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I am being upgraded from Mum to Nan - I need a plan!
I had a flicker of a LBM back at the end of December 2017 when I realised my debts had peaked at a whopping £28,929.14. Since then I have been trying to live within my means and get the debt down which today stands at £22,263.84. With the exception of the loan for which I am making small overpayments and is ticking over…
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Debt Free Diary
Hello All, I’m some years into my debt free journey however I thought I’d start to share the process in aims to help others or highlight the processes to becoming debt free and reducing high levels of debt. I racked up all of my debt at a young age of 18 through gambling addiction and compulsive purchasing. I believe this…
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F.I.R.E. Starter, the journey begins
Hi, I am new to this but in the last year have been seeing increasing articles in the news about people who have found Financial independence Retire Early (F.I.R.E.) and it’s piqued my interest. I’ve had low mood regarding our finances since returning from Mat. Leave so when my Dad sent me an email with one of these…
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Time to wake up and smell the coffee!
Hi there, After skimming through some of your debt diaries here, I thought I would write my own, if that's ok. Me and DH have had years of debt on and off from 2 Credit cards, an overdraft swallowing up our wages, plus a very account and other bits and pieces. On the advice of our bank that has these 2 credit cards and…
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What are rules regarding referral to a debt collection agency?
Hello, hope someone can help here. I had to move house towards the end of last year last year and, as a result, had to cancel a Virgin broadband contract as they do not supply in the area I moved to. They have since charged me £188 for cancelling the contract which I have not yet paid. They keep sending me reminder bills…
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Spiralling debt
1st marriage broke due to domestic violence and the debt building started from there. It spiralled now and it's come to £35k. Being on maternity leave doesn't help nor my current husband who hates debt. So can't share my problem with husband. He pays the mortgage but I pay all other bills, grocery, child maintenance,…
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The Rural Road to a DF Life
It's gonna be a long and winding one. No point trying to deny it, I am a lot of the time very RUBBISH with money. I spend way too much each month, if I don't have the money I use one of my CCs which I have been doing on and off since I was 18. I'll be 40 in March and I just don't want to continue down this road for the…
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Learning to live within my means
So I’m a long term lurker who used to read the site regularly but dropped off in recent years ...which was incidentally also when my debt spiralled out of control. Funny that! I had LBM and started seriously looking at this last month, when I had £23,167 in total debt over 4 credit cards, built up in only 6 years (which is…
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Cost of Living Crisis
I’ve subscribed to your weekly newsletter for many years now.
I’ve been struggling financially ever since the financial crash in 2008, when I
lost all my work and had just taken on a very high mortgage with Northern Rock! Unfortunately, having been poor for so long, I’ve already cut
back to the bare essentials for most of…
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This time I'm sticking to it!
My OH and I have just under £15,000 worth of debt on credit cards. Luckily the three of them are at 0%. We have very good jobs and bring in just over £4,000 a month but can't seem to kick our spending habit - and this spending is mainly on holidays. Now we're in lock down we keep saying "So glad we got to experience so…
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The Last Furlong
Been round these parts before , just want a home now for the final push to be debt free . Not putting a definite date on it , but roughly around Summer 2020 would be good. I have around £2900 left to go ,not a lot in the scheme of things but enough to keep me on with the budgeting and being careful with the spends . Have…
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Getting myself out of this mess!
I tried to start a diary last year, but never fully committed to it and continued to spend on credit cards. My debt hasn't gone up, but also isn't going down, so I'm stuck owing 31k unsecured and despite paying a large chunk of my wage each month towards debt repayments my situation isn't improving. I've never been great…
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2022 is a new start
Hi all, I’m 32 and live with my partner, no children yet. I have decided I need to start sorting out my finances so that I can get some savings together ready to have a baby hopefully in the next couple of years. Our mortgage fixed term also expires in May 2024 and as we have a HTB loan, we are hoping to remortgage to put…
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Learning to budget and taking control of my life.
So, after faffing around for far too long I've decided I need to make a concerted effort to get rid of the debt I have had, for far too long. My current debt which has been accumulated as a result of me allowing my ex to use my cards which he promised to pay back and never did. As I was on maternity leave at the time I…
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New way of life
Ok so I've been reading alot of diaries and decided it would be an idea to do my own to keep me focused and on track. We have currently remortgaged our house to consolidate debts, dh buying a new car and money towards an extension. This move was to take the burden off our current situation of paying over £1,000 a month…
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My fate is sealed
Well I have but the bullet and called step change last week. My situation is I’m a victim of Domestic Abuse and 3 weeks ago I plucked up the courage to leave. I’m 60 years old and I’ve suffered financial abuse and mental abuse for years. I’m lucky I can afford to pay quite a lot off me debts monthly and have found…
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Trying not to get into more debt
My current job has
come to an end and I’ve been job hunting (so far without success)
but unfortunately I’m also suffering a long term leg injury
compounded by chronic pain from Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. As I had a
couple of months notice I decided to save as much as possible so cut
down spending as far as I could to build a…
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Fat, forty and financially f**ked
Decades of overspending and overeating have left me in a bit of a state. I sporadically try to fix both things but I never truly admit the real situation. So in black and white, for all to see: We have lived beyond our means for our entire adult lives. We have been bailed out by lucky windfalls, the bank of mum and dad,…
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Overpayments on loan
Hello, Got a loan out from a high interest provider in Jan 21 for £5,000 for 3 yrs. Obviously they add the interest on at the beginning of the loan so I currently owe £6,087 and I have a settlement figure of £4893. I could probably pay it off in 5 months because there is a lot overtime at the moment and I could save £900 a…
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The Next Phase
I became debt free a week ago , so have decided to start a new diary to cover my journey to working part time when I am 60 in 19 months . Retirement completely will depend on certain factors , so for now I am aiming to be doing 2 days a week starting jan 2023. I want to try and save as much as I can in the next 19 months…
