WWYD - repaying debt

[darknights]

Current situation:

Owe £6500 on interest bearing c/c
Owe £450 on a second interest bearing c/c

Have a new 0% (for 22 months) c/c with a £3k limit with no balance

Bill of £400 due in next few weeks with the option of 0% finance over 4 months

Have £3500 disposable income to make a dent in the above and want to distribute it effectively. I will have another £3500 in 4 months time which will clear our feet and allow us to start saving. DH is paid a basic rate monthly and gets overtime/bonuses quarterly.

Disposable income after all utility bills etc is £1k per month but food/petrol needs to come out of this (£80 pm fuel approx) food is variable depending on where I shop but easy access to all supermarkets including Aldi/Lidl. Family of 4 inc. 2 kids 10, 8.

Thanks for your advice.

The principles are simple:

• Pay down as much as you can, starting with the highest-interest debts.
• Transfer as much of what's left to 0% as possible, or if you can't transfer, put new spending on 0% card and use the money you would have paid to pay down interest-bearing debt.
• Take on no new debt. (This doesn't conflict with the previous point - you can incur new debt if you use it pay off old debt at a higher rate of interest, thereby leaving your total debt unchanged but easier to manage.)
• Save up enough to pay off all debt, including 0% (though no need to actually pay it off until the 0% ends).

Then you're back in the black.

Which has the highest interest? Put the 3.5k against that (potentially wiping out the 450!).
Put all new spending (including the 400 bill) on the 0% card and once a week (or more often) transfer the sum you have spent from your current account to the most expensive debt.
Tighten your belt, live off Aldi etc and you should have 500 at least left over to pay down the debt over the next few months. So in 4 months time you will (hopefully!) have paid off the expensive debt, and owe about 2-2.5k on the 0% card.
You can then either pay it off with the bonus, or if you really trust yourself put the amount you owe in a fixed term bond for a year, put the card in the freezer, and pay it off in full with the proceeds of the bond, having earned a (tiny) bit of interest.