So much debt

Ah come on now,what are you not telling us ?

You've E25,000 in loans and overdrafts,you haven't paid the gas,esb,sky or phone and have major arrears in most of them.
And unless i've missed something you're trying to make out it's takeaway's, petfood and the odd taxi.

Where has all that money gone,when you weren't paying the bills what were you doing with it,i sense denial here or a wind up ?
 
You must sit down and draw up a realistic BUDGET just like a business has to do to succeed. On the left hand side of the page list all of your monthly income from ALL sources. On the right hand side list ALL of your expenses including those that are being accumulated such as Insurance, electricity etc. Lets then have a look at the BALANCE to determine the exact couirse of action you need to take URGENTLY.
 
thewatcher said:
i sense denial here or a wind up ?
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I find your comment very insulting. Everything i mentioned above is exactly the situation i am in right now. There is no denial and this aint a wind up. I have already mentioned that it was my spending on take-away foods, convenient stores, from sitting down the other night i realised it was a mixture of 150 euros a week spent between the two. So now i know where money is going, i just want to get onto the right track.
The reason i came into arrears in various things was due to been unemployed from Jan to July. I was claiming unemployment benefit. My partner does not work as he is disabled. So he gets disability benefit. But since i started working in August, both our income can pay off some of the bills when they come in, rent has always been paid on time. Which is why im trying to do as much overtime as possible.
 
mingle said:
I find your comment very insulting. Everything i mentioned above is exactly the situation i am in right now. There is no denial and this aint a wind up. I have already mentioned that it was my spending on take-away foods, convenient stores, from sitting down the other night i realised it was a mixture of 150 euros a week spent between the two. So now i know where money is going, i just want to get onto the right track.
The reason i came into arrears in various things was due to been unemployed from Jan to July. I was claiming unemployment benefit. My partner does not work as he is disabled. So he gets disability benefit. But since i started working in August, both our income can pay off some of the bills when they come in, rent has always been paid on time. Which is why im trying to do as much overtime as possible.
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Still can't see where the money went.

Your getting 600pw your rent is 175pw + food 150pw,that leaves 275pw. When you were unemployed you should have been getting rent allowance and yet you seem to have paid none of your houshold bills in a long time.

Where did the E25,000 go ?Did you buy anything with this you can realise to clear debts ?
 
thewatcher: Give her a break. If you're not keeping track of your money, then it's easy to start throwing it away.

mingle: You're in fairly serious trouble here. The fact that nearly all your utilities are overdue is a serious cause of concern.

mingle said:
Eircom: Arrears 120 (once paid finally gone)

Smart Telecom: 35 per month (has been paid on time so far)

3G Phone: 45 last month went up to 70 (in arrears with this at the moment). Tried to find someone to take over bills, but no one around me wants a bill phone.
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Seriously consider cutting the broadband, especially if you have the internet at work. Are you tied into a contract with it? Do you really need to have it? The 3G phone needs to go. I assume you're in a contract with it. What are the penalties for leaving the contract? €70 a month is a ridiculous expenditure for someone in your position. 2nd hand mobile + free sim card + €10 a month credit should do you.

mingle said:
Sky TV: 68 a month, in arrears of 190 service is cut off. Thinking of cutting off movies and sports and bringing package down to 29.99
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No offence, but you don't have the luxury of being able to afford €30 a month on TV, let alone €68. This luxury needs to be completely stopped at least until you've sorted out your situation.

mingle said:
Food: Here is where we over spend. Not on grocery shopping but on take-away food. We spend approx 70 a week on this. How much should a weekly/monthly shopping between Lidl & Tesco Value be for 2 people. We def need to cut down on this. Also cans of coke in the shop and kitten food/litter etc. All in the local shop.

Clothing: Never bought anything in ages. But desperatly needing something for work.

Cleaning Products: Have never bought in a weekly/monthly shopping, just bought whenever we needed things, didnt keep track of cost, but it was in local shop so cost savings could have been made elsewhere ie Lidl.

Health & Beauty: Like cleaning products, bought whenever we needed them ie in the local shop ie shampoo, soap, personal items, body sprays etc.

Pet Food: 3 boxes of whiskas kitten a week, over a month costs 70euros, inc a large bag of food for hamster. (just a cost, never bought this way yet)
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Lidl, Aldi, Tesco Value Brand, Penney's and second hand shops are the only places that you should be buying the above from.

You need to make a point of never visiting your local Spar/Centra/Petrol station shops. It's something that I do myself (most of the time). Get into Tesco/Aldi/Lidl and keep track of prices. Also, make sure you take a shopping list and stick to it.

I won't go as far as suggesting you should give up the pets!

mingle said:
Entertainment: Rarely go out, when do would spend approx 50euros on drinks and niteclub entry. Nightclub 12 euros, smirnoff ice 5euros each, usually drink 4 bottles from 9pm until 2am 20.00euros. Maybe food - 5euros, and taxi home 9euros.
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Once a month, if you're good.

You said your partner is on disability? Is this permanent? I don't mean to cause offence but is his condition such that he really can't work any kind of job?
 
To the OP. Ok, you're on 2200 pm, which is about 32k a year?

You're in a mess, not sure why, but that's irrelevant as far as my reply is concerned.

You need to pay off all the urgent bills immediately - i.e. those that are so far in arrears that you're gonna have debt-collection agencies/solicitors banging on your door.

In order of preference:
a) Cold turkey for 6 months - all your spending down to your bus fare must be managed. In 6 months' time, you may still be in debt, but you will be in controlled debt and will be able to untighten your belt and allow for some small treats in your lifestyle. Uncontrolled debt is one step away from being on the street.
b) Sell all your non-essential personal belongings (TVs, iPods, computers, cars, dryers, hairdryers, books, CDs - literally everything you own - most of it was probably bought on borrowed money anyway, so it's not really yours in the first place.
c) ring up MBNA credit card and get a 6 month interest free balance transfer
d) ring up onedirect.ie (or similar) - they are easier to get loans from, but they charge higher interest rates. Make absolutely sure you are only borrowing exactly what you need - don't borrow E500 extra for that holiday/spa weekend to de-stress yourself - you don't deserve a holiday and going away/treating yourself will only make you feel worse and put you in a worse situation.
e) borrow money from friends (warning: you must pay them back promptly even if they insist you don't)
 
thewatcher said:
i sense denial here or a wind up ?
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If anyone senses a 'wind up' when someone is asking a question they are free to:

(a) report the thread to the moderators; or
(b) ignore the thread in question

Accusing other posters of making up debt problems for a laugh in the forum rather than by (a) above will not be tolerated.
 
thewatcher said:
Where has all that money gone,when you weren't paying the bills what were you doing with it,i sense denial here or a wind up ?
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I'd have to echo the initial concerns here of thewatcher. If anyone is trying to get out of such a serious debt situation, the first step must be to understand how they got into that situation in the first place.

€32k per year wouldn't be insufficient to carry on a lifestyle described above (excluding debt repayments), so I'm not sure that this would be what EH would call "lifestyle debts".

Yet, the op has €26,500 in debts and overdue bills. The OP needs to understand how they got into that situation before any of the above comments and advice can be of any assistance at all.
 
Thanks everyone for your comments. I'll take them all into account.

The reason i got myself into this in the first place was basically been unemployed and still spending as if i was still working.

Basically my total income for the first 7 months of the year was a total of

165.84
165.84
051.60
=====
382.98 * 28 week (7 months) = 10, 723.44

First of all i had been with my last employer 6 years, had 2 weeks off for christmas, was automatically approved a 10,000 loan which i took and used it to go on hols, get through christmas etc. I got a call new years day saying the company is closing down. Just got engaged etc, horrible time. Spent some money here and there doing 6 week courses.
Most bills had been paid on time, just a few like esb, bord gais etc.
Also at christmas time i moved into a house instead of that horrible apartment i had been renting. Which cost me 700 euros deposit and then 700 month in advance. So while both of us unemployed we had to already pay out 6,300.
Plus with the overspending on shops etc is why im in this mess already. What happens now is when i pay arrears the next bill comes in. Both my loans are not in arrears anymore, just the credit card, the card has been fully cancelled. I have never been in arrears with my rent. Just the few bills. Eircom is also sorted, had changed to smart for free line rental, we dont even use the phone. I have a company mobile with free call value every month, if i wanted to cancel 3 it would cost me over 400 euros.
We are already going without the tv as sky has cut us off.

so now im working our combined income after tax is 28400. Partner is blind. Tried to get rent allowance, but landlord wants us to be there a year before he would consider it. Just checking our repayments i guess.
 
mingle said:
First of all i had been with my last employer 6 years, had 2 weeks off for christmas, was automatically approved a 10,000 loan which i took and used it to go on hols, get through christmas etc.
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You spent €10k over Christmas and a holiday? :eek:

Fair enough. That takes into account the first €10k loan. You'd have had the 2nd €10k loan before you lost your job presumably. Where did that €10k go?
 
ronan_d_john said:
You spent €10k over Christmas and a holiday? :eek:

Fair enough. That takes into account the first €10k loan. You'd have had the 2nd €10k loan before you lost your job presumably. Where did that €10k go?
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Basically i used the 10,000 loan to go to america for 2 weeks, New York, Orlando, & St Petersburg Beach. Inc spending it was roughly 6,000.
Then we used 1,400 of it to pay for the rental and deposit of the house. (never thought i'd get the call)

To be honest, the rest was used to buy chrismtas presents, sorting out the house, buying clothes etc.

The previous loan with GE was 10,000. That was used to get a car and pay insurance etc, car has been sold since last year etc.

So currently now the loans are sorted, i have set up direct debit to come out of my pay day. So will not go into arrears again with these. Already have arranged to pay a set amount per month direct debit off the credit card.

Never getting a loan again. Never getting into this position again. Do you think its a wise idea to have all bills come out direct debit. I have heard so many bad stories about this. Problems with so many banks re: direct debit.
 
mingle said:
The previous loan with GE was 10,000. That was used to get a car and pay insurance etc, car has been sold since last year etc.
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What's the balance on the GE Loan then? You're paying off a loan which you took out to buy an asset that you don't even have any more? Did you buy the car new?

mingle said:
Do you think its a wise idea to have all bills come out direct debit. I have heard so many bad stories about this. Problems with so many banks re: direct debit.
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Direct Debit isn't the problem here. DD is only used to pay off the spending that you've already initiated yourself. If there's any issue for people with direct debit, it's their own insane spending habits that are the problem, not DD.
 
mIngle,
firstly get yourself a small notebook, and write in it todays date and everything you spend from this moment on!
as soon as the money leave you hand, write it down.... you'll probably find a couple of areas where money has gone that you haven't factored into the infomation above (newspaper, magazines, can of mineral, bottle of water...) you'll be shocked at how much those €2 small purchases can add up to.
Are there any options for car sharing, if a co-worker lives close by they may like to share the petrol costs, and it should be cheaper for you - plus if you are spending on the any of the above, a door to door trip cuts out temptation.
Talk to Mabs, if you've just gotten engaged, you'll need to get a firm handle on your finances, otherwise you may not get the start in life you both want....
 
If you're working with O2 now, they are part of the Tax Saver scheme for transport, so if you're using bus eireann, you should be able to get an annual ticket deducted directly from your salary. As its deducted from gross income, you should be looking at a cost of approx €30...
Also cut off sky completely, you can't afford €29.99 a month at the moment.
Bring your own lunch 3 days a week, it another €30 a month towards paying off your loans.
Have you considered moving, €700 for a place that isn't close to your work seems pretty high.... consider sharing a house, you may lose you privacy for a years or so, but you'll get your finances back in order.
 
I know you don't need to spend more, but I found this book extremely helpful, very easy to read and understand. I mean that and it will help.

Four Laws of Debt Free Prosperity by Blaine Harris. Approx € 20
 
oh and get your partner to join the library and instead of watchin telly read a few books - its also a great place to find out about local, free stuff that is on.
I was in the "breadline mode" like you for a while, without debt but I know how daunting it is especially when you have been used to spending.

Also you only mention your spending - does your partner tend to fritter away money too? it will be very hard to be skint if he is spending away on take out etc aswell so make sure you are on the same page.
 
Tried to get rent allowance, but landlord wants us to be there a year before he would consider it.
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Can he do this? Maybe he just doesn't want to declare rental income to the revenue. You should be getting rental allowance!
 
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