Coming clean

youngandreckless

Hi All,

I have to come clean. My debt problem has not got better, it's actually worse.
My debt is £7000 Loan
£800 O/draft
£7800 altogether.

Yes I've had a fair few knockbacks, unexpected bills etc, but ultimately its my own fault. I spend more than I earn, bury my head in the sand and then add the overdraft to the loan and promise myself that this time I'm going to follow my budget and then I lose the plot for a few weeks and bingo, back to my next hair brained scheme to get sorted.
I feel like a fraud. I pour over this site and know what I need to do, but I can't seem to stay on track.
I have just had a payrise that will come into effect in a couple of weeks. I suppose as I've been sobbing for an hour (and not only because I have a stupid eye infection) I'm at crisis point. Being ill has given me plenty of time to think about what the hell I'm doing. I want to get out of debt, but please everyone how do you do it? Keep on track and keep motivated?
I can't be writing in a years time £10K in debt, but that is the road I'm on and I can't bear to be like my mum and dad - always on the never never.
Feel free to berate or bypass this post. I have absolutely nothing positive that I can say other than at least I've given up smoking (5 weeks) and that admitting that my finances are a total mess STILL has at least made me face things properly - even if it is in an anonymous way.
Thanks for reading
Y&R x

mr218

chin up

basically you have admitted to your problem and surely that is the first major step.

why not post your outgoings and incomings and the good folk here will help you work it all out. although it is all relative, i think 7800 is not huge and does not appear insurmoutable.

try to be stay motivated.if you read all the responses you get here and keep reading it whenever you feel weak and demotivated, it should help you.

keep focussed and i am sure you can work it all out.

Willsnarf1983

youngandreckless wrote:

Hi All,

I have to come clean. My debt problem has not got better, it's actually worse.
My debt is £7000 Loan
£800 O/draft
£7800 altogether.

Yes I've had a fair few knockbacks, unexpected bills etc, but ultimately its my own fault. I spend more than I earn, bury my head in the sand and then add the overdraft to the loan and promise myself that this time I'm going to follow my budget and then I lose the plot for a few weeks and bingo, back to my next hair brained scheme to get sorted.
I feel like a fraud. I pour over this site and know what I need to do, but I can't seem to stay on track.
I have just had a payrise that will come into effect in a couple of weeks. I suppose as I've been sobbing for an hour (and not only because I have a stupid eye infection) I'm at crisis point. Being ill has given me plenty of time to think about what the hell I'm doing. I want to get out of debt, but please everyone how do you do it? Keep on track and keep motivated?
I can't be writing in a years time £10K in debt, but that is the road I'm on and I can't bear to be like my mum and dad - always on the never never.
Feel free to berate or bypass this post. I have absolutely nothing positive that I can say other than at least I've given up smoking (5 weeks) and that admitting that my finances are a total mess STILL has at least made me face things properly - even if it is in an anonymous way.
Thanks for reading
Y&R x

nothing to berate, you just have to come to the realisation that you may not be able to go out that one extra time and that life ultimatly has boring times!.

least ur talking bout it and actually thinking bout doing something. If i were u i would treat it as this is the first time u have been to this site and do an SOA. Also just for the future try and keep regular contact on these boards. Just by chatting it keeps it on ur mind.

Also as u know save money each month for these knockbacks.


WELL DONE ON QUITTING SMOKING!!!!!!!


One thing at a time )


Will

Sparklemonkey

Indeed, well done on quitting smoking, that will make you feel better and save a lotta dosh!
No berating, check my sig also, I am in more debt than you and my original figure still makes me blush!
You are doing the right thing by coming here for assistance........I wish you all the best.

southernscouser

First of all well done for for facing up to your problems. :T

If there is one person to get motivation from it is ms_london. She became totally debt free yesterday and has paid off an amazing £10,000 this year alone!

Have a look at this thread then come back and post here and we will be able to help you better
.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280

To stay motivated I just think about how I feel with all this debt. For me it works. Others have different ways which I'm sre they will share.

tattooed_lady

Hiya,

Listen, you've done a brill thing by giving up smoking - must have saved you a few hundred quid a month?? That takes willpower and strength, I know a lot of people who start to give up and fail. It just shows you that if you can stick to that then you can stick to a budget as well. Don't put yourself down.

xx

fairylights_2

No criticism - the creditors hope you do what you're doing ... and most people wouldn't be worried about the debt you're in.

One suggestion though. When I quit smoking I got a cheapy calendar and a big fat marker pen. I quit when 20 cost £4, so every day (it makes me blush to think I smoked 20 a day :rolleyes: ) I would write how much I'd saved. I'd also take that £4 out of the bank and put it in my piggybank to treat myself. I too couldn't afford to smoke, and was mystified when I watched those numbers add up. Working on the assumption that it's £4.50 a pack now (I don't know, to be honest) then if you'd done that for the last five weeks you'd have £157.50 in a piggybank. Couldn't you do that and throw it at your debt? It's not like you've been doing anything with that money, and it would mean you've got a real motivation to stay off them ...

Good luck with it. I can't tell you how much I value my sleep at night now after the lightbulb moment at our house!

Eager_Elephant

Hi youngandreckless,

So the increase in your debt is that likely to happen again, could it have been avoided by better budgeting or was it just to treat your self.

I am not having a go because you have done so wellt o give up smoking.

On 11th August you posted that you had a flexible loan of £6400 as you had consolidated your overdraft into it, today that loan is £7000 and an OD of £800. So an increase of £1400 plus any payments you made to the loan.

That is quite a large increase in just two months. In the post in August you said you had cancelled your OD - did you? or did you leave it there just in case?

Please, please post your SOA because I think you need help with budgetting.

Well done for coming back and admitting your problem - we all want to help!!

EE

KatrinaC_2

Congratulations on giving up smoking - when I gave up (about 4 weeks ago) I found that not only did I save on not buying the cigs, but also because when I was at the kiosk I would get a bottle of pop and a paper and maybe a sweetie too. Whilst I'm saving £100 a month on cigarettes, I've found that the little bits extra are saving me another £60. Quitting makes a far bigger difference to your outgoings than just the cost of fags.

The important thing to remember is that if you can give up smoking (and you've experienced the worst cravings already and managed to resist :T ) then you have the will-power and mental strength to do pretty much anything, including sticking to your budget.

Kat

youngandreckless

Hi All,

Thanks for your encouragement. Eager elephant your post did scare me because I'm really not sure where that money went - perhaps I was a little optimistic with my figures. The £800 o/draft is what I expect it to be by the time I get paid, so there is scope for me to get that down.
Basically if I'm being totally honest, the money was "treating myself" nights out and generally having no discipline. After I left the site last night I realised I'm very emotional with money - I buy to cheer myself up and my new things get me noticed. Sad really. Anyway enough of my amateur psychology, here are my outgoings:

Per month:
Joint Account - £275 (all household & mortgage comes out of here)
Loan - £134.20 - Cahoot fixed loan (switched from flexible)
£63.40 - Car Insurance
£15 - Vodafone (old contract can cancel start of feb)
£30 - Orange (contract until Feb) usually go over this by at least £10
£40 - ISA - Only form of savings I have approx £1800/£2000 by now
Altogether £557.60.
I tend to buy food and household stuff when I need it.
My current wage after my payrise I estimate to be around £1020.
When I look at the numbers I think wow, how do I spend so much more? I have a very economical car so petrol is rarely more than £30 ish a month.
Any suggestions?
Oh and I have a counter on my computer for the ciggies. In the 5 weeks and 2 days since I quit I've saved £147.02!

Thanks
Y&R x

summerday

Hi Young and Reckless,

First of all, (((hugs))). The fact that you're upset and can say things like you've been burying your head in the sand shows that at least you can see the situation as it really is and aren't in denial.

Well done on quitting the fags. It takes a huge amount of will-power and self-discipline, and things like cutting down on spending and losing weight take the same kind of will power. I can say this because I run slimming classes and have seen people really struggle to find enough self discipline to start losing weight and stop smoking at the same time. Not to say it can't be done, just that it will demand even more of you're will power if you're trying to give up more than one thing. Hopefully now you've given up smoking for a few weeks you're feeling more in control of that and not getting cravings too bad now?

It sounds like you can use all the motivation you can get. If I was you, I would read through the pages on this debt free wannabe board, and copy and paste threads that really inspire you- maybe of a poster who has finally cleared their debt after a long hard slog (Ms_London comes to mind ) or a post where someone with a lot of debts still to clear is posting what positive actions they are taking and how motivated they feel about it. Then you have something to print off, read and think about to keep it all in perspective. You are not alone, lots and lots of people have debts, and lots and lots of people have worked hard to pay them off. And so can you.

It's really important to try to bring some 'fun' into it all, as well. Challenge yourself to get things as cheap as you can, to get drunk as cheap as possible, to beat the supermarkets at their own game by cutting your food costs. There's loads of ideas on the Old Style board.

I used to be totally different when I was at uni a few years ago. I used to spend loads of money at Tescos each week on ready prepared food, on payday every Friday I would hit the shops deliberately looking for lots of things I could spend my whole pay packet (and more) on, was just generally frivolous. Now, I have budgets for everything, and love to spend as little as possible while still having a good time. I'm probably quite tight really LOL.

You may well find that getting started and 'into it' is the hardest part, then after a few weeks you get so used to it and kind of on a roll so it gets much easier.

You can do it!!!

Sarah.x