-
Debt free by end of 2021
So here it goes... After many years of being stupid and burying my head in the sand, I have decided enough is enough. With debt currently standing at £15,500 I need to take control. My plan is to get this gone in two years, with cut backs, reducing Bill's, selling items we no longer need and working extra hours at work.…
-
Living in the black
Having lived with quite terrifying amounts of debt for many years, we were fortunate to have been able to pay off almost all of it last year following the sale of a property. Remaining is about £5k on a 0% credit card, and £3.5k on another credit card which is paid off in full every month. We also recently bought a house…
-
First steps to a debt free future
Hello everyone, I found this forum about two weeks ago and have visited every day since. Not having managed to tackle my credit card debts, let's see if writing a diary will help. These are the current figures: CC1 - £7240.75 23.7% (interest last month was £133.74) Min payment is £205.93 CC2 - £3372.27 15.95% (interest…
-
No money
My daughter has decided to live with her father. It was on a trial period but she has been there for six months now and he is asking CSA to get maintenance from me without discussing with me first. I have recently changed jobs to less hours and closer to home and I no longer receive child benefit or his maintenance which…
-
From £31k+ to debt free home owner in 5 years?
Hello! I’ve just read my diary from X years ago and found myself wondering why I ever left MSE land and got myself into even more debt! I am now mid 30’s, full time employed with a decent income, no kids, living with my lovely oh (in his mortgaged home) and currently have over £31k debt all in my own name. I’m forever…
-
Make or Break 2020
I'm in a lucky position where I have a great job, however, things aren't looking as great as they once were. The owner has been making cut backs over the last year, so I want 2020 to be a year I reduce debt to Nil and Increase savings to £25,000. I'm not a homeowner and am currently living at home. 2020 will make or break…
-
Guess who's back? Back again? Monkey's back...hoping not to fail.
So...I fell off. I'm not in anymore debt but I'm not particularly better off, either. Starting uni and some intense counselling sessions really threw me for a little while. These things fed into me slipping but ultimately, this failure is on me. But I'm back on it, now. I have settled with a new schedule which makes…
-
Twinklie returns - debt free by 2020?
So I had a diary on here a million years ago. Since then I've had 2 children, moved around a bit and FINALLY we bought our forever home. I'd love to pay down my mortgage to become mortgage free and do have a diary to this effect. We've taken the mortgage out over 19 years rather than 25 in order to force us to OP. However,…
-
Back to the grindstone
As you can see from the signature I've been very well supported here to sort my life out, 2019, however, has been a bit of a pig of a year, A close family bereavement meant several expensive trips and then there was the funeral and seemingly endless legal bills to pay and my savings were wiped out. In much happier news our…
-
Sorting the debt and the house.
Well hello.:j This is day 1 of the rest of our lives. Today we were told that the house we were in the middle of buying has fallen through and after many months of looking we have decided enough is enough, there is hardly anything on the market that compares to the house we live in now, so we are going to stay here.…
-
Dairy 1
My diary! Thought I'd start a diary to try and keep me on the straight and narrow while budgeting my through 2020 and beyond. Need to get a close grip on our budget and hoping a diary will help me do that! X
-
I just don't know where to begin with this
Hello everyone. A bit about us - We are a couple, both pushing 40 with a 9 year old son. We both work full time. I work as a teaching assistant/cover supervisor and my husband works in secondary education as a deputy headteacher. We are in so much debt I just don't know where to begin. The most annoying thing is that it is…
-
I’ve only just realised what a financial mess I’m in.....
At the time of writing this I am 44 years old. I have been in debt for my entire adult life. I am self employed so I worry about this a great deal. As it stands my consumer debt total is £33,000 (more if you include my car - but I’m not going to at this stage). I am accutely aware that I have no savings and no pension and…
-
Time to grow up.
So after stalking, I mean reading most of the diaries on the forum. I thought it was time I took the plunge and stood up and said 'Hi my name is XXX and I have debt.' I could say my debt started when my dad passed away suddenly but personally I think it was a case of 'oh I want that. Let's pop it in the debit card and…
-
This is more difficult than I thought.....
Hi, So I’m one of those lurkers who adores this forum and how it’s driven me along for the last 2 years. My story, just under 2 years ago I found out we had unsecured debt that I knew nothing about. Totally my fault for my naivety and not being a supportive spouse. Once I started to find out the extent of the problem…
-
Starting over...
Hi all! It's been a while since I've used this website and forum, largely because I've been living abroad for a few years and BOY have I missed it! For the record, there's nothing remotely like MSE in Ireland and if I was much cleverer I would have loved to have started something similar. The reason I'm rejoining the MSE…
-
Finally getting my life back!!!
Hello all. I posted my SOA back in June and got plenty of feedback, some useful, some a bit brutal! Anyway, since then so much has changed and whilst a lot of what happened was completely against some of the advice (sorry!!), it has definitely been the best decision for me. After a few years of not being in a great place…
-
Start of my journey
Hi all and thanks for reading. Sorry it's quite a long first post! I find it inspiring to read the debt diaries that others put up and I thought I would do one to try and stay on track. I have struggled with debt for most of the last decade. After leaving uni I did some travelling and built up a £1,500.00 overdraft. At the…
-
Paid off but need help
Hi Guys, I paid off over £20,000 of debt last year, about half of this was paid off slowly over several years and then I sold a business and used the profit to get out of debt, I offered full and finals and found my debtors were very understanding. This time last year, I was debt free with money saved up. However, somehow,…
-
My debt free diary
Hi everyone! I've always been a spender and never paid attention to where my money has gone and as result I've been in debt pretty much the last ten years. As I've always earned enough money to not end up in hardship I've consistently thrown money at the debt accounts but then continued to go out, spend money etc and the…
