Money, money, money

[stonybroke]

Hi there - could really do with some advice, opinions, experience! I have changed my name (what a wimp!) as I am too embarrassed to use my normal name. I am even nervous as I type, as I know some will wonder how we got in this mess.

Anyway... the subject is AGGGHHHHHH MONEY! We are in a major, and I mean major, mess and we have worked all weekend on figures trying to work out the solution.

I don't have the exact figures with me but the situation is:

We owe £30,000 on credit cards, personal loans, car loan.
We own our house through a shared housing scheme, where we have a mortgage for half and rent half. The equity is only around £8,000. Property prices don't go up very much where we live approx. £2,000 per year. Our mortgage is £31,500

We need a new roof, we only have two bedrooms and now need additional one with dd's arrival. We could convert our room into two bedrooms for 2 kids and we move into ds room. Our garden needs major work done - it is a big old concrete jungle.

We earn about £26,000 between us. I work parttime, childcare is £75.00 per week.

Anyway there lays bear the facts of the situation - scarey eh? We do not live lavish lives - don't buy many clothes, have had one holiday in 10 years, etc. I stayed at home with my ds for 3 years and that is where the problem began. We also bought our first house in the sticks which turned into a major mistake.

The figures this weekend showed that we get into debt every month just paying for our household bills and loan repayments. That leaves nothing for clothes, going out, christmas, birthdays, etc. No extras of any shape.

The option we think my be the one to go with (even though I am a avid watcher of Alvin Hall and he says never to do this) is to consolidate over 25 years (if we would even be accepted for this?) In theory this would reduce our monthly repayments from approx £750 to aprox £260 or thereabout. That at least would mean we would have some cash for clothes, school fund, christmas, etc.

Anyway, I think that is the details. I am shaking as I type this. Please Please any sound financial advise would be very much appreciated! I am off to the ladies to have a cry.

Hi, back again.

Went to CAB this morning, all psyche up to make some definite decisions. Have been holding off all week and was biting the bit.

Would you believe the appointment was cancelled!!! How dare they! Apparently they tried to ring me on Friday, but didn't get me. I was mad as hell initially and think I scared the receptionist a bit (not normally something I do - not very assertive!) He was so flippant and jovial about it. Anyway have new appointment for Wednesday at 3pm (unfortunately dh won't be able to go though).

When I got home had cup of tea and rang National Debt Helpline that Aloha kindly posted previously. The route they go down, isn't really what we are after. Basically you write down all your income and outgoings (done) excluding any borrowings (including mortgage) and then if you have £100 left over they contact lenders to negotiate a proportionate payment plan. We would be still paying it off when we retire at that rate!!! No thanks! Apparently CAB would do similar type thing. They are not financial advisors, so cannot advise on other loans, credit cards,etc. If we didn't include what we pay out to lenders every month we would be seriously loaded!!

Anyway so what we have done is I have left dh to ring around loan companies and 0% credit cards while I am in work. We want to repay all this asap and this seems to be the sensible option, taking all the advise on board from here. Janstar we are contacting companies with best rates from Money section of Sat Times first! See I do listen!

Thanks again for all your help. Will keep you posted (you're probably sick of hearing about it at this stage - but I figure you don't have to check in if that's the case!! Its good therapy for me to type so hope you don't mind!)
xxx

god, how annoying when you were all geared up for it! And how cheeky to be flippant!

Did you have a look at the Consumer Credit Counselling Service? I don't know if they're any different from what you've already mentioned but worth a look - homepage is here

Also here's the phone number for The Consumer Credit Counselling Service, too: 0800 1381111. They are a charity which offers free, independent, confidential service across the UK, offering one-to-one appointments in addition to their phoneline.

Sorry about the cancellation of your appointment. That must be terribly frustrating. Hang in there!

Hi stonybroke,

Just wondering how you're getting on. Did you get to the CAB?

Hope things are going well!

Hiya Maomao! I had been thinking I should check in to let everyone who supported me (us) through our massive panic attack how we are doing!

Well where do I start? I suppose where we are now! Basically we slowed down (I felt like I was going to have a heart attack or something the way I was going!), took all the advice on board and did lots more research.

The CAB / National Debt line was not the route for us. Basically they take your debt, negotiate minimum repayments and screw your credit rating up for 5 years or something. It could have taken 10 - 15 years to pay off the huge debt going that route. I wanted this off our backs asap.

On another website (courtesy of Zebra, I think) I found out about a thing called 'Snowballing' (which is also similar to something WWW directed us to). Basically we have
No.1 and most importantly STOPPED SPENDING and increasing debt
No.2 Moved cc to 0% interest rate cards (well one so far, waiting for paper work on other)
No.3 This month are working on paying off overdraft.
No.4 Next month tv/video loan.

We are going to pay as much as we can to one loan at a time each month.

We are shopping at Lidl (a revelation, I went shopping last night and spent £36.00 for a week's shop!!!!!).

Anyway........... basically we have got over our panic and have taken ourselves in hand. We are hoping to pay back £1,000 every month (we were paying £730 every month anyway), so should be debt free in 2.5 - 3 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then we can get a house with 3 bedrooms!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are feeling really motivated and strong and I am getting quite a buzz from saving money here and there (found a shop that sells 2 litres milk for 59p!) I am being quite evangelical about the cost of things (oh no, I am soooooo sad!).

Thank you all. I will post a huge banner whenever we become debt free!!!!!!!

Fantastic news, keep it up

Well done!

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Congratulations stoneybroke - well done!

stonybroke, that is such good news, well done both of you!

HOORAY!

Hooray good news. It is quite thrilling saving money, you'll never want to give so much of your to Mr Sainsbury and Mr Tesco again.

But, as robinw says, give yourself some treats as well so you don't slip off the wagon

robinw the CAB debt counsellors are great, it is just that they are there for the very desparate cases rather than stoneybroke, who although thought things were desparate, actually had money coming in every month. My mum works for the CAB and has done for years, it is so rewarding as you are helpping alot of people who really need help. Go for it if you can as willing volunteers are few and far between

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Capital One, no hassle platinum card has 10.9% with 0% for 6 months and 4.9% for the life of any balance transfers.

Should add you can fill in the details on line and they give you a decision straight away.

try capitalone.com

Barclaycard are doing 0% for balance transfers forever, but you have to spend a minimum of £25 per month at 14.9%. Not much cop at links but here goes Barclaycard
You could always do one food shop per month on the card to get the £25 then pay it off when you pay the normal monthly amount.

Beetroot, we have cards that are 0% interest on purchases. When the time period expires we move on to another card. We pay off the balance and then start again with a new card.

Surely if you have a card that is 0% interest on balance transfers you could get one like ours as well and use it for your new purchases and that way you would never pay any interest at all. In fact we make money because we put the money away in a high interest account and only pay off the minimum each month.

At the moment we have a Marbles card. 0% interest on purchases (not cash withdrawals though).

By the way I forgot to say, with the interest free balance transfers card, when the 6 or 9 months is up you just transfer again to a new card, whichever is offering the 0% deal at the time. There is always some company or other doing it.

beety, have a look at this .

Egg normally do 0% on transfers and purchases for 6 months. Avoid the Barclaycard deal - it's a bit of a con.

There is more of this kind of info further down the thread IIRC.