Operation Get Out of Debt

DancerSupreme

Right - If I put this down for the world to see I will be spurred on the work at it.

A bit about me - I am 23 years old, married for 18 months and have recently given birth to our first baby. We also have a lizard and two cats making it quite a crazy house. I am maternity leave and SMP (eeek!!) so trying to still maintain and exceed debt repayments where possible.

We have various debt between my husband and I. I currently havea credit card at £3500, a loan at £2200 and another loan at £3500. We have a car finance for around £15000 (including all interest) and then my husband has approximately £6500 in a DMP.

Our debts came from a multitude of things. Firstly the car is self explanitory and I have no need to elaborate on. My husband's debt is from a previous marriage. His ex-wife did not work and could not get credit so he ended up getting it then when they split the divorce lawyers said "his name, his debt". He earns a good wage and works a part time second job but not for money.

My debts come from being frivolous and doing the age old trick of "stick it on the card". One loan consolidated all my cards when I moved in with my husband and the other loan paid for our wedding and honeymoon. I earn an average wage but obviously at the moment am on SMP. We get the benefits we are entitled to and not a penny more...Thanks Gordon!

My husband and I are very bad when it comes to saving. We like to spend but we are only doing this withon our means - this has been the case since we married.

I want to get the debts paid off by Oct 2011. It is achieveable and even if I do not go back to work we will cope. You may have caught another post where I discuss my husband getting a bonus and wanted to spend it instead of pay off debts so that is going to be a big part of my debt worry.

I am doing this diary mainly because I am starting to worry now. I want to be debt free and be able to achieve things in the future. I have stayed awake too many nights worrying - not that we are in a bad position but how I can encourage my husband to have the same mentality as me.

Anyway thats a bit about me. I will waffle lots over the coming months,

Will update my signature with figures shortly. No need to do a SOA as finances are in good working order as I had an overhaul before I left work.

BlueJeans_2

Hi Gem

Welcome aboard.

I starting my dairy on Monday and feel so much better for it.

Look forward to reading more:beer:.

Oh and congrats on the birth of your new baby!

Smits

Hey, thanks for the interesting post! Good luck in getting debt free and remember, making some sacrifices will mean you will be alot happier come 2011. However, please remember that you do need to have a life and its hard 'just getting by'!

turfy6

Hi Gem just wanted to say Hi, I too am trying to get my OH on board as he is the one who spends the money. He has improved lately and is at least thinking before he spends money, so I know how you feel. Keep going you will get there and who knows he'll probably thank you for it.

DancerSupreme

Well I feel I am obsessed. I don't know what is wrong with me.

The cats recently wee'd on the hallway carpet so I have spent two days scrubbing and cleaning the house. I am going to replace the small section of carpet in question but in the meantime I feel dirty. I am convinced the house smells and I am embarrassed. Not good when I have family coming to visit tomorrow.

If I am not obsessing about cleaning I am obsessing about money.

Please someone tell me this is just because I am off work at the mo?!

DancerSupreme

Right today is a new day.

This morning I need to have a quick whizz around the house to tidy up and make it smell nice and fresh. Have family coming this afternoon. Need to bake a cake this morning and put the roast chicken in.

Need to do a little shopping this morning but hoping to not spend more than £20 and that include some nice luxuries like frosting for the cake. I am going to show my hubby the snowball calculator to see if it spurs him on a bit and I need to get to the bank and put some cash into our savings account.

Also I need to order cat litter and lizard food online and then clean out the lizard.

It looks like it is going to be a busy day. Will hopefully be able to chat a bit more to hubby about finances to try and get him to have his LBM.

turfy6

Good luck with the family visit, and more importantly getting hubby to have his lbm. Like the idea of showing him the snowballer mmm might try that one myself.;)

DancerSupreme

Was advice from other members on here. I looked at it and was pretty shocked even though I knew it before lol

DancerSupreme

Well the bonus came in today and it felt amazing to see. Not sure what is happening with the 4x4, that is a discussion for tomorrow I think.

Hubby still wants to pay off the credit card but I may not pay it all off straight away. Again we need to chat about this.

Was hoping to get a F&F figure for it but because I make payments on time each month it is not possible - was hoping to get a F&F, save some money to pay off another debt.

Still I spent it so I must pay it back. Things are getting there though. Will be a great feeling once the credit card is gone, closed and cut up...I cannot wait!!

Fire_Fox

gembaxter wrote: »

Well I feel I am obsessed. I don't know what is wrong with me.

The cats recently wee'd on the hallway carpet so I have spent two days scrubbing and cleaning the house. I am going to replace the small section of carpet in question but in the meantime I feel dirty. I am convinced the house smells and I am embarrassed. Not good when I have family coming to visit tomorrow.

If I am not obsessing about cleaning I am obsessing about money.

Please someone tell me this is just because I am off work at the mo?!

It's fine to be obsessive if you don't feel it's ruling your life. If you have negative emotions associated with the cleaning or the debt-busting then it's time for a chat with your GP or district nurse. You will naturally be quite sleep deprived and possibly hormonal, both of which can play funny tricks with your mind.

DawnW

You could always compromise re the bonus - pay half off your debt and spend half?

Good luck x