Day 1 of Debt Free Diary

eegreen200188

Hi All!

£1000 to dad for car
£2500 to mum
£761.97 to Halifax Credit Card
£831.44 to MBNA Credit Card
£697.13 to Mint Credit Card
£305.00 to RBS Credit Card
£13750.92 to NatWest Personal Loan (72 payments left of £223.89)
OH £1089.65 to Capital one Credit Card
OH £246.76 to Burton Menswear
£284.74 to Abbey Overdraft
£246.65 to NatWest Overdraft

£137,101 to NatWest Mortgage

TOTAL DEBT - £158,815.25
TOTAL UNSECURED DEBT - £21,714.26

Well starting today on a bit of a high!

Accepted a valuation from a car insurance claim. OF £3,000 woop!

Which means that I can clear my dad for getting me a replacement car, my Mint Credit Card, Halifax, & RBS and £280 off my MBNA Credit Card (which is 0%).

Two payments then one of £300 and then another of £250 will then clear my MBNA Credit Card.

I pay £300 per month to paying off the credit cards, OH pays £70 per month paying off his c/c's. We pay £223.89 to the loan every month and £663.66 to the mortgage every month. If we do this taking out the loan and the mortgage we are left with £4917.80 left to pay, which works out at £409 per month.

Im just a little unsure as to wether or not to start paying my mum back as soon as my credit cards are out the way or use that £300 to help my OH paying back his C/C and to pay off my overdrafts and get back into the green.

However saying this my OH put a bank charges claim through yesterday for £1537.02, which when paid out could go to either paying off his cards etc OR paying a lump chunk off my mum.

I have agreed with mum to pay £250 per month, which she said is flexible. But what i am thinking is putting it into a savings account where i can gain a little interest. Tell her I will pay her back by June 2009 and just plough all money into the credit cards and overdrafts (forgot to mention owe EDF £250 too), this way we could probably have a little bit of spare cash by christmas and for my 21st.

What would you say would be the best option.

I have a couple of things i have to sell (saxaphone, flute, 2x guitars) Plus I do Avon, which brings in £20-30 every three weeks, not a lot but at least something.

And our Gym memberships last payment is on 31st July so we'll be £60 per month after that.

The ideal situation that we want to be in, is to clear as much unsecured debt as we can so that when we come to remortgage (JUNE 2010) we are in a lot better possition financially and possibly move to a house rather than an appartment.

If anyone has any idea's please let me know as I will be subject to any suggestions.

Cheers

Em
xxx

SarahNeedle1872

Hi Em, welcome to MSE and congrats on Day 1!

Can you edit your post with the APRs of all your debts? It's always best to pay the debts with the highest APR first, and unless you have some mega interest rates on your CCs, I would suggest getting rid of the Burtons cards ASAP, as they usually carry an APR of 30-35%.

Also try to put together an Statement of Affairs so we can see if there are any areas you can cut back on in the day to day finances.

Sarah x

doodledo_2

Hi and welcome to the board you are definately in the right place.

As Sarah said best way to start is to do a full statement of affairs, there is a sticky at the top with links to places where you can do these which may help.

Once you have posted this you will be amazed how much help comes your way.

eegreen200188

The Halifax card is on 15.9%
MBNA/RBS/MINT card are on 0% until November 2008
Capital one is on 34.94% eeeekkkk!
Burtons is on 29.9% again eeekk

MONTHLY OUTGOINGS AND INCOME
£663.28 NATWEST MORTGAGE
£223.89 NATWEST LOAN
£14.59 LIFE INSURANCE
£60.87 CAR INSURANCE
£7.41 CONTENTS INSURANCE
£94.00 COUNCIL TAX
£90.00 PETROL
£100.00 FOOD SHOPPING
£12.49 T-MOBILE (ends December)
£50.00 ORANGE
£50.00 ORANGE
£40.00 BT PHONE AND INTERNET
£18.00 SKY
£60.00 LA FITNESS GYM (ends July)
£11.09 TV LICENSE
£72.06 GROUND RENT & MAINTENENCE
£19.64 SEVERN TRENT WATER
£80.00 EDF ENERGY
£200.00 GENERAL SPENDING MONEY
£60.00 BURTON & CAPITAL ONE
£10.50 NHS PERSCRIPTION CARD
£300.00 MBNA/MINT/RBS/HALIFAX
TOTAL - £2237.82
INCOME
£1398 MY INCOME ABBEY (£22,000 PA)
£840 OH INCOME EQUINITY (£6.75 PH OR £12285 PA)
TOTAL - £2238

eegreen200188

The right thing to do would pay off the highest interest cards Ie the Halifax, Capital one and burton, but although on one hand im happy to do this as its bettering us financially as a couple, when he onlybrings in 840 per month and im paying 2/3rds of his bills why should i clear his debt. I had a bonus from work last month, used it to pay his nationwide overdraft as they said they were going to cancel it as there was no money going in.

Makes sense to clear these first but then i'll have my credit cards to pay off before nov totalling £1886.95 chancing the fact that he may run up his credit card again... hes talking bout getting a new pc and the only decent ones are £1000... grrr men!

what would you guys say the best option to be?

SarahNeedle1872

eegreen200188 wrote: »

The Halifax card is on 15.9%
MBNA/RBS/MINT card are on 0% until November 2008
Capital one is on 34.94% eeeekkkk!
Burtons is on 29.9% again eeekk

OK, so once you have paid off your Dad, you need to pay off the Crapital One and the Burtons, then throw whatever you have left at the Halifax... what APRs will the three 0% cards have when they revert to the original APR?

MONTHLY OUTGOINGS AND INCOME
£663.28 NATWEST MORTGAGE
£223.89 NATWEST LOAN
£14.59 LIFE INSURANCE
£60.87 CAR INSURANCE
£7.41 CONTENTS INSURANCE
Can you get the insurances cheaper? Check Martins article about how to do it...
£94.00 COUNCIL TAX 10 months or 12? See if you can switch it to 12 if not already
£90.00 PETROL
£100.00 FOOD SHOPPING
£12.49 T-MOBILE (ends December)
£50.00 ORANGE
£50.00 ORANGE Both are very high - can you switch to PAYG or a cheaper tariff
£40.00 BT PHONE AND INTERNET
£18.00 SKY A luxury, but if you have to keep it, look at the phone/tv/internet bundle as you should be able to save money
£60.00 LA FITNESS GYM (ends July)
£11.09 TV LICENSE
£72.06 GROUND RENT & MAINTENENCE ?? Whats this for?
£19.64 SEVERN TRENT WATER
£80.00 EDF ENERGY This is very high! Good time to switch, look at Martin's article
£200.00 GENERAL SPENDING MONEY Can this be reduced for the short term?
£60.00 BURTON & CAPITAL ONE
£10.50 NHS PERSCRIPTION CARD
£300.00 MBNA/MINT/RBS/HALIFAX
TOTAL - £2237.82
INCOME
£1398 MY INCOME ABBEY (£22,000 PA)
£840 OH INCOME EQUINITY (£6.75 PH OR £12285 PA)
TOTAL - £2238

Ok, I've put a few bits in above..... also reading back to your first post, I see you owe money to your Mum and Dad..... given the APRs on some of your debts, could they hold off having their money back? I don't know how aware of your situation they are, but something to consider.....?
Get anything you don't need or want onto eBay/Amazon/Green Metropolis for some extra cash...
You said that you do Avon, is there anything that your OH can do to help boost his income? Overtime? Second job?

SarahNeedle1872

eegreen200188 wrote: »

The right thing to do would pay off the highest interest cards Ie the Halifax, Capital one and burton, but although on one hand im happy to do this as its bettering us financially as a couple, when he onlybrings in 840 per month and im paying 2/3rds of his bills why should i clear his debt. I had a bonus from work last month, used it to pay his nationwide overdraft as they said they were going to cancel it as there was no money going in.

Makes sense to clear these first but then i'll have my credit cards to pay off before nov totalling £1886.95 chancing the fact that he may run up his credit card again... hes talking bout getting a new pc and the only decent ones are £1000... grrr men!

what would you guys say the best option to be?

Looks like we crossed posts!
Is your OH onboard with becoming DF? If he is, then before you pay off his CCs, he needs to cut them up and set himself a budget too.... then once paid off, the cards should be closed.
If he isn't onboard (like mine!) then I would say to worry about paying your debts off first, then maybe encourage him by showing him what you have done...

My OH has a card with a limit of £500 that he spent in less than 4 weeks, and now he's pee'd off because a) he's got no money and I won't give him any and b) I won't BT his balance onto my card

eegreen200188

Just feel like im the only one that wants to save money and pay off debts..... OH said the other day that he doesnt want to get anther job (considering im earning £10k more than him AND he took a 5k drop as was made redundant). The reason he doesnt want to sort a job out is because he doesnt want to come home stressed out, cus then he feels that we would argue if he is stressed..... GRRR he is driving me round the bend. As i said im on £10k more than him.... i pay 2/3rds of the bills and what does he do sweet fa.... sits on his backside and plays games on facebook!

eegreen200188

yep keep on crossing posts lol! he does want to be debt free... but doesnt in the same hand if you know what i mean!

he needs to take more responsibility, we have a mortgage and bills to pay and he just burries his head in the sand. Yep he's the same £1000 in 4 weeks though! I'm just getting really mifted with him and when i try to talk to him he just tells me where to go, sulks and doesnt talk to me or shouts at me cuz he thinks im nagging.

I am lol... but its only to make us better.

SarahNeedle1872

Sometimes they just don't get it though!

eegreen200188

you can say that again..

thinking though that i might just say to him. look you have a suit you have your cv. just please contact a few recruitment agencies... please it will take the pressure off financially i wont be so much of a moan and if you get stressed and it doesnt work between us it wasnt ment to be. but lets just take the finacial strain off.

What gets me tho is that once all the debts are paid - taking the loan and mortgage out the equation we'll be £360 better off each month. thats in the situation that we are in now!

Silly isnt it!

Em
x