Is anyone paying off a debt like mine and making progress?

pammer

I'm new to this forum and I guess I'm looking for support rather answers!

A few weeks ago the 'lightbulb' came on and I faced up to the fact I have a serious debt problem and it's not magically going to disappear.

I'm self employed and (like a lot of small businesses) my income has considerably dropped since the end of last year. In a good month I would make £1660 after tax, at the moment it's more like £800. I am doing everything I can to increase my income!

I have £36K of debt, which is mostly credit cards.

To be honest I've never really been repaying it, just maintaining the balances but now I can't make the minimum payments. I'm in the process of putting together a SOA for the CCCS and I'm hoping they can come up with a plan.

It would be good to know if someone else is dealing with debt like this and is making progress, I appreciate to repay debt like this will take time but that doesn't matter as long as I know it's possible.

pammer x:o

Jo_R_2

I've got a credit card that I manage to keep ticking over by just making minimum payments but this is something I'm working towards - being able to pay extra is my short-term goal.

Congrats on the light bulb moment, just wanted to say well done and there are lots of DFWs on here who are making good progress in their quest who I'm sure will post to let you know more details!

Seaxwyn

Hi pammer. I'm in a fairly similar position to you - I am self-employed, with reducing income, and I owe about 36k too.

I had paid about 20k off over two years since my initial lightbulb moment, but it has just gone back up again as I had a big tax bill in January that I hadn't saved enough for. So that was discouraging - but onwards and upwards...

Good luck with the CCCS. They weren't able to help me as my income fluctuates so much.

Edited to say - do you think your self-employed income will pick up soon? If not, have you thought of getting a job?

pammer

If possible, I would prefer to stay self employed. If I was truly honest I didn't take action soon enough when my income started to drop. I am exploring a few channels of work at the moment, if nothing materializes in a months time (end of March) then I will actively start applying for jobs. However, I have made some initial enquiries regarding employment and the job situation isn't that great either!

churchrat

hi
we had a debt of £61k, and there are lots of people on here that owe that and more. Has taken us 6yrs but we are now down to less than 5k, so it can be done.
good luck and don't give up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pammer

OMG churchrat, that's amazing!

How did you do it? (If you don't mind me asking?)

savingholmes

I would get a new job in your position.... in a recession it is not great to rely on being self employed...

LilacPixie

we are jointly at around 70k of debt. It is coming down slowly. Mostly with tigh bugetting and lots of willpower.

tlrtone

Jointly my wife and I owe around £73k, and really started to go down the DFW route to debt freedom!

Both earn well at the moment (although my commission payments are right down due to the current climate), so are coping, but not been reducing it for a couple of years now. Really focussed now in getting rid of the debt over the next 5 years to free up around £2k per month in debt repayments!

I have now got a spreadsheet, check my bank accounts everyday and try to make overpayments on the CC's when we can (difficult as we have 5 kids - 4 teenagers between us!).

I think the art is staying focussed and doing a little bit often. That is generally how our debt built up so that is the way it will go down!

You have my support! :beer:

pammer

Thank you for your words of encouragement, it is huge weight off my mind to know that getting through this is possible and I feel a lot more positive:j

Lemon_Tree

my debt when i started out was £48k it's now £31k, it hasn't been easy and i'm not self employed but i've just had to conciously decide that no matter what i want to do i want to be debt free more, i'm not perfect but as long as i manage to be good most of the time that's all i can ask really.