Went through our finances and we're fucked.

I can't believe how much you've achieved today!

You've taken this situation by the horns and are holding on and sorting out.

You've already sold on tinted, cancelled all direct debits and standing orders you don't need.

Making this like another job and being pragmatic is really good way to deal with this. Hopefully you'll be looking back in 12 months time and looking back and feeling - wow that was the day I turned our lives around. You should be proud of yourself today for taking the first steps

If you need any spread sheets for side hustle incomes, let me know

They have £4500 between them, for two people, so that would only be slightly more than the average salary?

@Peonyblush81 I would class that as slightly, it's not significantly more than average!

A huge well done for everything you have achieved so far @ClusterFukt

Sometimes with things like this, taking the first step is the hardest.

At the end of the week work out what you’ve made / saved this week and pay it off the council tax bill. Even if it’s not a fortune it’s a really good feeling to start reducing them down.

If you can get in the habit of paying extra bits of money off that debt as you go, it’ll make a real difference. And of course once that is paid you can spend the money which you were using to service that one on the next debt and the repayment will snowball.

Youve got this 😊

OP included UC and child benefit, she earns slightly less than average, her DH slightly more so fairly average earners without the benefits

OP can you add to the spread sheet your savings?

Sold items, apple, subscriptions, etc - this will give you a boost - you can throw this money at the smallest dept - which will save interest. Then snowball on to the next one.

There are ways to support someone suicidal and ways to make them feel worse and more likely to do it. Take care with what you write.

We don't agree because debt costs you loads of money whilst savings don't earn you much if anything. Saving whilst you still have debts is like burning tenners.

12345mummy

this doesn’t make sense financially, the debts might be on 28Apr and saving isn’t going to help

There are ways to get out of it, I've been in worse debt - through general overspending too - though it took years & was really hard & horrible
And I was too embarrassed to discuss it with many people. My partner at the time wouldn't even share basic finances with me, he was really angry when he found out how bad it was & refused to ever discuss it again.
Step Change were amazing, they would literally answer the phone every day & let me cry & rage & then find out a way to make the vultures stop. And they do it for free.
I paid back over £55k over 8 years once the interest was frozen, it did affect my credit score but no IVA's were needed. And l still managed to get a mortgage afterwards eventually.
Don't lose all hope, use the help that's out there, please.

It does, because it’s psychological. The savings are there to stop you going into more debt.

They’re either an advance payment for bills you know will come due, or an emergency fund for those curve balls life throws at you. But what they’re really there for is to put a complete stop on going deeper into debt.

It’s not complete nonsense, but it is more difficult to make money from it than they make out. You’d probably make more money more reliably from babysitting.

You’ve already managed to come up with a number of things you can do to raise money using the skills you’ve got - concentrate on them right now.

Think priorities. Priority: a budget. Priority: a payment plan. Priority: side hustles you already know you can do and don’t need to research beyond finding a suitable website. You’re working on all these - realise that you’re already doing brilliantly. Keep going.

Big priority: learning to spend less than you earn, which is hard. The world is full of people trying to encourage you to spend money. Your mantra for the next few months, until you know how much you can spend is “Do I really need it?”

And remember, baby steps work. Every day you spend less than you earn is a win. Every day you pay something off your debts is a win.

Keep going.

So Vinted, as someone says for clothes just use carrier bags and clean bin bags. No fancy packaging needed.
Once listed bag up all the stuff that if it doesn't sell youd get rid of to the charity shop. I keep it 4 weeks, then drop to about £1 per item (clothes etc) and then get rid of it. Feels good to declutter.
For more expensive items, I hold longer but adjust the prices, I also consider offers too. I normally keep them if they don't sell.

And once you have funds in your account, transfer to bank and pay straight off some debt. My credit card once had about 8 payments on it one month.

Finally I am not encouraging you to spend ag all, but for stuff you absolutely need, say a winter coat for your youngest then look on Vinted too. It will be a fraction of the price in the shops.

huge good luck. Every £1 you make/clear gives you a small step closer to being debt free.

It does, because it’s psychological.

as pp states you might as well burn £10 notes
🔥 perhaps have that image in your head to help you psychologically

I do agree paying off is the way to go rather than saving at this point . Debt is soo expensive . It's taking money out of the family budget . Every month .

When you see what you are doing working, you’ll get addicted.

I also agree with starting a savings pot, because watching it grow is magic. I started with £25 a month for Christmas, I now save £250 a month minimum, sometimes £500.

Much nicer than paying debt.

@ClusterFukt

I'm so sorry you were in such a head spin over this. It sounds like you've had some amazing advice and you've got plans for action.

Re Vinted, I've been selling for a year. Best thing is to list a few things every couple of days. That way, your items get recommended to people who've been searching for those categories. If you upload everything at once, you only get one chance at being recommended.
Also if stuff doesn't sell after a couple of weeks, take it down and relist. Good luck x

Imagine a scenario in which someone concentrates on paying off the debt first rather than saving. And they pay it all off. No more burning ten pound notes.

And imagine that, just as they’ve got to that magic zero, an unexpected family crisis comes along… and the only available solution is to go back into debt. Burning yet more ten pound notes with another set of interest payments. Only now the interest payments are higher, because inflation…

I don’t have to imagine it, because it happened to me. And it’s a very common problem; so common that organisations like StepChange will recommend that you start saving so you can avoid it. They’ll even advise you to discuss a small savings plan when you arrange a Debt Management Plan.

Yes, burning ten pound notes sound horrific. But not half as horrific as the feeling that whatever you do, you can’t ever get out of debt. Because whatever you do to try and pay it off, there’s always a knock back.

You can talk about burning tenners all you like - but what you really need if your tenners are burning is a fire extinguisher. And that’s what a small savings fund is.

Am loving this thread today and all the great advice and ideas being shared by everyone

It's also inspired me to go thru all my crap this weekend and get a load listed in Vinted to clear it all out.

Just had a £900 vet bill and an imminent equal sized car bill to pay so could do with some extra money.

I'm very lucky that I only owe dribs and drabs now after spending many many years working two jobs each and scraping but I'm at the stage where I currently don't have a good savings safety net so my plan will be to have a clear out and stick a load of Vinted and deepop this weekend.

Its been great to read your positive posts today.
Some brilliant and helpful suggestions as well

And imagine that, just as they’ve got to that magic zero, an unexpected family crisis comes along… and the only available solution is to go back into debt. Burning yet more ten pound notes with another set of interest payments. Only now the interest payments are higher, because inflation…

If you pay one debt off that was £3000 and the interest 30% on credit card and then pay of £150 per month instead of £300 and place the other £150 into a savings pot and earn 5% interest

Paying £150 a month on £3000 will mean that you pay from now until November 2025 and you'll pay £4004 in total. If you paid £300 a month you'd reduce the interest to £426 and the time paying to 12 months. You'd make a saving of £575 in interest payments - thats nearly 5 months payments

If you saved the £150 instead for 12 months at 5% interest you'd have in 12 months, you'll have £1848 and make £48 in interest. You'd still have 15 months of payments at £150

If you pay of the debt in 12 months and then save 300 per month in the remaining 15 months - at the end of the 15 months you'd have £3697 and £97 in interest.