Lightbulb moment today

SarahNeedle1872

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33

Here we go.... well done on ur lbm!

Sarah x

Jules2000_2

Many thanks

Talk about can't see the wood for the trees

135K

Hi Jules

well done for posting :T

its late, and I'm tired so I might have missed it - but I didnt see any rent/mortgage on your outgoings

neverdespairgirl

Jules2000 wrote: »

It’s very difficult to put down how embarrassing it is, my wonderful husband pays our mortgage, my car payments, my phone, utility bills etc and I pay what’s detailed in my SOA further down. J

No need to feel embarrassed - you've got a grip, know what you owe, and have faced up to it, which deserves congratulations not embarrassment!

I've added some comments in red to your SOA:

Jules2000 wrote: »

SOA

Income
Monthly salary £1861.79
Child benefit £72.40
Total income £1,934.19

Outgoings
TV Licence £11.71
Council Tax £134.00
House Insurance £27.42 - this seems pretty high. WHen it's next up for renewal, shop around, and buy via quidco for cashback. Worst case senario - you pay £8 per month I'd have thought.
Car Insurance £38.76 - this seems pretty high. WHen it's next up for renewal, shop around, and buy via quidco for cashback. Worst case senario - you pay £5 per month I'd have thought.
Diesel £250.00 - blimey, are you a racing driver? Can you cut down on driving a bit?
Food £250.00 - with a bit of meal planning etc, I'm sure you could knock £50 off this a month.
School dinners £35.00
£746.89

Credit Card payments*
Last month’s total £522.00
Loan £334.20
£856.20

Total Outgoings £1,603.09


In theory I should have approx £300 spare but that goes on misc items like clothing, shoes, dentist, opticians, dog hair cut, lunches etc - I think you may need to start a spending diary - get a small notebook, and every time you spend a single penny, write it down, and see where the money's going. If you've been spending before, perhaps you could have a 6 month period without buying any clothes or shoes, which would help pay off some of the highest APR debt?

*Details of credit cards, loan and overdraft:

Overdraft £2,406.11 Overdraft available of £3,000
Sainsburys visa £1,676.71 apr 24.93 % limit £9,000
Halifax mastercard £11,729.19 apr 19.9 % limit £13,800
Egg card £1,718.91 apr 17.9% limit £2,000
Marbles visa £8,968.33 apr 23.9% limit £9,500
Egg loan £9,914.49 apr 7.66% ends 4/11/2010
I pay £334.20 monthly for the loan


J

FrugalJo

Hi Jules
Welcome and great post.
Just wanted to say Marbles are the bain of my life, raised my interest rate and minimum payment as of this month. (I believe they were bought out ). The thought of phoning them to ask for a lower rate has now diminished, I owe them about the same as you.

According to whatsthecost credit card calculator it will take me 111 years to pay them off at minimum balance, didn't know wether to laugh or cry!

Look forward to reading your posts

taxi73

Hi Jules what a brilliant first post ..well done..thats the hardest bit out of the way.I agree with all the other posters above ..spending diary essential to see where the extra money goes...and a grocery challenge are both great ideas and really help...especially downgrading on products...as often some of them are as good as the top priced ones

MissEyre

Welcome! You've had some great advice so far and your first post was brilliant-really clear, and very determined to get this sorted out. Spending diary is a must to work out where that missing money is going to! All the best x

MrsTinks

Just a quick hello and well done for joining - not to mention facing up to your debts!
I'm off to work but I'll try to come back later and see if I have any suggestions too

Jules2000_2

Thanks for everyone's thoughts/advice - it's really appreciated. It is a really embarrassing situation to be in but today was the first day of 'reality'. I started my spending diary - it's amazing but today when I bought some diesel I would usually have bought some sweeties and a magazine for my daughter as well but today the thought of having to write it down made me not bother. I just bought before without thinking at all.

Anyway I took Tiglet's advice (post #4) and rang the Halifax about the reduced interest rate they've given me and they've confirmed that the new 19.9% does indeed apply to the existing purchase balance and not just new purchases (not that there are going to be any now lol !!)

135k - in reply to your post at #14 I'm very fortunate in that my hubbie pays for everything other than that detailed in my 1st post.

With regards to the food bill - I agree we can cut back there (no more Chinese once a week for a start). We've decided to work our way through the freezer first whenever we can (probably at least a month's worth in there if not more). We're also going to go shopping to the local market to see if it's any cheaper than going to Asda. We usually tend to get all our shopping there as it's convenient with everything we need under one roof however as we shop once a week we often waste quite a bit as it goes off before we get round to it. I did buy a gadget off QVC just before Christmas which cut back on a lot of fresh food waste - it's called a Genius Air and it's a fridge ioniser, stops all my 'fridge furniture' spoiling as quick. Well worth every penny of the £16 it cost.

Thanks once again everyone.

Night night
Jules

Tiglet

Hi Jules,

It's good to hear that you're already having some success with the spending diary - you're already starting to find out where that missing £300 is going.:T

I'm glad you've got a single rate across the whole of your Halifax card because that simplifies everything for the future.

Did you read the "credit card shuffle" article? That's something I think could pay big dividends. How you do this depends on what balance transfer offers you get from the various cards, but I'll describe the way I'd try to tackle it.

I would ask both the Halifax and Sainsbury's Bank whether they will give you a cheap rate for balance transfers. If Sainsburys give you any deal at all, even if it's not a particularly good one, then what I would do is this:

1) transfer the whole of the balance on your Sainsbury's card to the Halifax card.

2) transfer the whole of the balance from the Marbles card to the Sainsbury's card, and then close it.

Then put your new rates and balances through the snowball calculator - that should bring things down quite a bit (you'll probably have to repeat the process in a few months unless you get a life-of-balance deal)

If you can't get a deal from Sainsbury's but you can get a deal from the Halifax, I would still transfer the balance from the Sainsbury's card to the Halifax card and then close it. That will save money but, probably more importantly in the long term, it will get rid of £9000 of available credit.

I hope that all makes sense - as I said, this is just the way I'd try to do it - you might well be able to come up with a better way