Light bulb moment - time for action

Clarie_2

ManagingDebt wrote: »

Clarie - thanks for responding. Your right about my Parents. I have just spoken to them and the £100 i have been paying them for now is enough for at least 6 to 9 months which is a great weight off my mind.

Looking at the numbers and timeline of your debt figures in your signature you've made amazing progress - how have you done this so quickly?

Hiya,

Our debt came because my husband's business collapsed in the recession last summer. As a Lone Trader he had the choice of declare himself bankrupt, or take on the debts personally. We decided to go for the latter as with no business, he had the time to get a paid job, and we didn't want the bad credit (one day, we'd love a mortgage!)

So we threw all our savings at it about £10,000. And then claimed back PPI. (about £12,000). And family lent us a £7,000 loan interest free. and we did loads of credit card shuffling, and paid off loans. And prayed! God and our family and friends from church helped us out amazingly - we ended up only spending £55 to kit out everything we needed for new baby, and some other friends paid for a holiday, and we moved house (not our choice but ended up working out really well as we now have a lodger and that's helped loads). And my husband has worked hard in a horrible job and we've thrown every spare penny at the debt.

And now we're finally this week selling off the last of the stock, with which help we should fingers crossed pay off the last credit cards by August, leaving only the family loan to repay.

It seems incredible - May last year we were 36,000 under and staring at bankruptcy, by this May we may even be able to afford for me to have an extra month of looking after the baby before returning to work!

It's not been easy but it is possible, and has just got better ever since we faced up to the situ we were in last year and made a plan. :-)

With your attitude, I'm sure you'll be doing as well and have as a good a story in a years time too!

littleredfairy

Hi there managingdebt,

I too live in London in Zone 2, and came on here this week. My issue isn't so much debt levels (though they are going up) as the overspend, which I am going to have to change my lifestyle for.

I have a great social life and buy lots for work, and find that everyone (it's not everyone, but I feel like it is), goes out for dinner every night, drinks etc, and in London it's very easy to build up debt or lose income this way. I used to think things like the Tastecard and vouchercloud were great, but now I have realised that while dinner is nice, they were makign me spend me and I don't have that cash.

For clothes, i'd really recommend the bigwardrobe site - you can sell things on there if you are a 'friend' which costs £12 a year or you can just swap, which is a good way to get new clothes and just pay postage. I have a massive wardrobe and need to look smart for work so this is a great option for it. i recently swapped a party dress I bought for $13 in the US and never worn for a Jasper Conran dress I can regularly wear in the office.

Hope this helps. I owe my dad £6,000 which he has said I can pay back at £100 a month when he retired - he retired two years ago and hasn't seen a bean, so once I get my finances sorted he is my first port of call.