Keeping my head out of the sand

A question about : Keeping my head out of the sand

Hi Everyone

Long term lurker and head in the sand-er here. I've browsed on MSE for years but never had to start my own thread until now.

The past year has seen me gather some debt brought on by a massive unexpected bill (which my emergency find barely covered 5% of), unpaid sick leave and a reduction in income. Having now got on top of things I have decided to face up to my debts which now stand at Ј20k

I've never been in so much debt before and can't quite believe it but I'm not panicking (much) and going to concentrate on reducing it as quickly as possible.

Ј2k of the debt is on an old student overdraft which is my first priority to pay off due to its horrendous interest charges.

The other Ј18k is on a Barclaycard and MBNA card, the balances are on interest free rates all with various end dates.

My take home salary is approx Ј1800 a month, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.

Outgoings

Direct Debits - Ј815 (mortgage, ctax, internet,bills, insurances etc)
Credit Card min repayments - Ј200
Travel - Ј45 (average, varies month to month)
Food - Ј100 (also varies, usually under this amount)
Funds - Ј25 (saved for expected annual payments)
Pet care - Ј30
Fun stuff - Ј100 (dont shoot me, I'm young, have a tough job and want to also have a life)
Emergency Fund - Ј20

Total - Ј1335

So on average I ***should*** have Ј465 left. My plans for this is to pay another Ј300 to the debts and leave a buffer. I'm aware I havent included money for things like clothes,presents, hairdresser etc above so need to think about that properly. I try to be money neutral with that kinda thing - sell stuff to buy stuff etc.

My fun stuff budget includes things like lunches with friends, birthday drinks, the occasional manucure, cinema etc. This will also vary month to month, we are usually quite savvy and find free things to do, cheap cinema tickets, groupon deals for meals out and so on. Some months I might spend Ј10 socialising, other months more, just depends.

I plan to work as much overtime as possible over the next two months and put the excess earnings to debt. I am very lucky to have a trip to Italy to look forward to in April. All paid for, all I need is cash for some delicious ice cream

My OTHER issue is the extra 2 stone that has managed to find me . Again I was in denial about this until a button on my favourite coat popped and forced me to face up to it

I'll be calorie counting and running, no fads or pills or ridiculous juice detox things here. Any tips or words of encouragement will be most welcome.

So thats my intro and the start of my journey to paying off the Јs and sweating off the lbs. Here we go!!!

Best answers:

• Hi, and well done for deciding to address your situation.
  Why is the credit card minimum payment so low? I would have thought that with a balance of Ј18k, the minimum payment would have been around Ј350 to Ј400?
• I'm not sure what I was doing yesterday but today I double and triple checked my credit card balances and they are not as much as I thought
  It stands at:
  Barclaycard - Ј6776.25
  MBNA - Ј6740
  This plus the Ј2k overdraft comes to
  Ј15516.25
  Still pretty but feels a bit more manageable. I am going to aim to be debtfree in 2 years. Is this possible? Well that is up to me pulling my socks up, being sensible and being prepared for the objects that get in the way.
  To pay that off would mean Ј646.50 to debt each month, this does not include future interest or balance transfer fees.
  Weight loss wise I went for a run today, managed 20 minutes without stopping which I was pretty pleased with (as long as I improve!!!). Have eaten well so far today and have enough calories left for a nice dinner.
  I'm now going to look for things to sell so I can raise a little fund for presents and things.