I am £94,761 in debt

boredofbeingathome

It is a large task, but doable as others have said. We have managed to reduced my OH's debts down through budgetting and you will get there.
keep posting. Bobx

SmellyOldSock

Hello and welcome

ditto all what everyone else has said.

Just one thing the Child Maintence is that paying out? is it done thru CSA? if so it can be reduced.

best wishes
charlotte

moneypooh

iwanttosavemoney2008

Brilliant - the hardest step is taken. Getting to grips with debt is a difficult and often daubting task. You're doing something about it and every month when you see a reduction it will make you fell really good.

Here you'll find all the help you need, and the resources to achieve your goal.
I have saved and earnt over £750+ since the beginning of Feb with advice on this forum and I'm not as committed as I could be. (slacking on my daily clicks a bit..)

Even money saving you can have treats 'day out vouchers' , loyalty cards, etc... so be positive and..

Good luck

iwanttosavemoney2008

Ok in response to some of the questions as I remember them
I have three kids a 3 yr old, a 1 yr old and a 4week old so selling their clothes on ebay is a no as I am saving them for each other as the baby grows out of them then i can sell on ebay.
Ihave just set up a sellers account so will be able to start selling soon.
We are paying for presciptions on a pre payment certificate that is how much it costs on the payment plan tho this is for just 10 months
Yes this debt does include the mortgage but as I am on an interest only mortgage the original debt is not being touched. Ineed to be able to pay that off as I do not have an endowment or anything.
There is no information re car insurance tax or mot as both my OH and I dont drive
My OH can't work a second job as his normal working hours are crap and we only get to see him for 2-3 hours a day as it is. This means I can't work when he isn't as there would be no relationship. and the kids would suffer
My OH apparently earns too much for any aide from anywhere. We are not entitled to council tax benefit.
As said my food budget includes nappies and I think that £50 per week is good going for a family of 5.
I think this answers most questions I'll get back to you with aprs if I can find them out

pandapaws

Hiya! Loads of useful practical advice above as always from Chev on cutting your spending - you've got quite a big family and not the largest income, so I'd say the best thing you could do is try and get a bit of extra cash. So far this year I've earned more than £3,000 in free money - join the £10-a-day challenge and read through the previous months challenges to see how people do it, as it is totally amazing how much free money there is out there.

Secondly, it might seem more manageable if rather than lumping it all together as one 95k debt in your mind, you see it as seperate things. Perhaps you could set your mortgage aside, work out how much you owe on cards/loans, what's the highest interest etc, and tackle them one at a time? I owe about 300k if I include the mortgage, but about 75k in other debt, and although I initially wanted to pay it all, I've found it much easier to pick a single debt at a time.

Good luck with quitting smoking and congrats on the baby 4 wks ago - there's a whole load of us here with new babies at the moment, expensive little things, aren't they?!

iwanttosavemoney2008

too true but I have most of the stuff from my other children and I am breastfeeding so I don't have to buy formula milk so massive saving there.

lou031205

Just a small comment, with 3 children & gross income £18500 p.a. (£1200 net per month) roughly, you are entitled to much more in tax credits.

I have just run through entitled to, and reckon you are entitled to approx £133 per week, or £576 per month. Best to phone them & make sure you are on the right level.
I knew it didn't sound right, because our income is same as yours, and with 2 children we should be getting £90 per week.

Lorne

I just wanted to say welcome and congrats on the light buld moment. In March 2006 we were £92k in debt (over 23 debts) so I very much know where you are coming from. Our saving grace has been budgeting, everything is on a spreadsheet and we use the snowball calculator at www.whatsthecost.com to keep track of our debts - it is a fantastic tool.

We have so far managed to pay off £54k by reducing our outgoings dramatically, being smart with paying off the highest APR loans with the 0% cards and overdrafts, taking 2nd jobs, ebaying, mystery shopping, etc, etc. We really have treated it as a project and so far it is working.

Just wanted to let you know that it is possible to tackle such a large sum of debt, keep visiting here for lots of help and support.

Good luck, Lorna

pandapaws

iwanttosavemoney2008 wrote: »

too true but I have most of the stuff from my other children and I am breastfeeding so I don't have to buy formula milk so massive saving there.

Good on you - there's been a lot of discussion about breastfeeding on my diary and how it saves a fortune as well as the other benefits. Hard work though!

pandapaws

Lorne wrote: »

I just wanted to say welcome and congrats on the light buld moment. In March 2006 we were £92k in debt (over 23 debts) so I very much know where you are coming from. Our saving grace has been budgeting, everything is on a spreadsheet and we use the snowball calculator at www.whatsthecost.com to keep track of our debts - it is a fantastic tool.

We have so far managed to pay off £54k by reducing our outgoings dramatically, being smart with paying off the highest APR loans with the 0% cards and overdrafts, taking 2nd jobs, ebaying, mystery shopping, etc, etc. We really have treated it as a project and so far it is working.

Just wanted to let you know that it is possible to tackle such a large sum of debt, keep visiting here for lots of help and support.

Good luck, Lorna

Well done Lorna, it's great inspiration to those of us with similarly ridiculous amounts of debt to see someone who has made such progress! Good luck with the rest of it.