Debt Number 3 : For those who feel they are drowning and want a way out

[TalkinPeace]

This thread follows on from Nerf's incredibly useful
FIRST www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/1969188-Can-we-have-a-support-thread-for-people-who-are-massively-in-debt
and then
SECOND
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/2011878-Debt-support-thread-2?
threads about realising you are in and supporting each other out of debt.

I am not in debt, any more.
Here is a link to some spreadsheets that might help
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/1987219-SPREADSHEETS-for-Debt-Control-Budgeting-Mortgages-etc

and lots of people use this
YouNeedABudget

The important thing to remember is

• yesterday is as past as the Crimean War

( we will not judge how you got into debt, but we will support you on the way out )

• this is an anonymous forum

( we will not tell your employer, family or friends of the reality of your numbers )

• this thread is about supporting people through the huge mindset changes needed to come out of debt

( feel free to offload all of the feelings that drive you to want to spend, that make it hard to save and that generally make life crap at times )

Join in, bare your soul and come out the other end.
Its worth it.
You are worth it.

Mum4Fergus - thanks for explaining how your system works
I'll try to do it this weekend.
I already have some idea what my fixed costs are. However I can see last few months my cc bill is slowly creeping back and I have to get a grip of it.
I think over all having separate card for petrol and food only would work for me.
I've noticed that Santander online credit card only records is only available keeps for the last 28 transactions!
I need another bank's card with better facilities. It has been annoying me.
They are OK for current account payments, those are searchable and go far back.

Birthday today and I will be at work late due to coursework deadlines being tomorrow. Raspberries.

I realise this isn't debt related, I'm just having a little moan since I can't in RL.

Happy Birthday KinkyDorito!!!!!
and for you

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Kinky!!

Happy Birthday KinkyDorito.
I would like to know if I am trying to repay several debts, should I also be setting some money aside as savings? I feel very insecure knowing that we have no money saved but this is mainly down to the fact our income either goes on repayments or on essentials & bills. There isn't much left to save!
DH does sometimes get extra through commission however so in those months would it be best to pay more off debts or save some? What do people do if you have an unexpected cost like something needs doing in the house or goes wrong with car? As we have no savings, we've had to put these things on a cc before and so the cycle continues!

There aren't any rules as to what you should/shouldn't do - it's whatever feels right and fits best with your situation. Personally, I like knowing I can cover emergencies with resorting to more debt so I took all my repayments to the minimum and saved up £500 emergency fund. Now I have that I have no issues throwing every other penny to my budget, either envelopes for my annual bills, or towards debt repayment.

Happy Birthday Kinky!

Mum4Fergus that sounds like a good plan. I would be happy with £500 saved. Might do that first then and then work on paying more off.

Happy Birthday Kinky!

Now starting the long slog 'til the next payday - just trying to keep a tight lid on all unnecessary spends until then. Annoyed that I have to advance some more cash to my work again tomorrow, it always takes them ages to repay you, and it makes the numbers all wrong.
Still waiting for the £203 they owe me from last month, that'll go straight off the old student overdraft leaving £300 to clear on payday next month plus a chunk off CC2.

TIP I've triedto download the budgeting sheet but there are no formulas in the copy I've saved. Is this right or should they have carried across too? Many thanks

I've tried downloading the budget sheet as well, but I just get error messages.

Will it not work with macs?

money try teaching in a private school - no training required, you can see if you like it!

Themoneyone - that's exciting

Happy birthday kinky

Feeling quite positive today. Have received my bill from electricity/gas provider and we are £128 in credit despite last quarter having been winter with the heating on I've asked them to reduce our direct debit, not sure if they will though.

I've also set up my new spreadsheet with my savings for big outgoings such as car tax, Christmas etc. We re only left with £170 towards our debt per month, but sometimes I earn more, so can put any overtime pay towards the debt too.

I just put meter readings in too...was in credit before so hopefully that is still the case. Not sure whether to ask for monthly DD to be reduced or for a refund that I could put towards OD repayment...any thoughts?

NSD today, and dinner in slow cooker since this morn...have a few pennies over £5 to last me til Monday but should only need bread and milk.

Happy birthday kinkydorito

will check the budget sheet now - its the one that gets broken the most - but I cannot protect it as you chapesses need to amend it!

budget sheet mended
cannot work out how to protect the totals in the current version of Google docs

Jemster I have a small savings pot which I use for any unexpected expenses, it took me a couple of months to build it up then I was able to throw everything each subsequent month at the debt.

Jemster
To some extent, at the beginning, your "savings pot" will be the difference between what you owe on your credit card and what your limit is.
IMHO its mad to have 25% credit cards and 0.01% savings accounts.

I have very little in "savings"

I have a wodge of cash in my Mortgage overpayment fund that I can draw down when needed
(as I did today because I cannot afford to pay the children their pocket money out of what is in the bank, but am owed thousands)

I also have a massive credit card limit that covers emergencies
(like my car needing a new spring and three new shock absorbers yesterday)
and I have 30 days to get the money into the right place that I will pay no interest.

Its about living within your means and building up those buffers.
You'll get there.

Well, the 1000 left over is still there - usually by now it would have been scattered to the wind on essentials. I've learnt that if something is irritating or hard to use it has to stay (fabric laundry bag that kids hurl clothes at / on) and I can only replace actual broken stuff. Like my one pair of work heels which are now beyond re heeling. But I am managing in flats.
Bought a school bag and a load of dc meds - calpol, plasters, ovex, hay fever stuff so spent 40 quid today. But I didn't buy shoes, a laundry bag and coffee out.

Happy Birthday Kinky! I hope you've enjoyed a relaxing day.

Jemster I feel like it would b beneficial to have some savings too. Alongside paying off my debt (8k) I'm trying to save too but it's not going very well right now.

Good news about the electricity bill Kazza - I LOVE it when something like that happens.

Bad news my end. This was supposed to be my first month of 2014 saving as well as doing that (I pretty much started the year on the back foot, financially speaking) but I've ben scuppered as CTC have paid me £100 less than usual - exactly the amount I had transferred to savings :( It's a huge nursery pay month for me so there is absolutely no wriggle room anywhere else to save a penny. Felt really blue about it earlier. I need to phone CTC but I imagine it is probably a reflection of DH's mini pay rise. We're definitely worse off. It's so hard to stay positive when things like this happen.

Like most people here I'm a teacher too. I've decided to opt out of the pension scheme until my daughter is three (she's almost two) as her nursery fees (£730 per month) are crippling us.

Nerf I think I'm slowly getting better at only buying what we need but I still make mistakes.