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.

Thanks for the advice, yes the 3 big ones are frozen and on the minimum they would accept. Im hoping to get some money back from card protection soon so will pay the argos one off straight away. They have reduced the interest but its still rather high. We've been on a payment plan with them for about 18 months. It really sucks, and I really cant see a way out of it all. I can cut my phone contract down again from next month so will be adding that to the pot. Since sorting ourselves out money wise we now have a pot for everything, so no worrying where I will find £300 for a tank of oil as we now pay that monthly to a supplier and if we dont use all our funds we can withdraw it too.

I've sold anything I can already. All DS's baby clothes have gone, as have all DSD's out grown clothes and toyss. I've made loads there. DS and DSD only get second hand clothes (unless family buy them something).

I'm finding selling stuff really hard. Maybe I'm not sure of pricing stuff? eBay just seems so pointless; lots of hassle and fees.

Facebooks no better, everyone wants it for nothing.

ishsingle ah, we all love the exam marking . I'm sulking because all of mine will be going on a CC debt. I might hold back a little to take the kids on a day out. No holiday for us this year.

Feel slightly better now, in Jan 2013 we had £11074.42 in debt. We paid £177.10 off. Im really pleased with that, although i'd have liked to pay more off it just wasnt physically possible.

Im on a mission this year though, although we are only paying £20 a month to them all, at the end of the year if we have any savings left over then Im going to chuck that at them too. I asked them about doing additional payments throughout the year but was told by all of them that it would void the agreement in place! You'd have thought they'd jump at the chance of extra money coming off the debt!

Going to sit with a cuppa late and have a read through this thread, see if there is anything else I can do

Really? I have loads of littlest pet shop and playmobil stuff and I just can't sell it. Unless maybe I put it all up for a tenner.
Might just keep it for grandchildren.
Up to London today with dd who is seeing a modelling agency. She is my plan b

Dorito - you are so good , I couldn't go through the marking hell and then hand it over! I know mine should go towards the debt, but I just can't do it. I pay off £650 a month all year and it is really, really tight and means Aldi shops (love this actually!) and free (kids would say boring ) days out all year, so my marking money is mine, minus my car MOT and tax which happens to fall just at that time. My eldest has just 2 years before he leaves for Uni, and is working so hard towards his GCSE's, I want us to have holidays together while we can.

Winter - I think facebook selling experiences vary, in my town it is very active and I have never had problems or been haggled down, but in my boyfriend's town it is hopeless, he brings his stuff to me to sell. I'm almost out of things to sell as well, every so often I prowl the house looking at what we can do without!

Pricing - I used the "sold items" function on the ebay search to see what people have paid for similar items, seems to work.

Another thought - Winter, have you heard of Lionbridge? It's a good earner from home in your own time if you have a PC and Internet connection.

hi,
new to this thread,

went on stepchange who suggested debt management plan but could I write to credit card companies myself requesting they freeze the interest as am worried about the dmp

Hello Lucy! Think there are people on here who have done this so hopefully will be able to tell you how they did it.

LucyLastic
first off freeze the payments rather than the interest - as per my spreadsheet ...
then quantify and read some of the great ideas on here.

Sobering thought
18 months ago DS really, really wanted an XBox360
I looked at the price and said NO.
Then we went to Cash Converters.
We bought a three month old Xbox with big memory, Kinect, two handsets and three games - with a months warranty from the shop - for the price of just a basic XBox.

The original owners are still paying for that kit because they bought it with a credit card.

Hi Lucy,

You can do it yourself - see here: www.debtwatchdog.com/DIY-Debt-Management.html

Why are you worried about Stepchange though? I use them and they are very good, I like the fact I can send just one payment on payday and forget about it.

Hi.
I am now cc debt free after a horrible time a couple of years ago when I added it all up and went ! I have car finance and a mortgage but I am now trying really hard to be as frugal as possible, I would love a new kitchen but I am determined to save up for it this time. This thread is reminding me of why I don't want to go there again and also helping me to save!

thank you.
scared to let go of credit cards and scared of dh overspending with what we have!

Lucy - you'll find that the credit card companies will stop you spending on your cards when they reduce/freeze interest anyway. But honestly it is the best thing in the long run. With Stepchange you pay a minimum payment for a month or two to let you put aside an emergency fund before your DMP payments kick in.

Just put a load of things on eBay, I can't imagine who would want any of it but will be intrigued to see what happens.

How much would you list a nice cocktail dress for (eg with tags), from a high street shop?

Mama
start it at the minimum you would be willing to see it go for
make sure the auction runs to the end
ensure that the description is clear and accurate and that the photo allowace is fully and well used

this user name started on ebay nearly 8 years ago!

ishe I don't blame you at all. the reason I'm being very restrained this year is that last year we went on a mega-DD beat cancer holiday to Disney on a loan. So we had the dream holiday, but probably shouldn't have done. Since that was last year, this year is restraint because we do have to tackle the debt. Next year might be hols...

Hi All,

I just wanted to say that this thread has given me so much inspiration I am in £8K of debt mainly due to crazy spending on the credit card while on maternity leave, and some really tough times when DH's career change led to anxiety as the dream job was actually a nightmare.

We are now trying to sort ourselves out, pay off debt and save up to move house. This thread has helped me a lot so far. I was out with DD in the buggy killing time as we waited for DH and DS to come out of the pictures and as I wandered the shops I felt tempted to buy ... Nothing. This is something as I feel I've had something of a shopping problem - equating purchases with happiness etc. I'd think nothing of putting a few hundred on a CC for fancy clothes while on maternity leave. No more! I'd be so embarrassed to admit this in real life.

Debt is:

2400 overdraft
6000 0% CC

I have only just swapped it to 0% ... It was 24% bit I was to anxious to deal with it until now. I've joined experian and it's been an eye opener.

Need to look into TalkinPeace's suggestion of standing order for CC. Can you do this on online banking does anybody know? X

*but I was too anxious to deal with it

Hello Golden,

Sounds like we are in a similar boat, debt wise. I'm now on mat leave and determined not to go any further into debt.

Can I ask whether your bank kept your overdraft facility in place while you have been on mat leave? I'm worried my bank are going to withdraw mine once they see the income decrease??

Hi MamaDuckling - yes they let me keep my overdraft in place - although they did ring me up once (not to suggest pulling the OD) to discuss my account usage (I'd gone over my overdraft ) and they did mention the drop in earnings, but once I had explained about maternity leave they were fine with that the temporary drop.

Are most people here using spreadsheets to manage monthly in-comings and outgoings? I'm finding mine really useful (on third month).

ish and Dorito I'm a teacher too and I shall be using my exam marking this summer to finally give us a £500 emergency fund. I will definitely use the other £200ish for something fun for the children though.

Can I join? I've been lurking on this thread since the start. It's inspiring me to keep going.

I have:
CC1: £5700 on 27%
CC2: £2800 on 16%
CC3: £1700 on %16 and £900 on 0%
Mum: £2600

Plus a £400 overdraft which has been reducing £100 per month since £1000.

In a normal month I can pay off £1000. However, there rarely seems to be a normal month! This month is particularly bad as I have specialist orthodontist root canal (£650) plus I didn't pay my uni fees last month as I was in a "who cares anyway" frame of mind and spent it . So I've had to pay £570 to uni. And I have a hen weekend away.

I have no kids and as of two weeks ago I'm single. I feel like my quality of life has dived compared to even a year ago which is a bit depressing. I think that I was living beyond my means without a thought, whereas now I'm taking responsibility for it. My ex owes me around £2K but I doubt I'll ever see it as he's a nice guy but just so bad with money (a big reason I am now single!)

I'm too scared to apply for 0% cards in case my credit rating gets worse (it's 805 but have just joined the electoral roll so that should improve it a little in a month or so) and/or I'd just be rejected outright. Ditto about asking to reduce my interest rate, which is far too high. I hate this feeling of being trapped and at the mercy of the banks.

My aim is to be debt free by NYE (except my Mum - hoping for a cheap loan later in the year to pay that one off).

MyGoldennotebook
yup,
go into your online banking and cancel the direct debit.
while you are still logged in , set up a standing order to the same details for this months amount, rounded up to the nearest fiver
job done