I'm Betty and I'm in debt!!!

Bad_Weather

Sooo sometime there is just no easy way to do anything eh???

My bank offered me loan at 26%....erm NO!!! And Credit Union will only give me a loan if i have a homeowner as a guarantor....so im just going to have to do it the regular way and pay off the cc's....

I feel like i have wasted...actually correction... i HAVE wasted 2 months... well Ill do a balance transfer witht the cards ive got and just hammer the others!

SILVER LINING: I am actually in less debt than before... secret option number 3...DO NOTHING... by not using my card and continung to pay my student loan i now have less debt than before...plus only owe 400 on my car now...

All is not lost!!! x

BUMER!!!

Verbatim

Oh don't beat yourself up there, you're doing well.

Hope the BT idea works out as that will save you loads.

Moneytroubles_2

Hi Betty, just had a quick look over you diary ( I will be honest I havent read it all!) but just wanted to wish you good luck on your debt free journey, and also working towards getting your own place. xxx

KiWi13

Bad_Weather wrote: »

SILVER LINING: I am actually in less debt than before... secret option number 3...DO NOTHING... by not using my card and continung to pay my student loan i now have less debt than before...plus only owe 400 on my car now...

All is not lost!!! x

BUMER!!!

just caught up with your thread (got side tracked with the Xmas ones for a while there sorry....)
I may be wrong about the circumstances but if your paying off you rstudent loan voluntarily then I would use that money to decrease your credit card debt at the mo.
The student loan interest is a lot lower than the credit cards and you would get rid of the amount that is costing you most first.
I was paying off £50 a month into my student loan but it got to the stage where I realised that I would earn more in my savings account than what I was paying on interest on my student loan so will save it and try and make a bit more and then use it to pay it off.
hope that makes sense.
just a tip incase it would help make life a little easier for you.

hope your doing ok

Bad_Weather

WELL I have returned and dusted myself off from my fall of the wagon!

Yup I fell...not BIG...but not good either. After being warned an everything by fellow DFW's!

Updated statistics:

BOS= 5,600
M&S= 2,000 (Balance should be going down but is going up because of rates Grrr)
Overdraft 1= 1,750
Overdraft 2 =500
Student loan = 100 (yehhhh)
Car= 1,000

SO the only thing that has came down really has been my student loan and that's because it comes off my wages....and the loans etc of PLAN 1 never really worked out so I'm just going to clear them the old fashioned way and learn the lesson. I have though closed my Barclay's so no slipping.

None of the mystery shopping has worked out either or the surveys! Maybe up North we don't get as much if ANYONE know then please PLEASE let me know. I phone and tried to get some part-time admin/work etc and cant really get any of that, was thinking a couple of hours here and there etc. Wont give up and ill get back onto the mystery shopping as my circumstances have changes slightly so I will have more time to surf the net and try some mystery shopping! If anyone knows of a way to make some spare cash on the side (except for ebay) PLEASE let me know!

UPDATE:

1) I have a NEW FLAT...yehhh same money so no more annoying flat mate! That's a jail sentence spared at lease AND surely i will save on money from my flat mate eating my food...GRRRR

2) My mum knows of one of my CC's so is lending me money, I'm using it to clear the M&S one and along with the car will be paying her back a total of £3,000. This isn't technically my mums money so i have to make these payments and only have about a year to make them (incase you think i have an easy way out which it kind of is but I've had so many set backs i don't care).

3) Have a new job, same money, distance etc so again no change but have started being religious with taking my lunches!

New Motivation: I'm planning on going to Australia for a spell, so need to save some money for my flight and spending money. Like Hypno that is my motivation! Started reducing my overdraft by 50 a month as i just saw no way out of it and it seems to be working so far, plus the bank wont up it even if i asked them to!

Meeting today to see if i can open a savings account that i cant access until then. I know the golden rule is clear debt before save but i wouldn't clear it all by the time i was going anyway! Plus now have lots of spreadsheets monitoring it ALL.

That's all folks!

Bad_Weather

New Beginnings: Well Kind of!

Sooo at the weekend i sat down with my mum and gave her a small heart attack, i told her my debt. She cried as i suspected and freaked out as i suspected and asked me how I'm sleeping at night as i suspected.:(

Now my mum and my Aunty (not blood one of the ones you have grown up with and always called Aunty) have lumped together and have lent me 6,000. £7,000 (inc car) in total i will now owe them as of lunchtime today.:eek:

I've phoned up BOS and paid £5,600 and closed the account. True to the scummyness of the Bank of Scotland when i phone up with 6k in my account and pay of the balance only then are they willing to lower my rate which is currently at approx 24% ...i really hate Bank of Scotland....not the people personally obviously but just 'them'. I had phoned up previously and the wouldn't lower rates, got told id need to start missing payments. :mad:

I'm now paying M&S the remaining £400. and going to pay as much to them each month (balance currently 2k)

I'm not feeling too great as i feel bad for so many people who were in my situation. make no mistake this is not me being bailed out this is just an interest free loan that i couldn't get from any other credit cards, trust me - I applied and probably smashed some more of my credit rating whilst i was at it. I've to pay the money back at £500 monthly instalments, with a month breathing time which is great as i owe my OH £300 from a holiday. :T :beer: :j

I pondered keeping one card with a really low limit with the fools idea of only for 'emergencies' but i think till I'm fully on my feet again and my credit rating repairs itself and everything ill be closing all cards and ill just need to save or beg borrow and steal if something happens, i no longer have any shame.:D;)

On my not totally a waste of time meeting at the bank i also got told that i really need to clear my small overdraft as I'm pretty much paying the same interest on that as i am my large one so now the focus is to get that one out of overdraft and ill be left with the one large one that i cant afford to clear this year anyway. going to try and clear small one at £50 a month.

So i think i smiled for no reason for the first time today walking home from the bank. just of relief, not out of the woods yet and still currently still spending every minute of ever day thinking of ways to get extra cash or shave some more savings on my SOA but I'm getting there.

All the time i was worried about telling my mum and she's got me the solution. I heart my mum. Mum DOES know best! :A

Things not the best at work at the moment but i can handle that knowing I'm sorting the finances out! Living in fear of being made redundant as if i had been it would have literally resulted in bankruptcy as each month was a balancing plate act and it was only a matter of time....before some plates came SMASHING DOWN!

Also the OH who I've moved in with asked about the debt, i never told him, until were sharing finances I feel he has no need to know and now that its more under control I'm even less inclined to tell him. I know some people have different opinions on this - but this is mine unless we were married I see it that he has no reason to know hopefully he'll never need to know....;)

That's all folks x

P.S i do promise to get chirpier and more sarcastic again just been a hard few months!
P.P.S i hope this helps some others that there can be silver lining!

GeorgeUK

Hi BW, looks like a few congrats are in order there.

As OH doesn't need to know about the finances, you may want to just tell him you're paying off a small amount of debt as you don't want to pay interest to the banks. Now that you're living together, there may be a reason behind him asking about your finances - if you get any joint finances then both of your credit ratings will affect each other.

Re Mum and Aunty, how does this tie in with the Australia trip? Will you be able t orepay them and save for the holiday or do they now know about it?

Glad to see you're coming back fighting.
Well done.

Bad_Weather

Hey George!!!

Firstly how are you? I was reading your thread yesterday and saw you were not well! Never got a chance to post due to the book i wrote on mine! Hope your better and a massive HIGH FIVE on the debt! Putting me to shame here! :T

I have done exactly the above, I've told him i have a small amount of debt, he thinks its approx 2k! EEK! :eek:

Part of the reason I confessed all to mum was the moving in with OH, i am TERRIFIED that my bad rating will affect his! TERRIFIED! But we wont be getting any joint finances as like alot of people on here i was screwed by and ex aswell with a joint account (excuse the language), so he knows my feelings on this at the moment!

They know all about debt, well except overdrafts i didn't want to actually kill my mother! I'm continuing to repay them aswell as save for trip, going to be hard but more motivation do i need than Australia?!? I have done ALOT of number crunching with mum to do this! Mum mum and Aunt said i can take a few years to pay them back but want it cleared ASAP as soon as possible! So hopefully 7,000 @ 500 should take about 14 months? Both have said yesterday actually that i can skip repayments until i clear M&S, also they are going to open an account that i can pay the money into so that basically if i have extra money i can add that to the account and when i hit 7k I'm all cleared!

I was drowning before my M&S card was actually going up in balances due to higher rates along with my BOS card! At least this will easily be saving me 200+ a month in interest as alot of the BOS card had been when i was withdrawing cash (you've already gave me a slap on the wrists for this).
I came back fighting to MSE due to the following quote from watching West Wing George, I LOVE it, genuinely couldn't have found a better quote if i tried:


"This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out.
"A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, 'Hey you. Can you help me out?' The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on.
"Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, 'Father, I'm down in this hole can you help me out?' The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on...
"Then a friend walks by, 'Hey, Joe, it's me can you help me out?' And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, 'Are you stupid? Now we're both down here.' The friend says, 'Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out.'"

Bad_Weather

PAY DAY!!! Also the count down begins until next pay day...anyone else ever feel like that?

Amazing the breathing space has helped!

Paid off 1,000 to M&S, £400 from my mum and £600 that i would be paying my mum. I have extra money this month (selling some phones, rent deposit from old flat, work expenses) but car insurance is due 1st March so keeping money aside for that since I'm unable to use cc's anymore! Hopefully will have more than costs but also need some new tyres!

£1,000 left on M&S card now! Plan is to have that clear in next 2 months! Going to delay overdraft reductions to make this happen! Starting to feel good although not had a decent nights sleep yet I'm thinking once M&S card is paid off that will be in the horizon! Maybe not though my attention might focus on the overdrafts! What will i do with my time and money when i have no debt to constantly worry about?

Going to research £10 a day challenge as part of savings for oz! Even if i just do the scratchies- recently only found out what this is! Just start shuffling money to the savings account now and then. Even if its a fiver a month i don't care!

Also think i have actually overpaid on the student loan by one payment (120 quid) so have to wait until April to see! Could be a wee bonus to the savings account! ALSO overpaid on tax as changed jobs and was on wrong tax code for last 3 months SO again wait until April and see, reckon its approx 200 bucks! Savings account!

Other than that got some Miss sixty clothes etc to go on ebay and going to start selling some books but again really just need to sit and research all this! Going to start the opinion polls again aswell! Was doing them before but gave up but going to get back on the wagon all the way again!

Over x

Bad_Weather

Also worked out my new debt free date is Feb 2011!

This is at a MAX! Hoping for it to be sooner!

This who has been following is over a year londer than my original DFD as per my wagon number 1 fall i was aiming to be debt free by April 2010...but what ya gonna do!