another newbie here, looking for your help for a new start!

ihatedebt_2

After lurking around on this site for a few months, I have finally plucked up the courage to post. First of all I just want to say hi, :hello: and that I am grateful that you are taking the time to read my post.

You could say I’ve finally had THE LBM…Plenty of flickering lights beforehand but now I finally know we cannot carry on the way we are going.

Well where do I start?!..I suppose a bit about my debt problems and how they started. It began as an 18 year old student, having credit thrown at me left, right and centre - I know I didn’t have to take it, but like many others I did, and all I’ve got to show for it is a beer belly! (I didn’t finish the course as decided it was for me) Coupled with my OH, who didn’t know what was going in and out of his bank before we got together, we were doomed financially from the start. Our biggest downfall was our wedding – although we were engaged for a couple of years before, it was all done at relatively short notice and so a huge chunk was taken out as an overdraft and on credit cards! We did try the consolidation route time and time again but only made matters much, much worse as we were often unable to get the most competitive rate due to a poor credit rating (many addresses and often no UK records as we lived abroad due to OH in forces). The final straw was after a phone call to payplan a couple of months ago, when I was told there was nothing they could do for us as we should be able to afford all our monthly payments – the question is then where does the money go?!? And the only way forward is to down our costs of what we are spending. We’ve also got the opportunity to sort our finances out this year as we are moving yet again and so with OH increased wages and decreased cost of living we might have a chance to sort it all out.

I here you calling for an SOA, so here goes…

Monthly Incomings

My wages = £1000*
OH wages = £1450**

TOTAL MONTHLY INCOMINGS = £2450

*this will reduce as of this month to £800apx depending on how soon I start work at new place)
**this should increase to counteract any reduction in my wages

Monthly Outgoings

Rent = £0 (deducted before OH net wage)
Council Tax = £0 (as above)
Water = £0 (as above)
Gas = £40 (this should reduce from next month)
Gas = £34 (this should reduce from next month)
TV license = £11.61 (will no longer be required as of Feb., also due a refund of apx £60 yippee!)
Sky = £36.00 (OH has just cancelled from next month, but think he might have other ideas)
Phone/Broadband = £35 (not sure of rates where we are going)
Mobiles (x2) = £80 (tied into contracts till Jan 08 but doesn’t cost us to use abroad)
Car Insurance = £45.02 (this will go up next month due to cover abroad)
Bike Insurance = £62.88
Contents Insurance = £26.87 (specific cover for forces for kit and overseas)
Petrol = £60.00
Food = £200.00
Savings = £15.00 (this is for Christmas, birthdays and emergencies – we have been caught out this year by unexpected problems with the car – had to pay out £250 on Christmas eve!)
Cigarettes = £100.00 (this will reduce next month as tax free, also OH has tried to quit before but started up again while on tour overseas so hopefully he’ll try again soon)
Study costs = £75.00

SUBTOTAL = £821.38

Debt repayments (loan totals included interest if taken to full term)

Secured

£225.24 Car loan £2702.88 APR 29.9%
£149.95 Bike loan £2399.20 APR 11.3%
£70.37 Sofa loan £1899.99 (1 arrear) APR 29.8%
£19.14 Computer loan £593.34 APR 21.8%

SUBTOTAL = £464.70

Unsecured

£245.07 Beneficial £10047.87 APR 36.9%
£161.00 Citifinancial £5635.00 APR 42%
£231.14 Egg £11094.72 (1 arrear) APR 7.66%
£60 Reducing overdraft £1040 APR 7.49%
£70 Payday loan £500 APR?!? I dread to think!
£50 Cap One £510 APR 29%
£25 Vanquis £250 APR 36%
£100 Various catalogues £1500 APR variables

SUBTOTAL = £942.21

We also have separate account with overdrafts totalling £3000 and I have £4000 to the SLC.

TOTAL MONTHLY OUTGOINGS = £2228.29
TOTAL MONTHLY OUTGOINGS =£2450 – £2228.29= £221.71 BUT I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE THIS GOES?!?

TOTAL DEBT = £45000 apx (including SLC) :eek:

That’s a disgusting figure seeing it in all its glory! A scary amount…

So now where do I go from here? I have looked at whatsthecost.com and ideally if I snowball correctly I can look forward to a debt free date of December 2009 (fingers crossed)
I have signed up to numerous cashback sites, slice of pie music and also have an application form for AQA to try and earn some extra cash to throw at the debt, I just need to work on my routine for this!

Anyway thank you for taking the time to listen to me blabber on – I could go on but I know need your help! Any suggestions will be gratefully received!

Many thanks x

P.S This is the second time I have wrote this tonight as my computer crazed as I was posting it the first time – aaarrgh!

Need_To_Sort_It

Hello I hate debt, I am new here too, scary isnt it when you first post but you will realise in no time, there's no need to be.

I am in no position to offer any practical advice but just wanted to say hello :-)

Need_To_Sort_It

PS, should have said - those that can offer advice will be here in no time :-)

Spendaholic_Chick

Keep a spending diary for a month or so to see where that missing £221.71 goes - you'll be amazed at the ways you can waste money (I know I was!). TRy www.spendingdiary.com

MissKJ

It is a lot of debt, but your circumstances are quite good. A Debt free date in 2009 is not bad for so much debt. You could cut ts down, but would you stay on track? That is the most important thing. You have clearly over spent for some time. It is about lifestyle. Don't buy till you have saved.

tealady

Hello and welcome. If you cant see where the money is going a spending diary is a must. As for food try dividing the budget by 5, take the same amount out of the bank on the same day each week and live on that. When its gone its gone (menu plan that will help). Then 8 months of the year you will have 1 weeks money to thorow at your debt.
It worked for me.

headinthesand_3

hey there,

could you tell me how you snowballed your debt?? as paying off £45000 in just under 2 years is over £1000 a month and i can't see where your getting that from?

ihatedebt_2

Just to say thank you all for your replies, I will be taking all your advice on board!
Thank you for welcoming me to the board :T

I've started to keep a record of my spending - and have logged this information on spendingdiary.com to keep track of it, hopefully this will help find out where the money is being wasted.

It seems my OH is quite happy not to know how much debt we have "ignorance is bliss" apparently - made him have a think about the spending tonight when we were discussing dinner - we have a cupboard full of food which many tasty meals can be rustled up quite quickly yet he wanted a chippie..stood my ground though and he cooked a very tasty chicken and pasta with a tomato sauce. MissKJ hopefully this can be the start of the lifestyle change needed to clear the debts!

tealady love your idea - will start putting that into practice this week - i'm also going to be having a wander over to the moneysaving old style board to have a look at reducing the grocery budget further to have a bit more cash to throw at the debt.

headinthesand - i have snowballed all my debts minus by SLC debt on whatsthecost.com with my OH wages as the amount to spend on debt - in total we spend apx £17K alone per year on the payments as above so by snowballing correctly the other £7k can be made up from the payments of some of the loans that are due to finish next year.

ihatedebt_2

Unfortunately todays been a mixed bag in terms of money...

Had to fork out a £190 for our ferry ticket for our move :mad: On the plus side this will be reimbursed but not until next month..

I have finally sold by wedding dress after many months of trying (have been married for 2 years) - I only made about £120 in total minus all the ebay fees for this, that on the other but every penny counts!so that will go towards the first lot of extra payments. :money:

barron_hard_up

Hi and welcome,

Sell the motorbike, get on to the mobile phone people and re negotiate.

Good luck
Barron Hard Up

ihatedebt_2

Will regards to the motorbike, it unfortunately needs some repairs after OH had an accident on it - which i'm not willing to pay out for at the mo and OH is not will to sell at a much reduced value then what the bike is worth because of the damage so thats a grey area at the moment..

will contact o2 ref mobiles hopefully we can reduce it down - the good thing with them though is when we move we can still use phones at no extra cost as part of the contract.

not had a great start to the day so far as some little b****er :mad: has decided to hack into my ebay and hotmail account - spent the day so far trying to sort that out and going through all my online accounts to change details - what a pain!