Is There Any Way Out Of This?

lionelflare

Hello everyone,

I need advice on geting myself out of the debt that me and my partner find ourselves in. I have looked at these pages for a while now and seen how there are so many people that are willing to help and wondered if anyone would be kind enough to have a look at my mess. I seem to have spent the last 7 years of my life spending what i want when i want without realy thinking about the consequences. the breakdown of our debt is as follows:

ME

EGG CC - zero ( a good start!)
CAPITAL ONE CC - 2900 currently 0% for another 3 months
VIRGIN CC - 7500 currently 0.9% for another 4 months
BARCLAYCARD CC - Zero
NATWEST CC - 5050 currently 6.9% for life
IF CC - 450 currently 9.9% but offset against Current account to 0%
MARBLES CC - zero
CAR LOAN - 289 a month for another 20 months
STUDENT LOAN 1500 paying this off at about 35 a moth
MORTGAGE - 880 a month bought the house in december 2004 bought with the missus
PERSONAL LOAN - 450 a month for another 3 and a half years ( this is from a friend )
THE MISSUS

GRADUATE LOAN - 7500 7.9%
STUDENT LOAN - 5000 - very low interest not realy sure what rate
HSBC CC - 250 will be cleared hopefully tommorow when she gets paid
A&L CC - 33 will be cleared tommorow


I have used a lot of my credit card balance transfers to pay off her credit cards and am looking at balance transfering some of my debts back on to her cards at 0% is there an easy way to do this?

INCOME -

I earn 15500 basic and work on commision for the rest of it. I work for a major DIY chain and sell kitchens and conservatories etc. and last year by income before tax was about 42000. This year i think it will probably fall a little bit short of that maybe 38000 as sales seem to be drying up a bit. I am quite secure in my job as i am one of the top 20 salesmen in the country at the moment so i know that i can earn a decent amount. the main worry i have is that it is very difficult to budget as i may earn 1000 commision one month and then 3000 the next it can fluctuate that much.
The missus works for a charity in PR and gets 20000.

OTHER OUTGOINGS

mobile phone bills - 80 between us a month
telephone and tv - 40 a month
groceries - 200 a month
GAS - 50 a month
ELEC - not sure
COUNCIL TAX - 111 a month
WATER - 10 a month
PETROL - 200 a month essential
TRAIN TO WORK - 250 a month essential


i realy want to do a budget and stick to it but i find it realy difficult to get the missus to stop spending money that she probably shouldnt do and to be honest i have very good intentions but often fail to control myself. we both work realy long hours i leave the house at 8 and get back at 9-10pm and she leaves at 7 and gets back at 8. we realy want to decorate our house as it needs a bit of work doing to it but again time and money keeps on getting in the way.


Please can somebody tell me that this is not a lost cause and there is an easy way to get rid of all this debt!

Squiffy

lionelflare wrote:

Please can somebody tell me that this is not a lost cause and there is an easy way to get rid of all this debt!

There is an easy way to get rid of the debt.

Stop spending. Create a budget and stick to it. Given that your income is variable - and currently decreasing - this is even more important. If possible you should try and set your budget around your income during a bad commission month. Then when you do have a good one, simply put the extra towards paying off your debts.

I'd also suggest that you have a frank discussion with your wife about things. You both need to pull together to tackle this. If she or you don't control what you spend, then the debts will just continue to mount.

As for decorating the house, then my suggestion is to make do as best you can. We want a new kitchen, but we don't need one. So we've just re-painted and tidied it up a bit. If the house looks a bit tired, then just refreshing the paintwork can have a major impact.

Good luck. It seems that your position is far from a lost cause, but you need to make some major adjustments to your spending.

Fran

What have you spending on to get into debt? It seems you have a high income between you, so you would first need to stop the spending.

lionelflare

I guess it is the spending that causes the problem,we have cut down but find it very difficult to suddenly stop going to the pub or going to visit friends around the country. My family live 300 miles away so its expensive to go and see them as well.

can anyone tell me a good way of bringing the budget thing up with the missus. everytime i want to bring the subject up seriously I look at her and she has a new top on. "but it was only 4 pounds" is the reply and i end up thinking sod it ill go for a round of golf tommorow or something like that.

I supose I need to find things that are fun to do but not expensive. All my hobbies tend to have a cost involved with them. Golf, going to the football, gambling, going out for meals. Is it possible to work towards getting debt free and still have a good fun life? we are both mid twenties and have no children these are the days when we should be having as much fun as possible before having children? I guess that the only way to get debt free is to curb the fun?

Fran

Possibly your gambling (is this a big problem?) along with your partner's clothes spending are the main things that need looking at ??

lionelflare

Gambling not a problem, i havnt actually spent any money on gambling for a few weeks i put about 20 pounds in my gambling account 6 weeks ago and have been using that. Ive got 25 in there at the moment. I certainly dont overdo it. the missus dosnt ever buy expensive clothes and she always says it makes her feel better after a bad day at work. I realy do need to stop going to the pub , i only go a couple of times a week but guess this would be an easy starter,

the main thing is that because we work long hours we always feel like rewarding ourselves for a bad day at work and this invaraibley ends in spending money.
Also because I dont know many people in the local area i find it hard to do the easy money saving nights like inviting friends round . The only mate I have locally lives around the corner from me but all my other friends are scattered around the country. It would be a lot easier if I knew a few more local people. It is almost as if I feel quite lonely and going to the pub is a good way of meeting people. Can anyone suggest good ways of meeting people that dont involve spending money and dont occur on the weekend as I work both saturday until 7 and sunday until 5. The only real time I get to do anything is if I manage to finish early one night a week or on a sunday night.

I want to be debt free but also want to do something in my life!

rchddap1

If you want to truely understand what both you and the missus are spending then keep a spending diary. Everything you spend should be written down here, from a pack of chewing gum...to clothes etc... Once you know what you are spending and where youc an start to work out where you can cut down.

I suspect that you both need to take a good look at your life and work out what is really important.

lionelflare

ive tried the spending diary but struggle to keep it up, I manage to do it for a few weeks and then find the missus hasnt written everything down. I suppose its just discipline. Maybe I could somehow Fine her if she dosnt write everything down? what should i do if she will not comply! it almost sounds like i am her boss!

Rave

lionelflare wrote:

I supose I need to find things that are fun to do but not expensive. All my hobbies tend to have a cost involved with them. Golf, going to the football, gambling, going out for meals. Is it possible to work towards getting debt free and still have a good fun life? we are both mid twenties and have no children these are the days when we should be having as much fun as possible before having children? I guess that the only way to get debt free is to curb the fun?

Well as others have said you need to work out a realistic budget. While you have a lot of debt, you seem also to have quite a lot of income so it doesn't look like you're about to drown. You can budget some money in for fun and treats- but then you have to stick to it. At the moment my wife and I have not much money coming in between us because she works part time. I budgeted our outgoings and worked out that we can spend £25 a week each on ourselves. If I want to buy a £25 pair of shoes that means that I can't go to the pub that week. If she wants to spend £15 in Primark then she'll have to limit herself to a bottle of wine and a cocktail when she goes out with her friends. If we want to go out for a day trip or a nice meal that's our treat for the week.

By the looks of things you could afford to spend a fair bit more than us and still have money left over to pay off your debts. It's this attitude of 'I'm young and I should be enjoying myself' that gets so many people into debt in the first place. I'm 26 and I like enjoying myself too but I'd rather not be paying for it until I'm 50- so I console myself with the thought of all the disposable income I'll have when I'm older and debt free .

lionelflare

thanks Rave,
I think its just a case of us both sitting down and talking about it and then actually doing it! It seems like such a simple idea but so difficult to discipline yourself to do it.

I have taken the first step and just rung the missus at work to suggest to her that we dont go out and have an interesting night in working our finances out, she took it quite well actually much to ny suprise


What else do you find yourself doing in your spare time? I realy hate been sat in the house on our own watching tele or listening to music. Its Ok for a while but there is only so many reality programs that you can watch without going out of your mind

Rebob

For me, a big bill is the takeaway. When it is £10 - £14 a time it is a lot of the budget gone if you only have 2 takeaways. Also the quick cuppa while shopping, add a bun and that is another few pounds. Take a look at you "little" treats as they can be costing more than you think!