Debt is so depressing

rushnowt

I'm made up for you ashmit, well done, hope the job goes well. ;D :-*

16011996

yeah, well done you, :-*

ashmit

*blush* 160 kissed me!!!!! i'm all embarassed now!!!!!

;D

:-* to you too

ashmit

Right. Thank you all. I've now posting details of my debts and outgoings here so any specific advice would be very welcome.

Thanks all - you've helped me feel a lot more positive about everything ;D

Sarahsaver

IMHO
Stop paying the student loan whilst its deferred.
Spend less on food - you CAN do it, every little helps. I feed myself and 3 kids on £30 a week.
Can you get council tax benefit?
Contact lenses could go for a while, just wear specs.
You can probably get cheaper deals on all your insurance policies.
Leave the charity payments for a while, charity begins at home sometimes! You can always start again later, or do some volunteering.I would ditch the haircuts and the water filter, calcium which is good for you is stripped away by filters.
How much have you saved so far for the honeymoon? try ferris holidays - extremely cheap coach holidays in spain. Ive used them and they are fantastic.
Why are you saving for medical expenses? Use the NHS or else I know there are some schemes which pay out if you need med. treatment which pay you cash even if you use the nhs.
Use the library for books, download music from the net or borrow from friends.
Are your savings on the best rate possible? Would they be better placed paying off your debts?
I only spend at most £10 a month on mobile - I have an O2 sim.
Can you get a season ticket for the swimming?
Ive heard you can get monthly passes for the cinema...
Have clothes or swap parties - free party and free clothes and books ;D
Is the travel the cheapest you can get? Is it coach or rail?
Good luck I hope this is of some use to you x ;)x

ashmit

Stop paying the student loan whilst its deferred.

But the point of this exercise is that I'm trying to pay my whole debt off sooner, and even while deferred it's got interest charged on it so if I stop paying it'll just take even longer.  I had thought I should save the money and earn 4.5% approx gross, but it hardly seems worth it for such a small gain, and I kinda think I should be paying it off to make it easier for current students.  But that last bit might be Insane Troll Logic (TM Buffy).

Spend less on food - you CAN do it, every little helps. I feed myself and 3 kids on £30 a week.

Yeah, I know we should spend less... (although I do think you must be a genius!!) but I don't eat dairy products and hubby is allergic to garlic which does cut down the choice available sometimes.  We only rarely if ever eat any kind of ready prepared food, we both like  cooking  But yes I'll keep it down.

Can you get council tax benefit?

I doubt it - our combined gross income is £26.5k, but if anyone knows different please yell!!

Contact lenses could go for a while, just wear specs.

I'm -8.5 and -8.0 so my glasses are very front-heavy even with high index lenses and are about 4 years old and nowhere near strong enough, so I'm not really willing to do this.

You can probably get cheaper deals on all your insurance policies

Life assurance maybe, but if I'm honest I have no idea where to look!  Can anyone point me in the right direction?  I only just renewed my home insurance and that was the cheapest I can find - hardly anywhere would insure my flat

Leave the charity payments for a while, charity begins at home sometimes! You can always start again later, or do some volunteering.

you're right, I know you are.  I've been thinking about training for the Samaritans for a while now - I should cancel the Amnesty payment as I'll have to do it then.

I would ditch the haircuts

My hair is very short and I don't want to grow it esp as it looks a mess even before the 6 weeks are up.  I wish I knew a tame hairdresser  ;D

and the water filter, calcium which is good for you is stripped away by filters.

only reason we stick with this is because the main pipe into our property is lead and in the short term, at least, it's cheaper to filter than to replace it.

How much have you saved so far for the honeymoon? try ferris holidays - extremely cheap coach holidays in spain. Ive used them and they are fantastic.

£8  :-[ hubby persuaded me we wanted a weekend away with friends which to be fair was lovely (and provided a break that we really needed right then) but wiped out the £160 we had saved.  Oh well.

Why are you saving for medical expenses? Use the NHS or else I know there are some schemes which pay out if you need med. treatment which pay you cash even if you use the nhs.

I mean prescriptions (I'm asthmatic but not enough to be worth getting the pre-payment thingies) and and dental treatment for us both - I looked into the health insurance things Martin suggested but they weren't worth it so we're self insuring as he also suggests.  My parents do also still pay for BUPA for me even though I've told them not to!

Are your savings on the best rate possible?Would they be better placed paying off your debts?

Mostly in Cahoot @5.5%  The others are in smile as I like the ethical stance.  And we don't have any 'real' savings - I have a ton of savings accounts, but they're all just piggybanks for specific things that we need.

I only spend at most £10 a month on mobile - I have an O2 sim.

How many calls/texts do you make?  Might look into switching there.

Is the travel the cheapest you can get? Is it coach or rail?

It's bus and metro and I've decided to get just the zones I use as I rarely go outside then and can just pay as necessary.  only saves £40 a year but even that might shave a month off me paying off the debts eh?  I would use coach to visit my parents but it takes 7 hours as opposed to 3.5 on the train  :o which does actually really bug me - there is no good reason for it at all.  I normally manage to book cheap train fares when visiting people but to visit my parents it's £50 or nothing - never anything cheaper.  :(  But for the wedding we're going to the train was going to cost £200 for us both - we've got easyjet flights instead for £54 for us both which is just marvellous

Thanks for all this ssaver, it really is appreciated. I feel like I'm just saying no to a lot of them but I am taking everything on board I swear and will def make an effort to spend less on food and stick that money to debt repayments straight away - and look at the other suggestions too.

rushnowt

Hiya ashmit,

Just after a quick veiw will read it more thoroughly in a mo,  but just wanted to suggest about your hair cuts etc,  have you considered volunteering as a model at a shop if you've not been happy with the college, you still get your hair done for free and your helping someone to train as well.  don't worry it's all completely supervised so you won't come out looking like an 80's throwback lol.    worth a thought though  ;D

I would definatley cancel the dyson insurance payment if you can, i know it's not a lot but it's better in your pocket than theirs, and to be honest dyson are highly reliable.

Your food bills, i'm assuming this includes cost of cleaning stuff etc, if so try to cut back on those by using vinegar for most things it's cheaper and works just as good if not better, theres also loads of other tips on here for making your own washing powder etc, infact probably everything you could possibly need. I see that you have a particular diet to stick to but if you shop around you might just find somethings cheaper, it's worth a try.

But keep up the good work and remember not to worry to much, xmas is just around the corner and you don't want to make things so difficult that it spoils every aspect of your life, your doing your upmost to put your finances in order but don't let it completely consume your life. You are allowed to live a bit.

Take care & all the very best  :-*

ashmit

have you considered volunteering as a model at a shop if you've not been happy with the college, you still get your hair done for free and your helping someone to train as well.  don't worry it's all completely supervised so you won't come out looking like an 80's throwback lol.    worth a thought though  ;D

What if I *wanted* to look like an 80s throwback, eh?? 8) seriously though, I hadn't thought of that, thanks.

to be honest dyson are highly reliable.

That's what I thought! (and why we got one) but then I had five million people going *sharp intake of breath* 'oooooh they're really bad, they break down all the time' which got me really paranoid. Thanks all, will try and get this cancelled.

Your food bills, i'm assuming this includes cost of cleaning stuff etc, if so try to cut back on those by using vinegar for most things it's cheaper and works just as good if not better, theres also loads of other tips on here for making your own washing powder etc, infact probably everything you could possibly need. I see that you have a particular diet to stick to but if you shop around you might just find somethings cheaper, it's worth a try.

I don't remember the last time we bought cleaning products!!! ;D I went crazy and bought five tons of stuff years ago, and then hubby had to buy cleaning stuff for work out of petty cash, used hardly any of anything and brought the rest home! But we do have a stock of white vinegar for emergencies!! (I'd be scared of being kicked off the boards otherwise!)

The washing powder I've been meaning to make for ages - will have to actually get round to it finally....

But keep up the good work and remember not to worry to much, xmas is just around the corner and you don't want to make things so difficult that it spoils every aspect of your life, your doing your upmost to put your finances in order but don't let it completely consume your life. You are allowed to live a bit.

You wanna know a secret?? I get a kick out of regimenting my money like this :-[ sad but true!!

Take care & all the very best  :-*

Awwww, thanks

Emmacw

I doubt it - our combined gross income is £26.5k, but if anyone knows different please yell!!

Hi Ashmit, you say your combined gross income is approx £26.5k gross but unless I am having a funny five minutes your budget breakdown does not equal what I would expect the net income of £26.5k to be especially as both of you are working so you both earn the first £4700 tax free etc.

On that kind of income I would expect your combined take home pay to in the region of £1600pcm ???

On your note about council tax I could almost guarantee you would not get any council tax benefit - you have to be on the absolute breadline to get this, even families receiving Working Tax Credit don't get any CTX Ben.

I would definately recommend getting a part time job. This is something you can do when you are young free and married. When you've got kids its not always possible. Even working a couple of shifts in a pub would bring in £30 a week, if you each did that you would have an extra £60 to pay off your debts - how quickly would they be paid off at that repayment level?

Even if you did it for a few months it would make a big difference.

Keep going

jellyhead

hi, i don't know if this only applies to certain times of day etc. but you can buy cheap train tickets in advance from the trainline.

i go to the hairdressers in my street. i wash my hair before i leave the house and get there with wet hair, i only pay for a dry cut and i come home with damp hair and dry it at home. i'm a skinflint lol!

if you shop in asda or tesco at all then start collecting coupons, you can use them for anything you're buying, usually up to ten percent of your shop in coupons. i'm registered with pampers and huggies who keep sending me vouchers :-) i also buy vouchers off ebay. i pay up to half the value of the vouchers, usually less, even if i pay half i am still gaining the other half towards my shopping for free :-)

i would stop paying the student loan. i know it's growing all the time but there are better uses for that money, the interest on student loans is piddling compared with interest on most debts, or even the interest you'd get if you saved the money instead.

you might find that your mortgage says you have to have life insurance, but it doesn't necessarily have to be from the mortgage company. i don't know anybody who buys their cover from the mortgage lender, it's far too expensive. are you in a high risk area? your house insurance sounds really high.

do you have a plan for your credit card debt once your 0% period comes to an end? asda are doing 0% cards right now. i have my main debt of a 3.9% life of balance card (texaco).

by the way did i read it right and you are getting savings account interest gross? how did you manage that on your income? just curious :-)

good luck :-)