New Leaf for 2026 - Dire Debts

Brie

Edit is in the circle with 3 dots on the top right of each post.  Sometimes newbies don't get access to that for some reason - might have to do 10 posts or something.  There's a delete option too but I was being cautious as I didn't want to wipe out all of your hard work.  

Also - something to consider, which worked for me as a nice warm glow boost....  Rather than have DDs on the minimum put some (or all) on the round number just above the current minimum.  So if they want you to pay £143.25 put it as £145.  When the minimum required drops to £139 you can drop your DD to £140.  Obviously only if you can afford it and best to do only on the high interest ones at this moment.  But it might help with your credit report as it's easy to spot someone paying a minimum amount but less obvious if they pay the same amount each month.  Looks more in control too.  

I'll shut up now for a bit!!!

ManyWays

Ditch the lottery. Get the windows cleaned every other month. Decide between Apple music and Playstation. Downgrade Netflix a long way. How much do you actually use the gym, even though you get a 300 rebate, that's still over 40 a month.

Presents - that is a LOT, any reason? I suggest at least halving it.

The reason for all this is you have no wiggle room at the moment and no emergency fund. 

When does your mortgage fix end? 

Have you had a car on finance before this one? If you have, have you heard of car commission refunds?

linux_Master

Thanks @Brie!

Ah that could be it, with me being new. I don't seem to have those options yet but I will hopefully be updating a fair bit as my journey goes on so hopefully that option will appear soon. 

Of the optional extras I have cancelled: Bin cleaning, PS Plus, Reduced Netflix to Standard with Ads, Lottery and iCloud as I realised my VPN provider gives me storage as part of the cost, so I am happy with that, it has freed up £48.50 which is something as a starter for 10. 

It is a creation account, there are four plans on there at the moment to make up that total balance. I will move my focus to that and pay off one of those at a time to start with. Some of my Monzo stuff is on 0%. I can actually spread this out longer, but it will add a fair chunk of interest, but would free up some more pennies every month. 

Looking at my predicted payments, after my February payment that will go down to £160 a month on Flex until July when it is due to be cleared.  

That sounds a good plan regarding the minimum payments too. I will take a look at those and see if I can get them all to the nearest £5 or something to that level?

Thank you so much for your help and advice so far!  

linux_Master

Hey @ManyWays!

Thank you for reaching out! 

I've taken your advice and the lottery has also been cancelled from my optional spending! 

Playstation has been cancelled as I much prefer my music to my games and some other bits have gone too. Managed to shave a little off those optional spends. 

Netflix I am now down to basic with ads, I've decided to keep it with me not having normal TV this is what I mainly watch, but I can deal with ads for the sake of saving £200 a year!

The gym I do use, I go most days. With me working from home it gets me out and I also workout at home too as well as outside walks. It's where I tend to socialise, so I would like to keep it. 

I have, however, looked at cheaper gyms in the area but I am in contract with my current one until April.  

The presents side... yeah that is a lot. And I agree. Especially at Christmas and Birthday's I tend to go overboard which I really need to curb. That was a rough figure after going through bank statements to last Christmas and it is far too much! I only buy for a few people, no birthdays coming up just yet but when the time comes I will look at cheaper ways to show my appreciation to people if I can.  

My mortgage deal comes to an end in September 2027. 

In terms of cars, I did read up on that. I used the MSE tool to send an email out to the companies I had my previous cars with and three of them came back to say I was mis-sold. I read the latest advice and I think at the moment it's still pending the next actions, but I have my complaints in with them ready to go when a decision is made. Hopefully that will be a little something to add to my shovel towards this! 

itsthelittlethings

When is your internet contract up? You should be able to get that down. Reign presents right in. I have Netflix with no ads and it’s £12.99.

itsthelittlethings

The main thing I would say is try to start living within your budget for a start. Don’t overpay on the debts, stop running up any new debts. This will give you a good foundation. Once you are living within your budget month to month, your debts will stay going down and the stress will decrease, I promise you. The first thing is to live within your budget and stop living on credit.

itsthelittlethings

Also I would hazard a guess that at the moment you’re spending more than you have budgeted in some of those categories (clothing, entertainment, holiday perhaps). This is why you’re still running up new debts.

itsthelittlethings

And when you get your backdated payrise consider putting some of it away as an emergency fund, I can’t see that you’ve got any emergency fund saved up. Especially as you have a car, you may have unexpected costs like extra work after the MOat.

bigbeff

Wow, you are making great progress already! 

linux_Master

Hey @itsthelittlethings!

You know I think you have hit the nail right on the head here. itsthelittlethings said:

The main thing I would say is try to start living within your budget for a start. Don’t overpay on the debts, stop running up any new debts. This will give you a good foundation. Once you are living within your budget month to month, your debts will stay going down and the stress will decrease, I promise you. The first thing is to live within your budget and stop living on credit.

One thing after starting this post and doing some reading is that I realised with me having no backup and looking at my previous spending habits, I had been paying extra on certain debts each month straight after I got paid. 

But that then left me close to the wire for the remainder of the month, and of course there is always 'something' that needs paying for so I was then adding more to other debts. In essence just robbing Peter to pay Paul. 

I think that is great advice to get a foundation first before I start paying anything further, even just a few hundred pounds as a backup as the other debts will still be paid by their minimums without accruing any more. 

I was able to lower my Monzo flex payment to £120 by extending all the 0% offers. Yes it has added interest, but this is charged monthly. Once I have a foundation by squirrelling away some extra cash to stop the debt cycle, I can overpay and this will reduce my overall interest amount so I am not too fussed about that. 

I will still start with the advice from Brie and tackle the highest interest debts first, get them out the way and just go bit-by-bit. 

You're exactly right at the moment I have no emergency fund, backup savings or anything. Just pay packet to pay packet, and cars always need something so I think this is great advice, thank you!