The Diary of Q and his quest to be debt free.

Quanz2

Hi folks,
I hope I’ve put this in the right place. I want to start a diary to chronicle my recovery from debt and also as an aid to help me keep focused on the job at hand. So here goes, with a bit background.
I’m married with kids and been struggling with things for a while, due to redundancy, and the inability to find work – eventually I managed to find a job, but the wages were less and by that point I had already dug myself into bit of a hole, robbing Peter to pay Paul etc. I hid the debt from my wife, lied to her, found myself running home at lunch time to get to the mail before my wife could see it. Leaving letters and demands unopened and hiding them away. I guess things really came to a head the day before our holiday, I had no money to spend, not enough money to pay for the rental car and felt so low and alone and unable to tell my wife. I’d hardly slept for weeks prior and just didn’t know where to turn to. I was thinking about doing something really stupid, but thankfully I was stopped by a couple of very understanding police constables, and I guess that was the end of a very dark time for me and the beginning of a time to start making positive changes.
My wife knows about my debts, am trying to communicate more with her and not be so insular. I’ve started to take steps to try and take control of my life. It aint going to be sorting overnight, but with the help and support of my family I know I can turn things around.

starnac

hi quanz2 i couldn't read and run. sounds like you've had a bad time of it. you have made the first step now congratulations. you've come to the right place. DFW's are very friendly and have some good advice on dealing with your debt. the advice i would give to you now is to keep talking to your wife. don't block her out you'll need her support in your journey.

if you post your soa either here or on the DFW board itself then people can have a look and see if there are any places you can cut back and save

good luck with your debt free journey

gettingbetter

hi quanz

your deffo in the right place
you will get all the help and support you need
please post up your SOA
www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

i know how your feeling
cause i did exactely the same
i hid all debts from my hubby
hid the post and lied about phone calls
i only came clean after we were made bankrupt

you are not alone
on this board you can tell us anything
and no one will judge you
keep posting and let us help

kas xx

Quanz2

Thanks for you support. Not sure what an SOA is – Can someone clarify? I think at the end of the day its only money, and yes its important, it makes life a lot easier, but health and happiness are far more important. Anyhow I’ve started (baby steps first) I had a look at my life insurance which was £57.00 a month for kind that reduces with your mortgage it also had critical illness cover. So I had a wee shop around a few comparison sites and fee that weren’t on these which I looked up independently – I found Direct Line and Tesco to be reasonable, I think they are both part of the same group. I ditched the critical illness cover and opted for Tesco although a pound more expensive than Direct Line they promise a £30 gift card. With the money I saved I had a look for some house insurance, which I haven’t had for a long time (cancelled as no money and never restarted). Again Tesco were good under £10 a month. So I now have life insurance and home insurance for £27.00 a month for both – so am saving £30.00 a month a huge £360 a year and with the £30 cash back its even more.
Before anyone thinks am plugging Tesco I phoned them up to cancel my car insurance as it was too expensive £22.50 a month (£270.00 for the year). I went with a company called Hastings (hope they are OK – I aint heard anything from them after I took out the policy yesterday) via Quidco (Cashback sites do they really work?) paid them £206.00 so a £64 saving there and if the cash back works that’s another £60 on top of that.
Plans for this week are to get the ball rolling and send off my first letter to Alliance and Leicester to try and claim back bank charges using financial hardship – so any experiences of this or dealing with A&L would be great.
Does anyone have any thoughts re:cashback sites (Good one and ones to avoid etc) am thinking of moving from Sky and BT to Virgin as one site is stating a £150 cashback to move to Virgin and virgin are giving you £20 off your first bill on top of this.
Also seen another offer giving you £20 from Paddy Power if you open an account and deposit and wager a £10 – looks like a £10 for nothing – but I’m always sceptical of free money!

I have joined a few survey sites (Lightspeed, Onepoll and Valued Opinions) - Not sure if they are worth the effort so again any thoughts round these would be appreciated.


PS am I posting in the right place as I dont see my original post when I search through the diaries????????

Quanz2

I'm tobacco free, i'd like to say nicotine free, but I need the patches, still at least no nasties in them. Its been 50 hours and 12 minutes since I lit up my last ciggie. And although I would love an other am trying to really make a go of it.
Spending £4.00 a dasy on a packet of 14 B&H so if I can keep this up its £28.00 a week and a huge £1460 a year.
Eating like a horse though - think that last 2 days I've spent more at Baynes the baker than I used to on smokes - still i've given myself a week to eat what I want and then weight loss is added to my list of goals.