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?

totallyclueless you can swipe each entry and if you star it, it will appear in subsequent budgets. It won't pop into any you've done already

I completely agree about dh playing a huge part in not cutting down on debt quicker. For example, I'd eat cornflakes and pasta for a month and have extra money to throw at the cc bill but he's online buying food supplements and books about whatever takes his fancy because he thinks good quality food is an investment in your body. Which is true. And the book isn't available in the library. Also true. But when it's 15 books a year at £30 each or whatever, it all adds up. But I don't know how to say it without sounding petty. His attitude is that we'll pay off the debt eventually. But when it's me paying off £100 each month off the cc (£2700 to go) and a loan from my mother (£9000? Not actually sure, head in the sand here) it's a long way away at £100a time.

Plus he has a few business ideas and is sure one is going to start earning big "next month". Never this month

If he would not buy impulsively and stick to a budget it would be quicker.

And then I feel well why am I the grumpy boots saying we shouldn't have steak tonight, if you can't beat em, join em. And then we're suddenly in lidl paying £120 when we just wanted "a few bits"

Whew, didn't realise all that was inside me! So any tips on having that conversation are welcome

We have one account for bills. I've decided after Christmas we'll put the petrol and food money in a different account as that's variable to a certain degree. Then at least all the bills will be covered hopefully. And we'll put £20 aside each week for Christmas. I really hate feeling stressed and searching for the most expensive looking cheapest present that the person will still like

Thanks BonBonVoyage. I will try that with the Fudget app. I don't mind adding the transactions in every month. I get paid every 2 weeks and it's very useful to match bills to pay dates.
The past 2 years have been hard financially. Fertility treatment, house and car purchasing and repair bills have been high. Returning to work after mat leave you're now put on a different (harsher ) tax basis and have to apply for a refund early in the following year so my take home took a cut. Anyway 2019 will hopefully be the year I get back on track. I'm throwing every thing at the credit card for early 2019 I want it gone. Most of it is holiday spending to get cheaper flights etc. Probably shouldn't have booked a holiday with debt but it's done now. Then hopefully the tax refund will cover the car repairs loan and the car loan itself will probably have to run it's course. Although it costs interest wise I would rather have spare money for emergency fund/annual bills and I plan to live credit card free if I can.

@BonBonVoyage

What I did when I first started trying to get a handle on the debt properly was to go through 3 to 6 months worth of spending. Worked out what my average bills and essentials cost and worked out the average spend on food. I put it all into a spreadsheet with an column for unnecessary spending. I guess if he could see that he spent £500 on these books or £200 on protein shakes then work out how quickly the Debt could be paid off if you use that money towards it. Having the facts and figures laid out might help your cause.

RedDead that's a good idea. Hard to argue with a cumulative figure!

Just moved my CC to 0%

Was paying £70 a month and the new CC is looking for £25 - I feel they have done this to eeek out the repayment so you still owe money at the end of the free period

I will do a direct debit at £50 when the first payment clears

It's not good really!

3.7k on a zero percent card (for our car as much cheaper than a car loan). It's with Sainsbury's and they mess up our statement and payment every month, so in a hurry to see it gone!

Used to be in more debt but following Dave Ramsey babysteps and also #debtfreecommunityuk on Instagram has really helped.

Feeling pretty low this morning
Worked out debts last night
And with our income it gives us about £250 surplus to buy food,petrol and anything else,ie clothes,emergencies,xmas etc!
Am so worried and fell ill
Does anyone have any advice please?
Have tried to cutback with our bills as much as possible
Would it be worth contacting StepChange?
Feel such a failure it has got to this
I worry all the time and it’s on my mind constantly 😭

User147 now is the time to be strong . Your not a failure at all. Finances are tricky and it's very easy to sleep walk into a bad situation. Do what you have to do to get through for now. Basic food and fuel to get to work and a small Xmas gift for dc if you have them. And then every penny you put towards debt gets you a bit further to freedom.

I’ve taken the first step and properly added up my debt. The credit card debt is a little better than I imagined. It is standing at a combined £4050 which is about £400 better Than I thought and I will pay off about £150 this month and then £200 each month after Christmas. It will feel good to get it below £4K. It was at £7k a couple of years ago and I know that’s very slow progress but our income went down by several hundred pounds every month so it’s been difficult.

I’m not even looking at the debt in DH name at the moment but his car loan will be paid off in 18 months.

Yes user do call StepChange. You need to go on to their website first and do a debt remedy where you put in all the details of your budget. Then you call up their helpline and someone will be able to see the budget and will be able to help you. I did it a couple of weeks ago and if nothing else she helped me to see that our situation is not as bleak as I thought it was and helped me to deal with the panic!

Thanks for all your lovely words and support.
Red dead can I ask what they suggested?

X

All our debt is finally at 0% or 3.9% for 5 years. It's a lot more than anyone else's here so far. We are repaying £800 a month which leaves us very little for anything after food and bills. The 15 year old car is about to die and the 15 yr old washing machine finally gave up last week. The hardest thing is avoiding running up new debt whilst paying off the old. There is definitely more we can do to reduce our shopping bill. Christmas is hard to avoid but we only really buy for DS and have learnt not to get carried away with the ridiculously tempting treat food on offer in M&S.

Well it turned out that I have more spare money then I thought I had after they looked at my budget. They said to go back to them after reviewing the budget again but I haven't yet because she was right. We've just paid off a loan and our finances took a couple of months to balance out so that's why I was panicking. I'd forgotten that we have that money that we can help put towards the credit cards. But the woman I spoke to was really nice and not at all judgmental.

I've just downloaded the fudget app as someone else suggested and although it was a bit of a pain to get everything set up on it it gives me a running total which will be helpful because then I can see exactly how much I've got left for the month. Now I just need to remember to add my purchases etc into it.

Thank you everyone
Altogether I have added up our debts and it is about 22000 ☹️
And I feel every month we aren’t actually adding to the debt we are now accumulating an overdraft basically because we only have a surplus of £250 and it just feels not doable to ‘live’ each money or pay anymore off our already debts

X

Any advice would be greatly appreciated x

We started with a debt of £5000 and have now halved it to £2,327 it's all from past christmases and the fact we had our son at 16 so our wages weren't the same as the national living wage so couldn't afford to rent etc

If it helps we've started listening to Dave Ramsey podcasts,it's helped us half the debt in like 3 months which is great. So I'd totally recommend him.

@user1471468104
Make a spreadsheet if you can of each debt and where it's from if it's separate and then do the same for all the bills and monthly expenses by looking at around 3 months worth of bank statements,then work out a daily budget so whatever you have after bills decide that by 28 and that's your daily budget then look at your bills and see what you can reduce by either switching or cancelling if you don't use and try and pay of the smallest debts first.

Can I join?
£7000 on 0% credit card. This was £8500 at beginning of year and I put all debt on one interest free card including overdraft. Have been chipping away at it. Also did an app called the chip app- sweeps small amounts from my current account- which means I have a rainy day fund for car etc so I don't get in more debt

User my debt started at around £22k. We are now at about £12k I think. It can be done but it's not going to happen overnight.
Unless we get any large windfalls then we will be paying our debt off for at least another 3 years. Definitely speak to step change. Some of the Solutions they suggested was going to the credit card companies and tell them that I was working with StepChange and see if they could offer me a lower rate of interest or payment holidays and so on.

Also I have made quite a bit in the past from using sites like TopCashback to switch my utilities. Go through all your direct debits and make sure that they are all necessary and see if anything can be switched for cheaper such as gas and electric. Even saving £10 a month will help. Shop around for everything, switch sky etc for freeview. Check around for new deals regularly because there is usually a better deal out there.

mswinters the debt of £4K i listed is just my credit card debt. I also have £800 overdraft.
My husband has around £16k in his name (overdraft, car loan and credit card). So our debt is bigger than most here too but we can all start somewhere.

We'll have to take a car loan out this summer but I don't see that debt as the same as the debt from overspending. Cars are pretty essential and the monthly payment will be the same as what we pay just now on our car lease, only we'll own the car at the end. That, to me, isn't necessarily bad debt.

Can I join you? We are hideously in debt, I am too ashamed to say how much, but much more than any of you have. Hopefully that will make someone feel a little bit better

But, 2019 will hopefully be the year I get to grips with it. Our problem has been a history of extravagant spending when we did have money, and not reining in that lifestyle ŵhen we didn't. Plus fertility treatment. Plus DH starting a new business which is only now finally starting to make a profit.

Our current problem is that we only have about £300 left per month after bills, debt repayments, mortgage etc. That isn't enough for all our food, diesel and general expenses ( as a family of 4 needing to run 2 cars as we live rurally) so we are using the CC at the end of the month for basis. Such as the weekly shop, diesel to get to work, etc.

So we're paying £900 per month back on our debts, but those debts are increasing all the time. . Thankfully I have a secure job and DHs business is picking up but currently we aren't bringing enough in

Hi there Chreub
Any cards that are ticking along, make sure they are on 0% interest or standing order (or prefereably both).
Do a budget - there is a sample layout on my spreadsheets thread

User147
Have you done the standing order trick for all cards ?

it makes such a huge difference it really is worth me banging on about it