Can we have a support thread for people who are massively in debt?

[Nerfmother]

Because you can't talk about it in real life? We owe 44k, reduced from 60k in a year. Not including mortgage.
It's so depressing.
Dh is determined to pay it off and so bankruptcy or plans isn't an option. I do think its doable, just hard hard hard.

Obscene TiP, really is...granted I know what I've spent and that was entirely my choice but I think people would think twice with 'clear as day' figures/examples like this. I certainly would have...and will be going forward. It's not just a mission to get debt free anymore...it's a mission to stop lining greedy fecker company pockets!!!

Ooh, I'm angry now lol ...

Mum2Fergus
I originally wrote the sheet for a client to try to stop them buying a Bugaboo on a card that I know they only pay minimums .....
when I explained that they would only finish paying for the bugaboo when the child was starting University they got my drift.

See, that's the kind of working examples that need to be put to people and then have them make an informed decision.

Actually mum that's true if you already have an 'envelope' for it. I keep getting surprised by car tax and dentists ATM.

I'm a recent convert to the envelopes system but it's working well for me so far. I've forecast a shortfall in Jul/Aug as cartax and AA cover due, but only started envelopes in Jan so will be slightly short in theory but I'm going to try to bring other envelopes in under budget between now and then to make up the shortfall...

Signing in - we owe 25k ( 1 massive overdraft & 2 credit cards ) will take about 10 years to pay it off sadly.

Navada
No it wont. Freeze all your minimums at this months figures .... see my spreadsheet linked above ....

Thank you TP, I'll take a look

That spreadsheet is brilliant! thank you.

That spreadsheet is terrifying Talk!
That should be taught in schools!!
That's one of my real bugbears actually...I was taught NOTHING in school about personal finance.
We need kids to be taught this stuff so they have a better understanding!

Totally agree Badvoc, I've (sadly) had to learn it the hard way...but knowledge is power from here on in

Feel free to download it and share it with people.

The banks will want to have me assasinated for it, but they will have to queue up behing the snack food industry and Michael Gove for their chance

Oh if you destroy Michael gove I will push to have you deified talk!! :)

OK, put it this way. There's under £3 "available to spend" on the card.
The payment is due in 2 days, and my statement says the minimum payment is £68.

Is that a problem? Do I need to put £68 onto the card to avoid charges? Or do the charges happen if there's not enough money to cover the interest when they do the statement?

Or have I totally got the wrong end of the stick?!

I agree about teaching this stuff in schools rather than asking about Steve and his 76 fucking watermelons.

I don't even know how to write a cheque. I have a chequebook somewhere and it's of absolutely no use to me because I just do not get it.

Ah, writing cheques is easy. Here's a step by step guide ...

Assuming you're writing a cheque to send someone ...

1. First of all, you write the amount in numbers in the box (probably on the right hand side of the cheque).

1. Then you write the same amount in words (so they have something to check hard to read handwriting against)

1. The end of the amount-in-words you just wrote, it's common practice to write ONLY. (e.g. "Twenty-five ponds and three pence ONLY").

This is just to make sure no one can fiddle it later by adding stuff on at the end. (Unlikely though that is!)

1. Then you date it (probably at the top) and sign it (bottom right.)

1. The stub is there purely for you, you can write anything you like on it.

Super organised people write all details, including keeping a running tally of how much is in their account. Most people just write the amount, date and name, and maybe what it was for if you think you might need a reminder.

That's it!

I haven't written a cheque in a shop for years. You used to have to have a cheque guarantee card, and sign it in front of the shop keeper, they would then check your signature against the card. I don't think anyone uses cheques in shops any more though - do they?

Cheques can be written on anything IIRC. You could theoretically do your own cheque on a piece of paper and that would be legal (you'd have to add your bank details etc I imagine). The cheque books are just there to provide a standard way of doing it.

Actually sounds easier than I thought. My dad uses them quite a bit. I'm plenty good at cashing them!

Little boxes, in theory you should be okay to pay the minimum, but I'm not sure

littleboxes I'd phone the bank and check for sure.

Absolutely agree that personal finance should be taught in schools - I've only learnt about things like mortgages, interest, credit cards, bank charges, etc through trial and error. I'd also like to see warnings against student loans. With hindsight, I'd have worked until 25 then paid for myself to go to uni. I fell for the 'oh, you'll have paid it all back in a year or two' line, and then didn't get a well-paid job. Must be ten times worse these days.

Plans to start paying debt back more significantly have fallen through. We rent a house out, and the tenants have just said they can't pay the rent this month. So could be a few months of much belt-tightening. (We make no profit on this, their rent pays the mortgage on that house - supposed to be an investment for the future, but just seems to cost a bomb).

What can you do about that? Will they pay double next month? How can they do that?

Good start - have transferred the money family member gives me each month to a savings account (tiny but the start of my emergency find) and have paid the council and water amounts off my credit card today (we don't pay them in feb).
Think it really is going to be as simple (and hard) as don't spend any money you don't have to.

I am really panicking about the mortgage. Every payday I panic and think argh! We are on interest only with 200 on top towards the capital. We can't do mortgage and repayments though.
This month I am going to spend very little on stuff that's not food or fuel, and pay any left over at the end to the credit card. Loans have about four years to run.
Panic over. It is what it is.
Dh is 51 though.

So mad at dh today - he has been caught speeding and fined £93 plus a speed awareness course - don't know how I'm meant to find that money??

Oh kazza :( what a nightmare.
Well, dishwasher needed here (dh insists) so am on a hunt for a cheap one.
Our mortgage is a repayment fixed rate one and we have 3 years to run on it. But after that....I do worry.
There is just so little left at the end of the month...
The only way to tackle it is to cut down/back and re educate myself re: finances but it's easier said than done, isn't it?

Badvoc we got ours through a local dishwasher repair guy and it was cheaper than through argos.
Kazza, what a waste.
Done a good thing; kept meaning to cancel grazia subscription and finally dug out all the stuff, found my subscriber number and done it. Forty nine pounds a year saved.

So much for my plan...just been served 3 months notice of redundancy. Gutted.