Debt support thread #2

[Nerfmother]

Here we are! Can't be bothered to think of an exciting title, sorry

I just have no desire to own or use a credit card ever again. I don't want to give them my money. I have one right now which I haven't spent on since August (cleared it from £5500 to £722 so far).

I think life without credit cards, paying cash for things is the way forward, rather than having lots of cards which I don't use.

I wish I could share your view, but I find credit cards very useful. My OH needs one for wor when he is away on business trips,- hotels usuallywant one to swipe even if you are paying by cash.
Hiring a car on holiday would be impossible without a credit card, and i like to make big online purchases like flights, holidays, bit items of furniture or kitchen appliances by credit card. That way if anything goes wrong you have extra protection for cancelled holidays/faulty items etc.
If I buy a washing machine online ( nad you have to if you want the bestdeals) then I would always use a credit card for my own protection.
It needn't cost you a penny extra to use a credit card- as long as you pay the balance in full before they start to charge interest.

I have given my DH the credit cards so I couldn't use them without asking him and he'd say no!

I think I'd be disciplined enough to not do it - I have finally got tired of the stress and yearn to be free of it all, also I have since amassing the debt had kids so am realising how I'm causing them to miss out.

I find since using YNAB that I can be trusted with a credit card, as I can still see exactly how the money is going and what still needs to be spent and how it is allocated, so i don't think 'Ooh, I have £12,000 to spend!" Not that I exactly did that before, but ykwim. I think once the debt is all gone we will probably do monthly spends on a CC and clear the balance every month - especially if we find a decent cashback/rewards one (currently have a partnership one, and even that is nice, getting the odd John Lewis voucher through the post - we've used them for wedding gifts a couple of times!). Previously I would have said I was a credit card disaster area though, as I had no self control.

I'm not a massive fan of the dave ramsey route for our situation (we simply can't afford to pay off the debt quickly, so interest will make a difference) - the amount of extra interest on a big balance 20% card could be significant over the life of the card if you have several smaller, lower interest debts to pay off first too. I plan to snowball by higher interest rate first. Not quite as satisfying but more frugal in the long run. But that's knowing that my smaller debts are v v low interest and my biggest debt (CC) is high interest - we need to look at shifting that onto a 0% at some stage soon, but not sure if we can get 0% on additional spending too.

Sent off my form for maternity allowance today - will be rather nice if I am eligible for an extra £30 a week for a few months!

atthestroke all online purchases are protected whether they are by debit cards or credit cards... I have rented cars, stayed in hotels and even had an operation in a private hospital and they accept a debit card for that initial swipe thing too, not only a credit card. If you are worried that they'll charge you money you don't have if you swipe a debit card then imo you shouldn't be doing that activity.
I did used to worry about debit card details online (i.e. if they get nicked it;s your money not the CC company's) but I solved that by having a separate current account with very little surplus money and no overdraft that I use for all online purchases.
That said, when we are debt-free I would consider doing what possibly says and potentially using a CC to purchase monthly with a direct debit to clear it in full every month, if it came with cashback or vouchers etc. But at the moment I am so focussed on getting rid of them that I just feel funny about using one at all. It's not that I don't trust myself, I do, it's just I feel a bit disgusted with the cards and the trap they represent.

Anyway, I totally agree that everyone needs to find their own way through all this - for us the debts are all on similar interest rates and with 5 cards already between 2 of us the last thing I want is to open more cards. So Dave Ramsey is working for us, we are currently able to pay off quite a bit of the total debt % per month so it won't be long and the interest isn't mounting too much.
Part of our debt is a car loan which will be paid last, as it is an asset we could potentially sell, the interest on that is really low so we'll skip it in the snowball and just hammer it at the end.

While we're on the subject of ccs, we've just decided to stop using our tesco one. We used it for everything possible (clubcard points for days out!), but now no longer shop at tesco, so don't get as many points. It also makes us feel richer than we are - using our current accounts will make us think, and messes up budgets due to odd statement and money-taking dates. Feel quite relieved - one less account to juggle. We always pay it off in full, so will stop using it immediately and close it after the next payment.

DH and I have just made a financial life plan. Feel v grown up, v frugal and in need of much . Just wish I'd learnt all this 10 years ago!

family frugal blog afrugalwife.blogspot.co.uk

afrugalwife.blogspot.co.uk

Soz.

Spanish
WElcome to the gang.
I'm another one who is not in favour of piling everything together into another loan
as then you will not be prompted to change the behaviour that got you into the problem.

Convert the payments on ALL the credit cards into standing orders ASAP, transfer all that you can onto the zero percent
check my spreadsheets thread to see why
and you'll have the debt cleared quicker than if you took out a nast new loan

themoneyone I felt so much better a couple of weeks ago when DH and I sat down and didn't just look at the debt but made a proper 10 year financial plan. I think we both felt more incentivised after it, rather than just bleak at the debt payments!

Off to check out that blog now. Am such a blog addict. Keep contemplating starting a debt free one myself since there are so few uk ones!

FWIW, I'm nearly 49
I was horrifically in debt right through my 20s
utterly broke right through my 30s
finally started making real headway in my early 40s
by the time I get to 50 I'll be pretty much sorted

afrugalwife.blogspot.co.uk

Clicky link

I listen to all of dave Ramses podcasts but find I get completely obsessed!

We're aiming to be debt free (apart from mortgage and cars) by the end of the year. We should have cash rolled a wedding in that time too.

Ugh, feeling bleak this morning after unexpectedly big BT bill (my fault mostly - a couple of long evening and weekend calls which pushed them into the costing money category). It means that instead of having a £100 buffer after paying the rent (before the bottom of the overdraft, not a buffer of real money even) I am down to £40. Fingers crossed no forgotten DDs come out. We're doing day to day spends on the CC, so it doesn't stop me buying food or anything, but I'm very blue about it all.

Car should be back from garage today - another bill!
The kitchen needs both electric work and plumbing work doing before we can fit the kitchen - another bill!
Had to go and get some bras that actually fit me yesterday (good job too I was wearing totally the wrong size!) - another bill!
The plastering has been done upstairs and looks fab but - another bill!
I am taking money out of the isa to cover it all, but....PO I know that "ugh" feeling well!
The work must be done. And ideally we will live here for a long time BUT I begrudge every flipping penny I spend ATM!

Fear not- jumble sale season is coming up!

I buy stuff and sell it on Amazon and ebay, have been clearing £900 a month for the past 8 years. - I sell mostly books, but anything valuable I buy for pennies, from wet suits to wands! Other people's trash can be turned into gold.

I have other income streams too.

Blimey twelve! That's amazing. I'm stockpiling boot fair stuff but I have just found them so pointless in the last few years, barely covering pitch fees.
Orange and badvoc - horrible stuff.
Think we are ok but tight this month, so fingers crossed we don't get any hidden costs

Haven't formulated our plan yet (will do this weekend) but a little positive step is I've started am envelope for our Tesco vouchers - we got £13 pounds worth this week in the mail - we are going to collect them rather then redeem against the next shop and use them for Christmas shop at the end of the year.

All helps I suppose!

Nerfmother- I don't find car boot sales worth the effort. Using Amazon and ebay increases the number of potential buyers a million fold though, and you can sell some really obscure stuff- in fact the more obscure the better!!!!
I sell over 4000 items a year online, all bought from car boot sales, charity shops and jumble sales. I had intended doing this only for a couple of years - I started when my kids were babies before going back to work- but i am still doing this after 8 years. I earn a full time salary and work only 20 hours a week.

have you had a look to see how much your stuff is worth on ebay & Amazon ( Amazon is not just for books, you can sell lots of things there)

atthestroke - would you mind saying a bit more about what you sell? And is the £900 turnover or profit?

I do similar, but on a much smaller scale, I'd love to up the amount I sell, but can't quite work out how.

All advice gratefully received.

(I am a long-term poster btw, just generally lurk on these threads rather than posting as I'm not sure I have anything useful to contribute).

Gosh twelve that's amazing! Sounds like you've got the gift for it.

I have decided we need to eat four freezer meals this week to keep food budget down to a sensible level. Have checked and I think there's enough food I there!

frogs, that's £900 profit. Not sure what you would like to know, obviously finding the stuff that is worth selling is they key, but that gets easier with time. i strated off small, then strte buying things I knew there weas a good market for, as I say 85% of my sales are books, but you won't get rich selling Dan Brown online.

Use the advanced search on ebay to see what items have sold for recently- you can even do that in a charity shop before you make the purchase if you have a Smart phone, but I rrarely spend more than £1 buying anything. watch out for bulky or heavy items, don't undercharge postage, I never sell anything fragile either- risk of damage in the post.

if you want to know more please ask.

Inspiring stuff twelve. My dream is to run a bookshop via amazon (a specialist one, antiquarian children's books), but not just yet.

How frustrating badvoc and poss. My problem is that we (as in dh and I) make lofty long-term plans, get all fired up, but day-to-day, it doesn't feel like much is changing.

As we're no longer using the daily expenses CC, our ODs will be much worse than predicted. V v handy that DH is due a bonus this month - will be spent on debt relief with the aim of starting April with no overdraft. My student loan should also be gone by then - they are making it nigh on impossible to pay off - am getting v cross and think the call centre hate me. It's mutual.

I am feeling motivated though - would much rather pay the odd £50 towards debt than buy anything else. We'll see how long this lasts.

poss how are your lentil supplies? They'll help bulk things out! We've got oven fish and chips tonight. Joy...

We tried using a cc years ago for daily expenses but it was a bit disastrous tbh.
Other stuff crept on - and emergencies of course.
Would never do that again, am not disciplined enough.
Dh is away in London tomorrow and we have a majorly busy weekend ahead and my car is still at the garage so I have done an online grocery order for tomorrow. £80! Oh dear...the perils of living in a village with no decent shops!

Am feeling a bit worried actually about all the money we have spent/are spending on the house.
Yes it's nice and in a very popular area (we bought it from a building company as the previous owners had part ex and before house prices started going up again) so we got it at a good price BUT in 2 years we have had to spend over £10k on stuff that was broken/leaking/unsafe :(
If we sold now we would make about £50k on the house.
Part of me does wonder whether we should cut our losses but as dh says prices have gone up since we bought and then there are selling fees etc...
Sigh.
I am so tempted to part ex it for a nice new build with no leaky roofs or dodgy boilers :)