a big thank you :)

little_h_2

well i have been lurking for a while and thought it was about time i did the right thing and said a big thank you to everyone on the site, particularly in this section of the forum.

i hesitated to sign up initially as i am already a forum tart and spend too much time on them - but this is the most productive one i have found so far so i guess that makes it not so bad

I am approx £27k in debt. £16k is on cards and just under £11k is for my car, on HP.

I am lucky that I earn a good wage so my minimum payments are manageable and I also have no children to feed/clothe/house.

my light bulb moment came on 30.10.09 when I read a book called In the Red by Alexis Hall.

I am a complete girl, I love shopping and buying presents and fashion magazines, so it was good to find someone was similar to me and had written a book about their adventures and had stuck to their rules and was making big steps in the journey to debt free happiness.

I can probably attribute about half of my debt to concrete things, but the rest is just a couple of years accumulated overspending following some tough times on the domestic front.

Reading the book (and these forums) has made me realise how lucky I am and how much worse things could be if I don't tackle my problems. I am already finding I feel very restricted by my debt - I earn good money in a stressful job but find i often feel chained to it to be able to make all my commitments and I live in fear of losing my job.

Once I had worked out that the worst thing that could happen to me was to lose my house, and even if this happened I could still get through it (as I said, I am lucky that I only have myself to worry about), I felt better.

Making a statement that I would no longer use my cards has also made me feel better.

For various reasons I have decided to keep my car - I could sell it and reduce my debt but it is very fuel and tax efficient and all my servicing is paid for for the next 5 years so my other costs would go up if I got a cheaper car.

My house needs some work doing to it which I have decided not to put off any longer - essential really so I am having to balance this with making the extra payments to get my debts down.

But all being well, I should be debt free in about January 2011.

I am 31 and in the process of getting my divorce finalised, I am finding things quite difficult at times but cannot believe how much more positive I feel for tackling these debts.

I feel embarassed for getting myself in this mess but I am committed to getting it all paid off so I can save for the future and hopefully put some money aside in case i find someone else daft enough to marry me. I'd love to have children some day and taking maternity leave would leave a huge dent in my finances so want to try and have this covered.

Sorry this is rather rambling but just wanted to say thank you for all the support and the inspiration I've got from here.

Christmas will be a challenge but I've been generous beyond my means for too long so people will just have to get over it!

DarkConvict

Ill keep it to the point, "Well Done & Goodluck, your off to a good start with a target of Jan 2011"

Tixy

Hi Little H and welcome to MSE forum (tis truly the best forum and you may find you spend a ridiculous amount of time here but all in the name of moneysaving)

Good luck with debt busting

andymc29

Hi, good luck with your debt free journey.
You're very similar to myself actually. I built up my debt by byugin things I can't afford for years and year. Adn only recently have I realised that I just can't go on like this. If I do the right things, I could be out of debt by Feb 2011, but my target is more realistic at Oct 2011.

good luck and remember to keep visiting here for motivation!!!