£12k in 12 months!!!

mrsspendalot

DebtFree2012 wrote: »

Hi hun

Don't give up - it's so easy to lose sight when you are feeling this way out.

I have changed my debt free date from 2012 to 2014! So hope that makes you feel better even if it made me feel worse lol.

It's coming through this that will show you what you are made of. I don't have a set date now as you never know what's round the corner and remember good fortune can come your way as well as the bad that you have had (ie more expense).

Go for Dec 2012 and if it changes, so be it. I don't plan on doing mine until alot nearer the time with mine being so far away - give yourself 6 months from now then you can start counting the days down!!!!

x x x

Awww thanks. I will give a more detailed plan when I get a chance, as the little one is very demanding with my time! I still don't feel completely in control of my finances, and there is also now a chance I will be made redundant during or after my maternity leave But with the help of this board I know I can get through it x

DebtFree2012

Keep posting when you can hun. It really does help stay sane at times and I am so sorry to hear you may be made redundant - is that even allowed when on maternity leave? Soo not fair.

xxx

mrsspendalot

Hello diary .... long time, no see

Well, here we are in October .... another month closer to being debt free.

OK, so here's the situation ....

When I started the diary I was wanting to tackle the £12k of credit card debt my husband had. I originally aimed to do this within 12 months, but with inflation biting and growing children + a new baby, that soon became impossible to manage. I have kept up above-minimum repayments throughout though and am trying not to get too gutted about my original aim failing; I always knew it was going to be very ambitious!

What I didn't ever factor in to the equation was my husband's overdraft debt which is on top of the credit cards :(

I don't know why, but I never see overdrafts as debt in the same way as credit cards . It belongs to a bank account which he no longer uses. He hasn't defaulted on it or anything, as when he became a student he discussed his overdraft with them and they said as long as we pay the equivalent of the interest and charges each month they will be happy. So on top of the payments I was making to the credit cards for him each month, I was also paying £100 to the overdraft. However, they were charging £80 a month in interest and £12.95 account fee, so this debt was just not going away. The overdraft limit was a staggering £5500 :eek::eek::eek:

So, what I have now done is take a fresh look at ALL the debts and work the snowball out with the overdraft taken into account. I was actually very very surprised to find we could pay off the cards and the overdraft in not much more time than it was originally going to take to pay off the cards alone (once I knew we weren't going to manage £1k a month and dropped it to £500).

For the first time in ages I now actually feel like we are getting somewhere and the debt is finally starting to fall. So, here is the current and true picture of my other half's debts:

Original total figure (as at May 2011, inc. overdraft) : £18,456.01
Current total figure (as at 5 October 2011): £15,180

This breaks down to the following:

Natwest Overdraft: £4380
Debenhams CC: £1900
Halifax CC: £700
Capital One CC: £5350
Santander CC: £2850 (0% until June 2012)

The snowball is recommending that we tackle the overdraft first, which also surprised me as I was happy to leave that alone until last before I included it. So that is what we are doing as I trust the snowball process having used it successfully to get myself debt free before. However, I would love to also get Halifax gone as it is such a small outstanding amount and would free up the card for a much needed 0% BT deal.

We are ebaying unwanted items from around the house each week and making a steady trickle of extra income from that. At the moment that is all going to the Natwest overdraft also.

The main thing now is to get spending under control. I have started a spending diary which I have never done before and it is a real eye opener!

There has been no further news about my job, so no more certainty there. Trying not to worry about it as I don't want it to spoil my time off with my little man. If it's going to happen, it will be beyond my control.

Hope everyone else's debt free journey is progressing well xx

ETA: I suppose I should also add here that the snowball is predicting a debt free date of January 2014, snowballing £650 a month. I would dearly love to bring that forward to October 2013, so 2 years from now.

DebtFree2012

Hi hun

Lovely to "see" you around. You're still doing very well

You predicted DFD is almost the same as mine but I have assumed 1 or 2 things which is probably very silly but time will tell. I've assumed i will be able to get a 0% card early on next year to cover 7k CC - failing that DFD won't be the same as yours as it'll be +interest!

Keep updating hun, I love reading your posts

xx

mrsspendalot

Today I just want to cry. I hate this time of year financially as I can never seem to really afford Xmas, yet if I don't start and look at it now it creeps up too fast, and then I'm not organised. So many extras cropping up all the time, like the deposit for school residential trip yesterday - goodbye £20

I just don't see us ever getting debt free this time. When I did it before, prices were so much cheaper and I was able to do my food shopping for £35-40 a week. I can't seem to do it for less than £100 at the moment.

Oh, and the family all want to go on holiday next year to stay at a relatives villa, so the cost would be flights only plus a small amount of spending money. Everyone else has said they'll go, and we now feel under huge pressure to go too otherwise we'll never hear the end of it. Trouble is, I know we can't afford it but the rest of the family have no idea how much debt my husband is in. They knew I was in debt previously and knew I'd paid it all off. I think they would be so gutted to find out I'm back in the same position again now, yet it's not even mine!

Anyway, aside from my son's swimming lesson tonight (£2.20) which is budgetted for, I shouldn't have to spend anything else.

Onwards and upwards ..... might have a life back by the time I'm 40

DebtFree2012

Awww hun what an awful situation to be in. Would you have to explain to family why you couldn't go or would they just accept that you are going to do your own thing next year as it's a bit tight at present?

mrsspendalot

DebtFree2012 wrote: »

Awww hun what an awful situation to be in. Would you have to explain to family why you couldn't go or would they just accept that you are going to do your own thing next year as it's a bit tight at present?

No, they would think we were being awkward as everyone else is going. All they keep saying is what a cheap holiday it is going to be (which to be fair it will be for a family our size, with only flights to pay for). But still, when money's tight, it's tight! We will get guilt tripped at every opportunity because if we don't go, then we'll be spoiling everyone else's idea of a big family holiday. Rock and hard place springs to mind :(

Just don't really know what to do. My heart says 'nice holiday - we deserve it' and my head says 'debt debt debt'

DebtFree2012

What does hubby think, given it's his debt as well, is he feeling as bad about it as you?

xx

mrsspendalot

DebtFree2012 wrote: »

What does hubby think, given it's his debt as well, is he feeling as bad about it as you?

xx

No, he has never felt really bad about it. But he is suffering from anxiety and depression, and his way of coping over the years has been to spend his way through it. Only now I have control so he can't. He is perfectly happy to pay enough to cover the minimums each month and a little bit more and just worry about it another time. I wish I could be so laid back!

I feel very torn as well between my children having a nice childhood and lots of happy memories, as you only get that once. I don't want their memory to be mummy always saying no because she couldn't afford it. Not that that is an excuse to be extravagant either though.

I just want to find a happy medium between paying off a realistic and reasonable, workable amount of money towards the debts, but still having a life in the meantime. I struggle to find the balance because I am impatient and want the debt gone yesterday! However, I also don't think I'm realistic as to what can be squeezed out of my small income either (hubby is a mature student and not working)

Re the holiday, hubby thinks 'it would do us good' as we have had a pretty tough year with my complicated pregnancy. So now I really will be the bad guy if I say no

mrsspendalot

Well, another week in to the journey ......

So, the weekend brought a car nightmare! DD caught the electric window button on her door and the window came down but wouldn't go back up! Not ideal at 4.30pm on a Saturday when all the garages that do auto-electrics are shut :eek: So, we had to park our car on my parents drive for security (it would have been on the street at home and not at all secure) and borrow their car until Monday morning when we could get ours fixed. Oh, and on top of that, our reverse lights were not working when the car went into reverse gear :mad:


That, I fear, was the bad fairy getting me back for daring to spend some money on myself - her way of reminding me that I'm skint! I desperately needed some new winter boots. My current pair had holes in the soles (Ugg boot style ones, but cheap, so not repairable) and they were also taking in water near the toe and soaking my feet in the rain So, I decided to buy myself some decent ones that would see the next few winters out and therefore be far more economical in the long run. I got a good bargain in the sale, and they are lovely. Feel guilty for spending it though.

So, an expensive weekend all in all .... car was £72 to repair (window and lights) .... boots were £100

What I have done though is withdraw cash for housekeeping to give that a try and so far I have £30 left from last week. I'm going to do it for a whole month and see how much is left over and then reset the amount I withdraw each week to make it match spending better. The surplus will then be paid back into the debt fund. It's funny how parting with hard cash makes you think a little harder about spending money than it does when you swipe a debit card!!!

The spending diary is working a treat too - very revealing!

Still not come to any decision re the holiday, just said we would have to have a serious discussion about affordability and left it at that.

Hubby thinks we should take a longer time to repay the debt and 'give ourselves a break' whilst he is studying and worry about it more when he is back earning. I see his point, but that is extra time paying interest. His logic is if we set a low monthly payment and longer to achieve it, we are not setting ourselves up to fail, as anything extra will make a big difference and pull the date forward, and we will actually feel good about ourselves for that, rather than feel rubbish for not managing a higher target. I'm not 100% convinced

Happy debt busting to everyone!