Debt support thread #2

[Nerfmother]

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

Onmyown - that is rubbish

All the joint CC debt was in my name when I divorced too, but luckily we sold a house and cleared them with equity. Then I ran them up again on my own - stupid me!

Why did that post twice?

I had nice mail today. Won £50 on the charity lottery I do. Looked at ynab and thought "I don't need that to go anywhere", but it's only the 1st so I popped it in the emergency fund

Lucky win ishe.

My new shiny debit card came through. I've finally decided to make the envelope system concrete and avoid DH going overdrawn on supermarket spends by creating a 'housekeeping' current account, so opened a new joint account and we are ready to go. I think this will make a big difference to us.

He's giving me £525 a month maintenance. I've worked out I can put extra to the cards and have to as the monthly minimum payments are ridiculous. I'll have 400 left at the end of the month but have no savings. Thought of putting 200 extra to cards and 200 to savings till I have a buffer. Does that sound ok?

Winterlover
clothes try freecycle, gumtree or charity shops - you'll be surprised

also, little treats

when we were broke we got into the habit of going round the charity shops and letting the kids get a "treat" from the bric a brac - be it a shiny cup or a book or a picture - £3 between them a fortnight - but it helped make the odd "special" day

Onmyown,in your situation Id consider making minimum payments and building up an emergency fund, just 100-200 even. Then Id budget for everything, including minimum payments and things you buy annually, any positive balance should then go towards one card (either lowest balance for a 'quick hit', or the one with the highest interest rate) and then keep throwing every penny at the chosen debt til it's paid, then move on to the next one. Can any be transferred to interest free to help you out a bit?

I'm trying to work out a budget. How much do you all allocate for going out/treats? Or do you not allocate anything? I can't anyway at the moment, as there is nothing left over, but hope some time to be able to set a little aside for a night out once a month or a trip to the cinema every now and again. So just wondered how you all work out how much to allocate for different things?

Hiya Kazza, I sat one evening with a spreadsheet and went back over about 14 months worth of credit card and bank statements and took it from their. I got an indication of annual spend, divided by 12 and that was my monthly budget. In the 4 months since I've had to adjust on or 2 amounts but that aside it's been pretty accurate so far. What this method also highlighted though was all the random cash withdrawals which were ridiculous and generally had no explanation!

Specifically for going our/treats...I include within my weekly food budget...given the choice of eating food or having a treat tends to focus the spending thoughts!

As the cards are nearly all at the limit I can't get anything on interest free. I've budgeted and know everything monthly but forgot annual things. Need to do that next

hello to all the delurkers. Need after an evening with YNAB. Think everything allocated for - now just need to stick to it for 29 days! We've done it based on DH's pay, and plan to throw my pay at the CC if when it comes in. Decided against envelope system in favour of paying more toward CC - just want shot!

Ooooh mummy beans, good luck for Thursday x

Well done TheMoneyOne...

Thanks Mum2, that sounds like a good plan.

Agh, can't reconcile YNAB. Have entered 3 DDs and it's sent my account haywire. YNAB says I have £60 more than I do. Any ideas?

On a better note, I got paid. It's gone to the CC meaning our debt now stands at about £5800. We have no emergency fund or nursery fees pot, so living on the edge .

Themoneyone - have you cleared all the transactions in ynab?

We kept a record of all our spending for 6 months, then set what we felt would be a realistic weekly budget. we withdraw that in cash each week and it goes into our "cash" jar. If we pay for anything by debit or credit (paid in full each month) card then we take that from the cash jar and put it in the "bank" jar. That means we don't fool ourselves with card purchases. It probably sounds complicated but it really isn't and it works for us.
Treats are included in the budget just not at the level we used to have them!

Aaaaaaaaargh.
Dd has just presented me with a broken tablet and a screaming for about how it's not her fault she's failing maths.
Rang currys (again!) and they were very unhelpful suggesting accidental damage isn't covered - we don't know how it happens yet and so I have to ring the manufacturer apparently. I did argue for taking it to the store.

And I went to morrisons to do the kids meal free with adult meals but then realised that the adult meals have to be over 4 quid. Might be helpful to flag that up at the till.

So twenty quid wasted on food.

Deep breath.

Nerf

I think today is one of those days.

Am I not alone kinky?

I really like these threads because really I should be told off for being stupid and buying food out, but there's the bigger picture we are all sharing of every month trying to be a bit less in debt.
So thank you for my wine, and I have learned my lesson. And no, I'm not replacing the tablet via my cc, I am expecting dd to wait for a birthday and granny to step in. (Granny always does large birthday presents; not being greedy!)