Your advice and thoughts are needed please...

LEWKI

rubydoiwannabee wrote: »

Thanks ever so, I really hope so.
WELL DONE TO YOU FOR GIVING UP, IT IS VERY HARD ISN'T IT?

Hi again. Yes it is tough but there is loads of support on here. I made the decision to stop and have got on with it. First few days are the hardest, then gets lots better. I enjoy my no spend days now, I gave up the smokes as well as buying the coffee and lunches. It has made a huge difference to our finances in just 2 weeks. If your OH does not make this 1st attempt, suggest roll your own - they are so much cheaper.

PS - I am no expert on this, I have tried loads of times to give up and have reverted back to old habits. Like I said, its only been 2 weeks for me and I am talking like I gave up years ago :rotfl:

Still good luck with everything!!

rubydoiwannabee

peb wrote: »

Just a quick thought - unsure where you shop but I am saving tesco voucers for RAC membership - is this an option?

That is a brilliant idea, I shop at Tesco and Sainsbury mainly and my annual RAC subscription is about to come out, I think I will check out my nectar and clubcard points.

Thanks:A

rubydoiwannabee

OberonSH wrote: »

Personally I would put your appliance insurance and put it in a saving account. Once it gets to the price of a new fridge without being needed, pay the extra off the debt. If it gets needed - at least you get the insterest in the meantime.

Also, can the kids take packed lunches? There's some great ideas on Oldstyle for interesting boxes.

When does the court fine finish? Don't forget to visit the snowball at whatsthecost.com - this will show you the quickest or cheapest way to pay off your debt, by taking the payments made on one debt and paying off something else when it finishes - byt eh last debt it's getting blasted with uor whole debt budget. This is really motivating.

Is there any way to get a train tp work? Monthly tickets can work out cheapr than taking the car, plus you get the time on board to catch up on your reading!

Good luck hun, you'll get there. At least you caugt it early and asre setting a great example to the kids.

thanks, can you give me a link to and explain what the daily clicks are please? Thanks

rubydoiwannabee

Hi
What a day... I have

Applied for a part time job, evenings and weekends in my local waitrose
Applied to go back on the bank staff at my local hospital
Applied for a 0% cc
Played around with our budget so many times I think I now know it off by heart.

xxx

Jacks_xxx

rubydoiwannabee wrote: »

Hi everyone,
we are thinking we can start making BIG changes like each of us getting a 2nd job, selling on eBAY, spending less on groceries, cigerattes (my OH smokes) but is using patches from today etc. And although this will keep us in debt, we can start setting ourselves targets to reduce the OD each month, move the cc over to 0 % etc.

By doing this we can keep ourselves afloat and not jeopardise our credit rating when in two years our mortgage fixed rate comes to an end.

Now I know it is our decision and we want to do it as a starting point perhaps for 6 months and then if we are not any better off or things have got worse go down the DMP plan. But I would really like to hear thoughts from people who have been in a similar position?

I feel like this is our first attempt at putting things right, instead of being in denial.

Do you think we are putting off the inevitable? Still in denial? or :mad:

Any words or wisdom and experience very gratefully received.

Thanks :T

:wave: Hiya sweetie,

That's pretty much what we did.

It's hard work at times, but I get a lot of satisfaction from being in the driving seat. We haven't b*ggered up our credit rating, and we're going to be back on an even keel much faster than we would have been with any other option.

Many people feel better sharing the load but I'm a terrible control freak and I like holding the reins. I think the flexibility it gives us really works for us.

First, I rang all of our creditors and told them that we'd been in talks with CCCS and had been advised to consider bankruptcy as our best option BUT if they would only freeze the interest for a while I thought that we could continue to make payments as usual.

Most of them agreed to do that - but none would commit to how long for - but you'd be amazed how fast the debts start reducing once they're not ladling interest on every month.

It's a different financial landscape this year hon, but it's got to be worth asking.

Then challenge Every Single Thing you pay out money on.

Take nothing as read, and weigh up the pros and cons. Ask yourself:

Do we need this?

What would happen if we stopped paying it altogether?

What would happen if we stopped paying it for a little while? Could we ?

If we absolutely positively have to keep paying it, then are we getting the best deal we can get? Can we get it for free (ie RAC membership through Tesco Clubcard points etc.) Can we get cashback if we switch through Quidco?)

We cut our food bill from £650+ per month to about £285 - although it's been creeping up to about £300 again lately. (The Moneysaving Old Style Board is awesome!)

We sold our two fairly newish and shiny cars and bought one old diesel banger.
I quit my job. :eek: :eek: :eek: When we worked out what childcare and the car cost us it made much more sense for me to work locally and part time.

We dumped our mobile phones. I know we all think we "need" them - but we don't really do we? (And we really wanted to keep our house.)

We got a prescription prepayment card for me for £98.70 for the year. the kids didn't pay then, and Hubby rarely needs anything. (But if he did suddenly need three or four items we'd sign him up for one too and back date it.)

Then we eBayed, Amazoned, babysat, carbooted, got second jobs and earned extra money whenever we could.

If we need extra money for something then we earn extra money by doing extra work or selling our stuff.

It's important to pay off your debts in the right order as well (highest interest ones get extra cash first.) Punch all the debts into the snowball and it'll tell you how long it'll take. Then increase the amount you can spend on your debts by a small amount like £50 and see how much less time it will take! (Or make everything 0% interest if you need motivation to make the calls )

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx?country=us

It's totally do-able hon.

In Auguest 2006 we owed £96,700 (not inc our mortgage) and our household income was about £2600 a month. The Snowball calculator told us we'd be debt free sometime in 2028.

In June 2008 we owe about £15k, and we're working on being debt free by Christmas 2008 or soon afterwards. (The Snowball calculator says March 2009 at the moment.)

I think you're on the right track my lovelies!

Love Jacks xxx

PS My lightbulb was less of a "moment" and more of a gradual build up. The more time I spent around here the brighter it burned. (It must have been one of those new fangled ecological bulbs! :rolleyes: )

rubydoiwannabee

Hi everyone, I have just re-read my post above and can't believe how positive I sound because today I am so sad. Received bad news in as much as our Tax CRS have been stopped because we earned more than we did the year before and so we have to pay some back as well. 15 month 0% cc application declined and a 7 month one offered in it's place, that then reverts to a higher APR than the current cc.

We are £350-£400 a month short on our budget and paying min payments and making any in roads into our debt, I have the DMP paperwork here and keep thinking lets just do it, then no, lets try ourselves. The trouble is a am indecisive and impatient all at the same time. It is times like this I miss my Mum.
xxxxx

Support needed please

tyllwyd

Looking at your SOA you have
Mortgage £1,082.32
ISA (legal and general) £143.76
Term Assurances £125.46

Which adds up to £1350 - am I right in thinking those are all mortgage expenses? That is absolutely huge - pretty much half your income. Is there any scope for changing anything, or maybe stopping paying into your ISA for a while to give yourself some breathing space?

To be honest, my feeling is that £300 is an awful lot of money to squeeze out of your budget or to try to earn on top. Have you had any feedback on any of your job applications yet?

rubydoiwannabee

tyllwyd wrote: »

Looking at your SOA you have
Mortgage £1,082.32
ISA (legal and general) £143.76
Term Assurances £125.46

Which adds up to £1350 - am I right in thinking those are all mortgage expenses? That is absolutely huge - pretty much half your income. Is there any scope for changing anything, or maybe stopping paying into your ISA for a while to give yourself some breathing space?

To be honest, my feeling is that £300 is an awful lot of money to squeeze out of your budget or to try to earn on top. Have you had any feedback on any of your job applications yet?

Hi, thanks for your reply. You are right, most of our debt has come from borrowing to extend the house and has left use with a massive mortgage compared to our income. The mortgage is repayment mostly and the int only part if covered by the isa (which is on target). We are thinking of talking to a financial adviser to see if we can move the term !!! money into an investment plan and then convert the whole mortgage back to int only, this would reduce our monthly outgoings by £300 per month.

rubydoiwannabee

Hi, has anyone else found themselves in a similar situation?
Having jiggled and played around with our budget all week and cut down massively on food, daily expenses etc. we are now down to a £260 a month deficit. I have the promise of bank work at local hospital just have to go through the application process again because my bank contract has expired. Initially that will be for about 10 hours a week, so will go some way. OH has put his name down for OT. I am feeling like we might be able to do it, with a huge effort.

We have set ourselves 3-6 months to see what impact we make, then if not big enough we will go for DMP. I know for sure our debts will NOT be bigger in 6 months time. Because our overdraft at its worse each month is static.

Any advice gratefully received?

skintjenny

hi just thought id give you a bump and let you know that whilst you will have terrible days, im sure this situation is not impossible.
there is some great support on here, have you tried reading some of the diaries? it might help to see how other people are dealing with thier debts, and the changes they are making to take control again.
good luck, i think its great that youve both realised what you need to do and are giving yourselves this time to try and sort things out
xx