To ask how much debt you're in?

[Bringbacksummer]

We are a young family of 4 and have £6000 on a credit card. We are managing it but I feel it weighs me down at times.

Are many others in this situation? Also, any advice for clearing debt/ways to reduce spending?

About £100+ on a Next account, overdraft couple of hundred.

There is some still on my mortgage but have the money to pay it off

OH... just signed up for a new car

Last week it was a tad more as we have just gone through our finances and paid any minimal debts off

All interest free credit cards

Family of four

120k left on mortgage
6k overdraft across three accounts
21k personal loans
9k car loan
41k on credit card
465k business loan

What do I win?

Family of 4, no mortgage (private tenants) I'm a sahm, husband works full time. We have about 500 in total over 2 credit cards, which makes me very uncomfortable but I figure it helps with our credit score so I try not to let it worry me.

Mortgage and student loans no other, but life is very hand to mouth. The MSE forums and emails are very helpful

Family of four. Lowish mortgage, about £4k on a credit card following emergency roof repairs and about 18 months of car finance.

Sorry but I first thought someone's dh drives a zoflora! It's on my brain

No mortgage here but housing association property with rent of just over £400 pm and loads of debt but with Step change who have been a godsend.

Been really stupid with money in the past:(

Do

Family of 4 no debt apart from mortgage.

£8919.27

I track it daily.

This is a collection of loans credit cards very accounts and other bits and pieces.

Forecasted to have it paid off by the 19th August

Family of 5, mortgage, student loan. No other debt. One adult been working full time for years, other adult started part time this month after retraining.

Spreadsheets are the answer here. Monthly income (work, chb etc) at the top and all expenses detailed so bills, petrol, school dinners etc done as average monthly spend. Things like car insurance, mot, service that are paid annually are divided by 12 for monthly spend, kids clothing etc also reckoned as an annual sum and divided by 12 plus an amount per month towards Christmas and birthdays (how much do I spend per child, add up, divide by 12).

Total it up, take away from income. What does it look like? If the number is negative then things need cutting back on. If positive then fab, that means the remainder can be put into savings. I go for a cash isa for that then I have an easy access savings account for things like the kids clothes, mot and stuff and keep the things like bills, school dinners, food shop and petrol in my current account. Easy access savings is linked to my current account so then if kids have grown out of shoes or somethings can just transfer across what I need to spend.

About £7000. All in arrears and some defaulted as I lost my job last February and didn't get a new one til November. Starting to panic now as receiving letters and phone calls but have had my head firmly buried in the sand. It just me and 2dc plus one on the way. Don't know how to get out of this mess. Going to get worse soon as going on mat leave in may and don't qualify for smp.

£2,200, no mortgage.
I've paid off about half of it.

Nearly 50k, 32k on credit cards, 10k loan and 8k in overdraft. We earn around 25k a year between us, have two kids, both work and do not claim any benefits. Rent is 1250 a month (cheap for a 3 bed where we live) and we are well and truly fucked! Repayments are well over 1k a month and that is mostly interest - our credit rating was (surprisingly I know!) fine until a few months ago when we started defaulting.

The only way were managing to maintain the debt was by borrowing more every month - we are now maxed out (basically if we didn't have the debt right now we would be fine and survive - it is the debt itself which is dragging us under right now!).

We haven't been on holiday for 8 years, drive an old car and don't go out or buy any luxuries. It took about 8 years of being approximately £500 a month short (starting when I fell pregnant with my second and didn't work for a year - so that year we were more short each month).

Hence new username!

Yes as PP have suggested, Money Saving Expert is good.
I had £22k debt over various credit cards, loans, store cards and overdrafts a few years ago. I went on a DMP and now owe just under £7k.

TheTartOfAsgard contact CCCS/Stepchange
They will give you free over the phone counselling and should be able to get you on a DMP. They are a charity so don't take any fees what so ever.

Student loan and mortgage.

pinkie thank you. I've been looking at dmps but they all seemed to want a fee so I gave up.

Do- that will take some beating.

My brother has £100k plus on credit card and personal loans though on a top of a fully mortgages to the hilt property!

I'm not sure why people worry about being debt free so much though unless you can't afford the payments of course.

Cheap debt is great. I've got an interest only mortgage costing me £260 per month on a 4 bed detached. If I wanted to be debt free I could just sell up and use the equity to buy a smaller place but as I am working and can pay it I don't see the point. What would I do with the saved money? Put it in a savings account earning 0.00001%. Debt can enable you to do the things you want to do if you have a good income. I wouldn't advocate it for people where income is tight though.

Mortgage for our home and rental property 240k

Credit cards are paid off in full each month but I do a lot of online shopping so use it over debit card for security. I keep meaning to get a cash back one.

Car loan has 1.5k left on it

No personal loan etc. Student loan paid off. No overdraft. Only 15 k in savings but it is increasing.

Business loans have 3k left. And 1.3 million (linked to mortgaged business property). I share that debt with my business partners but am legally not allowed to separate it in a Ltd company. It terrifies me at times to be honest. Ho hum. Head down and plod on.

Just my student loan left. Recently paid off the mortgage with inheritance from late FIL, but will have to move somewhere larger soon probably as our current house really is too small for our family. Not looking forward to remortgaging to be honest.

Family of 5, 3 young children.

Mortgage - small payments can manage on one low income wage. Plan to pay off more once both adults ft working.
Student loan - minimal monthly payment, not much left to pay.
£1500 owed to family with no interest or deadline to pay back.

Credit cards and high interest loans are so easy to get caught out by. Switching to 0% deals will buy you time.

Reduce outgoings. Change phone/mobile package. Uswitch for utilities, find better deals. Buy own brand stuff. Buy in bulk (loo roll etc), cheaper over time. Shop at Aldi/Lidl. Second hand clothing and toys, eBay has some great quality bundles. Less going out. Drink less alcohol or drink at home. Less coffees in cafes, take your own lunch to work. Shop for presents in the sales and store. Batch cook and freeze. If you don't need to have multiple vehicles or one at all then don't have one. Walk more. Use local services like Children's Centres, the library and parks that offer free things for children. Young children will be okay with no clubs or one a week, so if you do pay for multiple clubs cut down.

Short term hardships mean less stress and money that can be saved down the line for nice things like holidays. Better than snowballing debt and stress.

My mortgage is $143K. I have $1600 on a credit card.

Just the two of us now,..No debts at all and low income.
If we can't afford something we go without.

needapaddle you should start your own thread in the money section or MSE it sounds like you really need some help with this.

Thank you so much for all the useful advice. I need to get this debt gone as it's just always there, always niggling away and preventing me from enjoying things. A bit of a black cloud. It's a comfort to know we're not the only ones going through this.