to slip too much into old habits, review it monthly. And break the dependance on credit. Nothing you do will work if you don't do this! 

WhySeaEm

runforlife said:

This may seem crazy (“l love crazy”) But it’s a genuine question. Currently your dog costs you nearly £400 a month including vets/insurance. This means you are going to work for not much more than £1100. Have you thought about a new, temp job, that offers you more time at home for less net pay to look after the dog and eliminate the need for a dog sitter/walker? Just trying to think outside the box. 

Hahaha - was that a frozen reference there?

I love my job unfortunately. I work in a special school and could never imagine doing anything else. It pays horrific but it's my passion!