Time to 'fess up! (Un)Proudly Presenting my SOA...

Triker

Have you got any stuff to sell via ebay?


Sign up to Quidco or Topcashback to earn a little money back on things like insurance and online shopping.

Where do you shop? Can you switch to asda, aldi or Lidl?

Triker

By the way,


Welcome to MSE.:T

Triker

Maybe you and your husbund can look at this,

www.whatsthecost.com

this shows which debt is probably worth tackling first and gives you an indication of how long the debts will take to pay if you only ever pay the minimum back.

duchy

£600 does sound awfully high-especially as "guesstimates" of food spend is usually lower than reality.

splishsplash

Hi Will_I_Ever_Learn :hello:
Well done for posting your SOA! Your figures made me spit out my coffee when I saw in excess of £250,000 owed!!! Then I realised you had your mortgage included :rotfl:
I think a spending diary would be a great idea - you allow a sum of £600 per month for food etc - that could easily be halved, and some might say quartered (:eek: ) - you could think about spending some time on the Moneysaving OldStyle Board for some excellent ideas on how to do that.

There are four credit cards with zero balances - I take it these are the ones you're getting ready to do BT's to? When will the interest free offers end? They have all got quite hefty rates ready to kick in. If you're thinking of getting more cards, aim for low life of balance cards, so you're not under so much pressure to clear within a deadline.
Don't forget to cut up ALL the cards, so that you're not tempted to add more to the debt. (That's all twelve credit cards!)
You also have two store cards - cut them up now!
It looks like you'll be saving an extra £110 by selling the car - that can go straight to the highest interest card.
Likewise, assuming you at least halve your grocery bill, there's an extra £300 overpayment somewhere there!
So at a rate of overpaying £400 each month, you will start to see things improve quickly.
Best of luck. Don't forget to cut up the cards. Any extra work (garden etc) could be paid for by extra money generated by eBaying or similar, maybe?

lynzpower

Whats the reason you are using pre-payment cards? they are much more expensive that normal bills, so phone around and see what you can get.

its the APRS that are literally staggering on all your debts, no wonder it will take you forever to pay off the minimum payments simply will not be touching the balance.

You simply MUST look at reducing this debt. How is your credit rating? Get your rating from Experian & see. Youll need to endeavour to reduce all the interest you are paying, as much as possible. Consolidation , as youve learned doesnt work, but theres no harm in moving what debt you do have to lower interest rates if possible. If you have good credit ratings, look for the 'balance transfers' at 0% or as low as you can get, and move your most expensive debt there. ( just noticed you have empty cards, do the shuffle!)

Forget your garden , every penny needs to come off the highest APR, so every single penny you make needs to go to your highest APR.

How much is your house worth, are you in negative equity? When is your mortgage up for renewal?

Bagpuss741

Just to add there's a free online spending diary here: http://www.spendingdiary.com/

lynzpower

Additinally, Ive just looked at your figures and you have added things up wrong Im afraid.

including the car & garage costs, which you must include UNTIL they fall out of your budget, it totals 3386.36 - a whopping 387 more every motnh than what you have coming in.

Therefore you are getting into debt to the tuneof 387 EVERY SINGLE MONTH, plus those interest payments that will ramp that further.

STOP SPENDING RIGHT NOW.

Go through your house with a fine tooth comb, whatever you can identify to sell, DO. Car boot sales, loot, ebay etc. You need to basically find near on 400 quid every month to at least break even.

Do you think this is possible?

Also I note that you have cats, but you havnet put anything in there for vets bills. Also that there is no provision for days out, prescriptions, optical & dental, presents, clothing for anyone.

I think this is a major situation, and you need to look closely RIGHT NOW, at what you are going to do to sort this out ( which is what you are doing so well done)

If your OH needs a nudge on the right direction I suggest he has a good read what I have written.

Is your car up for sale now? Please put it up for sale as a matter of priority.

When can you give notice on the garage.

Will_I_ever_learn?

So many replies so quickly... I knew you lot would be fantastic! :T :A

lynzpower wrote: »

Whats the reason you are using pre-payment cards? they are much more expensive that normal bills, so phone around and see what you can get...

...Forget your garden , every penny needs to come off the highest APR, so every single penny you make needs to go to your highest APR.

How much is your house worth, are you in negative equity? When is your mortgage up for renewal?

The prepayment meter was here when we moved in and British Gas have so far been unable to change it (GRRRRR!) because of various technical issues. I need to chase them, but haven't been pushy enough so far, as it takes so long to get anywhere!

The house is not in negative equity due to the work done. But if the market were to downturn... The garden would be under £500, to get some top soil in and buy some grass seed. I'm not talking landscaping here, just somewhere that my daughter can play (it truely is a building site, no top soil, just rubble). But to do this I will sell all her old baby clothes and toys and anything else I can find on e-bay and we'll do all the work ourselves.

I've got a spreadsheet open now and am working out which CC's to shuffle from and too. We have 3 new CC's, 2 with life of balance offers and 1 with 0% for a year. This should help!

I will now go and cut up my store cards

And lastly, I have just made my way to the 'old style' board where I will read, read and read. £600 may be way over the top (we spend about £130 in Asda / Morrisons every 2 weeks) but there are all the little bits like popping into the local shop on the way home and spending £30 or £40 on barely anything! It's all down to planning isn't it :rolleyes:

I used to spend more, which is the scary thing, and why I'm in this mess. £200 per week and then bin loads of it - CRAZY. Ooh, I could kick myself :mad:

But want to stay positive, so no time for regretting

Triker

Do you have any credit card charges you can claim back, how about ppi.

Please have a look at Martins articles on his front pages (away from the forums) to see what to do.