Can't keep burying my head in the sand!

quintwins · 23 July 2017 at 7:02PM

I never thought I'd find myself in here but the last few years I've been passing about around £10k of debt between 0% cards and making no progress. Fast forward to Christmas and we ended up doing some work to our house turned out to be a bigger job than expected. Then we had lots and lots of car trouble.

So I finally added up all my debt last week, really died and paid £1200 off last week alone and cleared one card ready to be cancelled tomorrow.

My plan is to pay an extra £500 minimum off my debts every month on top of the minimum payments. alot of our 0% end soon but I'll be worse.

I have done a SOA but I don't want to post it. We have very large outgoings to our cars but everything else is pretty much the norm and can't be cut back anyway. my car is on finance and I'd lose alot of money if I sold it now, his car is a heap of junk and not fit for the kids. He also has a motorbike but again selling it or even handing it back isn't an option due to finance. Another big issue is I ignored my rates/council tax bill so now I have to pay it over 8 months instead of 10.

However our daily spending is changing from now on and I'll be posting here to keep myself accountable :T

System · 23 July 2017 at 7:11PM

Welcome to the forum.!

quintwins · 23 July 2017 at 7:55PM

Thank you cumbria lass.

My plan for this week is

Spend less than £40 (need desil and a birthday cake)

Cook all meals...no takeaways

sort threw last years school uniform and see whats needed.

Pay £100 off debt.

System · 23 July 2017 at 8:03PM

Good to have a plan, do you meal plan ? Although there is only me I still do this and it has definitely saved me money.

quintwins · 23 July 2017 at 8:22PM

Cumbria_lass wrote: »

Good to have a plan, do you meal plan ? Although there is only me I still do this and it has definitely saved me money.

Yes I do usually before I go shopping, it's a must with 6 of us but right now I'm trying to keep costs down and use what we have in rather than buying alot.

Aaleigha · 23 July 2017 at 10:13PM

The hardest thing is to sit and sort through things and admit to self the extent of the problem - well done you thats the hardest bit over - now its just about being consistent

as many of your cards are off their 0% have you looked into applying for new ones and transfering your existing ones - or at least with lower interest
also all utilities
keep the children looking for pennies from heaven (my Dad called found money that) and get them to start saving now while they are young enough to learn - I found it also stopped the I want can I have - as they saved for it and then we added to their savings to help and encourage them,

good luck on your journey - look at the challenges - fun as well as inspiring and helpful.

quintwins · 24 July 2017 at 12:02AM

Aaleigha wrote: »

The hardest thing is to sit and sort through things and admit to self the extent of the problem - well done you thats the hardest bit over - now its just about being consistent

as many of your cards are off their 0% have you looked into applying for new ones and transfering your existing ones - or at least with lower interest
also all utilities
keep the children looking for pennies from heaven (my Dad called found money that) and get them to start saving now while they are young enough to learn - I found it also stopped the I want can I have - as they saved for it and then we added to their savings to help and encourage them,

good luck on your journey - look at the challenges - fun as well as inspiring and helpful.

Thanks for the help. Neither of us can get anymore 0% cards as our borrowing ration is too high.I even looked at getting a loan but got turned down. Also if I'm honest 0% card transfers is how I got in this mess. I'd switch but not close the old one then something would come up. Until last month I had had to pay any interest. I was throwing all my money at one card and living off another and then repeating so I was covering the payments and all the minimum payments on my 0% cards but holidays threw that off. Some of my cards are 0% til 2019 tho so just focusing on the few that aren't first then the 2 that run out really soon. I should be ok after that (for a start the minimum payments on those are £200 so that'll help pay down the others)

jumbola · 24 July 2017 at 12:11AM

Well done! Think there are far too many pressures to 'keep up with life' and all the daily spending habits just add up. It's the decisions in the smallest moments which matter - not the big figures at the end of the month.

I think now that you're conscious about it, it will work out. Good luck!

Julie67 · 24 July 2017 at 8:23AM

Good morning,

Have you tried keeping a spending diary? Just a little notebook and pen somewhere handy and write down every penny for a week. it really helps to see where your money is going. For us it was eating out , there is just the two of us. It is so easy to call for a sandwich or pub lunch etc, it's saved us a fortune.
Good luck with your journey

quintwins · 24 July 2017 at 9:47AM

yeah I did a spending dairy when I was saving for a house. takeaway is our downfall and with having so many kids even Mcdonald's costs us £30 a pop. I used to be so good with money but then I got used to actually having some to spend and didn't change my habits when I no longer had any to spend.

quintwins · 24 July 2017 at 4:35PM

Been to the park and asda,spend of £13.51 on desil and birthday cake. Paid £86.50 off one of my credit cards aswell.
My plan for this week is

Spend less than £40 (need desil and a birthday cake)....£13.51/£40

Cook all meals...no takeaways.... 3/7

sort threw last years school uniform and see whats needed.

Pay £100 off debt...£86.50 so far

Can't keep burying my head in the sand!

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free