dont want debt no more

If your car is only worth £600 and it costs you more than that per year to insure it, road tax it and service it then it would definitely make sense to get rid of it. Or even SORN it for a while?

I gave up my car years ago when I couldn't afford it and put the £400 I was going to spend on insurance towards hiring a car whenever I needed one. I used to spend £50 per weekend for the odd weekend (maybe 3 or 4 times a year) and then had extra money leftover for taxis for the odd journey.

You can also shave money off your groceries bill and don't buy any new clothes for a while - I reckon that would save another £80 or so per month.

Good luck!

OK, I can see what you mean about the car. I do that same journey quite often and know how it can be difficult to get to places on public transport. But the last time I hired a car I did it through expedia and got it for £9 for the weekend and then spent just £2.99 a day on car hire excess insurance. A helluva lot cheaper than the £130+ you spend on your car each month.

Does the £45 petrol just cover the trip to Scotland each month and then you never use it again until the following month? You might need a bit more in the budget to cover the months when you go every 3 weeks. I need more than that for a trip to Scotland but I guess it depends where you're going and how much you travel when you're there...

£102pm on SKY?!?!?! Woah.

My advice to you first is to knock the gambling on the head. See where it has led you. So that's out of the way, bin the sky and get yourself internet and netflix. I spend £10/month on Sky, with recording ability. Netflix is like £7/month for HUGE amounts of great content. If you want to watch footie, record Match of The Day and go down the pub for games you want to see live. Drink one or two pints during the game.

Make it your business to work out the APR on your loans. When your credit card rate ends, get a new 0% balance transfer and see if you can move it all onto the 0% one. Cut up the new credit cards and view it as a 0% loan.

You have to be ruthless with your budget. Cut Sky down. Look at every single line above and have a long hard think about how to reduce it. The food bill - what are you buying? Can you buy a slow cooker, buy ingredients yourself and cook up a big batch. I do this for spag bol. Costs a few quid, but its meat, tomato sauce and pasta. Do your food shop at Aldi.

What car do you have? Does it suck up the fuel? I had a Ford Focus petrol and it was crazy on the fuel. I bit the bullet and got a VW Passat Diesel and that thing runs forever on a tank. Looks like you could knock something off the car insurance. Could you also rent a room rather than a house? If its just you?

And then there's the other option. Rather than cutting costs, you could see if you could increase income. Work on your CV, give it a spruce up. Use indeed.co.uk and have a look at see what jobs are paying in your field.

Can you sell the car just temporarily until your finances are sorted? Could you get a coach or train to Scotland? Asda do deliver! You might as well forget mysupermarket if youre buying branded goods and microwave meals. Its the products youre buying..

Wake up every morning and think. I am now a scrounger. Every penny counts. I give myself a test every day to see how much i can SAVE.

Congratulations on your promotion!