Debt and Tears, Plz help!!!

Amberamber80

Hello everyone, I'm new here and have been slowly making my way around the site. I didn't know where to start so though it best to read a few posts first to get the general idea around here. So here goes! Please bear with me

SOA (monthly):

My Monthly wage :£1009.00
Partners: £1200.00

Debts:

Bank Loan: £224.00 (balance approx £6000)
Mint CC: £35.00 (bal-1542.00/Limit-1550) (0% till dec)
Barclay CC: £43.00 (bal-1990.00/Limit-2000) (24.9%)
Capital 1 CC: £12.00 (bal-227.98/limit-200) (24.9%)
Ulster Bank CC: £41.00 (bal-1394.00/limit-1350) (%??)
Halifax CC: £42.00 (bal-2093.00/limit-2100) (0% till dec)
Egg CC: £60.00 (bal-2921.38/limit-2950) (19.9%)
Next Directory: £30.00 (bal-330.92/limit-350) (no %)
Loan of B-In-Law: £1000.00 (needs paid asap

My o/draft:£50.00 - standing order (bal-750.00/limit-£750)
Partners o/draft: £50.00 -standing order (bal-550.00/limit-550)

Living Expenses:

Rent: £450.00 (incs. tax)
Food Shop: £240.00
BT: £14.00
Orange (2 mobiles): £80.00
Sky: £50.00 (includes internet) (bf won't get rid)
Setanta: £9.99 (bf won't get rid)
TV Licence: £11.00
Electric meter: £50.00
My commute (train & bus): £150.00
Cigarettes: £140.00 (partner)
Birthdays: £20-40
Hairdressers: Free - sister is hairdresser.
Takeaway: £20.00


I know I can make more saving here but I just can't seem to see through all the bills and minus figures. I have given up the cigarettes myself so saving us £120.00 and I have given up my morning latte and magazines saving about £40.00. As it is only my partner and I we are trying to work this out. We don't go out and so have allowed the Sky & Setanta as our entertainment!

We want to start tackling our debts. At the minute we are stuck in a vicious circle of minimum payments but are upping them. Just where to start! I have done the budget planner (helped me with this) and the Demotivator (helped me quit the cigs & lattes) and ran the Snowball app - this was great but so scary I didn't realise we had just under 18K debt :eek: Finding it hard to manage as I get paid monthly and partner weekly. Debt doesn't seem to be moving EVER!!!

I'm fed up! Can't sleep with worry, cry like at drop of a hat and want to be in control again. What happened to me?????

Amber

Amberamber80

Forgot to add, we have just got a car. It's partners dad's and have just put it through MOT. We need it as we spend a forgune in taxi's and my partner needs it to get to and from work (other wise it would cost £7.00 a day in taxis) So Insurance: £64.00 month and petrol £40.00 month!!!

Where will it stop???

janienewcastle

Hi there, this is really a great place to be, someone will be along to help soon, hold tight!!!!!

hypno06

My tip would be to stick with the snowball calculator, and to keep a spending diary.

Join in one of the challenges - the "pay off £20k by Christmas" challenge would see you debt free by the end of the year, but effort is required and that means that your OH needs to be on board too for maximum effect.

Things like sky, setanta etc plus his smoking need to be addressed if he wants to be debt free too.

good luck, keep posting, and you will get loads of support from these boards.

beanielou

Hi Amber & welcome
You've done the really hard thing by posting so well done.
Dont think your next will be 0%
Can you cut cost of commute at all?
Mobiles are high.
You nee to be a wee bit more inventive wth pressies.
Would your OH not consider even reducing Sky slightly?
Can your OH not cut down this smoking just a wee bit?
Can you give a total for your outgoings as my calculator is so not handy.
Have you thought of contacting one of the free debt charities?

MissKJ

You need a budget.Use Martins budget planner.good day for this on Sunday and see where you are. If you don't balance, you have to be ruthless until you do. Then you can start looking for better deals to make the most f your money. The best advice I can give you is, make it a habit you and your partner do together, week in, week out. When things start to improve, you will be surprised to find you will actually start to enjoy money saving. It is like getting one over on all those companies who currently rip us all off!

SarahNeedle1872

Amberamber80 wrote: »

Hello everyone, I'm new here and have been slowly making my way around the site. I didn't know where to start so though it best to read a few posts first to get the general idea around here. So here goes! Please bear with me

SOA (monthly):

My Monthly wage :£1009.00
Partners: £1200.00

Debts:

Bank Loan: £224.00 (balance approx £6000)
Mint CC: £35.00 (bal-1542.00/Limit-1550) (0% till dec)
Barclay CC: £43.00 (bal-1990.00/Limit-2000) (24.9%)
Capital 1 CC: £12.00 (bal-227.98/limit-200) (24.9%) Needs to be brought within limit asap to avoid charges
Ulster Bank CC: £41.00 (bal-1394.00/limit-1350) (%??) As above
Halifax CC: £42.00 (bal-2093.00/limit-2100) (0% till dec)
Egg CC: £60.00 (bal-2921.38/limit-2950) (19.9%)
Next Directory: £30.00 (bal-330.92/limit-350) (no %) approx 30%
Loan of B-In-Law: £1000.00 (needs paid asap

My o/draft:£50.00 - standing order (bal-750.00/limit-£750)
Partners o/draft: £50.00 -standing order (bal-550.00/limit-550)

Living Expenses:

Rent: £450.00 (incs. tax)
Food Shop: £240.00 this can be cut back, check out the Old style board for ideas
BT: £14.00
Orange (2 mobiles): £80.00 too high, needs to be cut back
Sky: £50.00 (includes internet) (bf won't get rid) this is a luxury that he you cannot afford!
Setanta: £9.99 (bf won't get rid) as above
TV Licence: £11.00
Electric meter: £50.00
My commute (train & bus): £150.00 is this the cheapest it could be i.e. do u buy it yearly...
Cigarettes: £140.00 (partner) bf needs to take a leaf out of ur book on this one!
Birthdays: £20-40
Hairdressers: Free - sister is hairdresser.
Takeaway: £20.00 luxury.....


I know I can make more saving here but I just can't seem to see through all the bills and minus figures. I have given up the cigarettes myself so saving us £120.00 and I have given up my morning latte and magazines saving about £40.00. As it is only my partner and I we are trying to work this out. We don't go out and so have allowed the Sky & Setanta as our entertainment!

We want to start tackling our debts. At the minute we are stuck in a vicious circle of minimum payments but are upping them. Just where to start! I have done the budget planner (helped me with this) and the Demotivator (helped me quit the cigs & lattes) and ran the Snowball app - this was great but so scary I didn't realise we had just under 18K debt :eek: Finding it hard to manage as I get paid monthly and partner weekly. Debt doesn't seem to be moving EVER!!!

I'm fed up! Can't sleep with worry, cry like at drop of a hat and want to be in control again. What happened to me?????

Amber

Hiya hun, firstly take some deep breaths, ur not alone with this!
I have added a few bits to ur SOA... but some other things u need to do include both of u starting a spending diary to see where all ur money goes. Take a look through all ur old bank statements/CC statements and make sure u have covered everything... for example, u said in ur next post that u spend a fortune on OH taxis, but it s not in ur SOA.
Are u still using the two accs with overdrafts? If u are, then open a bank acc with no overdraft facility, with a bank that u don't owe money to, and get ur salaries paid into, so at least they aren't eaten by the overdraft.
U could give one of the debt charites a cal to see if they could help u, I will post a link in a mo....
Also, is ur OH on board with getting debt free? It makes it a lot easier if he is - I know that from experince..... and I know I added that u should get rid, but Sky is the one thing that my OH refused to get rid of too, so I told him that he would have to pay for it....

HTH

Sarah x

EDIT: Link for debt charities
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/debt-help-plan#help

linniestorm

Hi Amber!

Welcome! Good for you for sitting down and trying to tackle this, it's hard, but you'll get there! I'm off to work in a bit (weekend night shift=more cash, the sacrifices we DFW's have to make!) but after glancing at your SOA, just thought I'd comment on the sky thing. It comes up a lot, and yes, we could probably all dump it as it is a luxury, but not always that simple, especially if you don't go out much due to debt or have a prickly OH on the subject!

However, at the moment your situation is this:

BT: £14.00
Sky: £50.00 (includes internet) (bf won't get rid)
Setanta: £9.99 (bf won't get rid)
Total: £73.99 (a month!)

After double checking sky's current deals I guess you're on the £50 a month package with 6 mixes inc. sports and movies? If so, wondering why you're paying 14 a month to BT? You should be on the basic £11 line rental to them, I'd check that, otherwise it's £3 a month extra you're paying for nowt, perhaps not much but that's nearly £40 a year!

He won't get rid of Setanta, ho hum! Boys! Well fair enough, but I'd go back to him demanding a compromise. He gets to keep Setanta, but you reduce your package. If you went down to the basic £19 a month package and paid for Sports on top it would be miles cheaper I'm sure. If you have movies, be honest, do you watch many of them? There are plenty of movies on the freeview channels, and wouldn't you rather have the cash in your back pocket? Dump some of the mixes, gain some cash, how often do you watch the music channels? Do you watch much life and style, are you into the knowledge mix?

We already have the base sky package but put in my number again to test it out and see what the latest deals are and you could get three or four mixes plus sports plus phone and net for £36, or so it spits out for me. Which would mean:

BT: £11.00
Sky: £36.00
Setanta: £9.99
Total: £56.99

Saving you £17 a month, which is a start. If you followed the other suggestion of bargaining re: your mobiles you could probably cut at least £20 of your monthly bill there too, which is another £40 a month in total to throw at the debts, £480 a year! (Yearly sounds way better!) I'd sit down and talk to him about it then get haggling with sky, a lot of people have a lot of success with that, and it's worth a bash!

Adrasteia01

Hi Amber,
I think Sarah just covered most of the obvious ones there.
I think you could definitely decrease the cost of your phones. If you're currently in a contract, can you get out of it?

If you can switch to a payg, I recommend switching to a network that offers you a good deal (especially one where you get cheaper calls to the people you phone the most). I switched to the same network as my husband and I get 5c calls to him per minute (I'm in Ireland though). It should be possible to easily halve what you're paying on mobiles for 2 people, unless of course they're used for work? Only try to use them in emergencies, or if you need to talk to someone, keep it short. Call from a landline when you can if it's cheaper. By comparison I spend about £15 a month for my phone and use it a fair bit.

I also noticed how very, very close you are to going over your limits on your credit cards, and how you're over limits on a couple of others. You really need to bring those back within your limits or you'll just get more charges, and try and widen the buffer zone so you aren't quite so close. It would only take the slightest amount of money to take you over.

Have you ever ebayed? If you have things that you don't need, ebay them and make some money. Sign up to ebay, sign up to paypal (although it will take a while to confirm your account) and then sell stuff. You can sell loads of different things on ebay and every bit helps.

Can you reclaim bank charges? Martin has a section on the site about it and it's really, really worth looking into. Also, have a look at www.entitledto.co.uk in case you're owed benefits you're not claiming for.

Try www.quidco.co.uk and www.pigsback.com to gather points etc and convert them into vouchers for xmas/gifts/yourself. Pigsback are also in Ireland and I frequently get Boots vouchers/phone credit/book vouchers/pizza vouchers off them, which are really handy. It's worth looking into.

Essentially, you need to either be earning more or spending less. You can do both. However, it may make things easier if you can do a bit of overtime, or either you or your partner take on some part time work to help increase your earnings.

Tamara

bathgatebuyer

Amberamber80 wrote: »

Debts:

Bank Loan: £224.00 (balance approx £6000) How long left?
Mint CC: £35.00 (bal-1542.00/Limit-1550) (0% till dec)
Barclay CC: £43.00 (bal-1990.00/Limit-2000) (24.9%)
Capital 1 CC: £12.00 (bal-227.98/limit-200) (24.9%)
Ulster Bank CC: £41.00 (bal-1394.00/limit-1350) (%??)
Halifax CC: £42.00 (bal-2093.00/limit-2100) (0% till dec)
Egg CC: £60.00 (bal-2921.38/limit-2950) (19.9%)
Next Directory: £30.00 (bal-330.92/limit-350) (no %)
Loan of B-In-Law: £1000.00 (needs paid asap

My o/draft:£50.00 - standing order (bal-750.00/limit-£750)
Partners o/draft: £50.00 -standing order (bal-550.00/limit-550)

Living Expenses:

Rent: £450.00 (incs. tax)
Food Shop: £240.00 This is quite high for two people - you should be able to knock a bit of this with meal planning
BT: £14.00
Orange (2 mobiles): £80.00 Are you in contracts? What tariffs? Is PAYG an option?
Sky: £50.00 (includes internet) (bf won't get rid) Sorry, but while your debts are making you so unhappy, something has to be done about this. Is £600 a year to watch SKY more important than resolving your debts and your unhappiness?
Setanta: £9.99 (bf won't get rid) Fair enough - I have it!!!
TV Licence: £11.00
Electric meter: £50.00
My commute (train & bus): £150.00
Cigarettes: £140.00 (partner) You know the answer here! If you've given up to benefit your joint financial position, then could he?
Birthdays: £20-40
Hairdressers: Free - sister is hairdresser.
Takeaway: £20.00 Do you really need it or could the £20 be better used?

I don't want to sound harsh or anything, but £50 a month for Sky is a luxury you can't afford right now. That's £600 a year which could easily be put towards more important things.
Your partner also spends over £1600 a year on cigarettes :eek:

You've done brilliantly in recognising what makes you unhappy and admit that the money issues are dragging you down hence the need to really ask yourself - can we live without Sky? Millions of people in the UK cope without it and, believe me, you'll meet no bigger sports fan than me - it's not one of life's necessities If he insists on keeping Sky, then tell him to quit fags to pay for it! If you can manage to make concessions towards resolving these issues, then he should take the same steps as you.

If you're quite young, then set out as you mean to go on - not with debts as life is much harder with debt and the credit problems that go with it.

Does he know how unhappy money is making you? Do you feel as if he doesn't realise that you have a problem or is he denying that there are any money problems at all? The only way to get out of the problems you're in at the moment is by working together. We can only give so much advice, but if that most important person in your life isn't willing to work with you to get out of this predicament, then no amount of advice from us can make things better.

Amberamber80

Hi guys,

OMG just reading your replies have started the water works! Ok ummmm not too sure about a spending diary. Is this just holding on too all receipts and noting EVERYTHING down? Ek scary ok will look into that.

Have done the budget thing, do I use it ever week? Wasn't too sure how to use it to benefit, except to show how screwed up I am.

Regarding my SOA. My travelling expenses cannot be cut. That's monthly train tickets and SMARTcard for buses so I am getting as many savings as I can, plus getting connecting bus. I am actually saving as I am walking home in the evenings too so saving £3 taxi each night. (Thankgod for my ipod) lol.

Food shop I plan to get WAY down. We usually do a big shop which lasts about 2-3months but it's all the weekly stuff that adds up.

Mobile Bills. We are tided into contracts for 18 months (have like 15 or so months to go) I already looked into reducing this online, no can do. Do you think if I rang them it would help? I so want this down!!!

Sky/Setanta: We have to have basic sky otherwise no tv (v bad signal). Partner has said he would get rid of sky sport/movies if he could get setanta freeview (doubt we'd get signal). We did use Extravison(Blockbuster) alot so decided to get Sky to save us huge amounts, so far so good. Will have to drop one tho. Sky Internet is only £5.00 a month so keeping it, otherwise I won't be on here! lol

Cigs: Partner happy to cut down, go onto rollies to save huge bills here!

Debts: I know due to xmas etc they have been sorely neglected and plan to get back within the credit limits next week once more money comes in. From then on planning to raise payments to more than minimum payments (already done this with Egg).

Total outgoings: £1831.99! Also paid bro-in-law £500.00 so thats £2331.99! OMG!

Amber