Facing up to the problem

ecoelle

ok tried to post this like 5 times now so just testing

ecoelle

Right. Glad you liked to old style board. I think your first job should be to get up to date balances on absolutely everything. Ring every company you deal with, my friend rang her electric company only to find out she was 200 in credit after paying by direct debit so it's worth a go as it may reduce your monthly payments. Also you won't know exactly where you stand until you get up to date info. Then compose a realistic budget. There's no point figuring you can be debt free in 18 months if it means you allow no money for certain essentials, you'l fail then become even more in debt. So the key is to spend as little as possible while earning as much as possible. I think you said you work mon-fri could you take a bar job on a saturday (some may be cash in hand) to make extra money and use this specifically for debt repayment? Or is there some other way you could bring in money for debt repayment like selling your car and moving to one which is cheaper to run/insure? selling un needed items on ebay? even a car boot? i once made £100 by doing a car boot and that would help. Also look at where you can save money each week such as food budget i think you said you spend £150 for 2 of you i do a weeks shop for £20 this feeds me my Oh and the cat

mantamark

My GF is pretty hot on all the housey stuff like lectric & gas bills, so nothing there.

Don't think a weekend job is possible really, i work away from home, and i need time to myself at the weekend, i normally spend most of sat morning in bed!

I'm going to go through my garage & start making a list of everything i can sell, already listed some alloy wheels & got a few other bits that should free up around 300quid, though i'd rather keep them

Car is a 1.3 ford ka, and i hate it, i only got is cos it was cheap, and they use minimal petrol, and very low insurance.

im 26 & have 8 points, so insurance is a pain.

The £150 is for a month, so thats 37.50 a week, for two of us (one of which is on a diet, so healthy food = nothig cheap), i think this is fairly reasonable, plus we are looking at getting some vouchers from work that give a 5% discount, but it mean going from Tesco to Asda, and i like tesco

Thanks for the help, i'll get on experian, get the phone numbers i need & give everyone a ring tomorrow to see if i can get all the apr's & outstanding balances.

Thanks for all the help

ecoelle

OMG i absolutelty hate that supermarket it's so expensive check out the following
www.mysupermarket.com put the items you need in the rolley, try doing it with just a selection of things you buy regularly, at the top of the screen it compares your shopping to other shops. Also when you hit check trolley it will let you see offers you may have missed and also if you change to another supermarket it will let you compare prices on alternative products plus gives you info on the nutitional info for products too so no excuse to cheat the diet!

mantamark

oh my god, thats freeking awsome!

ecoelle

I'm so sad i love that site so much. My thing is to go throughthe cupboards make a list of what we've got, then look at what i can make with it buying only the essentials check it on mysupermarket then head out to wherever is cheapest. I basically don't shop at one place like i used to but go to the one which is cheaper that week. Sometimes it comes down to places having half price fruit that week or the best offer on toilet rolls!
OOh if you liked that you'll love www.cookingbynumbers.com hit the buttons of the foods you have and it tells you recipes of things you can make with what you've got!

mantamark

I've just done last weeks shop, and Tesco is the cheapest for me

That is also, the bestest site in the world, awsome!

Wish i had that when i was a student lol!

ecoelle

Off to check out my shopping before tomorrow but will pop by in a bit

supersavershal

Hi mantamark and welcome to mse.Your soa is based on your basic income, if you sometimes get overtime pay are you throwing this at your debts?
My basic is about £400 less than what I generally receive so I throw all the extra at my debts.If you go to www.whatsthecost.co.uk there is a useful tool called the snowball calculator where you can see which debts to pay the extra to first, and you can work out your debt free date, if you pay a little extra (when your overtime is good) your debt free date becomes even closer.It is a good motivator, its addictive have a play around with it.

lieutenant_dan

dancingfairy wrote: »

That's a bit drastic isn't it? I'm sure he can sort the problem out without going bankrupt. It is an option but there are so many options to try first. It is not that mega huge a debt and he may well start earning a lot more in the future.

But it's going to take years and years and years to pay the debt off. Going bankrupt would at least enable the OP to make a fresh start and maybe put some money away over the next few years instead of just paying off creditors.

I was faced with £25k of debts two years ago, down to £13k now, but I would have gone bankrupt if not for the fact I would then have no career as I work in the financial services sector. If the OP's career would not be hindered by bankruptcy, it's an option, and not as bad a stigma as once was the case, and the discharge periods are a lot shorter too.