A thread for people trying to pay off debt?

[moneyworries8]

Would there be any interest in this?

I'll start us off. I'm 30, a SAHM with 2DC.
Our debts are:

£4,000 loan that we've been paying off for 6 months.
£2,300 on a credit card

The debt is manageable but I've had the realisation that if something doesn't change, these figures are going to get bigger and bigger. I know it's a hard time of year to start but I don't believe in "waiting until the new year!"

We could post on here for advice/support as well as sharing our successes (and failures, but hopefully there won't be many of those) with each other. I feel like I need some people to help keep me on track.

So, is anyone interested?

I actually feel like a lunatic coming out with all this free stuff that we are doing but im not spending & the kiddies are happy..somehow i feel like I'm resetting the balance in our house abit x
You are not a lunatic
you are just spending your time with your kids for its / their own sake rather than focussing on money
long may it continue

If we are counting student loans I doubt I'll ever be out of debt!
Didn't know that there was £20k Max on a debt relief order that's good to know.
I think I am going to be stuck with minimum repayments as am pretty sure I don't want to declare bankruptcy no matter how big the black hole is. I have started paying off one debt, so even though there are loads more I feel positive that I have started to make some sense of it. I have also made a list of who I owe money too (credit card, over draft, pay day loans etc.) and am hoping if I can just make one phone call a day 5 days a week then I am moving in the right direction.

Ta1kinpeace thank you,0% cc sorted today with santander,no cost for balance transfers either,so bye bye aqua & Barclaycard..hello santander with 24 months 0% interest & a final balance from both cards of £3.900 X I can do this🙆

Ta1kinpeace,thank you.i always make sure when I'm not working we do loads together but it's always cinema,swimming,clip n climb, trampolines bowling,I'm just chucking money at entertaining them every week.with abit of thriftyness im sure I can entertain them for free xx

If you are in the country, den making, stream blocking, tree climbing, picnics, scrumping and foraging
can kill a LOT of time

Bumblebee39..writing down what you owe is hard,facing up to anything is bloody scary.well done you x

Student loans are NOT debt
they are a 9% tax on income over £21000
they do not count as borrowing for mortgages

Ta1kinpeace. Yes we are right in the country,a largish village surrounded by woods & fields.we have rivers & streams through the village so that's fun,I've just never bothered before.ive fallen into the pay to play trap😱,not anymore though,I've given my children a jar to put ideas in slips of paper,said we would pick some out every weekend & that would be our plans ! Had a little sneakpeak last night & my youngest son wants to go fox watching after tea!! We have foxes running around the fields at the back just after dark,never dreamed of going to watch them..at a safe distance lol X

I have around £3k debt between credits cards, a catalogue account and overdrafts of accounts I don’t use anymore.

We need a loan (a biggie) this year so I’m planning to pay off £1k per month for the next three months, close the dormant accounts and cancel my overdraft in my current account.

My New Years resolution is to not spend in that time either. So other than bills, food and fuel we will really try not to spend. I am also writing down everything we do spend as I think it might become a bit of a challenge trying to get that amount down every week.

Really excited to do this. Have been in around this much debt since I was maybe 19/20 just through silliness with credit cards and catalogues but want rid now.

casteil
do "sticky card" walks
do night walks (fab at this time of year) - pitch black, no torches, just get your eyes used to it and listen
get a bat detector to plug into a phone
tree bark rubbing
there is SO MUCH you can do outdoors when they are young
that will stand them in good stead when they get older

hi there whatabloody
Sounds like you have a plan. Go for it.

@Ta1kinPeace slightly off topic but when people say they wouldn’t go to uni because of the debt I so much because it’s not debt as such and people don’t even bother to research they just blindly parrot out crap they’ve heard from other people. I have one friend I can’t even discuss this with haha,

@castielchace I’m sure you already know this but don’t fall into the trap of thinking I have all these months to pay this off I don’t need to bother just yet. I’ve managed to just move around, shrink and grow £3k doing exactly this

Whatabloody
Student debt is as it is. Best not to argue with folks about it.

No of course not! It’s a shame it would put people off going to university though if they otherwise would like to.

Schools should be educating kids
BUT
I have a problem with any degree that takes less than CCC
as its not worth the £50k headache

Whatabloodymessisthis ..I set up two standing orders for both the old cards only last week of £200 each card each month,I was happy with that but @talkinpeace gave advice about getting my debt put onto a 0%transfer card..so I've done that,but definitely agree with you I'm paying the £400 now off my new 0% card every month..first payment is 28 FEE

Talkinpeace thanks again for the ideas..bark rubbing & bat listening😮mine would love that, X will try all ideas on the list X

Hellooooo, I’m at £2700 and paying down with a view to being out of debt in March. No interest on it so not panicking yet. It was at about 4K in November. No kids, affordable mortgage but want to change my deal this year.

Any tips? I noticed the OP mentioned WhatsApp groups to share spending - Splitwise is useful for this, even if you don’t use it for it’s actual purpose (ie splitting a bill).

Flaming
The main thing with debt management is to understand what spending patterns got you there in the first place .... then it will not happen again.

Casteil
Get the kids to look up and then work out how to make fire ....
HOURS of free entertainment and a cool life skill

Yeah, unfortunately my income is decreasing by around £300pm come April which isn’t ideal. So I need out of debt by then.

Tough times ahead but at least you are planning forward. Well done.

Technically it’s a good thing, I’m dropping a day at work. But obv having to rein things in! So I do plan and budget but don’t then stick to it.

Bit late in but I'm going to jump on this thread.

£4500 on shared loan with DH
£3500 across 2 credit cards for me

Not sure how much DH has on his credit card - we may be (quite happily!) married but he is very private about money. The only thing we share are mortgage and bills, and I am quite happy with this arrangement.

Now expecting first child, due August this year.

Should I attempt to pay off at least my credit cards before then (doable in 6 months if I'm smart enough) or just keep paying the minimum and put what I would pay off card with into current account or savings for the impending arrival?

Not sure what to do for the best, just really worried about having credit card and loan commitments whilst on SMP etc.

Really panicking!

What is the interest situation with the credit cards?

Personally I’d be paying the credit cards off to get rid of that debt rather than saving - they’re not really savings if there’s debt iyswim? I’m sure loads of people on this thread will give better advice than me though