Trans girl in a financial hole looking to juggle my way out.

EmilyDiary

Hiya, £70 is actually the cheapest I’ve found - the at home IPL lasers don’t work as well especially as face hair is so dense it takes a lot of work. I’m hoping I only need a couple more sessions of that though. The cats are both indoor cats already, but yeah cat litter is a cost isn’t it!

Martico

Yes, it really looks like some part time evening or weekend work is what you need to focus on - I hope you manage to get something soon!

EmilyDiary

So day 1, no spend day. I wasn’t expecting to spend anything today anyway but it’s still nice to be off to a good start.

CRANKY40

EmilyDiary said:

Also I don’t spend anywhere near £200 on food, I probably spend £80 a month on food so that’s helpful isn’t it

I was assuming that you were buying cat food and litter for at least 2 cats with that. Mine costs at least £10 a week to feed....

NeverendingDMP

Which of your debts are dmp, how long have you been on the dmp and which are new debts/have interest charges etc. Only to see if there is a way of ordering how you pay for them and whether you say you will manage the ones from stepchange yourself as I would imagine they are already defaulted. It won't solve it as such but just to get a different view point of what your plans could be. 

EmilyDiary

Hiya, none of those debts listed are the ones on the dmp, it’s two old debts from a prior credit card and a prior loan. I’ve been on it around 4 and a half years so yeah those are absolutely already defaulted so I don’t think there’s anything they can do to harm my credit rating short of a ccj? Which as I’ll be paying them something regardless is fairly unlikely I would think?

NeverendingDMP

First things first it's trying to make your budget balance I suppose, either by your budget or the one cranky40 has written. A good old fashioned spending diary on having a look through bank statements might help with how much food shopping etc is.

NeverendingDMP

And yes no further action is likely from the dmp debts. In theory they should have the interest frozen and there is nothing to stop you ringing stepchange and asking to reduce the payments. It's a while since the defaults so I totally get why you don't fancy doing that with the other debts. The dmp debts will be interest free probably though and aqua tends to be high interest once it's offer ends. 

triple_choc_chip

Hi and good luck with this diary.  
My first thought was to ask if you can reduce the DMP payment to £100 per month, it will only take 3 more months to clear it and this monthly reduction would resolve your shortfall as per your first outgoings list.
However, then you wrote that a spare £20 would be easily spent on a takeaway, so I second the suggestion of keeping a spending diary - I did this in one of those £1 types from any cheapy shop or you may be a spreadsheet wizard.  It becomes a ritual to fill it in every day and keeps you focussed.
So I think your mindset needs to change before you reduce your debt payments because a spare £20 should ideally be thrown at the card with the highest interest rate and that should also be more satisfying than a takeaway lol!
I would also suggest keeping your monthly payments at what they are now if possible instead of following the reducing minimum payments as you will make better progress that way.

EmilyDiary

Day two: no spending today, as per the Plan. I might need to pick up some loo roll tomorrow though but will get the cheap stuff.