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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask how much debt you're in?

233 replies

Bringbacksummer · 26/01/2017 11:35

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?

OP posts:
isambardo · 26/01/2017 15:12

We have a fairly small mortgage and student loans, no other debt. Family of four (two preschool DC), I work part time and DH is self employed. We don't have debt but we don't have pensions either, which worries me.
As others have said, Money Saving Expert website is brilliant. I've not used the debt section but there is lots of great advice on day to day money saving. We have an old car, I meal plan and batch cook, I use a lot of advice from that website. We overpay the mortgage and plan to focus on the pension problem in a few years once the mortgage is gone.

lonelysaddo · 26/01/2017 15:28

£5000ish left to pay back to tax credits (was £19,000 at one point useless wankers 😡)

£5000 credit card

£900 bank loan

£800 pay day loans

£150 littlewoods

I know it looks terrible but I've had a terrible few years with not working due to dc and special needs and dhs wages being messed up for months.

Dh gets a unexpected payment for wage arrears next week so the payday loans/bank loan and littlewoods account will be cleared. I can feel the relief starting already and even though the credit card and hmrc payments are still high I've a standing order set up to clear the hmrc debt and can start chipping away at the credit card.

Oh and I've also set up a small standing order to a separate savings account. I know a lot of people would advise to throw all the money at the credit card debt but my thinking is that if everything goes tits up and one point I will have a small buffer rather than going down the payday loan route EVER again!

amusedbush · 26/01/2017 15:31

Married couple, no kids. He has a small credit union loan that is almost paid off, which we took for a couple of wedding bits.

I have... Blush ... £14k that I'm paying back via Step Change due to being an arsehole in my very early 20's. I have absolutely nothing to show for it either, it was frittered away on clothes, holidays and living well beyond my means. I'm not proud of it and I'm now entering my late 20's with the knowledge that a mortgage is a pipe dream right now.

MuMuMuuuum · 26/01/2017 15:39

No debt but saving for our own place so will eventually take on 25 years of mortgage debt.

needapaddle · 26/01/2017 15:42

Thank you ivykaty44 I will - I've been meaning to go and talk to the lovely people at CAB and see if they can point me in the right direction. Even facing up to it has been a relief, so hopefully we can work something out.

expatinscotland · 26/01/2017 15:45

We rent. No debt at all but only about £200 in savings.

LiefieLiefie · 26/01/2017 15:45

7k student loan.

We are getting married next year, so are planning to get a credit card to put the big payments etc on that. Hopefully we can pay that off fairly quickly as we have savings to cover our wedding costs.

AVY1 · 26/01/2017 15:48

Mortgage.
Student loans.
No debt (but until recently did have £1000 owed on an overdraft but that was a student account which was 0% so we used that instead of a credit card but won't be getting s credit card to replace it)
We do have a sofa on finance but think we're about to pay that off in full.
Cars are owned outright.

I was in considerable debt 7 years ago whilst doing my Masters but FIL is a leading debt counsellor and was amazing at helping me to sort it out quickly and I am so very grateful for that.

There are charities and experts that help for no fee to look at budgets and work out realistic repayment plans and some will either draft letters or speak to companies for you.

Famalam13 · 26/01/2017 16:30

About £5000 on a car loan. We are about to take out a mortgage though for £140000 and we get sofa and carpets on interest free so about £2000 for that. Will have the car and the carpets/sofas paid off in four years and will have built up some food savings by then as well. Mortgage will be paid off a few years before we retire. In four years time I will be very happy (will also be when we stop paying childcare) :)

Famalam13 · 26/01/2017 16:30

Oh and student loan but I don't count that especially as am part time so not actually paying it at the moment.

Famalam13 · 26/01/2017 16:32

good not food Blush

Dowser · 26/01/2017 16:47

None.
Thankfully

The80sweregreat · 26/01/2017 16:55

family of 4, mortgage, car and a motorbike loan. I dread adding it all up.
( helping DS2 through uni, so added pressure)

StarryIllusion · 26/01/2017 17:35

None really. I have about £500 on a finance agreement for a large piece of furniture but other than that, nothing. The only debt I would willingly take on is a mortgage. I don't do credit cards.

barinatxe · 26/01/2017 17:51

Just the mortgage. Wasn't always like that. It was very easy to get myself into £12,000 of unsecured debt and a lot harder to find my way out. I was the sort of idiot who assumed that
a) I'd be earning more in a few years so would be able to pay it back easily (nope!)
b) I'd just be able to switch my debt to a new 0% credit card (funnily enough, my applications started to get declined)
c) If I'm £10,000 in debt, another couple of grand won't make much difference (the same "logic" I'd told myself at £2,000 - and £4,000 - and £6,000 - and £8,000...)

I only really decided enough was enough when I found myself borrowing my rent each month from a payday lender, because I'd already spent my rent money on the same payday lender's interest and fees from the previous month.

It's very easy to slide into debt if you allow it, and much harder to climb back out. Those low interest offers dry up, and then the high interest ones do too. And that is with me having a perfect payment history - I paid the minimum every month without fail. But any debt is unmanageable if you can only afford to pay off the interest each month.

Sometimes you can't avoid borrowing, but usually it is best to go without today rather than defer the payment until further down the line.

SillySongsWithLarry · 26/01/2017 17:56

My only debt is my mortgage. I have been in debt before but never again. We want to do some substantial work to the flat - bathroom, kitchen etc but we are saving up each month and will do it as and when we can afford it. If that's years down the line then so be it. In 9 odd years my mortgage will be paid off and I have to decide whether to enjoy the freedom or trade up (will be a couple of years shy of 40 then).

MadameJosephine · 26/01/2017 17:57

I've managed to pay off my overdraft, credit card and student loan debt and I lease my car through a salary sacrifice at work so apart from the mortgage I don't have any debt at all. Unfortunately I had to take on a bigger mortgage when DP and I split so I am now trying to overpay as much as I can to get the term down as it will currently run until I'm 65 :(

thecolonelbumminganugget · 26/01/2017 18:03

Have largely skim read but in case nobody else has mentioned it, there is a fantastic long running debt support thread on here. The people on there were wonderful when I was having difficulties a while ago.

Sierra259 · 26/01/2017 18:07

Family of 4. We have about £1300 on a 0% cc. Interest free has another 2 years to run. Other cc paid off monthly, usually £200-300 food shops. I mainly use it for Clubcard points. No other debt apart from mortgage, about £177K. Would love to overpay a bit more on that, but not realistic at present with 2 lots of childcare payments.

Both DH and I loathe being in debt, and have been lucky to always be able to choose whether or not to go into it.

Leatherboundanddown · 26/01/2017 18:13

Just a small student loan of about 5k. Hoping to take out a mortgage this year though which will be approx 100k over 25 or 30 years.
Single parent of one 5 year old. Quite sensible with money but wasn't always the case!

squirreltale · 26/01/2017 18:50

Single mum of one. I was in £70k debt up until a few years ago, I had a low income and resorted to spending on credit cards and catalogues. I wasn't managing to service the debt, so I was advised to declare bankruptcy. Now I'm discharged and I'm debt free, I have a couple of credit cards again but I clear them in full each month and I only keep them to rebuild my credit rating. No mortgage as I have a council house.

Newbrummie · 26/01/2017 18:52

Nothing at all and I have savings for the first time in 14 years, feels great

OopsDearyMe · 26/01/2017 18:56

Zero! Never buy on credit at all. Use cash as much a possible. Hate even using debit cards.
I'm am lucky that an inheritance paid my student debt off, but I remember the daily weight of debt and avoid it at all costs.

Newbrummie · 26/01/2017 18:57

Lots of good reasons to use credit cards as long as you pay them straight off

UpsyDaisyluvsIgglePiggle · 26/01/2017 19:02

85k mortgage
15k loan
15k on credit and store cards and credit agreements for sofa/pc world
10k bike loan
25k car loan
3k in overdrafts

We can afford it and have around £800 left over as surplus a month after food and fuel but dh is an excessive spender. He has a problem and we struggle to pay anything above the minimum payment. As soon as I make a payment he finds a way to use the surplus credit to buy something we "need". This month it was a fish tank with 2 eels in. It's not his fault as such as I run the bills and can't say no to him lol. So now we have "Eel Diamond" and "Eel Patrick Harris" which cost us a wasted £300.