What made you realise you needed to do something about your debt?

hypno06

Getting there, thanks SS! Under £20k now, so almost there :rotfl:

beanielou

Not long to go now SS

southernscouser

beanielou wrote: »

Not long to go now SS

Hey Beanie. How's you?

I know. I can't bloody wait. :rotfl: Could do with the extra £370 a month aswell.

beanielou

Im good thanks SS
PLodding on!
Oooh all that lovely money.
No buying any car mats now:p:rotfl:

southernscouser

beanielou wrote: »

Im good thanks SS
PLodding on!
Oooh all that lovely money.
No buying any car mats now:p:rotfl:

:rotfl:

That's the first thing I'm gonna buy. They're over 4 years old now. :eek:

penelopedee_2

I had a flickering light bulb for years but I thought we were earning good money and could deal with it. I didn't realise that we actually earned a lot less than our friends until really recently. We just kept juggling money about to keep up with them until we got into debt.

I didn't wake up until earlier this year when I was in tears about my job and the situation. DH had cottoned on ages ago that I was very unhappy at work but being me, I just kept on with it as I knew it helped us pay the way. He tried to talk me round to doing something else but by then we just couldn't afford it. Too much debt and no savings.

So, this site was where I started, lurking at first and then gradually 'fessing up' to bits to keep me on track. Now I have almost cleared everything I personally owe. I have been able to go part-time in the nasty job and start working at something I really love. I will keep going as long as it takes - I hate debt. It keeps you awake at night and shadows your day. Life is too short for that.

Thanks everyone here, you are brill.

Toffee_Penny

This might be a bit long but honestly for us, it was because we were just too damn stupid with our money. We had lived a champagne lifestyle on lemonade money for far too long and in the end when we relied on credit to live it caught up with us.

We had our wake up call when OH who works in the building trade started getting laid off here and there and had a sudden drop in wages after Christmas 2007. I had always worked part time hours with little pay but we struggled by paying the £1000 month we needed for minimum payments to our creditors. We went on holidays, had nice clothes and spent a lot on take aways and going out, just wasting the money really.

We were paying later every month because OH just didn’t have the income and I had an overdraft of £1500 every month irrespective of my wages, benefit and credits paid in to my account but we couldn’t keep up. We were late paying credit cards and catalogues, even got really annoyed when Halifax dropped OH credit limit and we surrendered our life assurance policies to get extra cash to last us through one month. It didn’t last though and we were back to hiding the bills in the drawer. We even tried for that ‘one last loan’; you know the one that you promise yourself to get to clear all other debts so you end up with just the one debt! We got turned down; our credit score was blown to bits. The final straw for us was when I discovered on one credit card bill that OH had been gambling and lost over £1000 in one month!

We spilt up for a few weeks after that; the pressure was just too much. Family wondered why we had split and thought one of us had cheated! Little did they know we had 13 creditors in total owing a shameful £53,000 and sod all to show for it! Our children were heartbroken at the split and that’s when we realised we needed to fight through this together. We loved each other and our family’s happiness was more important than any amount of money, it was silly to think we could run away and the debts disappear and we needed help – fast!

One morning I saw Martin on GMTV advertising his site through their website. I had a look and saw the threads discussing Coronation Street and the likes but then saw a link to this bit, the Money Saving Expert and I discovered the DFW board and more importantly the DMP support thread. I found the link to CCCS and went from there to set up our own DMP with them in 2008. I was amazed at the sheer volume of people speaking so openly on here about their debts. It just doesn’t happen like that in real life and it was refreshing, a life saver almost. There was shame in real life, you just couldn’t discuss your financial meltdown in the workplace but on here dealing with debt was something to celebrate and nothing to feel ashamed about.

We have never looked back after contacting CCCS; our debt free date was once December 2023, our debt was 53k at its highest. By making affordable payments, learning to budget our income and making successful ppi mis-selling claims from nearly all of our creditors we have managed to bring our debt down to just over £33k. Our debt free date now stands at July 2016 and we have never felt happier.

I remember crying myself to sleep night after night with worry, feeling sick when reading the latest creditor or DCA threatening this and that. I thought people at work could see the strain on my face when starting our DMP. I felt so guilty at our stupidity at wasting so much money. We have nothing to show for it and that is my biggest regret. Wasting so much money, we don't even own our own home.

But we have changed our habits; we have both stopped smoking and wasting money on fast food rubbish, we even have a little savings which we never had before because we always relied on credit but the biggest change has been our attitude to money; how we spend it, what we buy, decisions, decisions all the time and certainly no more silly impulse buys. I have a better paid job now, OH is still in the building trade and things are slowly improving.

In fact we are so much happier now because what we have is ours and the pressure of juggling masses of debts is now gone. We feel glad that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I still maintain my dream of a family holiday in Gran Canaria when all our debt is paid off. It keeps me going when times get a little hard.

I also sit in the staff room listening to people go on about how often they are going on holiday this year or what colour their next new car will be. I also wonder if they have the burden of £53k of debt like we did too.

Apart from wasting the money in the first place one big regret is not finding out about this site and its helpful members sooner.

picasso2

I have been quite happily gaining credit and spending it on lovely holidays and making sure my daughter had the same lifestyle as her freinds at school despite us being a single parent family, keeping up with the jones' i guess.

Well we've had a great time , two holidays in disneyworld no expenses spared, twice to LA - once buisness class ! Guided tour of china and japan. Lapland at christmas and lots of other trips.

Actually few of her freinds had such luxuries despite 2 parents in good jobs and to cap it all my daughter said she hated long haul flying and would prefer to go no farther than spain .

I had my lightbulb moment 2 months ago, I went on sick leave and at first would spend my days on 'shopping therapy'. Eventually ,after having been under the care of a consultant for many years I finally acknowledged that my health was a problem and I may lose my well paid job. Combined with this in 18months my child support, tax credits and child benefit will stop leaving a significant hole in my finances.

In all fairness I have spent the last 13 years living as though I may die tommorow (as well I might apparantly). Now due to the treatment I am having I have a future and I need to look responsibly towards it.

I have no payment protection in place and it is likely that the only reason i would need it would be due to my long term condition. Of course this is excluded in any new insurances and the premiums when i have checked are too great at present.
I am trying now to actively reduce my debt as quickly as possible, I have returned to work and it is a huge struggle, I'm hoping to be able to work a further 10 years and then take ill health retirement, not sure i'll make it though. I have also signed up for part time work as and when I am able , some good days some bad.

I am discovering that it is very frightening to think about the future and acknowledge how it may be , but it will be easier to face without having to worry about my finances.

BabyBetty

Hi dib-dab,

Great post.

The penny finally dropped for me when I realised that almost half my pay was going out to pay off debt. I felt as though I could not breathe. I did the classic things like burying my head in the sand and still going on holidays at least 2 a year. I came across MSE my chance in November/December 2008, I was looking for another site on how to deal with debt. I became committed after reading the forums and I really like the fact that people are genuinely supportive of each other.

Signing up to challenges kept me on track as without that I would have lost focus but more importantly just being able to see that other people where in the same situation as myself really helped no end.

I love reading the diaries and celebrating when someone becomes debt free or even just paid off one of their bills. I just think one day that will be me and that really makes my day (sometimes my whole week).

The other thing that the debt has done for me is kept me in jobs that I would not necessarily want to do permanently, just because they pay very well and I am able to pay off my debt that bit sooner. When I finally do become debt free in 2010, I am going to pull back and evaluate my situation and make plans for saving the amount that I have been paying out on debt.

My stomach churns at the thought that all the money that I am paying out on debt could be going into savings (Ok savings rates are crap at the moment), and not to someone else.

The other thing is that when I actually look back I can't even thing what I spent most of the money on!!!!:eek:

Anyway I am so pleased that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that I made a decision (after reading the MSE forums) to finally get out of debt.

BB

The_Cappuccino_Kid

Back in 2004 when I was about to be evicted (within 24 hours) for rent arrears. I was arrogant enough to think that bad things didn''t happen to me. Well guess what ....

I avoided eviction thanks to the help of friends but that really was the fright I needed. I spoke to Payplan and starrted to sort things out.

It is such a relief not to fear the post or the phone. To anyone struggling to get their head out of the sand - don't wait until the decision is taken from you.