Project Sort My Life Out

SeduLOUs

I don't owe a lot, £4710 in total. but I've been telling myself for ages until today that it was only "about 2k" and that it'll all be fine.

I've not kept up with payments, and on an overdraft particularly the charges are just escalating beyond belief. I'm getting final demands for full balances that I just can't afford and I can't ignore it any longer.

I've applied for a consolidation loan to pay everybody off and pay one monthly payment. That's the first step.

Hopefully I'll succeed in my application despite my appalling credit score of 304

Next weekend, whether I have the loan or not I'm doing the detailed budget. It's going to be to the penny and I'm sticking to it hardcore. I want to be out of debt, and I want to be able to apply for credit without knowing I'll be rejected.

I am considering reclaiming my £3000 of bank charges that I've accumulated in the last 6 years, but seeing as it's such uncertain territory I want to get myself a bit straighter first and then it could be a very welcome bonus if it's something I do succeed in.

Wish me luck!

Hovel_lady

Hello and welcome to diaryland.
I spent ages thinking it'd be fine but finally realised I had to do something or it would never be alright. So good luck with your plans and if you want to post a SoA (statement of affairs) on here when you're done it we might be able to spot some money saving ideas for you.
The OS (old style) board is very useful if you haven't discovered it yet.

SeduLOUs

OK the loan isn't going to happen, and it's probably a good thing. I've spent hours today getting my budget together. I've just done a plan for September (August is already a write off from car trouble and I just need to survive til payday) and I seem to have accounted for every penny whilst allowing myself £250 to pay creditors. It's still going to feel very tight though. I plan to start phoning them all this weekend to come up with a repayment plan I can stick to and hopefully stop any more charges.

I've signed up to a load of survey sites as I have loads of free browsing time and have also applied to do Avon so there might be a little extra income coming my way shortly. I'm not expecting any miracles, but anything I can do over and above can stay out of the budget and be used for some treats.

This weekend I will be fishing through all my old clothes and the junk room and having a huge eBay session.

I haven't actually done anything to reduce my debt yet, but I'm already feeling miles better about starting to get things under control.

Will update soon!

SeduLOUs

It's been such a long time since I posted, but I feel like I'm at a point where I have something useful to say.

I know where I stand with my money now, I have a spreadsheet laid out with all of the bills and agreed creditor payments and I now know on payday exactly how much money I have left for myself. It's never very much, but even when it's only a few quid it's nice to know I have something left for myself even after clearing some of my debt!

One creditor is being far too demanding and wanting me to pay over £250 a month to clear my debt with them in 6 months, it's just not viable right now as I am already in more sensible agreements with the rest of my creditors. I am sending the problematic one a nominal payment of about £10 a month to show willing and will start to pay what they actually want me to pay in a couple of months time when two or three of my credit cards will be cleared up.

Things seem to be looking up, my credit rating has gone up by 52 points in the last month (albeit still 'very poor' but progress is progress) and I'm intending to be debt free by the end of 2012.

Happy New Year to everyone at MSE and good luck x

SeduLOUs

My partner is now 100% on board with getting out of debt, and everything is in joint accounts and out in the open. We haven't had an argument about money in at least six months!

So, our total debt as at today is £6,500. This includes a £3,000 interest free loan from a family member that allowed us to buy a new car as we now both have stable work and buses were getting very difficult and expensive. I'm not justifying the purchase here, but trust me, I did the maths and the small increase in cost was worth the significant time it freed up.

Anyway. We are super organised. I have a monthly spreadsheet of exactly what needs to be paid on a monthly basis. After all the bills are paid, I give each of us £100 for the month which is effectively 'pocket money' for haircuts, clothes, coffees, lunches when we can't be bothered to make sandwiches, takeaways etc. It seems to work really well to stop accidental overspending from the main fund and allows us to buy the things we want and not feel completely drowned in debt land.

Next I allocate £100 a week for household shopping, petrol dog food and all the 'essentials'. We withdraw this every Friday and work with cash so that we always know where we are up to. If we run out on a Wednesday it's only a couple of skint days until the next 'payday'. This feels so much more manageable than running out of money mid month and trying to survive for two weeks whilst desperately ignoring all the Wonga adverts!

Anything that's left after bills, weekly allowance and pocket money goes straight to debt, usually around £600 per month. I was AMAZED at how much money we actually we able to throw at debt now that we've cut back on all the 'unessential' bills (Sky) and restricted our personal spend.

It will be a tough journey, but I reckon we can clear our debt before Xmas 2013, or at least the majority of it.

Then we'll just have to figure out what to do with the spare £600 a month we have left! (SAVINGS!!!!) :rotfl:

I feel confident. It's even better now that I'm not just doing this for myself, but that my partner's debts are thrown in to the jumble too. I like that we both get to have some luxuries in life which means it's sustainable. It's like a diet I suppose. If we're too strict and ban everything fun, we'll just get fed up and give up on the whole thing.

We have a plan here guys, and I 100% intend to see it through.

This could be our year :j

P.S. My credit score has now increased to 571. It's still poor, but considering it was 304 just over a year ago it's definitely progress!

SeduLOUs

Long overdue update.

We got so on top of things that available finance was just too tempting.

I'm happy to report that our total debt balance is £5,900. Not the zero I would have liked, but since my last post it's gone down rather than up, and we do actually have a lot to show for it (car loan paid off etc).

Whilst I'm chuffed we're breaking even, it's not good enough. We need to tackle the debt! Minimum payments are easily manageable at the moment but certainly don't leave a lot of wiggle room if anything went wrong, and that's what needs to change.

I have a few interest free purchases coming due, and payments are all planned and at the ready. After that it's a snowballing job on the other balances with the highest interest rates first.

It's a tricky one, because both of our cars are due MOT in October and I want to approach that month without panicking. My instinct is telling me to save as much as I can for it, and anything leftover is a bonus that can be thrown at debt. My logic tells me to throw all of the money at credit cards to reduce the interest and pay for the MOT with the freed up balance. The effect is basically the same, although the latter option is cheaper, but I don't like the psychological effect of clearing a credit card to then throw something back on it, and we might be too tempted to 'treat' ourselves if the bill is less than expected.

Still not decided how to tackle that one!

Anyway. I've started using MS Money which is a really neat way of forecasting where we can be if we stick to the plan. I very much doubt we'll be out of debt by Christmas, but I'd certainly like to be around the £4000 mark. Here's hoping to be debt free by Xmas 2015!

New 'start' new signature. Debt balance £6,000. Let's go!

Wish me luck!

SeduLOUs

Minor update to say that I've now included our phone credit plans which count as debt, but I never really looked at them that way. We're on those fancy O2 refresh plans, so you get a finance deal for the phone and a cheaper tariff instead of it being bundled up. Technically the monthly payments are about the same, but we now have a credit deal instead of just paying for the phone as part of the tariff.

So my figure has gone up again, but the numbers and monthly expenses haven't actually changed, I was just not including them as a 'debt'

Just started using YNAB so no excuses for not tracking my expenses as I go as I can now do it on my mobile instead of battling the ancient MS Money. I've also changed Bank Accounts for the first time EVER to one of those Santander 1-2-3 accounts and estimate I'll make a profit of about £10 a month on the cashback. It's not a lot, but every little helps

New sig (again) but this time it's sticking. It has absolutely EVERY line of credit included and it WILL be cleared by Xmas 2015 :j