Monthly Figures

Puzzledbubbles

Hi All,

As you have guessed im a newbie, only been a member for 2 days and already jumped in on a challenge, lol. :money:

All of our cash flow is worked out on a Monthly basis, I have a gereral idea of how much I (we) owe in total but looking at some peoples SOA i have noticed that im not counting a lot of things.

OH and i have been thought everything that we have to pay everymonth for Bills, food, car insurance etc all the things that we both use/need.

From that we both transfer over enough to cover these bills (with about 60 spare just in case)

But we then have our own expenses, mobile phone bills, cinema cards etc.

This then comes out of whats left and we "should" have a certain amount of "play" money left.

The main problem is i dont know how to work out exactly how much I owe, i think it is in the region of 20,000 and we are paying much more than the minimum repayment on both cc's and the set rate on the loan and the car.

But is it possible to pay things off quicker? I mean even through i have fixed payments on the loan and the car can i pay more of?

Is it best to do this before you pay of a cc or should you aim to pay off a cc first?

I think we are pretty much there on our budget as we are able to maintain our lifestlye - we may end up with a few nights in rather than nights out becuase of no cash, but all of the bills are paid.

I dont think we need a drastic re-adjustment but i really want to know how long it will be before we can start savings (i seem stuck in the mindset that you cant save if you are in debt)

I am lucky in that the interest on my cards is low (one is still at my student rate of interest) but i want to be in a position (one day far away) that if we need to buy a sofa or something rather than using a cc we use savings if that makes sense?

I dont really know if this makes sense, i think ive just launched myself off on a rant.

Help would be appreciated even if it just shuts me up :rotfl:

poorandindenial

Hi there puzzled bubbles

It is really important that you do find out how much in debt you are. For every deby you need to know

Outstanding balance
APR (and details of introductory rates)
Minimum payments

You can find all this out by phoning your credit card providers

Have you ever taken out cash on your credit card?? The interest for that will be sky high.

Your 'low' rate student card might not be that low. despite the fact I graduated a million years ago one of my cards had stayed 'graduate' and was charging 29.9%APR.


You also do need to make sure your SOA includes everything or else you will be left confused about where all your money has gone at the end of your budget. You might do well to start a spending diary too so that you can track all the crud that you might be spending on (I know I was buying all manner of random rubbish)

Get all the details and then you will know where you are, for more detailed advice from people on here they will need to see all the details about your debts and if you pop up your full SOA they will be able to help you find more cash to throw at your debt and also spot things that you might have missed out when you put it together

Good luck getting debt free.

Puzzledbubbles

Hi Poor,

Thanks for the tips.

I have checked my cards and please about one but not the other, lol.

My low interest student cc is actually low, the interest rate on that one is on 1.9% on spend and 2.9% on cash so not doing too badly with that one.

My other card is actually on a 29% interest rate which is v.high i know, but its currently interest free until the end of March due to a switch over.

Im not sure im really confident with putting all the details online, but ive checked it all and im just of the 20K mark including all the interest etc.

Assuming i stick to what im doing now i should be debt free by 2017 but that depends on me not paying any extra than i am already and on not taking on anything else (like a nice costly mortgage)

I think before i can do anything else Hubby and i need to see if we can cut down on things like shopping etc.

Thanks for your help.

If anyone can point me in the direction of the right threads for saving and making a bit of money then it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Puzzled

sparky0107

Hi puzzled,
Have a look at the money saving old style board, they have some ideas for meal planning, and general money saving cut backs. Also have you done the snowball calculator and the spending diary?
http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx?country=uk
http://www.spendingdiary.com/

Both of these are great motivators to help you reach your goal of becoming debt free.

Hope this helps & welcome to the madness