Head no longer in the sand

smellyprincess

Hello everyone,

I've been lurking on MSE for ages now, and I have had so much inspiration from reading the debt free diaries in particular. I have never done anything like this before, so I am a bit wary of giving away too much information, but I know that you are all really supportive so I'm sure you'll let me know if I make any rookie mistakes.

Just a bit about me, I'm in my late 20s (gulp!) and have recently gone back to university to retrain for a new career, which I should've done a long time ago. I graduated the first time, about 7 years ago with approx £15,000 worth of debt, maybe a bit more if you include student loans. This was made up of various store and credit cards, two over drafts and a loan. I took the first job that I was offered after uni, and the pay was rubbish to say the least, and as it was commission based I really struggled to manage my money and ended up getting into more and more debt. I don't know how much the final figure was.

I met a lovely man when I left Uni, and we ended up buying a house 5 years ago. We took a Northern Rock together mortgage, as we had no deposit and everything seemed fine, as he was really good with money and helped me to make sure that I was making at least the minimum payments on my debts each month. 3 years ago, our house had increased in value by about £30,000 so we remortgaged, and added my CCs and loan into the new mortgage.

At the time it seemed like the best thing to do because I was finding it so hard to work out how much money i had every month, because my pay was so erratic. The upshot is that I've now only got one CC left which is being paid off next week :jwith a bursary from University, and the loan's down to less than £4,000.

Our next hurdle is to get the mortgage back to the original amount (another £7,000) then start saving up for somewhere bigger.

In the mean time, OH has been made redundant and I am a student again. The major difference is though, that we have got enough savings already to pay the bills for 2 months, and I will receive a bursary from Uni until June.
I am also waiting for some compensation money from a car accident a few years ago, which will be enough to pay off the loan, and maybe cover the bills for a little while longer while we both look for jobs.

I have been Padding my CC for a while now, and I'm going to keep doing this into my savings account instead. I have never listed anything on eBay, and don't have the time with my Uni work to do a part time job. OH is spending all his time trying to find work, so hopefully he'll get something soon.

I think that's enough from me,
thanks for reading.
Princess :A