Spare money each month? Wish I didn't have any credit card debt!!

[SockThing]

I have £962 incoming each month (wages, tax credit and child benefit) and pay £500 to the house account (to go towards mortgage and bills) £180 in credit card payments, £20 phone and a £5 donation to a charity.

That leaves me with £257 each month for petrol, clothes, going out etc. DH and I have separate accounts and pay a set amount into the joint account each month then the rest of our money is our own. He only earns slightly more than me but has no debts.

I just can't see a time when I won't have debts. I haven't spent any money on my credit card for about 4 months - its not in my purse - but its going down so slowly because of the interest.

I was thinking of asking my brother (who has money in bank and would probably lend me some interest free) for a loan to cover the credit card and pay him back over the next 18 months.

I really want another baby but can't have one yet as we can't afford it until I have these debts paid as I would be on less money after another baby.

How much spare money do people have to literally spend on clothes, magazines, whatever you want? I wonder if I could pay more off my credit card each month and live a bit more frugally? Don't know where to start though...

You don't say how much your credit card is but you're paying quite a large sum to it every month.

It will take ages and ages to pay that card off like that, have you thought about shifting it onto a 0% credit card so you're only paying the debt, no interest. Moneysavingexpert has the best credit cards if you want to do that.

Or you could get a loan to pay the card off, you'll have to pay interest on it but it will be a fixed term, so you'd know that in say 5 years, the debt will be paid.

If you do decide to do this DO NOT USE ANOTHER CREDIT CARD!!!!!!

I didn't know anyone still offered 0% credit cards.

SockThing -- write down everything you spend, ask yourself before each purchase if you really need it or if you could spend less to get it, at least.

I buy my clothes in charity shops, and that's pretty rarely. Gifts to child relatives and friends (not DC) rarely cost more than a fiver. I buy the "3 for a quid" birthday cards on the street market.

Most DC clothes are castoffs from friends (yes, we have nice friends, they aren't especially nice clothes). DC are getting fussier about clothes as they get older, so I do buy some clothes new. School uniform bits from the Lost Property Sales once a term (quid an item). Maybe 2-3x/month I might have lunch out or buy a newspaper or magazine -- but we don't have any debts.

I didn't know that they don't do 0% credit cards anymore!! Blimey things must be bad!
I suppose as I don't need one, I'm not keeping up with what they're doing anymore.

I just looked at moneysavingexpert site and they still do 0% balance transfers. You'd have to pay around 2.5% fee but it may be worth it to get your debt down a bit.

Obviously, the good thing to do would be to make serious cut backs like others have suggested, but trying to pay a credit card like this can take a long time adn you are paying a huge amount of interest each month.
Have a look into a 0% balance transfer, pay the same amount you're paying now, make those cut backs adn put the extra into the card debt.

You have all been really helpful, thank you.

I have got things sorted, spoken to DH, have a book I am writing down every outgoing in so I can see what I am spending. Have taken out a loan for £4000 (amount of all my debt) which I am paying off at £235 a month for 18 months so I know that come summer 2010 I will be debt free. I will still have over £200 a month for petrol etc so am feeling a lot more positive.

DH was great and he is sorting xmas presents out for everyone this year (well except himself!).