Reducing Debt.

[bulldog5046]

Hi guys,

I'd appreciate some advice with this as i'm struggling to reduce my debts currently. Possibly just bad money management...

I've got around £2200-2300 on credit cards which over the last 10 months i've just not managed to reduce.

This all started when i lost my job and was out of work for a month, everything went on the credit card to pay for things and get me through with the full intention of paying it off when back in work, but this hasnt worked out as i planned.

Essentially, my income is equal to, or less than my outgoings.... not good.

While now & again i have overtime etc that allows me to clear some of the debt there inevitably seems to be some future expense that puts back where i started.

I did get this down to £1900 (from 2.5k) a few months ago with a large amount of overtime pay and moved £1700 to a 22 month interest free credit card leaving me £200 to clear on the other, but i've ended up increasing this to £550 rather than paying it off as the car needed servicing, and now needs a new set of tyres which is going to make atleast another £350 disappear

I've downloaded copies of my bank statements and categorised everything to look for money being wasted etc and i could find a small amount which is spent on food, lunches at work atc but it wasnt a huge figure.

I have considered selling some items to clear the debt but this looks like it would only be a short term win, i would eventually end up back where i started.

How do i beat this vicous cycle and get ontop of it all?

I hope the post doesnt come across all childish and whingy, I really think my problems are with money management and i just need some good advice for budgeting better.

Thanks,
Ryan

[bulldog5046]

Thanks for the pointers, i'll check out MSE further.

Ryan

[bulldog5046]

I can't deny i do have spending habits. Although i would like to point out the track car i only paid £25 for those tyres it shreadded and the track days themselves were free.

It's easy to say 'sell the car' but with things like these, i'll only see half what i've spent on it back if im lucky.

Also, an 80 mile daily cylce is a little off putting :P

I'm sure i must be overlooking some thing, i'll go back over my statements and see where i can find some money to free up.

EDIT: I'm possibly making thing's sound worse than they really are. I have around £400 of overtime coming in at the end of this month, an iphone 4 for sale for £175-200 which combined will make a considerable dent in the debt, i've just been feeling a bit like as soon as i pay anything, another bill comes along.

Edited by bulldog5046 on Tuesday 2nd October 17:25

[bulldog5046]

walm said:

Did you buy it?
Jesus wept.

No, i moved to Three.

Thanks for some of the more helpful replies above.

[bulldog5046]

I'm sorry but alot of what is being said appears to to have an extremist view, It's coming across along the lines of "SELL EVERY POSSESION OR YOU WILL DIE!" kind of mentality. Maybe thats just the PH way? or maybe £2200 sounds like alot and you are presuming i earn dole money?

The reality is much more as Groak has put it:-

groak said:

There are, essentially, two types of debt.

1) debt you feel comfortable about servicing and are happy to work to maintain.

2) debt whose servicing makes you feel uncomfortable in a spectrum from stressed to suicidal including the feeling of enslavement.

My advice is to get as much of 1) as you can, wherever you can, and to do everything possible to get rid of 2) regardless of what it means sacrificing or selling.

So, i had a bit of a stty weekend, felt a bit bad and felt like life was hard for a day so asked for help. PH was obviously the wrong place to do this with the 'holier than thou' attitude some of you have displayed. You can't honestly tell me none of you have ANY debts?

Some of the points from other post's are valid, and to help me clear the debt i will be looking to cut-back on lunches & beer for example as when reviewing my spending last night it was a clear high monthly expense. I will also be selling off a few items that i no longer need to go towards it, but it seems illogical to sell items i need and use daily.

Thanks again to those who gave helpful & balanced comments.

/thread

[bulldog5046]

z4chris99 said:

£2200 isn't a lot of money no, but if you are complaining out loud about having it and struggling to reduce it while you have many clear options which you could clear it in one swoop, none of which you appear to want to take because you value materialistic items such as your BMW and your iphone 5 more greatly than being debt free.

i find it astonishing that you brought an iphone 5 on your credit card. then complain about being in debt.

Then prepare to be astonished, it was £80, not the £529 everyone is obsessing over. And, it was paid from a Debit card, not credit.

Look, i've already said, i was having a bad day and feeling a bit down about it. It just felt like every time i pay something off another bill rears it's head rady to snatch more money.

To a degree you (all of you) are correct, i should reign my spending back some amount to compensate for the upkeep of my lifestyle. Clearly i've not found this balance yet.

But i disagree with the comments regarding the severity and degree of debt management that should be put into place.

As said, it should become 'manageable' not expect it to clear it overnight by selling all my possesions.