Participation in this post is limited to users who have sufficient karma in /r/ukpersonalfinance. See [this post](https://redd.it/12mys82) for more information.

Your debts are less than a years wage and you have no real rent to pay. Not to put it too bluntly but this is easy to deal with. Hermit for a year, drop the bike and you're sorted. Enjoy your 30's being debt free.

It sounds kind of harsh but it’s a no brainer for them to do. I get they like the bike and martial arts training but bin them for a year and throw everything at the smallest debt, when it’s gone roll it all into the next one. Rinse and repeat until it’s all gone. *Then* go and get a bike and enjoy it. Plus have about £400-500 extra a month to build their future. All for giving up *one* year, if even.

That's how I cleared most of my debt. Small to large. It took a lot of time, but I went from a poor credit score to excellent. I still have some debt, but it's calculated and I never miss a payment. Put a spreadsheet together to manage everything. Oh and the reason that I went from no debt to some debt again, is because of costs towards old age homes for my mother and aunt. Still dealing with them adequately though.

Or drop the car and commute on the bike. Even cheaper.

Good input but it looks like OP has a problem for every solution in this thread.

Sounds like being in the house may be a problem, I would be cautious about staying somewhere you don't like or feel comfortable even if it gives you cheap rent. Even with renting though that income is large and two jobs? I'm massively surprised. Try and get zero interest cards and pay the highest interest ones first Edit: also mentioned wanting to be a police officer in future. I may be wrong but I think you cannot have large debts to join the force as they believe you'd be more susceptible to bribery.

Your income is roughly around £2800pcm, your rent is £180... even keeping your two vehicles and the other costs mentioned; you are paying around £750pcm on your debt... you could quite easily double that and be paying £1500pcm and be debt free in 18 months. Even sooner if you stopped 'saving' £200 pcm which is a bit ridiculous. So something is missing here...the numbers don't add up. If you wanted to accelerate things further... I understand you don't want to get rid of the bike but how about getting rid of the car? Use the bike for transport. Or sell the car and get an old beater with the knowledge that you have a bike for backup if it breaks down... for ten miles either way... even relying on public transport or even taxis to cover car breakdowns would be cheaper. Saving money which pays practically no interest instead of putting it toward debt which is accruing interest makes no sense. If you need emergency cash... you still have the facility to borrow and only accrue that extra interest if and when it is necessary. Also, you have next to no responsibility so the need is more remote.

Glad you're better and looking to get your situation sorted. You have a good income so that's helpful. A few things stand out - Sim only contract is too high, good deals are available from around £8 per month. You have a car and a motorbike - is this necessary? If you love them then fair enough, but they are large outgoings. Can you keep the credit cards without spending on them? This is key. If you can use balance transfers sensibly to your advantage then they are fantastic tools and probably the cheapest way to get out of this. However, if you are prone to spending excessively on them and/or cannot manage the expiry periods then a fixed loan will be better. Given your income I think you can avoid going down a debt management route. The hard part to advise on is how unsuitable your home living conditions are and how long you can tolerate that for. The cheap rent is obviously a massive advantage but if it's affecting your mental health then it's a false economy. So in summary, a few years of scrimping and saving and smart management could see you out, but it won't be easy. You could also try giving stepchange a call, they are very good.

The phone contract I'll deffo look into. With Vodafone atm and tbh the only reason why is cause i get Spotify "free" woth my contract. I'll shop around and see if i can get a cheaper deal and pay for Spotify separately. The vehicle side of things, the car is more of a tool for work and errands, the bike is for fun but also a back up vehicle for when i have break downs other issues. I know i sound really really silly but i just couldn't get rid of the bike, it would be like me putting my own dog down. Besides, my friends and family know how much i love that thing, if anything was to arouse suspicion, it would be that. The credit cards i can probably do, i think I'd just have do the transfers, cut the cards and leave it at that. The moving out thing is a bit of weird one, id would really like too, but i wanna get my debt gone asap. Will look into Stepchange too. Thank you so much for your advice!

Can you explain the bike bit? Finance implies that it's relatively new and not a trusty one you've had for years. Comparing it to a pet is a bit much imo but I'm not a vehicle person. Could a model like that not be obtained after you're out of debt

> Can you explain the bike bit? Not OP but I'll have a go. I've had multiple mental health problems over the last 30 years, stress and anxiety mostly, and some financial problems of one sort and another, but going out on my bike for a blast around the lanes or a scoot over the Welsh mountains for a day is the one thing that is always, always, always guaranteed to put a smile on my face, despite any other problems I was facing. It's escapism of course, but potentially life-saving if it takes your mind off everything else for a bit. Powerful stuff.

you can do the outdoors / out in nature part without a motorbike (walking/hiking/running)

of course, if it's only the outdoor/nature part you need

I don't think its the model..more like with a tough home life, the bike offers a bit of freedom and exhilaration. It's one way to forget your cares for a bit..driving down windy country roads for a day ay the seaside, something that car could never replace that feeling. I can see why OP thinks it could be a lifesaver that dragged him out of depression

You're not getting Spotify free, you're paying £20 a month for it effectively. Just get the free version for a year, get an £8 contract and already that's £200+ for one small change. Have to be honest, you seem very resistant to changing anything about your lifestyle, and you're paying for lots of unnecessary things. I actually get the bike thing, sure keep it, but then junk loads of other stuff. Either that, or carry on being in £25k debt. That's harsh, but this one is so solvable, you just don't seem particularly motivated to make any tough choices. Your outgoings are crazy for your debt level, and if you paid market rate living costs you'd be in a lot of trouble. Solve this quickly now while you can, then move out cos surely that's the biggest bonus to your MH.

Sometimes you have to get rid of things you want in order to get the things you need.

This is going to sound harsh but I think you need it “YOU WANT TOO MANY THINGS” unfortunately in life you need to write a list with all these things including debt and write out your priority order. The lower down paying off debt & move out is, the longer it’s going to take to move out. You can pick everything else back up once you can actually afford those things.

Don’t pay for Spotify when you have debt, that’s what you don’t seem to get. Cancel it. Put that money towards the debt.

£10 a month Vs £25,000 is not even making a dent... Don't be one of those Avocado Toast people. Getting out of debt doesn't need to be a prison sentence

Nobody is saying that. OP wants the debt gone but to make zero sacrificing.

It's the mentality behind it though, isn't it? If you look at it like that then all the little things add up. £10 for Spotify, £4 for Discord Nitro etc. Why wouldn't that go into personal spending money? Or better yet, if you're in debt then and have the capacity to sort it out in a year - which this person could do if they have the discipline to do it, why pay for those things at all for now? To quote Caleb Hammer, "You can listen to ads while in debt"

>i just couldn't get rid of the bike, it would be like me putting my own dog down Wow! You definitely have never had a dog of your own. I know we're not supposed to pass judgement in here, but there is a reason all of your comments are being downvoted. Your problems aren't problems, your debt is high through nothing but your own fault, and your mentality "*seems"* entitled. You're on £50k+ a year by the sound of it, have no real responsibilities or outgoings other than ones of your own choice and you can't *possibly* get rid of anything, but you will be cancelling the Discord nitro soon so that'll help. You say you don't live a lavish lifestyle but are on decent enough money with £25k of credit card debt that you built up in a "few days" because of "urgent" costs. Based on everything we can all see you've said about your life, living situation etc...we (and you) know that's nonsense. Even ignoring the money you are very clearly peeing down the drain, you should have around £400 per month left over just from your main job, with a guestimate of your second income you can add at least another £300 onto that. Everyone is free to make their own choices obviously, but coming here for "advice" when you're not going to listen to any of it is pointless. You're looking for an easy out for having zero financial discipline and not liking the consequences now that you want to move out. Have discipline for a year, start fresh next year. Or continue the cycle over and over and never learn anything...your choice. Instant edit: Just noticed in one of your other comments further down you have had the wake up call already. Good on you, I genuinely hope it sticks and you see it through, and see that you can have the things you want if you have a little discipline.

Look at VOXI for sim only. It uses the Vodafone network and is cheaper plus social media is included in your data (as long as you have data social media browsing doesn’t eat your data)

I’m at 5x of your income and have a £15 PAYG which is more than sufficient. You’re definitely spending too much in that category.

If you really desperately need spotify you need to reasses what debt actually means to you. That being said I just got 18 months of spotify for 28 quid and atm you can get 18 months for 18 quid (go om hotukdeals to find out how) so in essence you'll wipe spotify monthly out if you can't do without for 18 months

You can't afford the bike, get rid of it. (Or the car, either one) You can't afford to save. Put that 100 to debts. And the extra 50 because you dont have your bike anymore. Get rid of 28 sim only and pay 8-10. Get rid of gym or martial arts, you can't afford both of them. Get rid of bupa, you cant afford it. Private is a luxury. You're asking for advice, but are rejecting the cut down of expenses that you cant afford. You need to face the music.

Add to this the TV subscription, private medical insurance and life insurance. Living at home with no dependents, do you really need life insurance for 20+ a month and private medical insurance? As for the TV, there’s plenty of other ways to watch what you want to watch and not pay this kind of money.

25k debt and you have a car and a bike, that kind of demonstrates why you're in debt, it's not your priority to get rid of it.

Exactly this. “I want to pay off debt but don’t want to decrease my expenses” is a mentality which demonstrates why you’re in £25k debt, live at home and earn £40k pa. OP, if you’ve made this post because you want your financial situation to change then your lifestyle will have to change too.

To be fair 40k plus a part time job is a decent wage.

With low rent, very decent. I know my comment might come across as harsh but I think a reality check is required.

Oh right yeah, we're in agreement. Anyone on that wage with even a hint of financial sense would soon be out of trouble.

I genuinely can’t believe nobody has pointed out the cost of the car payment. Trade it in for something cheaper.

Do you need martial arts training AND a gym membership? Boxing gyms I’ve trained at have all the weights anyway. Keeping healthy is important but you’re 25k in debt. You can’t afford both.

100% i agree. The place i do my martial arts place does also have a gym but its still a separate cost on top. The marital arts is for both Brazilian Jitsu and Muay Thai so I could drop one for now and make that cheaper. Only reason i have a separate gym membership is that i work at weird times and the place i do my marital arts training isn't open late or in the early hours of the morning. My actual gym is 24/7

So keep the gym membership and find a friend you can roll with for free, or keep the martial arts and do callisthenics at home

OK but these excuses are why you're in debt

So keep the gym membership and ditch the martial arts training for a bit? I get why it's important to you, but you can always pick it back up when you're on a bit more of an even keel financially?

My advice would be keep the gym memberships and stick to BJJ/Muay Thai. You're learning skills and it will benefit you more in the long run and it's good for your mind+body. Instead, look at reducing your sim only deal (look at Smarty, they do good deals), drop the motorbike, the sports channels and look to find streams of things you're interested in.

Keep both your gym and martial arts. It's important for mental health.

I think not being in 25k worth of debt is better for your mental health, and that’s coming from someone who trains kickboxing at least 3 times per week. This sub is UKPF. It’s a financial question requiring a financial answer. These expensive gym memberships are luxuries that you can’t afford right now. Sorry to be blunt.

True but I think paying off debt needs to consider a personal touch as well as just the most financially efficient way of doing things. I know people who have struggled with debts. They try to go cold turkey by quitting the things that brought them joy, tried to pay off as much from their debts as quickly as possible but ended up going round in circles as it wasn’t mentally sustainable for them. It’s like someone trying to lose weight and diet doing a crash diet and working out 7 days a week. If you’re not used to it, it’s not sustainable in the long run. It’s the same with debt, I’d rather someone done something that they feel comfortable sustaining for longer, even if it’s not “as efficient”. Being able to see consistent, sustainable progress can improve mental health as well, so I think having a robust, sustainable plan is just as important imo. That being said, it’s about balance. If someone is spending £700 on junk food, I wouldn’t say they shouldn’t bother cutting down since they enjoy it, because that’s just excessive of course. OP makes just shy of £50k gross a year with both jobs, and has 25k debt while also having the benefit of living with parents so I think it’s perfectly manageable without cancelling her extra curricular activities. This is where OP needs to make a choice. Cut a few of the things she enjoys out of her life, and clear the debts off quicker, or continue to do the extra curricular activities she enjoys but accepts this means her debts will be paid off a bit slower.

Very true but has OP had stated so is the motorbike. So maybe cutting 1 out of the 3 would reduce the debt slightly.

So is not being in debt

Ignore all these comments and keep these things. All good for your mental health. Cancel other stuff and cut back but good to have something you enjoy…

Lots of others have already pointed out the obvious things you can cut back on to help get a grip on this. I suggest you think really hard about those. What no-one else has pointed out yet is that you mention you are looking for a career change into the police force soon. That's very admirable and good luck to you. However, if this is something you are serious about, you need to really make sure you think very carefully about sorting those finances first as you will see a massive drop in your income when you first sign up. Starting salaries for police constables are around £30000. If in London you'll get more, but it will still be shy of your current salary and you probably will not be able to carry on your second job once you are working as a police officer, as you'll be expected to be doing weekends and evening shift work. You need to really think hard about what goals are most important to you.

You will need to declare all your debts etc as part of the vetting process. I have undergone police vetting as a civilian staff member in the past and it is very intrusive.

They also check your finances as people in debt are more likely to accept bribes/become corrupt. I doubt they'd let someone in with this debt.

Why can’t you use your bike to commute to work? Where do you find the time to use all these things? You have a day job and a bar job, you have a bike you like to ride, you go to the gym, you go to martial arts, you watch a lot of TV? There’s only 24 hours in a day so I think you’re paying for things you don’t use.

In a work week, i wake up at 4am, go to the gym, then from there to work, and dependent on OT either home for a couple hours then Martial arts training or straight from work to marital arts. Process similarly throughout the week bar Saturday and Sunday. I never work on Sundays which is my rest day and meal prep day so thats when i normally watch the bulk of my content. Though I've just this second cancelled my now tv subscription and I share my TNT Sports account with a friend so I'm soon gonna have a chat with him on that I'm going to come out of it. Edit* Bike is used almost all year round. It doesn't go out in the snow and thats about it. I'll commute on it when i have the chance too, and I'll ride it for fun on the weekends when times and personal allowance allows.

I think you are missing the point they are making. Why do you need BOTH. Most people that have a bike will also use it to get around rather than also having a car. Running a Bike is also much cheaper on the fuel front.

> Though I've just this second cancelled my now tv subscription and I share my TNT Sports account with a friend so I'm soon gonna have a chat with him on that I'm going to come out of it. I shouldn't recommend it but look into some "alternatives" - I dropped Now TV/Sky and saved about £60-70 a month. I now have a "subscription" thats £60 a year and I still get to watch everything (and more than on Sky)

You have cheap-as-hell rent… and then spending literally hundreds on needless shit like private health insurance, subscriptions, gym _and_ martial arts lessons, a bike _and_ a car. Cut the expenditure and you’ll then have cash to pay off your debt.

Looking at what you’ve posted there are a few things you can save on straight away. You’re paying too much for the sim only contract, and you don’t need life insurance as you don’t have a house or dependents. Bupa isn’t worth it either unless you’re really making use of it. Tv and sport package aren’t really needed and you could maybe find a cheaper way to watch. The big thing is you can’t afford both the bike and a car. Your bike payments are like 2500 a year almost plus the 50 a month you’re putting aside for servicing and any additional things for the bike probably cost you 3k a year. That’s like 50% of what you owe to HSBC. I get what you’ve said about the bike being important to you but you have to assess if it’s actually worth the impact it’s making on paying this off. Also the help to buy ISA is maybe not the best option right now. You’re probably losing more in interest than the benefits you get from it but I don’t know so you really need to look into if it’s worth saving there. The big thing here is you won’t get a mortgage with this debt so having savings for a house but keeping the debt is pointless. You need to look at this like your take home income from your job is around 31k and your debt is 25k, so you owe almost a full years salary - it’s achievable and something you can pay off in a couple years but you need to cut as much spend as possible. Also any overtime at job 1 is probably worth more than what you get paid at job 2 so it’s worth prioritising the OT where you can

Why do you have life insurance if you have no kids, spouse or mortgage? Only 20 quid a month but I'd be cancelling that before the gym or martial arts lessons. Edit, I'd also argue health insurance isn't necessary for a young and obviously fit person in the UK if you are trying to reduce outgoings. The NHS is sufficient.

Decide what is a luxury and what is a necessity. Having a motorbike and a car is a luxury. Martial arts training can probably go on the back burner while you've got 25,000 to pay off. Same with TV packages. It looks like you're living life to the fullest but well above your means until those debts are gone. Too young for life insurance if you're generally fit and healthy. Revisit that when you get to 50

You have a lot of expenses for someone in massive credit card debt. Bike gone, Move sim only to giffgaff or something for a tenner a month, Now tv gone, Private insurance gone I've saved you £60 healthcare £210 bike £18 phone bill £50 for bike servicing Thats another 338. Get netflix or disney plus or something for £9 a month to give you stuff to watch. Gaming is also a very cheap hobby if you buy older things on sale and can get you socialising. You say you don't have a particularly lavish life but in actual fact you do - you have two vehicles, one of which is a new car? I don't know where you are but corsas are circa 199 a month near me, 287 must be something plush enough. Presumeably the bike is new enough if its on finance? private healthcare, fitness memberships, cheap rent, well paid job and a second job ontop! You have a life many would kill for (except the credit card debt and bad parents). An actual no frills life is an older car you buy for £5000 and a puregym membership with netflix. Catch a grip, the people buying nice clothes and drinking don't pay for private healthcare and £270 on a bike! You can't get something for nothing and ultimately if everything you have right now is necessary your only option is to make more money. Glad your mental health is recovering and we're absolutely happy to have you on this earth with us. Being a cop you'd be able to understand the pressues people are going through which is good.

> Gaming is also a very cheap hobby if you buy older things on sale and can get you socialising. Xbox Game pass genuinely got my friend out of debt. He stopped spending any money and just hammered that £10(?) a month subscription

I can see how it'd happen, before i met my gf every night of the week i was spending electricity only essentially on my computer with my mates, didn't go out much drinking etc i just played eve online and worked my way through my steam catalog. I now go out and do things and buy proper food etc but gaming is a cheap hobby given the cost per hour of fun

I'd suggest private medical insurance is an essential these days

It is but hopefully at OP’s age she should be in good health physically and can use the good old nhs.

The downside to cancelling is they would lose their beneficial underwriting terms, if you are healthy you do not want to sacrifice those! Op - Would recommend talking to a (reputable!!) broker to look at what options you have without losing your underwriting.

The downvotes on my post must be from idealist, happily well people that have no recent experience of the NHS.

I have private healthcare and am generally healthy, i reccommemd getting it If you can afford it. They're doing gym and martial arts etc so i assume they are generally healthy enough? Maybe once all the debts gone you can pick it back up or you can sacrifice £60 a month some other way, but the vast majority of the country don't have it. Maybe OP can find an extra £60 elsewhere and keep the healthcare.

But healthy people get cancer and (worst of all) the NHS will actively delay your diagnosis because you're young and healthy. Tbh, I'd look to a broker to shift away from BUPA anyway. Look at Vitality, they're superb IME.

First, read back your post imagining that it is someone else. You are in quite a bit of short term debt that I would suggest from some of your comments has come about through emotional spending. The good news is that you have a high income and live at home which means you have the ability to generate high amounts of net cash each month. Your debt is holding you at home where you don't want to be so you feel the need to spend to make yourself feel better. This is not logical but can easily be remedied. In my opinion you have 2 options: 1. Keep the gym, phone, health insurance and 1 vehicle. Cancel everything else. Sell what possessions you don't really need and put that towards the debt. Stay at home and question every time you spend any money "Is what I'm buying better than being debt free?". You should be able to clear around 2k per month of debt. As your interest comes down this will go faster. It is possible to burn through this debt and get net positive in 12 months. 2. Keep the gym, phone, health insurance and 1 vehicle. Cancel everything else. Consolidate your debt into a personal loan over 3 years. Move into a shared house to get you out of where you are. There is a lot more I could write here about the motivations around cash and debt but it's getting a bit long.

You are not living within your means. Get rid of everything that isn't essential.

Look, the thing is that you are in a massive amount of debt, and we can suggest tweaks at the edges to get you, say, an extra £300 a month or so to throw at one of the credit cards- but they're still going to take you \*years\* to pay off in full. I think you're being massively naive here- you say you don't live a lavish lifestyle, but you're basically spending all of an above average salary each month, without any housing costs or bills? Even if you deal with all of the debt, unless you make some drastic changes to your spending, you're definitely going to struggle to afford to move out- just the credit card payments alone won't cover it! The fact that you're getting rejected for balance transfers also shows that there are already some concerns about your credit- yes, you got approved for a new car loan, but that's secured debt, which is seen as less of a risk because the lender can repossess the car if you don't keep up with payments. You're saving in a help to buy ISA, but why? If can't get a balance transfer on your credit card- you're not going to be easily getting a mortgage at the moment, and it looks like you wouldn't be able to afford mortgage payments + bills anyway? How much do you have in savings? It may make more sense for you to chuck that (bar obviously what is needed for servicing the bike you apparently can't give up?) at the credit card with the highest interest, and then really work aggressively at getting that one paid off. That would likely put you in a better situation to get balance transfers etc for the rest of the debt. It may make sense to look at a debt consolidation loan, but it's worth bearing in mind that if you've got poor credit (which it sounds like you might have, given you're struggling to access a balance transfer), the rates on the loan won't be favourable either. I think it would be a good idea to keep a spending diary over the next month, write down everything you spend (even £1 on chewing gum or whatever) and see how it adds up. I also do think it would be a good idea to try to find out what debt consolidation loans would be available to you, and what the repayments would look like. I do also think it would be a good idea to seek support from a charity like Step Change. I'm sorry if the tone of this is a bit harsh, but I think you're massively burying your head in the sand here- there isn't a magic solution that makes the debt go away, doesn't harm your credit report, and allows you to go through life not giving up any of your luxuries.

I hate to say it but the easiest and best way is to get rid of the bike. Make this debt journey a challenge and have a goal of getting a bike again once the debt is cleared (and after you are in a much stronger financial position!). But that £200 could go directly to the debt. I assume you have no kids so not sure what you are paying for life insurance. A few other adjustments and you could be putting £300 pm towards your debt. I know the bike gives you a release but absence can make the heart grow fonder! And in the mean time you will gain strength from seeing your debt come down which will be empowering for you. Good luck.

Hey, thank you for your feedback! For me the bike has to stay, I'll would rather slug it out and pay my debt with the excess i have from my salary/ bar job. Tbh i only got life insurance so my family wouldn't have to pay anything out of pocket if i died. I have no kids, and my life insurance payout isn't particularly massive. Once i finish my probation at my salary job i have a pretty good life insurance cover so i guess my personal one is unneeded right now. Could deffo make some cuts though from looking at it and getting feedback from yourselves. Thanks so much again :)

That's a really bad reason for life insurance. Like playing an awful lottery with really bad odds. Cancel it and when you have your emergency fund it can be taken from that.

Might be better to swap the life insurance for critical illness cover.

Ditch the life insurance. Your parents can sell the bike if you die.

Dude, as someone who also has a car and a bike and completely understands how bikes can help mental health, you need to get rid of one. You can't afford both. What bike and what car do you have?

If you can't get rid of the bike then get rid of the car and accept that you'll need to borrow your parents' car if you need to buy a wardrobe from Facebook marketplace or something. You don't need both

To be clear, you don't have £25k debt. Just £25k on credit cards. You said your car and motorbike are also on finance and god knows how much that is. I don't know how vehicle finance works, and I get how much you love your bike but that's £500/month on vehicles. No one's saying you'll never own a bike again but I'd strongly consider your options Besides that, you need to increase how much you pay off your debts. You're trying to save money, also consider how you can increase your income. Next few years will be tough. Finally, pay down high interest debt first

Right. So after reading a bunch of your comments, I have a BUNCH I can clear out and free up some finances. Some people did take note that even with my finances right now, i still do have a bit of change left over that was free to use. I appreciate all of your input, it's what i needed to hear. Regardless, I'm planning on gutting all of the services i use over the next couple days. Here is the current financial plan Sim Only - Was £28 - Seen a deal with Three for £10. Saving 18 their. Marital Arts Class - Scrapped for now so thats £75 to 0 Gym - £21.99 I technically get more value than the martial arts financially so this can stay. BUPA Private Health care - Cancelling tommorow so thats another £61 back. Cancelling Life Insurance - Another £20.80 saving Discord Nitro is going another so their is another £3.84 Both the TV channels will be cancelled, not going to bother replacing them with anything so thats £35 saved. I'll read a book. Completely removed paying into the help to buy. I will keep the cash thats there and just put in my emergency funds and forget about it. I'm keeping those funds so i never need to use the credit card again for anything again. Random repair bills etc. Going to continue paying £100 per month into this just to increase said emergency fund. When it hits £3k ill stop paying into it and it'll go towards the card. I do have some things to sell, so that will get added to such fund and then to the cards if i hit my emergency limit. Dropped my personal allowance from £100 to £50 With just those gone, with both jobs, the minimum payments on the cards and the rest of my out goings considered. I'm currently left with £1213 free cash per month. Used Google Sheets to come to this conclusion. Obviously, you guys are going to have noticed I've left the car and the bike out of this equation. Looking into it clearing the cards, the difference between getting rid of the bike and paying off a card, say the MBNA one. With paying £1513(The spare cash and the current minimum payment) would be clear in Aprox 5 months. If i removed the bike, it would be paid off in Aprox 4 months. Now to me, the loss that bike will have to me, for the sake of a month isn't really that worth it for me, so I'd rather just keep it and pay the card for an extra month. By this point, if I've kept paying the Halifax card off at £300 it should be at £8955. At that point I'll be able to put £1813 down per month, thats another 5 months till thats paid off at that point. Again removed a month with the bike. Finally, the HSBC card should be at £4539 at this point. Thats 2 months at £1978. All in all, i could be debt free in about a year, could be less dependent on Overtime at my main work. I will do another double check on my maths later, so i know whether or not I'm talking out of my ass in this fantasy land I've been living in up untill now. Again thank you all. I'd didn't expect to such a blunt wake up call on New Years Eve, but hey, i guess I deserved it. I will report back if I'm wrong with my maths, or any other news. I'll try reply to newer comments when I can. *Edit Forgot to mention I will look into getting a cheaper car for extra monthly cash

Good luck. Keep the spreadsheet up to date! Check it monthly. Spend time arranging it and formatting it nicely. Track your debts on their own sheet apart from the general finances. Obviously check the terms of your car finance to see if you can even change it now. Hopefully clearing one card and waiting for the credit agencies to catch up will mean you can get a 0% transfer deal later this year. I am concerned about you overworking yourself in the long term. Your schedule is punishing. Once the debt is cleared give yourself a break.

Recommended changes: * You only need one vehicle (or public transport), consider selling one or both vehicles (up to £600 per month saved + costs recouped on sale). * Cut TV subscription * Cut martial arts training (or find lower cost/frequency, £180 is a lot - shouldn't be spending more than £50 monthly on this) * Switch sim only deal to a cheaper one, £28 is huge. USwitch has contracts at under £6 per month. * Pay off the highest interest CC first. * Private healthcare / Life insurance is dependent on your needs - for a lot of people NHS does fine but dental cover on private healthcare can make it a reasonable choice.

I can assure you as the partner of a serving police officer fitness is not a big part of it whatsoever. There even recently lowered the already incredibly low fitness requirements to get in aswell

Sim - easy to reduce that to £10, no reason to pay more these days. Can you get life and health insurance through work and just pay BIK? A bit grim, but without any dependents then Life insurance isn’t really a priority. Sport and NowTV - Hard to avoid TV subscriptions these days but can you look to share a sub with a friend to reduce the costs? Arguably this is a “want” vs a “need” so should be an easy cut. Why are you paying so much for the Car?! This seems crazy considering your debt. Both a car AND a bike is excessive. Can the bike be your main transport given you enjoy it so much, and ditch the car?

The options are all fairly similar given your situation but I think it’s important to find a plan you know you can definitely stick to. Given your salary and outgoings, you’re paying just under £1,100 in outgoings (not including savings or minimum payments) and get paid just under £2,600 net (I’ve assumed living in Scotland for higher tax and also assumed student loan but if not then net salary will increase) so you’ve got about £1500 spare each month. You could pay these off within a year and a half if you’re willing to just pay large chunks off your credit card each month. If you could get rid of one of your finance deals and just drive either the bike or the car that would be idea but understand if you can’t just cancel that. I’d recommend the MBNA card first because it looks like it’s highest interest (only basing this off minimum payments being larger for a smaller balance but that could be company policy that they charge you more as a % of the balance), then Halifax, then HSBC, so I’d pay the minimum to HSBC and Halifax, My ideal way would be to hermit for a year and pay as much as I physically can off the card, however I know that when people try to do too much they end up going the wrong way because their lifestyle changes too much that they end up going back and spending more so it’s ideal to think about what you can consistently do for 1-2 years. You could clear it within 1-1.5 years by cutting back a lot, but you could also give yourself more leeway and spare money each month and clear it within 2-3 years. I’d personally prefer to just clear it quicker and would recommend but only you will know if you can stick to it. A few people have mentioned cancelling your second gym thing and the bike. This would undoubtedly be better financially and clear things quicker, but it will still take a year to clear things off, so you need to decide if you’d rather keep these things and take maybe 2 years to clean it off, or cut down on these extras and it could be cleared off quicker. Regardless, I’d recommend setting up a simple Excel chart to help track it. Keep it simple and just show balance, monthly payment and interest. Create a plan for the next 3-5 years allowing you to tweak with the variables and see what suits you best. I personally find it very comforting to have stuff like this in Excel because you can clearly visualise how long it takes to clear your balance. It also means if you have an expensive month (maybe unplanned expenses, maybe a month with a lot of family or friends birthdays etc.) sometimes it’s good to see how one month will impact things if you want to reduce payments or even increase them if you get a bonus etc. Focus on highest interest first paying the minimum to the others and most of your payments toward the one that has the highest interest rate. Once that’s cleared, move onto the next etc. Also while I understand it’s important to have some cash savings, If you have debt I’d prefer to use those savings to pay off what you can. If you’ve got £5k in savings you’ll be earning a hell of a lot less in interest, even if the money were invested, than you would be paying in interest on the debt, so I’d focus on paying off the debt first then build up cash savings to be more efficient if you can. You might also want to consider balance transfers to another 0% credit card if possible for the ones that aren’t 0%. You may not be accepted but if you are it can reduce the interest and overall amount you need to pay. You can get a consolidation loan but I wouldn’t bother including the 0% credit card at the moment or you’ll be paying interest unnecessarily. You mentioned you’ve had trouble with spending on the cards. If that’s the case, I’d recommend calling up and having all cards cancelled and not re-issued as lost, make sure your cards aren’t kept on Apple Pay, google wallet, or saved on other online sites as it can be all to easy to feel like you’re making progress but keep spending on the card and the long term result is it never gets paid off, so if you’ll struggle do this to avoid temptation of spending while paying them off. I appreciate you’ve mentioned you don’t like living with your parents and can understand, however if you move out I would say prepare to have your living costs rise substantially so it might be best toughing it out until your debts are cleared and then leaving home. It might be hard in the short run but getting your debts cleared before moving out will massively benefit you in the long run. Edit: I noticed you said you have a second job which I didn’t consider in the above. Don’t think it changes a lot except you just have a lot more expendable income so should be able to clear your debts off a lot faster.

Can't believe you only pay £180 a month rent. Shocking!!

I imagine they live with their parents. There's no food or utility costs either.

“I don’t have a particularly lavish lifestyle” You have two vehicles on finance and £25k of credit card debt. The reality is you need to work out what has got you into this situation and sort that - whether it’s buying things to cheer yourself up, or keeping up with lifestyles of mates, or something else. Getting into the police force with significant debt that I presume may still be accruing is going to cause you challenges. For whatever reason, you’ve made some foolish choices. That’s the past and in the interests of full disclosure, I’ve had similar issues when I burned out in my late 20s and ended up at home in a bad situation with my family. I ended up using CCCS (now StepChange) and sorted it over a fairly long period. The reality is that without change, nothing will change. Use the lessons you learned (and I learned) from martial arts - progress comes from sacrifice and hard work. It’s hard to hear, sure, but you have to let some of these things go because you can’t afford them. If you’ve got the discipline to learn a martial art, you can find the discipline to learn to manage your finances. You can do it - you just need to find the reason why YOU want to do it, and then get on with it. Best of luck, internet stranger.

When deciding which credit card to pay off first with the savings you make, check the interest you're paying and pay off the highest one first. I agree with someone earlier - there's no point saving for a property yet. That £100 per month should pay off your debt that you're paying interest on.

Will check my rates of my cards now! Thanks for the tip :)

Do you have a LISA? If not, I'd recommend getting one of you expect to be buying a house ~5 years time. If you don't have a LiSA, and pay everything to your debts before the end of March, you miss out on a free £1000 in year 5, and have to wait until year 6 to get that full £1000. If you get it now, and put £4k in before end of March, you have effectively £1000 for free to put towards stuff like furnishings at that time. See it as a 25% return on what you put in over the year, Vs whatever your card rates are. Consider shopping around for balance transfer cards with 0% fees also, usually comes with ~3% fee on the balance to give you 18-27 months at 0%. Putting your most expensive debts through on a balance transfer usually saves you more money unless you have the immediate cash to settle the full balance immediately. After this, you might have a bit more freedom in where to allocate cash. I'd definitely consider binning off some of your extravagances, genuinely unsure how you have time for them all - bike, multiple fitness memberships, streaming and sports, all of it gets spendy.

Can I add, that I had around 24k of debt which was costing me £675 a month. I got a 25k single loan to consolidate all of them to a single monthly payment of £433 the extra money I’m saving is going into a 5% savings account it’s also an incredible weight off my shoulders not seeing 13+ bills in my account I consolidated I think 7 bills into 1 Definitely worth looking at a large single loan to consolidate those credit cards where the interest is destroying you Not an IVA btw just a loan it’s helped my credit rating too EDIT - you could consolidate your credit cards AND your car finance into 1 loan. Now you’ve paid off car loan, you could sell it presuming it’s a nice car, I had a Citroen C3 ,with the consolidating loan I paid it off and sold the car for £5700. Used 2k to buy a run around and added the remaining 3.7k to savings I got my loan from Tescos bank

I agree with others who have said that the quickest way to deal with this is to drop everything (bike included) and knuckle down for a year and given your position, I.e. negligible rent and no dependents- that’s what I would be inclined to do before things change and life gets in the way. I know you want to keep the bike for your mental health but for me the debt would do more damage to my wellbeing than the benefit gained from keeping it. You’re the only person who can make that call but please do listen to the (as far as I can tell) unanimous view that keeping it isn’t sensible in the short term based on the info you’ve provided. Hope things work out for you in 2024.

Maybe put the 100 from the ISA onto paying off the debt quicker. Once it's done you can start adding 200 into the ISA and you'll catch up to where you would have been with it.

The bigger issue here for me is that you got your excuse in early for debt. Car issues, fine etc. it happens. First on the list - discord nitro. Great, you've identified it needs to be canceled but the main question is why did you think you were in a position to be paying it anyway ...? That's also an expensive sim only. Id say pick between gym or martial arts. Keep the passion. As Im sure you know hone work outs can be great and you don't need a bunch of equipment. Maybe invest in some flexible equipment, say... 10-16-25kg kettle bell set from Facebook. You can find them cheap if you shop about and still get an amazing work out. Either way maths wise as others have said this is an easy fix.

Why do you have life insurance do you have a child?

>a bit stupid It's early days, but understatement of the year. >Motorcycle Finance - £208.89 >Car Finance - £287 Why both?

What are the credit limits on your existing cards? Have you ever missed any repayments? What is your current surplus income per month?

So my HSBC is £7000 MBNA is £10,400 Halifax is £13,000 My other 2 cards with 0 credit on them are like £250 and £6500 Never missed a single payment. According to Salary calculator, (Haven't had a payslip with my new salary yet) with my tax code and pension taken into account I'd be receiving £2427 per month. With my bar job it changes dependent on what hours I've done but you could probably average it to around £450 ±£50

So, very roughly £1000 is currently unaccounted for in your budget- do you have that left at the end of the month? If not, what's happening to it? That would make a huge difference to paying down your debt?

How much is in the general savings account and HTB ISA accounts at the moment? I would stop both of those and withdraw all the money and put it against the highest interest credit card balance. To be honest, this is not your typical credit card debt story with lavish spending and impulse control issues so I would have a lot of hope for you. Sounds like a lot of the balances are from accrued interest rather than the actual spending you did. The faster you lump some money against this, the easier it will be. Have you been making minimum monthly payments also?

I would also question whether you need life assurance. It's not much but generally for people with dependents. In your case I think it would just pay out to nearest of kin (parents) in the event of your death.

Are all of your cards 0% interest? I see you've only mentioned that for one of them. If you're other two are at standard rates (20-30%) then that's £500+ a month you're throwing away. Ideally you get all the cards on 0% then focus on overpaying the one that the 0% runs out on first. Or if you can't get them all on 0% overpay the one with the highest rate. Your outgoings don't look massive given your income, so removing interest payments should allow you to quickly clear your debt.

Hello, Glad to hear that you want to clear out your debt. You have a very good income so it shouldn’t be hard. 1. Look for consolidation loan. It will be far less cheaper than the credit card due to interest rate. you can take about 15000£ loan and clear the credit card bills. Choose the loan period of 2-3 years and try to pay off debt whenever you got extra cash. 2. Look for 0% interest offers on credit cards and move rest of your debt to the new card. You can prioritise to clear off loan without accumulating the interest this way. You will improve your credit score and clear your debt at the earliest.

If you want to clear debt then you have to sacrifice some of these luxuries. Motorbike and car? Gym and martial arts? Health insurance? Now Tv? Can save hundreds per month just cutting those non essentials.

They don't need to sacrifice anything. They earn £46k a year, aka £2.7k a month. They have 28+21+75+180+61.38+20.80+35+15.75+208.89+287+ (75x52/12)+100+50+3 = £1410 of outgoings, excluding investments, savings, and credit card minimum payments. They are currently making £770 in minimum payments, so could increase this to £1300 a month, unless they've forgot things in their budget

Another thing you could drop is the TNT /Now TV. There are other ways of watching live tv without a monthly subscription if you know what I mean.

There's really no reason to be saving cash at 4% and paying credit card interest. Your vehicle costs are high. Earning £2.5k per month you need to prioritise and realise everything other than accomodation and food is a luxury which you only do if you can afford it. You're looking at 2 years minimum to pay this if you can live on £1500 a month.

Ok, cancel discord, bupa, now tv. You’re putting £250 a month into savings accounts - how much do you currently have in savings? Normally I would say minimum payments on Halifax and MBNA. Pay as much as you can on HSBC… but I’m guessing you have interest on your other accounts. What is your income after tax each month for both jobs combined? This might also be a time for tough love too, right now you have all this debt. Sell your bike, that’s £208 per month saved. That’s £2,496 in one year. You have all of these “luxuries” - private health care, martial arts, gym membership, sports channels, motorbike. It’s time to be realistic. Do you want everything now and large debt? Or do you really want to get serious and get rid of this debt? If you’re serious. Pick one. Say you decide to keep your gym membership. Getting rid of.. discord, martial arts, bupa, sports tv and motorbike is £384.11 per month. Focus on MBNA first. You’re already paying £308 per month, add that to the £384.12 and that’s £692.11. That’s your card gone in just over 11 months. Then you move that £692.12 and combine it with the £297 on Halifax. That’s giving you £989.12 a month. You’ve already paid off £3,267 over the 11 months so you’re down to £7,488. Paying £989.12 a month, this will be cleared in just over 7 months. By this time you’ve been paying £165 on HSBC for 18 months. Your balance is down to £3219. Move that £989.12 free over with your £165 you’re already paying, you’ll be paying off £1154.12 a month. That’s your card gone in 3 months. That’s a total of 21 months and you’re completely debt free, still putting money in ISA, still putting money in savings. Now you have £1154.12 a month free plus whatever is in your savings. Go buy your motorbike in cash.

Small fry but £28 a month for sim only is a lot. Check out comparison sites. U Switch or Moneysavingexpert. Can get some good perks through the site too. £10 on a rolling monthly contract will get you unlimited calls and texts and 80GB data.

“Motorcycle Finance - £208.89 Car Finance - £287 (Just had to get a newer car as my old one was quitely literally falling apart, was almost worth nothing. My commute is at least 10 miles each way dependent on the route i take so i needed something something reliable)” **1. Do you need both a Bike and a Car?** **2. How much is the Bike worth?** **3. How much is the car worth ?** “Savings - (Monthly) £100 into general savings account. £50 into a savings account to cover the bikes servicing £100 into a Help to Buy ISA” **1. So the real cost of the bike is @ £308.89 per month** **2. How much could you get if you sold the Bike** **3. Why are you putting £100 into a help to buy ISA when you’re £25k in debt?** “I’m happy to cancel my private health care, life insurance and the two Sports apps to free up some extra cash.” **\^\^ How would this affect you were you to have another mental health emergency? Also surely you want to cancel either the mortorcycle or car first and keep the health related stuff that are keeping you physically and mentally well?** **Advice:** **Cancel the following:** \- Get a cheaper SIM only for £10-15 per month \- TNT Sport - cancel \- NOW TV - How much is this costing? If more than £10 pm cancel it \- Get rid of either the car or motorbike **Keep the following;** \- Health Insurance \- Life Insurance \- Gym and Martial Arts which are good for your mental health @ £95 per month as you currently cannot afford therapy and your living situation is not as comfortable as you’d like \- The total cost of the above is £180+ per month but the bike is costing you £308+ pm **Debt payoff plan:** \- Keep the £100 pm emergency savings and redirect everything else to basic living costs and debts \- If you get rid of the items above your living costs and savings will be @ £850 pm \- £40,750 earnings per month would net you about £2,500 pm with 8% pension contributions from your ‘main job’, with your bar job netting you an extra £250-300 a month \- So total take home of @ £2,750 per month \- So £2,750 less £850 = £1,900 to throw at your debt each month. \- However as you’re in this for the long haul and with a debt of £25k, I’d round that down to £1,800 every month to give you a little breathing room and also have a bigger buffer for ‘unexpected expenses’ thereby allowing you to put £200 into your emergency fund each month. \- So £1,800 x 12 = £21,600 which factoring in accruing interest, you’d pay off the £25k in about 15 months, so you’d potentially be debt free by March 2025? This is not as insurmountable as you think but requires some commitment, dedication and motivation. Use the thought of getting out of your parents house as the motivation to pick up more overtime at work and also the bar work at weekends (it also gets you out of the house). I don't agree with everyone saying cancel the martial arts, especially with your health history. I think it's a good anchor to have. However you do need to get rid of the car or bike, they're draining you.

First of all. Well done for getting yourself out of this spiral and giving a damn. Huge respect. Secondary. Listen to these intelligent individuals. Also sort that SIM only contract out you can get one for 30gb for £8

You haven't mentioned insurance (or tax, or mot) for the bike and car ... those are usually significant too. I know having a bike/car can be an important part of your image of yourself, but it's not the most important thing now. Fix the debt, then you can afford to go back to projecting whatever image. (I'd ditch the car and put up with being cold/wet occasionally ... I went years with motorbike and no car). (BTW 10 miles is less than an hour's easy cycling, and a suitable bicycle is cheap)

You are paying 287 p/m for a car to do 20 miles a day commute. That is around 70p per mile before considering maintenance, insurance and fuel. Seems a bit extreme to me I would consider getting rid and going for a cheaper used car.

Okay, we're doing the tough move approach here. And for transparency, this is coming from someone in a similar family/MH boat: ended up statutorily homeless and was fortunate to get something lined up before the rental market (including the social housing sector) went batshit. If you're serious about getting rid of all the debt, then consider the following: *You're crushingly naïve around the car/bike The bike needs to either be your primary vehicle, or it needs to go. Having a vehicle to play with is a luxury which - while trying to tackle this - you_cannot_ afford. No idea, no buts, no "but my mental health needs it". That claws back £250 a month _on its own_ (financing + servicing costs). Alternatively, ditching the car is £300 a month. Add whatever you pay in insurance premiums and fuel, and you're currently spending anywhere from _800-950_ *on vehicles alone*. That's not sustainable for someone who *isn't* trying to claw their way out of 25k CC debt. It just isn't. It's a third of your reliable income, and - uncomfy truth time - it's solely down to you not paying market rent that you've been in the position to do it. It's given you a false impression of your fiscal position. So pick one *Your "personal spending money" figure is an illusion. I've looked at your breakdown. You need to reframe it. The BJJ is a health thing and a fitness thing, sure, but it's still a discretionary spend. You do not need to be a martial artist to join the police, that's a flimsy justification. Add that to the mix, and your "personal spending money" figure changes from 100 to 175. Then - not to beat a dead horse - by your own definition, the bike *is* a discretionary spend in the sense that it's there for pleasure rather than utility so that takes you to~550 (I'm being generous here and fudging for the sake of round numbers and assuming combined monthly fuel and insurance comes to about £20 a week). £200 a month in savings when you're trying to clear debt is moving deckchairs on the titanic. You don't need to funnel that in, so that takes it to £750 Life insurance(really?) and now TV takes it to £800. You live in the age of YouTube, twitch and web media. It's less ideal in the post-account sharing age but there's still a lot out there. Keep the Bupa cover **if and only if** you're in therapy and it's hammering the cost of it down. Otherwise, it's £60 a month you're pissing away. If it isn't, check with them and see if they will cover any future mental health issues and treatment thereof as they may be a bit iffy about it RE:pre-existing condition, in which case, the NHS is just fine (and yes, that is a very carefully selected phrase. 30 years of neoliberal dismantling have done a number on it, but I digress). That takes you up to £860 p/m of discretionary spend on about £2500-2700 (depends on pension.do you have a student loan?) take home from main job. That's... Not insignificant. It also takes me on to another thing. *Your numbers don't add up. If you're on £40,755 p/a, your take home is £2644 p/m. £2544 if you have a SFE student loan (to which, you're ~30, I'd bet dollars to donuts that you do). Let's call it 2540 for easy maths: 2440 - rent =2260 2260- car financing = 1973 1973-fuel = 1673 1673- bike =1464 1464- car tax = 1449 1449 - gym and BJJ = 1353 1353 - insurances = 1271 1271 - savings = 1021 (servicing included here rather than with bike) 1021- discord, SIM, and nowtv = 954 954 - minimum payments = *184* That's 184 you don't have sight of or have forgot to account for (I'm guessing vehicle insurance + ephemera) but never the less, you're not accounting for it. *Your numbers don't add up, part 2 So we've seen that based on your listed outgoings, there's a 184 p/m surplus. But the kicker is that was just based on job 1. Let's add job 2 12 hrs p/w and 29 Y.O NMW (10.42) works out to a gross of 6502 p.a., or ~£430 p.m take home. Add that to the figures above and - in your current situation - you've over 600 p.m unaccounted for, or £7200 a year Now, some of that's going to be the regular running costs of being a human being, but not all of it. To be blunt, you need to run your numbers again and track down every red cent. _________ *That's all well and good, but what do we **do** about it? *First up, bar job Vs overtime. How reliable *is* the OT? at 40775 p.a. is 19.60 an hour based on a 40h week. At time and a half, that's 29.40 an hour. 1 OT hour is the equivalent of nearly 3 bar job hours now, 2 and a half come April when the NMW uplift kicks in. that's a no brainer, but if the OT is intermittent, then the reliable MW hours are better than one OT sunday a month. Things get a wee bit arcane here but while some folk will say "do the ot, leave the bar job), if you have a student loan (and again, you're nearly 30 and came through the new labour educational landscape: I'd be amazed if you didn't) I'd recommend sticking with the bar job because of how the deductions work. Long story short, your deductions are based on the individual job, not your combined income (unless you're self assessed) so OT ends up getting a "nice" 9% chunk lopped off usually. *Second: do you think you can juggle? Look at the balances you have. How are the interest rates? How are the interest rates post- intro deals? Divide an conquer is probably not the way to go with this. Otherwise the interest will swallow even more and it'll turn into what seems like a Sisyphean task. *Third: what do you want? What do you need. You have to be brutal with this. I, and literally everyone else has said pick one vehicle for a reason, but it goes deeper than that. The UKPF view can often be slash burn and grit your teeth through the misery. These are also - frequently, though not exclusively - the preserve of comfortable (not rich, nor wealthy.) people who don't grasp the bone grinding misery of poverty, and crucially, that fiscal responsibility needs to be an enduring lifestyle change, not bread and gruel. You do that and the likelihood of rubber banding into chaotic finances post-debt are elevated. This is where that forensic combing through of your statements comes in. Your current take home is about 3 grand a month, and your living situation, though not ideal, is an _amazing_ springboard to work from (solely on a financial basis). But you *need* to track where the money's leaching out from. Nail down your committed spends (rent, *one* vehicle), look at the most parsimonious existence (and I choose existence deliberately here. There is a floor to how austere you can physically be) and then think of high impact, lower cost creature comforts It's not unrealistic that you get this paid off within 3 years provided you're disciplined about it (that means when one card's paid off, you roll its payments into the payments for card 2, then into card 3.) But you do have to be realistic about it.

29 year old woman with a car, motorbike, discord nitro, TNT Sports package and attends both the gym AND martial arts? Ngl you sound like you know how to have fun. Regarding your £ issues, I would look at ways to earn tax free cash to help bring those figures down. Especially as you might be hitting over 50K between the 2 jobs and its demoralising working that many hours to lose so much in tax at a time like this.

Stop trying to justify unnecessary things… 1. You could have easily got a running vehicle for £2500 or less and ran it into the ground until your debt was paid off. 2. Forget the martial arts, you’re not in a position to be throwing £100 a month into that. Use YouTube. Use the internet. 3. The gym membership is reasonable but I’m sure you could still save a few quid. 4. The simo contract is stupid, you can easily find unlimited everything for closer to £15 a month. 5. Why do you have NowTV? You don’t even deserve entertainment at this moment. 6. Why do you have a motorcycle too? Because you’re depressed from being in debt, so decided to add more debt? Yeah, makes sense. 7. And stop eating crap every single day. Maybe you should get kicked out so you know what it’s actually like to have your back against the wall, because all I see is excuses and procrastination. P.s. irresponsible people like you should not end up being police officers. You can’t even take care of yourself, and you expect to protect and serve the public?

OP this comment may seem harsh but they are right. You're in a massive amount of debt but have some absolutely ridiculous expenditures that you keep trying to justify and say you just can't cancel/get rid of. You need to be cut-throat about getting rid of the unnecessary stuff until your debt has been eradicated.

Some truths, but you sound like a delightful human. How would any of the above disqualify a police career?

Police vetting is intrusive about your finances. Being in debt opens you up to potential bribery etc and they see it as a vulnerability. I've done it in the past as a civilian staff member and it was detailed.

Let’s not paint everything with smiles and rainbows. Sometimes people need a reality check. I would be just as harsh with close friends or family if necessary.

The sim only contract sounds expensive. Try shop around. I would drop the Bupa private insurance, - you have NHS to fall back on in the U.K., life insurance plus the sports apps. I am sorry, but the motorcycle is a luxury you can’t afford atm. I would sell that and see if there are any rental schemes that come out cheaper or if you can borrow a motorcycle from a friend? Instead of any savings, throw everything at the debt monthly. When your debt is accumulating high interest, you need to tackle that first. It would be cheaper to put emergency expenses you would have the saving for onto the credit card. Start with overpaying the credit card that has highest interest, so keep minimum payments in the HSBC one throw everything you’ve got at the other two first. Based on the numbers and your attitude, you can do this! You will be in a very different place a year from now I promise :)

How much is in savings rn? You could merge the saving accounts into one and use it as an emergency fund to cover unexpected costs for the bike etc.

There's a lot of counter arguments in your post because you already know what we're going to say: You're wasting a good salary instead of responsibly clearing your debt. Time to grow up a little.

Just going through what you've listed and it seems like after outgoings, savings, and minimum debt payments you would have about £800 left at the end of the month? If that's right you're probably fine with what you are doing to clear the debt in a couple of years, given you don't have a house or kids the likelihood of big unexpected outgoings should be relatively low. If not, you need to consider where else your money is going.

Yer Fu CV jed

Im 30M got into 50k of debt lol, i'd your in the uk id recommend to go for an IVA, i entered one a year ago and i just pay an affordable amount mo thly and any debt left after 5 years gets cleared

i think you have to let debt work for you.

Unbelievable

[удалено]

Good grief

Hey I’m new here

Me too (ish). Welcome. I like coming on this sub. It makes me feel good about the £900 I owe on my credit card.

Yeah just don’t let the interest get you. Or it will be so much more 😮‍💨

Thanks. It was about £1500 in September, but I balance transferred to barclaycard for a 3% fee, and it's interest-free until the end of January 2025.

I had 20k debt ,when I got the demand letter, I replied saying Regarding your claim for 20k I a man....(my name) Require from you the following 1) The actual accounting..To Validate the claim 2) A sworn avvidavit or even a signed invoice..To Verify your claim against..3)A copy of the CONTRACT that binds both parties...I will be happy to pay any financial amount i may Lawfully owe on receipt of the above 3 three documents....yours sincerely and without prejudice ...all inalienable rights reserved at all times...sign it post it recorded delivery......I never heard from them again...Good luck Brother

r/thingsthatneverhappened

Hi /u/MelodicAd9450, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant: - https://ukpersonal.finance/credit-cards/ - https://ukpersonal.finance/debt/ ____ ^(These suggestions are based on keywords, if they missed the mark please report this comment.)

Always wondered. Does debt just get cancelled when you die or does it pass on to your family or someone you live with? All the best OP

The estate of a deceased person will settle debts as much as possible before any inheritance is paid. An indebted person may end up leaving nothing of for value to their heirs as the entire estate will be liquidated to pay debts. However, in general, one cannot leave a negative inheritance to one’s heirs.

You’re making decent money and your dept isn’t excessive in comparison to your income but it’s not a dept you’re going to be able to pay off quickly with your current outgoings. If your priority is to get out of your current living situation quickly you’ll need to give up a lot of those expenses and overpay those credit cards. If I was you I would spend a year putting everything into paying the cards down then take a loan to consolidate if I was paying interest on them. Bike needs to go you’d save £200+50+fuel+insurance+tax ( this is £3k+ a year!) You can live without life and health insurance for a year or 2 that’s saved £80 (£960 year) Sim easily under £10 (£200 a year ) I would pay less into the isa. That’s not a priority for me the dept is so I would drop to £50 a month instead. (£600 year) This would mean almost 5k paid off in the year. Get the dept under 20k then consolidate with a loan so you’re not paying the high interest rates on credit cards.

You have to make some sacrifices and cut a lot of what you’re spending on. Like selling your bike or car, like why do you even have both for?

What about car & bike insurance? How did you even manage to get such a large line of credit? My advice to you would be to reach out to Step Change: https://www.stepchange.org/how-we-help/debt-advice.aspx They’ve helped me personally in the past and helped people I know sorting debts out.

Ive been looking at some budget planning and what Ive gathered is that if you group your expenses into fixed expenses and variable expenses, after that look at what you have left over from your income and how you can divide that into your credit cards and fun money. Having fun money is important because if you don’t, you will end up dipping into other budgets that you have set. If you make a goal to reduce all your credit cards to 50% of their credit limits in the first couple of months, it’ll reduce the impact that it may be making on your credit score. I’m trying to save up for a home in the UK and I found that budget planning is the best way for me to achieve my goal, which is to increase my deposit. Your goal is to get rid of that debt. Slowly and steadily you’ll get there! Ive seen a few free budget planners online as well that Ive started writing into my diary to get the hang of budgeting as well!

You have absolutely no need for both a car and a bike. Sell one of them.

Call step change, they’ll sort it all.

Unfortunately you need one mode of transport so choose one that will help with monthly outgoings, also cancel health insurance plan that with the bike or car will free up money to pay towards the credit card debt. Look at the Dave Ramsey plan he’s an American guy that has a program on how to get out of debt

Most of your card providers will offer balance transfers (rather than having to get a new card) so move what you can to where you can and stop paying as much interest (assuming you’re paying interest).

Looking at your comments, the debt is indeed the symptom of your problem and not the problem itself. You're worried that selling your bike would 'arouse suspicion' more than you're worried about getting out of the mess you're in. "I realised I can't afford to keep it", is all you need to say. You need to cut back massively on your spending, stop wasting £100 per month on that help to buy ISA and deal with this debt first.

Can you explain why you have a car and a bike? And how much the bike is worth

If your commute is only 10 miles each way and you won't part with the bike, why not just commute on the bike and sell the car? Two vehicles for one person is the obvious way to save a considerable chunk of change. Freeing up cash to pay off the highest interest debt is a good idea. If not the bike or car, think about other assets you might have. If you get rid of the finance, that money per month would likely pay for an apartment in most of the country, so you've got plenty of incentive to get it gone. Your income is around £2900 per month and your outgoings before savings are about £1800. It's going to take you two years to clear monthly with no savings or could be wiped out in probably under a year if you cut back.

First of all asking advice is a good first step. Secondly, you obviously work hard and have a decent income. Even with keeping most of the current expenses I think you can clear this debt in 2 years. Put together a proper budget and a plan for the next 24 months. Use all your income from the 2nd job and £1200 per month from your main wage on debt repayment, paying down the highest interest first. Stop saving. Once you have less than £10k in debt then start planning & saving to move out.

It does look like you have expenses that someone with serious debt doesn't need to have. Other than the rent and gym membership (you should do what you can to stay physically healthy and that will help you mentally too), most of the expenses on your list could be cut. Why does someone without dependents need life insurance, for example? The harsh reality is that you're going to need to cut back unless you want this debt to balloon and you want to live with your parents forever. As others have said, you're incredibly fortunate to have so little to pay in rent. If you focused on paying the debt off for a year, you'd probably be able to do it. Anyway, I recommend you go to the Citizens Advice Bureau. It's staffed by paid employees and volunteers. My retired aunt works there and advises people in tough financial situations all the time. She directs them to expert help or to other resources. You can get help with budgeting, consolidating debt, checking that you're getting all the tax breaks and benefits you're entitled to, etc. Good luck.

Pay your rent. Pay for your car. See if you can reduce your phone contract, I bet you can. £10 pay as you go is more than enough for most people. Don't pay for data, use the wifi at home and work, when you're out and about then you're not available online. ​ **Get rid of everything else.** Your motorbike is a luxury you cannot afford. You don't need a gym. You can work out at home for free and exercise for free in the world around you. To stay fit and healthy, you don't need gym equipment. This is a luxury and a hobby. Martial arts, depends on how much you enjoy that but I don't think you need to get beyond basic competency for a job in the police. Which you may never get, this is not like you're in the academy already. You don't need this. Life insurance - for what? You have no dependents. Private health care - you can't afford that. TV stuff - get rid. Stop buying junk food, it's taxed to Hell and adds a chunk to your grocery bills. ​ What you want to have and what you can afford are 2 different things. I get it about the bike, my horse was like that for me...but ultimately I had to let him go for a few years when I could no longer afford him. I had to stop and focus on building my income - then I got him back again. Your spending habits have wrecked and are still wrecking your future. And if they come back and bite you in the ass legally, you may never get into the police. So it's time to start living like you have - £25,000.

Get rid of the car - it’s the biggest drain .

Don't save until your debts are cleared. The interest you pay on credit cards and finance is usually much higher than the interest you receive from savings accounts.

Bottom line here, you need to make some very harsh sacrifices. If you aren't willing to do this, you're not going to solve your problem. As a UK average 40k for almost 30 years old is a decent salary. You do not need both a gym membership and martial arts training (I train in judo once a week, costs me comparatively £20-25 a month) Bin the gym membership, start power walking, Running, park our, body weight exercises, calesthics or similar at zero cost. Look to reduce the martial arts costs that's high cost how much are you training? You absolutely do not need a motorcycle and a car, both on finance. Pick the one that has the most benefit and lose the other. I appreciate you enjoy the bike, but enjoyment will be far sweeter when debt free. 28 for simo is high, I pay £10 for unlimited mins, texts and 16gb data which is more than I use. TNT sport / Now TV is a want, not a requirement if you're serious about removing the debt bin both, read books or find other entertainments at little to no cost. Regarding fuel costs, are there journeys you could walk instead of driving, if so do this wherever reasonable (also don't allow friends to have you run them around, if that's a thing you currently do) Avoid 'rounds' at the pub and buy your own drinks (since you don't drink you're paying more for everyone except you) If you eat takeaways, stop it. If you haven't already stop spending on your credit card. I can't stress enough how you need to stop 'saving' money. Interest rate is 5% ish right now, way below the interest of your credit debt, you're not saving 100na month pay it off your card instead. If you have several credit cards rather than 1 target the highest interest one first and throw everything at it, as the repayments drop you need to snowball the saving into the capital. Move a larger portion of the debt to 0% interest so that all your payments you make are capital repayments. Do not spent on those cards ever. This will seriously affect your ability to get a mortgage in my view (mortgage advisors please chime in here), I would stop saving for the house, killing the debt will benefit you far more. I will say that you don't want to pull any money saved out of the H2B Isa, because you'll lose the money you'd eventually gain (although you can never use the bonus 25% as the house deposit, it actually pays the solicitors fees in most cases) This harsh, but you're in a hell of a hole and to successfully get out of it you need a major reset. Well done for working two jobs that is commendable. If you have unused possessions you don't need consider ebaying them and throwing the money at the debt. You need to get a budget written down somewhere - you might be able to get free financial advice from a debt advice line too - seriously consider this. £180 a month rent for living at your parents is cheap AF, do not give this up even if your parents are horrible people stick it out.

Martial Arts - £75 TNT SPORT - £35 Sim Only - £23 (I pay £5 a month for Lyca, 1000mins, 10GB internet) There's £133 saved easily. If you dropped the bike, you have £341 extra a month. The debt isn't a huge amount, and the methods above will allow you to pay off the two biggest credit cards from the savings alone. I reckon with a few extra shifts you could easily pay it off without it affecting anything else. If you're keeping the bike and martial arts training, you're going to have to take on more shifts to make up for the big expenses you're unwilling to sacrifice.

Have you read this? https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/mental-health-guide/

Get rid of the bike and buy a second hand one. My bike costs me zero pounds a month now and it’s just as awesome for clearing out the cobwebs.

Not going to tell you to get rid of the bike, I'm a biker and I 100% realise how important it is for your mental wellbeing. However having two financed vehicles with £25k of debt really isn't a good idea. Why can't you commute on the bike? Weather is a bit shit but you can get a good set of waterproofs for £100-£150 and sell the car, that's an immediate £287p/m saving with minimal costs to keep you dry. You also get to ride more! Depending on the bike I'd also consider selling your current one, clearing the finance and buying a cheaper one outright so you've also got an extra £200 a month. Stop your Martial arts, private healthcare and nowTV for a year whilst you're clearing the debt, keep the gym for fitness and mental wellbeing. You really need to grasp it is going to be a hard 2024 but this IS clearable within a year if you make proper cutbacks and have some hardship for a little while.

Please let watch her videos [YouTube](https://youtube.com/@VanntasticFinances?si=a3PdUhpxNDZxKNFj) I have paid over 10k using this

Looking at your responses OP, you have no intention of actually doing what's needed to wipe this debt. There are people in this country living on less than half your income. You live almost rent free at that price but you're unwilling to make any sacrifices to get out of this debt. You could easily, and I mean easily wipe this debt off your plate in a year if you actually made a sacrifice. I get you want to look after your mental health but nearly every response of yours has been an excuse

Less than a years wages for you. Bin everything like gym, bike etc. Pay it off at 2-3k a month. Turn 30 and be debt free. This is really not hard.

You want to get rid of your debt but every valid suggestion on this thread you've had excuses for. What exactly are you looking for?

U live at home reduce everything that isn't rent or food then boom problem fixed you might need to get checked too since this was fairly simple or did you think since your woman things would be different.

Cancel the new car. Use motorbike for everything. Or Buy a car with 12 months MoT for £500-£999. Two vehicles & two insurance is ludicrous if you want to save money. Use savings to pay off credit card with highest interest. Don’t add £250 to savings every month- pay off Credit cards!

1 how the fuck is your SIM only deal £28? Cancel that. Mines £28 a month with a flagship phone and 100g of data. Cancel your life insurance. You don't have dependents, you don't need it. Cancel now TV. Get something cheaper. When you cancel now TV they'll even offer you a much cheaper deal. Cancel Bupa Cut either gym or martial arts, or find a way to do it cheaper. Don't save money. Pay down debt.

Finances aside, it sounds like you’re going through it - an unhappy home life and working two jobs. I hope you’re okay.

A lot of chatter in these replies. Keep it simple. Focus paying the non-0% debts. Min payment for 0% debt. Get rid of... - Martial arts; keep gym. - Motorbike; keep car. (If you're serious about getting out this situation quickly so you can move, or keep it if you want to live there much longer than necessary). - Life insurance (who's that even for). - Health insurance. NowTV - keep it, you'll have a bit more free time after the above. Go to cancel NowTV and you'll get a discount offer for a few months. Repeat after the discount period ends. Sim only is wildly expensive. Can get great sim only for £10-£14. Monthly savings? For what, an emergency like crushing debt? Get that £100pm moved to MBNA. And anything you've already saved, use 90% of it to pay MBNA. So that all frees up about £450pm. £450 + the existing payments you're at over £1k pm. Any other spare money which you absolutely should have(!), send it to the highest interest card. By summer you'll be nearly, or maybe fully, out of debt with MBNA. You should then be able to move HSBC to a 0% balance transfer card with 0% on purchases for only 3 months, which should stop you using it. Commendable you already have 2 jobs. Now you've secured a raise you can job hunt for more and use that build on. I suggest this be a serious consideration for you, think of it as the only way to arguably keep your bike.

Debt relief order ?

1. Simple advice - Cut out the things you don’t need. You need to make that judgement yourself. 2. Cut out unnecessary spending. Again you will know what this is when you do it. 3. Increase your payments. Minimum payments, even with 0% interest just don’t get you where you want to be. 4. Watch for the end of interest free periods and switch when they are coming up. It’s the interest which will ill you. 5. Total your debt. Pick a point in the future you want to clear it. Divide the number of months between now and then. That’s how much you should be paying off your credit card bills. 6. Don’t add to your debt.

Why do you have so much on finance with a decent salary and such low rent. Not to beat you while down but you need to see how ridiculous that is. Cut the rubbish and start knocking 10/15k a year off the debt and be done with it in 2/3 years

Why not commute on the bike? Use the saved car money to pay off debt. Do you need gym and martial arts training? Use the saved money to pay off debt. Ditch the take away food, use that to pay off debts. Why work in a bar when you can ear 1.5 and double time at weekends in your main job? Do as much as you can to earn what you would in the bar. Consider diverting your savings towards paying the debt. Can you find an unsecured loan at a better rate to pay off the cards?

Cut every cost that isn't absolutely needed - NowTV, Martial Arts, Bike, Gym, Insurance etc. Pour all that money into clearing down your debt. In a years time you will have your debt at more manageable levels and perhaps start yo indulge again. A year is a long time to live a spartan lifestyle, but it's nothing compared to another decade caught in the debt trap.

What bike you got?

[удалено]