I fell off the wagon

justruth

Long post of background, the good stuff comes after a few posts!

A couple of years ago I was a regular on this forum, I had only about £2000 debt, which I was slowly chipping away at, then I fell off the wagon.

1. I hurt my knee - doesn't sound like much, but as I was in a job where I was stood all day I had my hours drasticaly reduced (zero hour contract) and some weeks I didn't work at all. At the height of it I had to have a taxi to physio 2 times a week, all my shopping delivered and taxi's if I managed to go to work. Work got funny and I went from working every hour to about 10 hours a week. All the time I still had rent to pay, bills coming out etc. I had needed to save as I was starting college in the September, but instead didn't work much over the preceeding 4 months. (The first £2000)

2. I went to college - on the debt free front a crazy thing to do! I had no financial support as I already had qualifications up to the level I was learning, but I had to move town to do it. I applied and got a job in care work (relevant to my course), however it took them till March for all the appropriate training and paperwork to be in place! (Trouble with the CRB). (The next £2000)

3. I didn't get into uni first time - great an opportunity to earn some in the gap year? This is where I fell off the waggon. No body made me do it, there were a couple of situations where I was stuck but rather than make a sensible decision I chose to get myself into debt. It sounds so stupid now, how could I be so foolish? I had progressed into doing agency care work, for which I genuinely needed a reliable car, I had got a second hand one, had to borrow £600 to insure it, it turned out to be a banger, and I was then spending a further £100 a week out my wages trying to keep it roadworthy when the electrics went up in smoke as I drove t home one night. Unfortunately not the whole car as that would have been covered by the insurance, just the electrics, so I had to sell it for scrap (got about £100).

As I did genuinely need a car, and I needed it fast, I went to a dealer and got one on finance. I have a poor credit history from 2004 (1 late payment since 2005), so I got a very poor deal, at 21.9%! I convinced myself that I was over a barrell and I would pay it off early to not have to pay that much interest anyway. What with insurance, repairs and car finance this added up, badly, and it all just added to the debt. (next £9000!)

It gets worse, and I am a fool. No way around it! I got used to earning good money on the agency, although I could see myself slipping further into debt, I got a place for uni this year and all sense went out the window! I could probably have paid off the finance that year if I had been more sensible, but I wasn't, and despite being in debt myself, I would loan friends money, I paid for my sisters car insurance on my credit card (thinking she has a child, she needs it - I needed it and if I had said to her I couldn't afford it she would have been fine with me!) I would buy dinner and give a friend money for electric etc, she smoked, she always had money for mobile top ups, and I knew deep down I wasn't going to get it back but somehow I decided I should. Again, this is down to me, she would still have been my friend if I hadn't given her the money!

Things had slipped badly, and I knew that the car finance was a terriable deal, so I got a flexible loan from egg so that I could pay it off nice and early, just enough to cover the car finance. I didn't pay off the car finance but paid off all the other stuff instead, not too bad you may think, but then I carried on, I loaned £1080 to my ex sister in law - I repeat my ex sister in law! She was in severe difficulty with bailiffs coming round and due to be evicted, she had 3 children and one on the way. I paid off her bailiff and her rent arrears, on the credit card I had just cleared. Another friend and her partner split up, and she was left without household essentials and with all the bills to pay, so I now loving this knight in shining armour role I had adopted for myself went along, paid her rent, bought her a new fridge freezer and a new bed. Sure she can pay me back the £1300, when she has sorted herself out, which hasn't happened yet!

4. Now I am at uni and I am struggling to make ends meet. I have to work 3 nights a week which is having a massive impact on my study, I have no social life and I am struggling to keep up with the course. You try not getting in from work till 4am on a Sunday morning and getting up for lectures alright on a monday morning! My body clock is permanently messed up! My outgoings now total nearly £1200 a month, my student loan and bursary add up to about £9500 a year. I am managing at the moment, but if my knee goes again I am going to go bankrupt! Current debt? £18,500!

I am such a fool! I genuinely knew better, but carried on regardless.

New year is coming and I will have made a dent in this by the end of 2009.

I don't want to leave uni bankrupt.

Smamfer

(hugs)

There thats my sympathetic bit done lol.. Only joking hun we all know what its like as im sure you have spent some time r eading other peoples threads/diaries which is often the step to make us do our own.

First off do what everyone will advise you to do and get that soa up. It will let you see where all money is going and maybe some cash can be cut back in some places, this lot have a magic wand didnt you know! :rotfl:

So grab a cuppa when you have time, most of us are all juggling working/parenthood/studing and running a family so know its never easy especially when you feel like you are on your own dealing with things., But that changed the minute you made your thread as everyone here will help as much as they can

Have a look at " up your income" thread always extra ways to make money,, sign up for cashbacks/daily clicks and anything you havent touched in 3 months get it on ebay!

good luck xx

determinedtodothis

:santa2: Hello! (i'm feeling xmassy today)

You are so like me I didn't have a bean to rub together but i managed to get £5 from somewhere to buy fireworks for my mate's 2 kids so they didn't miss out (shes a single mum) or I'd buy some flowers to cheer up a mate who was down-even from tesco's it was still money i didn't have..

you will take control again coming back here was the first step - good for you and we are about the same amount so i will keep an eye! after making some massive cut backs and paying a huge amount of i'm slowing down a bit now so i need the motivation!

justruth

SOA, this is fairly simple:

Income;
Earnings - on a self employed basis, usually around £190 a week. £760 / month
Student grant - full £2835 a year,
Student loan - full £5421 a year,
Bursary - £1250 a year. Total £792.17 / month

TOTAL £1552.17 / month

Out;
Rent £410/month inclusive - however half the house doesn't work so I have to move!
Travel £73.10 a month - I live in London and that includes the oyster discount!
Food £100 a month
Phone £35 a month (usually within £5 of this)
Mobile broadband £25 a month - contract runs out this month and has been given notice.
NI £10 a month
MBNA £40 a month
Car £174.30 a month
Egg Card £40 a month
Egg loan £141.50 a month
Barclays overdraft £10 a month interest.
About £150 to the various things that pop up to get you like tax, and this month there's Christmas which I haven't budgeted for.

TOTAL £1193.90 / month.

I know I have more coming in than going out, and I was planning to pay off the items with the highest APR first, but over Christmas I am not working so I don't get paid.

The phone bill I am looking at, it s on contract at £25 a month but I have been using it on those 0845 numbers! Something I will resolve not to do in the future. The travel includes my zone card for zones 1 and 2 and a single monthly trip to zone 5. Work is an hour away no matter how you get there.

justruth

determinedtodothis wrote: »

we are about the same amount so i will keep an eye! after making some massive cut backs and paying a huge amount of i'm slowing down a bit now so i need the motivation!

Ha race ya!!!!!!

determinedtodothis

Your on! :beer:

justruth

Well I make my total £18,552 after checking my credit report (it costs to check with the car finance company), and your total as of today shows at £17,858.50.

The race is on!!!

As of today I am £693.50 behind you!

bank_of_slate

Hi justruth... your opening post made me laugh!
I read it as you fell off the wagon and hurt your knee (virtual bump when you fell off!)
...Linda xx

justruth

Ha, well it certainly hurt my pocket! Actually I don't remember how I hurt my knee, I was celebrating and next morning couldn't walk lol!

bank_of_slate

That's the problem with this wagon, it moves! Doesn't take much to fall off but once you do you have to run like hell to catch up and jump back on again!
...Linda xx

justruth

Well I made a start, I text one of the people I lent money to and said that I was upset that she hadn't paid me any back yet, and she has promised to get some to me from her wages this month. What I shall do is pay whatever she does send me as extra off the MBNA card, I think with Christmas presents mostly coming in the form of cash I may even get this one cleared by January. Then voluntary overpay on the car finance every month, try and clear that by the end of the year. With meeting minimum payments on everything else I hope to be down to a maximum £10,000 by the end of the year (excluding student loan, which will inevitably go up)