New and in need of support

GrammarGirl

Hello! Your debt is quite similar to mine, although unfortunately I didn't do anything charitable like helping a family member. I just spent too much money!

I have a CC and an OD debt. I also had a family debt but that's all gone now, which is great. Slowly but surely, I am paying it back. As you're finding, the OD is the hardest. I get my salary paid into my account and so the balance is up and down all the time. At the moment, I'm not making any real inroads because I'm concentrating on the CC.

However, I found what really helps is having a separate spending account, with no OD facility. Every month, I transfer £300 from my OD account to the basic account. Similar to your idea of drawing out an amount of cash each month. Only I find when I have lots of cash on me, I spend it! So basic bank account it is for me. I leave my OD account alone to pay my DDs and rent.

I also keep a spending diary, writing down absolutely every little thing I spent. I set myself challenges too - last month I made sure if I wanted to buy clothes/accessories/dvds etc, I'd make the money on eBay first. I made £145 on eBay, spent £100 on clothes (probably not very MSE but hey!) and paid £45 off my CC. I also try to spend less than £100 a week on living.

Hope all this helps. Remember, your debts aren't huge AT ALL. They're very manageable if you're strict with yourself. Lots of luck and congrats on the baby!