PigginSkint's DFW Diary
PigginSkint
Posts: 2,706
Forumite
Hi All
Loads of people seem to be doing debt diaries at the moment so I thought I would start one as well. Feel free to make comments, tell me off, give me a kick up the bum if you think I need it at all.
How I got into debt: a combination of having a stingy ex, low paid jobs alternating with no jobs, splitting up with ex and having to pay him a lot of money, losing job, having a very bad car, making every mistake going with finances (but on the plus side not missing or getting behind with payments), having repeated bouts of depression (I am a ‘comfort spender’ or rather I was before my light bulb moment).
First some background:
When I was younger (young free and single lol!) I was actually quite good with money. I went to University at 18, graduated when I was 22 and my only debt then was a £200 overdraft. (I am 36 now) This was in the days when you could still get a grant, albeit a very small one! My Dad used to pay me a monthly allowance and if I ran out of money he would give me a bit more into my bank account for me. He was happy to do this because he really didn’t want me to have a student loan.
A few months after graduating I started work on a very low wage (this was before minimum wage)…and got pregnant! Not exactly planned! My now ex and I had only been seeing each other a few months and it was a rebound relationship anyway. I started saving a proportion of my wages every week in preparation for the arrival of the baby. The Ex and I were then both made redundant within a week of each other midway through the pregnancy. I had a difficult pregnancy and in any case I was only 3 months away from giving birth so I couldn’t get more work. The Ex finally managed to get another job (low paid) when DS was 6 weeks old. We were in rented accommodation and getting all the necessary benefits etc etc. At this point I was 23, with a baby, not much money but still no debt! (Apart from the lingering small OD)
So how did I get into so much debt then? Well it is a very long story so I will try and make it as brief as possible. When the Ex and I first moved into our first house when DS was a tiny baby we were on Income Support at first and then when the Ex got a job we got some Family Credit, which was paid to me. So far, so good. (You’ll have to bear with me now as my memory of some of the timings is not so good!) Sometime around this time I needed a new coat and decided to buy one from Dorothy Perkins – ‘Would you like to apply for our credit card and get 10% off your purchase Madam?’ How could I refuse? I did not know then that the APR was about 29%! I had no idea what an APR was! Sometime later the same again happened in Adams with their card – again the APR was somewhere between 28-30%. I also opened accounts with a couple of catalogues. In my defence the balances on these were very small.
Now I think it is time to summarise a little. When the Ex’s salary increased the Family Credit stopped. He paid all the bills so of course he thought that was enough. Now how much do you think he gave me for housekeeping? Absolutely b*****r all! Ever! When DS was about 12 months old I started doing a little work – temping occasionally. I didn’t want to do a lot because I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my baby. For the work I did I earned very little, roughly half of it would go on childcare and the rest I spent on the family – clothes for DS, myself and the Ex, food, nappies etc etc. Debt at this stage? At a guess, less than £500.
Eventually we bought a house and got married. I started doing teacher training on what was officially a part time course so I got a very small grant (c£300 per year) and took out 2 student loans (total c£3000). This course cost me a lot of money – resources etc. Also when I was doing school practice I had to pay a full time childminder. The Ex gave me no financial help with this at all. At the end of the course (I withdrew rather than fail) I had an OD of £2000 which my bank persuaded me to take out a loan to cover (I think I paid it over 4 years but it is a while since this was paid off so I can’t really remember) and I suppose some credit card debt, but probably not a lot!
In 2000 I started working regularly in a succession of longer term temporary jobs and eventually in 2001 got my first permanent job but still on a very low wage. About this time I started accumulating more credit card debts but finally woke up to the fact that I was paying a huge amount of interest on my store cards so moved them to an Egg card (APR at that time was I think about 12-14%) So I was in debt but not a huge amount still.
Then in 2001 things started to go wrong. My marriage started to fall apart and I started to suffer with depression again (I had depression when I was pregnant) and I do have a tendency to spend when I am depressed. The Ex and I only stayed together for DS anyway so it was a bit of a timebomb waiting to go off! In 2002 we split up but it took until 2003 for him to move out because he definitely wanted his pound of flesh. I had to take out a loan for £10K to pay him off (luckily a ‘clean break’) – this is a secured homeowner loan which is on my credit record as a 2nd mortgage. I don’t even count it when thinking about my debts – I just think of it as an extension of my mortgage because effectively that is what it is.
I had a car from 2001 (which I loved) but as it was old it sucked money out of my bank account at an alarming rate! And of course added considerably to my credit card balances! I finally realised at the beginning of 2005 that it had to go before it cost me any more – and while it still had some MOT on it.
I met my wonderful OH in 2003 and although life has been difficult we are very happy. Unfortunately having OH around has added to my debt burden because as a self employed actor his income is somewhat erratic. When I first met him he had hardly any work at all so I was having to feed him and basically support him financially – luckily this has improved somewhat!
At the beginning of 2004 I lost my job. I then did temping for another year – first in a part time job (which was all I could get at the time) and then in a full time job. I had a gap between starting the first one and of course the part time job didn’t pay much. Neither did the full time one! So of course we didn’t have enough to live on so we used the credit cards … a lot! I was still depressed so I did some comfort spending as well. I made every mistake going including taking out a consolidation loan to cover some of my credit card debt – do I ever regret doing that!!!
I finally got a permanent job (a much better one) in early 2005 so things started to look up then but a lot of the damage had already been done. I had a bit of a mini-light bulb moment then – I had a grand plan of buying a new car (even managed to get talked into paying a deposit on one by the sales person at the garage) but when I did my sums I realised that not only could I not afford to buy a new one, I could not afford to keep the old one. That was a very bad time!
So since then I have gradually started to undo some of the damage – seriously cut back on the spending, sold lots of stuff (though still need to take the plunge with ebay) transferred most of my credit card debt to low life of balance cards, the rest is on 0% cards (apart from a very small amount on one other card), cancelled PPI etc.
I had my full and bright lightbulb moment in July last year – very very scary but things are starting to look up.
Still got lots I can do. I have not gone down the DMP route yet because I think I am right in saying that you can’t get any more credit once you do. I want to keep my options open at the moment because my aim, if I can, is to get all my credit card debt onto low rate life of balance cards and I am still a little way off that yet! Also I am still shuffling! And we are (just!) managing to meet the repayments every month. I also really must get a better deal on my building and contents insurance - I know that I am paying way too much for that. Also I know I can get a better deal on my MPPI. And once the Money Saving Guru himself says its time to switch gas and electric I will be looking into that as well.
Sorry for the long post and thank you for listening!!
Loads of people seem to be doing debt diaries at the moment so I thought I would start one as well. Feel free to make comments, tell me off, give me a kick up the bum if you think I need it at all.
How I got into debt: a combination of having a stingy ex, low paid jobs alternating with no jobs, splitting up with ex and having to pay him a lot of money, losing job, having a very bad car, making every mistake going with finances (but on the plus side not missing or getting behind with payments), having repeated bouts of depression (I am a ‘comfort spender’ or rather I was before my light bulb moment).
First some background:
When I was younger (young free and single lol!) I was actually quite good with money. I went to University at 18, graduated when I was 22 and my only debt then was a £200 overdraft. (I am 36 now) This was in the days when you could still get a grant, albeit a very small one! My Dad used to pay me a monthly allowance and if I ran out of money he would give me a bit more into my bank account for me. He was happy to do this because he really didn’t want me to have a student loan.
A few months after graduating I started work on a very low wage (this was before minimum wage)…and got pregnant! Not exactly planned! My now ex and I had only been seeing each other a few months and it was a rebound relationship anyway. I started saving a proportion of my wages every week in preparation for the arrival of the baby. The Ex and I were then both made redundant within a week of each other midway through the pregnancy. I had a difficult pregnancy and in any case I was only 3 months away from giving birth so I couldn’t get more work. The Ex finally managed to get another job (low paid) when DS was 6 weeks old. We were in rented accommodation and getting all the necessary benefits etc etc. At this point I was 23, with a baby, not much money but still no debt! (Apart from the lingering small OD)
So how did I get into so much debt then? Well it is a very long story so I will try and make it as brief as possible. When the Ex and I first moved into our first house when DS was a tiny baby we were on Income Support at first and then when the Ex got a job we got some Family Credit, which was paid to me. So far, so good. (You’ll have to bear with me now as my memory of some of the timings is not so good!) Sometime around this time I needed a new coat and decided to buy one from Dorothy Perkins – ‘Would you like to apply for our credit card and get 10% off your purchase Madam?’ How could I refuse? I did not know then that the APR was about 29%! I had no idea what an APR was! Sometime later the same again happened in Adams with their card – again the APR was somewhere between 28-30%. I also opened accounts with a couple of catalogues. In my defence the balances on these were very small.
Now I think it is time to summarise a little. When the Ex’s salary increased the Family Credit stopped. He paid all the bills so of course he thought that was enough. Now how much do you think he gave me for housekeeping? Absolutely b*****r all! Ever! When DS was about 12 months old I started doing a little work – temping occasionally. I didn’t want to do a lot because I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my baby. For the work I did I earned very little, roughly half of it would go on childcare and the rest I spent on the family – clothes for DS, myself and the Ex, food, nappies etc etc. Debt at this stage? At a guess, less than £500.
Eventually we bought a house and got married. I started doing teacher training on what was officially a part time course so I got a very small grant (c£300 per year) and took out 2 student loans (total c£3000). This course cost me a lot of money – resources etc. Also when I was doing school practice I had to pay a full time childminder. The Ex gave me no financial help with this at all. At the end of the course (I withdrew rather than fail) I had an OD of £2000 which my bank persuaded me to take out a loan to cover (I think I paid it over 4 years but it is a while since this was paid off so I can’t really remember) and I suppose some credit card debt, but probably not a lot!
In 2000 I started working regularly in a succession of longer term temporary jobs and eventually in 2001 got my first permanent job but still on a very low wage. About this time I started accumulating more credit card debts but finally woke up to the fact that I was paying a huge amount of interest on my store cards so moved them to an Egg card (APR at that time was I think about 12-14%) So I was in debt but not a huge amount still.
Then in 2001 things started to go wrong. My marriage started to fall apart and I started to suffer with depression again (I had depression when I was pregnant) and I do have a tendency to spend when I am depressed. The Ex and I only stayed together for DS anyway so it was a bit of a timebomb waiting to go off! In 2002 we split up but it took until 2003 for him to move out because he definitely wanted his pound of flesh. I had to take out a loan for £10K to pay him off (luckily a ‘clean break’) – this is a secured homeowner loan which is on my credit record as a 2nd mortgage. I don’t even count it when thinking about my debts – I just think of it as an extension of my mortgage because effectively that is what it is.
I had a car from 2001 (which I loved) but as it was old it sucked money out of my bank account at an alarming rate! And of course added considerably to my credit card balances! I finally realised at the beginning of 2005 that it had to go before it cost me any more – and while it still had some MOT on it.
I met my wonderful OH in 2003 and although life has been difficult we are very happy. Unfortunately having OH around has added to my debt burden because as a self employed actor his income is somewhat erratic. When I first met him he had hardly any work at all so I was having to feed him and basically support him financially – luckily this has improved somewhat!
At the beginning of 2004 I lost my job. I then did temping for another year – first in a part time job (which was all I could get at the time) and then in a full time job. I had a gap between starting the first one and of course the part time job didn’t pay much. Neither did the full time one! So of course we didn’t have enough to live on so we used the credit cards … a lot! I was still depressed so I did some comfort spending as well. I made every mistake going including taking out a consolidation loan to cover some of my credit card debt – do I ever regret doing that!!!
I finally got a permanent job (a much better one) in early 2005 so things started to look up then but a lot of the damage had already been done. I had a bit of a mini-light bulb moment then – I had a grand plan of buying a new car (even managed to get talked into paying a deposit on one by the sales person at the garage) but when I did my sums I realised that not only could I not afford to buy a new one, I could not afford to keep the old one. That was a very bad time!
So since then I have gradually started to undo some of the damage – seriously cut back on the spending, sold lots of stuff (though still need to take the plunge with ebay) transferred most of my credit card debt to low life of balance cards, the rest is on 0% cards (apart from a very small amount on one other card), cancelled PPI etc.
I had my full and bright lightbulb moment in July last year – very very scary but things are starting to look up.
Still got lots I can do. I have not gone down the DMP route yet because I think I am right in saying that you can’t get any more credit once you do. I want to keep my options open at the moment because my aim, if I can, is to get all my credit card debt onto low rate life of balance cards and I am still a little way off that yet! Also I am still shuffling! And we are (just!) managing to meet the repayments every month. I also really must get a better deal on my building and contents insurance - I know that I am paying way too much for that. Also I know I can get a better deal on my MPPI. And once the Money Saving Guru himself says its time to switch gas and electric I will be looking into that as well.
Sorry for the long post and thank you for listening!!
PigginSkint's debt free diary
DFW Nerd 1049 Amazon Sellers Club member 54
Total mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £14090.77 (Last payment: September 2021)
LTSB Loan 30/4/17 £6633.71 (reduction by 48%)
Total credit cards: 30/4/17 £25971.91 :eek:
Total non-mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £32876.49 :eek:
DFW Nerd 1049 Amazon Sellers Club member 54
Total mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £14090.77 (Last payment: September 2021)
LTSB Loan 30/4/17 £6633.71 (reduction by 48%)
Total credit cards: 30/4/17 £25971.91 :eek:
Total non-mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £32876.49 :eek:
0
Comments
-
Wow - that was really interesting reading! I look forwards to more0
-
Well it’s the 1st of the month so it is the day to update my spreadsheets to see how much I have managed to pay off. It is also the day to update my signature so I’ll do that later.
I don’t think I have paid off as much as I would have like to, but the reason for this is that I have been doing some shuffling so some of the benefits of that won’t be showing yet.
My 0% APR on my Virgin card is about to expire so I have been trying to work out where the balance on that card is going to go – it’s about £5000. I have applied for another credit card (Citi) with a life of balance deal on but I haven’t heard anything yet – fingers crossed. But if I get turned down for that I have another trick up my sleeve yet. My Amazon/Halifax card currently has £0 on it with a APR of 12.94% - not great but not bad in comparison to what the APR on the Virgin is going to be by the end of the month. I got a letter about this at the weekend in which it was not entirely clear what the deal was with 0% promotional rates that are about to come to an end, but it would appear to be 24.9%. OMG!!!:eek: :eek:
My Sainsburys credit card is LOB 5.94% and they have recently allowed me to do more BTs to this at the same rate and also LOB – one was a Christmas promotion and one was for Valentine’s Day. I have taken advantage of this and transferred as much as possible to it – including some from the Virgin Card.
In February my 1.9% for 12 months on my LTSB card expired but just before it ended they offered me a 0% for 6 months for BTs, so I transferred the entire balance to my Egg card and then transferred it back again.
O.K. I have incurred fees along the way by doing these balance transfers but as these fees were roughly equivalent to 1 month’s interest on the higher interest rates I was paying, I think this is not that bad.
Phew! You all must be bored to death reading this - I will try and make my next post more interesting!PigginSkint's debt free diary
DFW Nerd 1049 Amazon Sellers Club member 54
Total mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £14090.77 (Last payment: September 2021)
LTSB Loan 30/4/17 £6633.71 (reduction by 48%)
Total credit cards: 30/4/17 £25971.91 :eek:
Total non-mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £32876.49 :eek:0 -
Well done PigginSkint you are on your way!
I'm just like you, my debt has gon from an original loan of £5k to just over £16k! I can't believe it really but I had my third LBM last month and i'm determined to get rid of it before my 29th birthday in 2010.
Good luck to you!In debt no more!0 -
Thanks headinthe clouds and loubie lou! Nice to know I'm not just talking to myself!
I forgot something from my earlier post!
As of today I am introducing a grocery and newspaper spend challenge into our household – OH and DS don’t know it yet! I have done 2 grids – one for grocery and one for newspapers and magazines with the target maximum spend at the top (£150 for the grocery and £15 for newspapers and mags). Then there are columns for the date, items, cost and total to date. These will be attached to the fridge and the plan is that whenever someone buys something, they have to fill in the details on the grid.
This is my cunning plan to try to make OH and DS (OH particularly) aware of how much we are spending and to try to rein them in a little. Before Christmas I tried to get OH to keep a spending diary but failed miserably – he managed about 2 days!
If we manage it this month (and I don’t see why not because I think I have been fairly generous) – I will drop the targets and maybe introduce other categories (e.g. I think I might add a separate alcohol category which at the moment is incorporated into the grocery spend).
Wish me luck!PigginSkint's debt free diary
DFW Nerd 1049 Amazon Sellers Club member 54
Total mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £14090.77 (Last payment: September 2021)
LTSB Loan 30/4/17 £6633.71 (reduction by 48%)
Total credit cards: 30/4/17 £25971.91 :eek:
Total non-mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £32876.49 :eek:0 -
Hello PigginSkint!
I popped on here thinking of starting my own debt diary - which will really be more of a spending diary, and spotted your diary and thought I'd have a read (I'm soo nosey) I can totally sympathise with the stingey ex situation, anyway the grocery and newspaper challenge seems like a good idea and I'm currently doing a version of it myself, this is week one thought so I'm not too sure if it's 'do-able' is £150 your monthly grocery budget?
Anyway good luck - I look forward to reading more of your Diary!0 -
:j Thank Crunchie it’s Friday! OMG what a week it’s been – I have been very very tired, had a headache for most of the week and managed to inadvertently step on some toes at work (Please! Don’t shoot the messenger!). Very stressful!
Anyway I introduced the challenges to OH and DS and hopefully they seem up for it. However, when I told OH about the £15 max spend on newspapers and magazines this month, he said ‘we’ll never manage that’ – my reply was rather forceful ‘oh yes we will’ (because I shall make sure we will!).
I also emailed OH a section from my spreadsheet – the relevant part from Total Debts showing our progress so far - and informing him of the targets I have set (see sig). OH is an additional card holder on one of my credit cards (as he is unable to get a credit card himself) which is the only one that is used for spending if we need it (e.g. travel expenses and accommodation for auditions, some Christmas presents) – it is also the one where he is mainly responsible for making the repayments (though of course I have to remind him to do so!!). This means of course I have to make sure he is not tempted into non-essential spending which would scupper my targets somewhat!!
Anyway, looking forward to the weekend – have a good one everyone!:beer:PigginSkint's debt free diary
DFW Nerd 1049 Amazon Sellers Club member 54
Total mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £14090.77 (Last payment: September 2021)
LTSB Loan 30/4/17 £6633.71 (reduction by 48%)
Total credit cards: 30/4/17 £25971.91 :eek:
Total non-mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £32876.49 :eek:0 -
la.familia.cole wrote:this is week one thought so I'm not too sure if it's 'do-able' is £150 your monthly grocery budget?
Hi there! Yes £150 is for the month - it includes all food, drink, cleaning products etc. I think this is quite achieveable but we shall see! The budget is for 2 adults (me and OH) 1 12-year old boy (DS) and 2 cats.PigginSkint's debt free diary
DFW Nerd 1049 Amazon Sellers Club member 54
Total mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £14090.77 (Last payment: September 2021)
LTSB Loan 30/4/17 £6633.71 (reduction by 48%)
Total credit cards: 30/4/17 £25971.91 :eek:
Total non-mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £32876.49 :eek:0 -
Just a quick update as it's late on Saturday - OH does rather hog the laptop on a weekend.
got turned down for the Citi card - not a huge surprise really as I got turned down for the M&S & More card before Christmas. Time to do the credit card shuffle me thinks! I wonder if I phone Virgin and say I am about to move my entire balance off to another card they might offer me a deal - e.g. extend the 0% or give me a better % than currently? Worth a try.
Up to £110 on the grocery challenge for the month but should only need to do a small amount of top up shopping for rest of the month - milk bread, a few veggies, plus yogurts, cartons of juice and cheap crisps from Aldi for DS for lunch.
Tired now so think I shall go to bed soon. Ta-ra!!PigginSkint's debt free diary
DFW Nerd 1049 Amazon Sellers Club member 54
Total mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £14090.77 (Last payment: September 2021)
LTSB Loan 30/4/17 £6633.71 (reduction by 48%)
Total credit cards: 30/4/17 £25971.91 :eek:
Total non-mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £32876.49 :eek:0 -
Well despite planning to go to bed a short while ago I'm still here!
I forgot something from my earlier post!
Got the Halifax credit card bill today and the balance was somewhat higher than I expected - this is the only one used for spending and is the one that OH is an additional card holder on. Anyway balance was almost entirely made up of travel expenses for OH so unavoidable really. He has not had much work lately so he has nothing is his bank account at the moment.
Luckily this situation should improve soon - work has started to come in again so he will have some money in his account very soon. Also as he now has a debit card and cheque book he should be able to use those for some of the expenses he would normally have put on the credit card because he had no other method of paying them.
Also the fact that he will soon have money in his account means that he should be able to pay a sizeable chunk of this bill. Phew! for a moment I thought my targets were going to die a death!!!PigginSkint's debt free diary
DFW Nerd 1049 Amazon Sellers Club member 54
Total mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £14090.77 (Last payment: September 2021)
LTSB Loan 30/4/17 £6633.71 (reduction by 48%)
Total credit cards: 30/4/17 £25971.91 :eek:
Total non-mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £32876.49 :eek:0 -
Hi All
Didn’t bother doing an update yesterday – didn’t do anything particularly moneysaving yesterday, well except if you count the fact that we didn’t go out!! Mind you, now I come to think about it, I suppose yesterday was quite moneysaving. We only bought 1 Sunday paper (and didn’t buy Saturday papers at all) – in line with the newspaper spend budget I have set, so only £2 so far. Also I made my dinner from scratch (I am veggie but OH and DS aren’t) – a recipe from my ‘Penniless Vegetarian’ cookbook, appropriate eh?
As a treat I also made a treacle sponge pudding – I didn’t work out how much that would have cost to make but I know the answer is ‘not a lot’!
OH has gone to an audition today so fingers crossed for that – will be some lovely regular money for a while if he gets the job.
Just been looking at my bank account online and working out whether there will be enough to cover my mortgage going out on Wednesday – as it stands there will be enough even though Gas and Leccy will be paid within the next couple of days. My maintenance and Tax credits go in on Wednesday so should be O.K. Luckily I have a small emergency fund (some money that was left to me in a will) which I hang onto in case of, well emergencies! I know the mantra is that savings should be thrown at debts but really the amount I have saved would be a drop in the ocean of my debts and I would much rather have a rainy day fund in case anything went really pearshaped! That said, I have used some of it to pay towards my debts – there have been some months where I haven’t had enough to meet my repayments so that’s when it has come in really handy!PigginSkint's debt free diary
DFW Nerd 1049 Amazon Sellers Club member 54
Total mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £14090.77 (Last payment: September 2021)
LTSB Loan 30/4/17 £6633.71 (reduction by 48%)
Total credit cards: 30/4/17 £25971.91 :eek:
Total non-mortgage debt: 30/4/17 £32876.49 :eek:0
Categories
- All Categories
- 342.2K Banking & Borrowing
- 249.8K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 449.3K Spending & Discounts
- 234.4K Work, Benefits & Business
- 606.7K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 172.7K Life & Family
- 247.2K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 15.8K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards