What to do??

alana171

Monthly Income

Salary £1100 approx

Debts & monthly payments

Alliance and leicester loan apr around 9% i think £6k @£234.45pm
Royal Bank of Scotland Loan 8.9% term £9999k left (around 3/4yrs left) @ £275.99
Black horse finance (CAR) apr 10.9?? 4years left £11k left @ £179.88
Marks and Spencer credit card £4000 at 14.9 min =£100
Virgin Money Mastercard £4000 15.9%apr min=£100
RBS mastercard £2500 @ 15.9 ? min=£52
Barclaycard flexi rate card 0% £1600 min=£42
Overdraft = £321 unsure of RBS APR

Total debts = £39k
Monthly payments = 988.00 approx
Other Outgoings

Car insurance = £45.54
Phone = £35
Food.
Lunches - I take my own lunch each day so that saves money
Hairdressing?
Opticians=£27.99 every 3/4 months for contacts
Savings - £25 p/m into Abbey account

I dont really spend any other money as A-I dont have it and B- my fiance helps me quite alot so he tends to pay if we go out etc. I also still live at home so have no rent outgoings etc.

I go into this mess when i was around 19 through spending on stuff i didnt need..I am trying so hard to keep my head above water but i feel like im drowning.
I try to make extra money through selling on ebay, and the like, and am also trying to find a saturday job - I work Mon-Fri 8.45-5.45. I get home at around 7 so have been turned down for evening jobs. Like I said before my fiance also helps me but I hate taking his money as I know if I wasnt in debt we could of had a house etc by now.

Any extra advice would be reaaly appreciated.

rayday2

I make your total outgoings without food at £1093 and you take lunches so I assume you must have food costs too.

The only most obvious thing I can see is to stop the savings and throw it at your highest apr. That and like you point out get a Saturday Job. Silly question but have you cut your cards up?

If you are really struggling you may want to think about seeing a debt charity you can make an online enquiry - it will effect your history but the sooner you do it the better. That is once you have exhausted all ways of earning more. ALso I don't see any petrol costs just car insurance and you are not putting anything aside for maintenance or tax so I think sorry you have more of a problem than it appears and probably why you feel like sinking!

~Beanie~

Your car insurance is quite high, can you shop around and reduce it at all? Where are the figures for petrol, car tax, maintenance etc? I notice on one of your other threads that you also spend £60pm on car parking which you haven't included on here.

Can you get rid of the mobile phone and go PAYG? You can sometimes get really cheap contact lenses if you buy them online, have a look. Definately stop the savings - what is the use of saving when you owe nearly 40K? You can't afford it and even if you could, it would be far better to pay it off your debts.

Personally I think that for the level of debt that you have, you definately need to be speaking to one of the debt charities to see what they advise.

CCCS_Alan

Hi Alana171

First of all don’t panic about your situation, at the end of the day you can only pay what you can afford no matter what the creditors demand.

Some good thoughts from Rayday2 and ~Beanie~ that could start to make a difference to your situation, as the more surplus available the quicker you can get rid of your debts.

Your list of outgoings is quite brief and you need to account for all expenditure no matter how small to get a realistic view of what is available and what you can do with it.
The following link is for our online advice facility called Debt Remedy where you can complete a financial statement and be provided with advice on the best way to deal with your situation. It goes through in detail your expenditure so will make you think if you have missed any of your actual costs and let you account for it. I think you would find this helpful.

Good luck and keep us posted on how things are going

CCCS_Alan