GVP's jaunty journey to a debt free life.

GVP_2

Hi all. Well, after 2 weeks on here, I've finally found the time to start my diary. Let the fun commence!

So where to start? Well the beginning I guess! Like most I was born at a very early age, and then spent a few years growing up (thought I'm sure my wife would argue I've still got to finish that part ). After that I went to University, and that's where my downward spiral into a world of debt began. Unfortunately for me I'm the master of bad timing. If there was a king of bad timing I'd probably be a good contender for the crown! (See later for further proof). Basically I went off to Uni the year they decided to do away with the grant system, and as such I had to survive on student loans.

Fast forward a couple of years, and with degree in hand, I done the typical thing and headed off to the big city in search of work. I managed to get myself a graduate position with a very reputable company (great news), the only downfall being the pitance they called a wage (bad news). As such, I entered the world of credit cards (What?! You'll give me money for nothing?! Sign me up! :rolleyes: ). A few years of drinking too much (probably), partying too much (almost certainly), and spending way too much (definately!), I felt I'd done the 'London thing' and decided to move out of the city.

Fast forward a few more years, and now with a good woman by my side (how I managed that I'll never know ) I decided to buy a house. That was late 2007/early 2008. We found a house we liked and scrimped and saved, begged and borrowed and managed to raise a deposit, and got the house we wanted. A couple of months later there was a property crash (there's that bad timing again!). The only saving grace for us was that we bought a house that had been repossed and needed a lot of work, so we'd bought it heavily undervalued and didn't end up in negative equity.

A few months later our car gave up the ghost, so we decided to buy a new car on finance (as we needed something reliable). Two months later the Goverment introduced it's scrappage scheme. Typical, bad timing strikes again.

Back to the house! As mentioned the house needed a lot of work. As such the last year has involved a lot of decision making, headscratching, swearing, cuts and bruises, but it's now all finished, and I'm proud to say (with the help of my Dad), we did all the work ourselves. Whilst we've saved a fortune in labour, obviously we've still spent a great deal on the repairs and rennovation, which has further added to the debt.

And that take us up to the present. Credit cards, loans, money borrowed from family etc, takes us up to just shy of £43000 :eek:

As the situation stands, hopefully I shouldn't have to pay out any more money on anything, so now I can concentrate on getting rid of some debt. Hence my reason for joining up here. I'm hoping sharing my story will help shame/spur me on to clearing my debt. I reckon as things stand I can pay back up to about £1000 a month now. As such, taking into account interest etc I'd say a 3 year target to pay it all off will be tough, but not totally unrealistic.

So that's my story. Sorry for boring anyone, thanks for reading (if you did), and feel free to come join me on my journey to a debt free life.

Cheers :cool:

elantan

not boring at all very intresting ...good luck on your journey ...your in with good company that i am sure will help you on your way ..

i share the bad luck gene as well ...it amazes me how bad it can get sometimes ...but we always manage dont we?

so do you have a plan? do you have any challenges in mind? have you done all your figures and swearing etc?

hypno06

Have you put all your figures in the snowball calculator on www.whatsthecost.com ? It is a fab way of getting an initial debt free date and seeing what difference a few extra £££ a month towards the debt can make. I find it very motivating!

Lemon_Tree

welcome to the boards, i had a similar level of debt when i first arrived here and have thankfully now paid of almost half. I'm finally able to now pay the same £1000 that you are able to pay but it's taken a while to be able to do so.
elantan is right you would be well advised to have a look around at the boards at the various challenges, they are really useful at keeping you on track.

GVP_2

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll definately take a look at the snowball link. TBH I'm still trying to find my way around the boards a bit at the mo. I'm having trouble understanding all the abbreviations and terms people seem to be using!

With regard to challenges, I've signed up to the "Make £10 a day challenge", I'm also saving £2 coins (but I've done that anyway for as long as I can remember, now though I'm making a concious effort to ask for them in my change! )

Looking at some of your signitures it's reassuring to see people have come a long way from when they started, and good to know what can be achieved.

hypno06

It is not always easy, GVP, but with the support from these boards, and a bit of effort and determination, you can rattle through that debt quicker than you ever thought possible!

GVP_2

Had a bit of a good weekend moneywise. Managed to make £120 profit from eBay yesterday. :T That'll be going straight towards some debt payment. I also went shopping and managed to pick up a few Christmas presents all reduced, the best being a book which had £19 off!

I'm also starting to get the hang of (or maybe getting slightly obssessed with) the idea of NSDs. The idea of breaking things down into one day at a time is a system that's really working for me. As things stand this should be the first month since we moved (May 2008) that I reckon I should be able to cover everything including my debts from my current account alone, with out shifting funds from other accounts. Gotta admit it seems stupid, but I'm really happy about it.

:beer:

GVP_2

Forgot to mention, on top of that I've also made some progress into setting up my own business on the side, so that's another plus point!

And I saved about £140 by rebuilding the broken lock on my car, instead of paying the ridiculous amount the dealership (or should that be stealership!) was asking for the required part.

_party_

GVP_2

Quick update. I'm gradually chipping away at the September £10 a day challenge. It's gonna be a close one.

Off to do some more work on the car (I'm determined to get it back on the road without paying anyone for any work!).

elantan

funny i was just catching up and saw your diary was wondering where you were off too ...great news on the repair saving

GVP_2

Cheers Elantan.

Got to admit I've not been keeping on top of the diary as much as I'd like, as I've been so hectic with work. Good news is though that means I'm pulling in the overtime. :beer:

Just tallied up the two challenges I'd been doing for September. Managed to make £229.44 on the 'Make £10 a day challenge', so not quite reaching the target, but none the less not too bad for a first attempt. I'm determined to do it for October though (started putting all my old CDs onto the computer so they can be sold on )

Also managed 8 days in the 'No Spend Day's Challenge', so I'm aiming for 10 in October.