Rainy will make lemonade from her debt lemons in 2011!

Rainy_2

It has been a long time since I have diarised my debt journey (last June to be precise, eek!) nothing personal guys - I promise! I think I just finally ran out of steam/positivism/motivation/will to live and my warm head-space in the sand was all too welcoming.

I won't dwell on the absence though! Onwards and upwards! Despite the dark period, I feel that I have really achieved something over the past 6 months, including a Full and Final Settlement of my Lloyds TSB Business Overdraft at 50% :j (which has now wiped a clear £10K off of my debt) and gaining a £200 compensation cheque from The AA Personal Finance after months of battling :j (via the wonderful Financial Ombudsman who I called in after it appeared that The AA hadn't been reducing my debt despite 7 months worth of monthly payments)

I am now ready to actually write down the actual figures I am facing and not hide behind my coloured squares :

Debt as of April 2009: £66,918.85
Debt as of January 2010: £45,940.85
Debt as of January 2011: £34,386 :T

A brief background to lead you into how I have landed in a desperate mess:

I became self employed by buying into a retail franchise in April 2007. I had some savings from an inheritence which I put into it with the rest of the funding provided from a business overdraft. The first few months were good, business built up well, I had an opportunity to expand so I took out loans to do so. One month of greatness and then THE CREDIT CRUNCH. Business declined rapidly (I sold luxury items that everyone gave up first when the crunch hit) and so I abused my decent credit rating and used numerous credit cards to pick up the business and personal bills. The business continued to make great losses. There was no money to pay back the loans, credit cards or suppliers. As I fell behind in payments, my days of being a credit card 'tart' were over, no new 0%'s to transfer to and my credit rating is lower than low. The decision to cease to trade was heart wrenching after putting so much into it but there was just no way to keep afloat.

Through ill-advice and naivety on my part, I had remained a sole trader, so obviously all the debts remained as my own personal debts.

I had to get out of the business quickly which meant breached lease contracts and the rent and business rates still to be owed until the end of the lease (18 months in total) Luckily I managed to negotiate through this and ended up just facing the rates, which is why the debt dropped so greatly between 2009 and 2010.

I sought advice as soon as possible and have corresponded with my creditors from the beginning (with a mixed bag of results) This Forum and Website has been invaluable for support and advice :beer: and despite all pointers leading to bankruptcy, I have stuck with self-administering my debts and I am hopefully still holding bankruptcy at arms length. Although I have to admit that this has been a demanding and very draining route to take!

The present situation is that I am now in full time employment and piling any spare pennies I can into my Debt Pot. Snowball predictions are that I could be debt free in just 6 years! :j Which is bittersweet as that is also the time period I could have paid off my mortgage if I weren't facing such debts

So embracing the positives I will venture back into full blown debt busting and make everyone some tasty lemonade from this lifes lemons

EssexHebridean

Welcome back - and wow, haven't you done well! Congratulations on your progress to date, and good luck for the rest of your hourney.

Rainy_2

Thanks EssexHebridean.

Somedays I see progress and others I see a big mess!

But focusing on the positives, I managed a great Ebay run last November/December totalling almost £230 so now after the festive break I am going to get my bum into gear and start again! My big incentive is that it is my 30th this year in November and I have the grand idea that I would like to be away somewhere for it. Nothing flash or fancy but a break would be wonderful! So the saving starts now! I will deal with the pangs of guilt that the Ebay money is not being pooled in the Debt Pot as we go along

A hiiiyaa!! letter will be sent today to Blair, Oliver and Scott ltd today (they are the only kind of letter they ever seem to get from me) They deal with three of my debts at the moment, one of them being The AA and were included in the saga of not putting my monthly payments towards my AA loan. They have written to inform me that my monthly payment has not been received, despite the fact that the cheque has been cashed and is clearly highlighted on the copy of the bank statement I shall be politely waving under their nose :rotfl: I will also politely point out that they may remember a small episode with the Financial Ombudsmen recently where they had to pay me compensation so they would do well to keep in line!!

I do wonder how they actually achieve anything when all they have is mismatched information and computer generated gobbledygook!

Rainy_2

Nothing too major to report today but I am on course for NSD no 3 for January :j my aim is 12 this month. I haven't yet kicked myself up ithe bum to do Ebay bits yet but will hopefully make a start this weekend and have a long overdue clear out!

keza

welcome back Rainy! your doing fantastic! was thinking of you just the other day!! *subscribes* xxx

Rainy_2

Well, I haven't made a start on the Ebay pile yet but I am doing particularly well on my budget for this month, even though there was that thing called Christmas just gone and it ending up being almost a 6-week month in terms of payday! I'm still in the black and so far have spent less than last January by nearly £300! :j I know we are not at the end of the month yet but apart from my debt payments going out on Friday, all of my Direct Debits and living costs are already accounted for. I know I am just trying to make myself feel better for not getting on with Ebay stuff but you have to grab the silver linings when you can in this ol' game!

Rainy_2

By the way, as well as Martin's budget planner, I use EagerLearner's amazing budget tracking spreadsheet, found here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=238575

It tracks what you spend on everything each month, any savings and any debt payments too. And now I have been using it for long enough to compare over the years so I can see my exact position when it comes to my finances. Some mention the word 'obsessed' when I go on about my spreadsheets but I just don't know what they mean...:rotfl: It just really helps me to see things in black and white and keep me on the straight and narrow!

EssexHebridean

I managed to get a few bits on eBay over the weekend but not so much as I wanted to really. I've decided that as I find stuff to go on I will photograph it, then pop it in a box ready for the next free listing weekend - my view is that eBay take enough of us in final value fees, I'm blowed if they are getting listing fees from me as well! I'm hopeful that by the time the next one comes along there will be a bit more of a market for Soap & Glory stuff as there are a few bits in the Tote Bag that I wouldn't normally use - if I can sell them to make some value back on it I may as well do so.

Good luck with your debt-collecting crooks - I should think they will take one look at your name and address on the letter and keel over in defeat - good on you for taking them to task before, just goes to show that it is possible to best these people!

Rainy_2

Still no Ebaying

I should try and adopt your tactic EssexHebridean for photographing as I find, as this is usually the big 'mountain' in my mind - getting it all prepared to list. The actual listing and selling and sending I really enjoy (probably because of my fondness for the accompanying spreadsheets! :rotfl:)

All payments for this month have been paid now, resulting in another few coloured squares :j I am now officially over a third of my way through paying of my debts! Slightly under my 2 year target (going on my overly optimistic snowball target of debt free in 6 years) but this has involved a couple of good F&F's. So I'm happy to be ahead of target but I know that there's still a long haul ahead.

Bring it on!

Rainy_2

I am now counting down the days until Friday - It's Payday!! :j

It has been a ridiculously long month but I am proud to say that I have not really struggled too much, in fact there is still a bit of change in my purse! All down to my hefty budget planning I think and my restraint over Christmas, which was difficult but I managed it so I know that it can be done!

By mid week next week though all of my wages will just about be swallowed up after all the usual living DDs have gone out, a chunky final electricity bill left over from switching suppliers, some money to my mum who lent me a bit for a new front door just before Christmas and then my chunk towards the debt pot.

I will try as always not to look upon the debt pot chunk with utter bitterness and resentment :rotfl:

Rainy_2

Oh and I did my SA Tax Return yesterday (very last minute I know )

I had a feeling that they would owe me a bit of tax back due to the mixture of self emloyment, unemployment and employment in 09/10 but no such luck. It turns out I owe THEM money drum roll please as I reveal the grand amount.......

60p!!

That has really thrown my budgets :rotfl:

Something to do with my Student Loan repayments which I didn't really understand but I am just glad that although I owed them, it wasn't anything to jeopdise my debt pot growing!