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?

What about if you do the standard minimum direct debit and then an additional £5 or £10 a month standing order .... that would rapidly make a massive difference

Make sure your standing order doesnt get deducted from your direct debit. Some lenders will take it as an additional payment (mbna for example), but most will use it to reduce the dd - so time it right

I'm in! ...1800 credit card 1800 car repairs loan and about 3600 car loan. Am so tired of it. Should be able to pay 500 off the credit card after Christmas and then chip away at it over 2019. Very frugal Christmas. Car repairs loan was 2200 initially (such a blow just after mat leave) ...hoping for a tax rebate in Feb to clear some of it. The goal is to end 2019 as near to debt free as possible. Cutting spending is a big goal as I want to have savings for these things in the future.

@Talkinpeece is the standing order thing the same as changing the DD amount for £10 more than the minimum payment?

Puppy
Yup.
I linked to the spreadsheets thread earlier (and bumped it to the top of the board)
Even the FSCS agrees with me now

I have £20k loan left from bank but that's from my double extension 7 years left on that and I don't want to borrow anything that big again .
The £1300 on my credit card bothers me the most my dh doesn't know it's that much but it's not like I'm a shopping addict I've just used it for a couple of things that come up this year I had almost paid it off early in the year so was miffed . It's 0% at the minute so paying £100-£200 off a month . I'm hopeful I can pay off in 6 months . I have about £100 left on next account so paying that off £30 a month I'm trying not to use . I've been using the chip app to save money it calculates how much to save . I've saved £120 and only been using a month . I'm trying to save a couple more weeks then going to use for some Christmas shopping. Next year I'm going to use to save hopefully enough pay my credit card and enough for a holiday .

Every time you clear a debt, snowball the amount you were paying off that one onto the next one
and then when they are all gone, pile that same money into savings

if you can get used to living within your means while paying off debt, the time afterwards will be a lot more fun

Me and dh just managed to get all our credit card debt into new 0% deals, they had gone up to 18-22%APR This month so I'm really glad we managed to transfer them I didn't think we would get approved. Can't wait till these are all paid off and ill never get another one again.

Just wanted to offer some hope. 2 years ago I was consistently in approx £10k debt. Now I have no debt and a healthy level of savings. Did this by
Paying off the debt that bothered me most .. not necessarily the biggest
Using cash wherever possible
Saving my change below 50p
The save a pound a day method
Thinking about the amount of stuff I buy vs what I need

@Talkinpeece I did start doing that after a few months but the rates were still high! One has only about £45 left then the rest is catalogues and shit I didn't need

I'm in. I have just shy of £5k in credit card debt (left over from our wedding and honeymoon plus car repairs). I'm currently on mat leave so things are tight but I'm going to try the SO method as id be paying the min at least anyway. DH has around £10k of various debts so we could do with being more frugal in general. I'm using a gift app to budget for Xmas and we've shamelessly taken up Xmas food and drink invites from relatives who want to see DD. We're also trying to eat down our freezer stockpile.

Can I join?
I've got 1600 a credit card tu 1700 and another credit card of 1200. Both on 0% until Dec 2019. I'm desperate to pay both off as I only work part time so its quite a big chunk of my earnings each month. I pay 100 to one and whatever I have laft to the other. This month I paid £395 off one as I did some overtime last month. Good luck everyone

Debts on 0% are a good start. Keep then ticking down and throw all your resources on whichever has the highest interest rate

DO NOT let anybody sell you a consolidation loan

just take control of the borrowing you have
and use the budget sheet (in the spreadsheets thread) to make sure you get your spending under control

Not an option for everyone but my work was really busy so I did heaps of overtime and really blasted through my debt. It was hugely satisfying.
I have £2900 to go. It was at £8000. All from court and mediation etc managing abusive ex after I escaped him. . Goal is to pay it off before my 0% ends in 2 years. Ex had managed to combine HMRC he lives below the poverty line so the child maintenance has dropped hugely but I still plan to get there

*convince

I've just downloaded the fudget app, I saw it recommended on a post here somewhere. It's handy to track monthly income and expenditure. You can make a list of all outgoings and cross them off as you pay them. I found it difficult to figure out if there'd be enough to pay whatever bill was next by looking at my bank account but this is really helpful. You can get it for free but I paid (less than £2) for the full version. So now my current account is under control I can try chip away at the debt

does anybody else feel that their partners attitude to debt and spendingnis the main barrier to getting out of debt?

TotallyClueless - I'm not in your position but that must be tough. Our problems have been that I spend at times when I shouldn't but in fairness, I've always been careful with things like food shopping and negotiating our direct debits etc. DH though doesn't ever check our bank balance. I've told him our situation but obviously don't update him daily and I do find he wastes money on buying coffee on the go and other little daily expenses that really mount up.

Does your DH understand your financial situation?

Thanks Redfin for the fudget recommendation. I have tried it and it's great. Is there a way to record recurring transactions (I don't have the paid version). I've put in my pay dates to the beginning of Feb so I can see what disposable income I have left and what's leftover. Of course the bastard oil change light is on in my car and its only July since I had a 2200 repair bill (ireland) so fed up of it . My aim is to have an emergency fund for this crap so it's as routine as paying the electricity bill. Not panicky like it is now.
@totallycluelessoverhere that can definitely sometimes be the case. Differing attitudes to money can be a big problem. I think it's about Having a clear conversation about what's important to you and why and see if there's a middle ground. If over time there's no improvement then it's time for damage limitation and self preservation measures!

money and chrissmas my husband does understand our financial situation to the extent that he realises we have debts but he doesn’t seem to have much financial awareness generally or much concern about spending money we don’t have. He treats his credit card like cash in his bank account and always maxes out his card (fortunately just has the one card in his name). He doesn’t know when his direct debits come out and last time he went up to his overdraft limit I realised that he wasn’t even certain of the date he gets paid his salary. I ensure all the household bills are paid and my husband just has a standing order to me for a set amount towards the bills each month. We don’t share a bank account and both have individual money after paying our share into the household and food bills pot.

I have debt, but less than half what my husband has and my credit card is on 0% and is slowly reducing.
I won’t combine all of our money due to our differing atttitudes but it’s still difficult because he never has any money and I end up paying for the majority of stuff for the kids which means I can’t reduce my debts as quickly as I would like.
I feel like I should be working towards getting us both out of debt as we are a family and really all the debt is ours (combined ours) as we are married but it’s difficult because I think he will just run up debt again of I sort it out.

We are expecting a lump sum of £20k next year and I have at least managed to convince him to pay it all off the mortgage rather than his original plan of home improvements (which can wait). The one thing he doesn’t treat as cash is the equity in our home.

Can I join? I'm so desperate to get out of debt, it makes me feel sick when I think of how much I owe.

I have 1370 on a cc, £470 on another, and £1800 on a loan. I'm not getting any help with child maintenance and I am self employed.

I'm not feeling sorry for myself and I want to clear the debt.

Lived
Both credit cards - move them to standing orders and then ignore.
Loan - it has to plod along.
Then start working out your budget and it will be fine.

I've been reading your advice on previous threads and have been interested to try the standing order technique.

I'm feeling more positive already!