I've made a mess of things

[IdrisTheDragon]

Our finances are in a mess. DH and I are not good with money and we have credit card bills that keep going up and overdraft limit that keeps being reached.

We have both been being ostrich like about it, but know it can't go on like this for ever. I have finally been looking at our income and expenditure and it's not looking good. I know we need to cut up the credit cards but even paying them off is difficult.

DH thinks that I keep more of an eye on things which is true but I haven't let him knwo quite how bad it is. We are going to discuss it soon though.

I feel awful knowing there are people who have money problems that aren't their own faults whereas we just spend too much.

I know that adding to a mortgage is in some ways not a good idea, but I think it might be the best thing to do. And cut up the credit cards.

I just feel stupid .

Thought about changing my name but there isn't really any point is there?

try a consolidation loan... usually lower interest and can be over 5 years or so

or adding to them mortgage..it is the cheapest way to borrow money and will improve your cash flow esp if you are getting heavy bank charges.

and you are certainly not on your own

the amount of loan and remortgage ads on tv prove that

see an independent financial advisor, ASAP

they are not tied to anyone and you don;t pay for their advice

HTH!

Oh yes, forgot about the bank charges. They keep being painful. I had kept them concealed from DH as well.

I don't think he'll be cross but he might be.

hello. i heartily recommend checking out moneysavingexpert.com

its a fantastic site full of ways to keeo your household bills/bank costs etc down. i think there is a slowly slowly aspect to this. saving £5 never feels like much, but they all mount up. also there is a massive section on there about reclaiming unfair/illegal bank charges. but perhaps most impportantly for you, there is a talk thing in which people talk about how they have dealt with their debt, and its pretty inspirational

good luck

sorry to hear of your financial problems, agree maybe re-mortgage the house to release some of the money tied up and paying off all your debts could help, in the meantime cut up all the cards now, you don't need them, you will just add to them making repayments longer and more interest, why not consolidate(sp) all the credit cards into one so that you have one monthly payment coming out of your account! Remember it can take an average person 7yrs to pay off one credit card!

okay people will be able to advise you re. lower interest rates for your credit cards - you need to pay those off in a way that means that you can pay lower interest

I don't know about all this swapping cos I don't use credit cards in that way but someone will

however the next thing you need to do is start up a spreadsheet and put in all our outgoings - mortgage, bills (work out how much you have paid on utility bills, phone bills etc in the last year and divide by 12. if you haven't got the bills then put away a 'guestimate' figure and then start writing down when the bills come how much more or less you need to save per month for that

EVERYTHING. car insurance, tax, phone, internet, sky & stuff if you have it, gas and leccy, pension, blah di blah, an amount to pay for emergencies eg breakdowns. How much you need to put away each month to pay off your debts.

then you have left over what you get to spend each month. Work out how much cash you can have each per week and how much to spend on food. check EACH WEEK and if it's going wrong work out WHY

will do boot camp if necessary. I am to budgeting what cod is to poo

I'd see the Citizen's Advice Bureau before you think about consolidation loans - they can be very expensive and get you further into debt.

I am starting a spreadsheet. I have details for all the direct debits and have put them in.

if you need any help I can send you a blank one of mine in Excel

do you do internet banking? so much easier to check week by week

Yes, we have internet banking.

Can I CAT you for a blank spreadsheet?

absolutely

or email cappucino dot mum at googlemail dot com

Another budgeter here. Feel physically sick if I go overdrawn.
You can sort this out fairly easily Idris, given that you have a mortgage.
Please cut up all your credit cards for now. You have to stop using them. You are paying ridiculous interest on your debts each month with these.
Sit down and work out exactly how much debt you have & then talk to your mortgage company. You will probably get the cheapest repayments via your mortgage. Pay the debts off & then follow Cappucino's plan. This is exactly what I do. Its not called being "good" with money - it is called not spending beyond your means. Easy really!

If you post your statement of affairs on the fool.co.uk discussion board "Dealing with debt" you will get loads of helpful advice. And I'd avoid consolidation loans at all costs.

You are all being nice to me. Thank you .

Thanks for the spreadsheet Cappuccino .

I am also investigating ways of making more money, using the suppposed skills I have.