Help!

sharpe106

If you can reduce that 6k you spend on entertainment, phone, tv etc in half you will have more then enough to cover the extra interest payment without having to borrow more and start looking at paying of some of the debt. Starting with highest apr first. 

Grumpelstiltskin

£390 a month on food is on the high side unless you son is a 6ft tall 16 year old who eats you out of house and home.
 As others have said why so much on presents? You don't need to spend a fortune on presents, it is an old saying but it's the thought that counts not what it cost.

MasterG83

If you really want to do something about this and do it properly then you have to remove entries for "entertainment" or "presents"
Until then I fear it will be a token gesture and you wont see any headway at all.
Watch or listen to Dave Ramsey on podcast or you tube, you need to be sick and tired of being sick and tired to sort this out or it will be a forever revolving cycle. 

MisterBumble23

Food shopping is around £80-£90 per week which is standard for a family of three plus a dog. Our 'Xmas/Present' expenditure is £500 for Xmas and I have added on to account for son/wife birthday. Again these figured are standard for a family. The entertainment figure is pocket money (£80 per week) which is what we have left when the bills are paid, £80 a week does not go very far at all (one trip to the pub and a takeaway or cinema and it's gone). We don't have a lavish lifestyle, holidays are non-existent, no smoking/gambling. Our credit card bills have been around for at least 15 years, unfortunately I had a gambling addiction which we have yet to financially recover from. I have been gambling free for a long time but the credit card bills never go down. We pay the minimum each month and it just covers the interest. Virgin media is around £70 per month, mobile phones x3 are average of £30 per month. It's difficult to compare to other households but I can't see what we are paying for which is excessive. We just can't shift these credit card debts.  

Grumpelstiltskin

£80 per week could go a long way if you were serious about reducing your debt. Presumably during lockdown you have not been spending this so £80 x 12 weeks could have gone on debt that's almost £1000.
There is no standard amount for spending on presents, you spend what you can afford not what you think the family expect, you can't afford what you are spending.

MasterG83

MisterBumble23 said:

Food shopping is around £80-£90 per week which is standard for a family of three plus a dog. Our 'Xmas/Present' expenditure is £500 for Xmas and I have added on to account for son/wife birthday. Again these figured are standard for a family. The entertainment figure is pocket money (£80 per week) which is what we have left when the bills are paid, £80 a week does not go very far at all (one trip to the pub and a takeaway or cinema and it's gone). We don't have a lavish lifestyle, holidays are non-existent, no smoking/gambling. Our credit card bills have been around for at least 15 years, unfortunately I had a gambling addiction which we have yet to financially recover from. I have been gambling free for a long time but the credit card bills never go down. We pay the minimum each month and it just covers the interest. Virgin media is around £70 per month, mobile phones x3 are average of £30 per month. It's difficult to compare to other households but I can't see what we are paying for which is excessive. We just can't shift these credit card debts.  

I think my point is, until you really have a lightbulb moment then nothing is happening anytime soon.
The killer is the CC debt not anything else. So increase your income or sell stuff and gets serious, As I said, check out Dave Ramsey, it changed my life and I can see the finish line. 

ryanm8655

MisterBumble23 said:

Food shopping is around £80-£90 per week which is standard for a family of three plus a dog. Our 'Xmas/Present' expenditure is £500 for Xmas and I have added on to account for son/wife birthday. Again these figured are standard for a family. The entertainment figure is pocket money (£80 per week) which is what we have left when the bills are paid, £80 a week does not go very far at all (one trip to the pub and a takeaway or cinema and it's gone). We don't have a lavish lifestyle, holidays are non-existent, no smoking/gambling. Our credit card bills have been around for at least 15 years, unfortunately I had a gambling addiction which we have yet to financially recover from. I have been gambling free for a long time but the credit card bills never go down. We pay the minimum each month and it just covers the interest. Virgin media is around £70 per month, mobile phones x3 are average of £30 per month. It's difficult to compare to other households but I can't see what we are paying for which is excessive. We just can't shift these credit card debts.  

You might think that but if you want to make a dent in the debt then there are a lot of things there that you can’t afford. Satellite tv is an instant saving and unnecessary. Your shopping bill is a lot for the size of your family. You could get that down if you wanted to. And your budget for presents is very high considering your debt. Based on the presents budget you must have a lot of consumables you could sell to clear some debts?

I appreciate you’re not living like a king but there is plenty of room for trimming of fat if you’re serious about getting rid of your debt. There’s no easy way out unfortunately.

If you can make a big dent early then you’ll open up the 0% offers again and suddenly find you’re making a far more substantial dent.

ThatKiss

MisterBumble23 said:

Food shopping is around £80-£90 per week which is standard for a family of three plus a dog. Our 'Xmas/Present' expenditure is £500 for Xmas and I have added on to account for son/wife birthday. Again these figured are standard for a family. The entertainment figure is pocket money (£80 per week) which is what we have left when the bills are paid, £80 a week does not go very far at all (one trip to the pub and a takeaway or cinema and it's gone). We don't have a lavish lifestyle, holidays are non-existent, no smoking/gambling. Our credit card bills have been around for at least 15 years, unfortunately I had a gambling addiction which we have yet to financially recover from. I have been gambling free for a long time but the credit card bills never go down. We pay the minimum each month and it just covers the interest. Virgin media is around £70 per month, mobile phones x3 are average of £30 per month. It's difficult to compare to other households but I can't see what we are paying for which is excessive. We just can't shift these credit card debts.  

Reading this post, it comes across as you being frustrated your credit card bills aren't going down, but without the conviction to do something about it. You're paying the minimum payments - of course they're not going down! That's how the card companies make their money!

You refer to "standard figures for a family", but every family is different, and has to cut their cloth to suit their income and expenditure, so comparison is meaningless. You can't see what you're paying is excessive because you're comparing to notional "other households" rather than what you can afford. What you don't see is that other families might be earning more than you or might be drowning in debt. It's not a level playing field so don't treat it as such.

Ultimately, you ran up the debt and if you're serious about paying it off then you and your family have to make sacrifices, be it cutting back or even taking on a weekend job (Deliveroo, Just Eat etc). You have to want to help yourself.

There have been plenty of areas suggested to cut back already on the thread, so I won't go over the same ground, but the people making the suggestions have been where you are, made the mistakes and learned the lessons. They are offering you the benefit of their experience. It's worth taking on board rather than rejecting each and every suggestion out of hand based on your perception of what's standard or excessive. 

TheAble

Grumpelstiltskin said:

£390 a month on food is on the high side unless you son is a 6ft tall 16 year old who eats you out of house and home.
 

Yup. It's time for beans and rice, rice and beans.

MisterBumble23

ThatKiss said:

MisterBumble23 said:

Food shopping is around £80-£90 per week which is standard for a family of three plus a dog. Our 'Xmas/Present' expenditure is £500 for Xmas and I have added on to account for son/wife birthday. Again these figured are standard for a family. The entertainment figure is pocket money (£80 per week) which is what we have left when the bills are paid, £80 a week does not go very far at all (one trip to the pub and a takeaway or cinema and it's gone). We don't have a lavish lifestyle, holidays are non-existent, no smoking/gambling. Our credit card bills have been around for at least 15 years, unfortunately I had a gambling addiction which we have yet to financially recover from. I have been gambling free for a long time but the credit card bills never go down. We pay the minimum each month and it just covers the interest. Virgin media is around £70 per month, mobile phones x3 are average of £30 per month. It's difficult to compare to other households but I can't see what we are paying for which is excessive. We just can't shift these credit card debts.  

Reading this post, it comes across as you being frustrated your credit card bills aren't going down, but without the conviction to do something about it. You're paying the minimum payments - of course they're not going down! That's how the card companies make their money!

You refer to "standard figures for a family", but every family is different, and has to cut their cloth to suit their income and expenditure, so comparison is meaningless. You can't see what you're paying is excessive because you're comparing to notional "other households" rather than what you can afford. What you don't see is that other families might be earning more than you or might be drowning in debt. It's not a level playing field so don't treat it as such.

Ultimately, you ran up the debt and if you're serious about paying it off then you and your family have to make sacrifices, be it cutting back or even taking on a weekend job (Deliveroo, Just Eat etc). You have to want to help yourself.

There have been plenty of areas suggested to cut back already on the thread, so I won't go over the same ground, but the people making the suggestions have been where you are, made the mistakes and learned the lessons. They are offering you the benefit of their experience. It's worth taking on board rather than rejecting each and every suggestion out of hand based on your perception of what's standard or excessive. 

To the contrary, I am actively taking on board all of the advise so far. I am speaking to my wife with suggestions of what to cut back on. At no point have I rejected any suggestions on this thread??? This is the first time my anxiety over finances has held off long enough to make a first step and I am new to disclosing this to other people. My approach has been to be as honest as possible about where money has been spent and look for guidance/ideas from others and how we compare. Also, I have never completed an SOA before and it needs some tweaking. The fact remains that there has been no extra money at the end of the month to make any meaningful hit on the long-standing credit card balances, but I am fully aware of the cause (me).  Believe me, I want to help myself but I genuinely cannot work out why we have no money left, hence reaching out for help.