The looking to stop and change direction diary

silkglade

Hi everyone.

I have to admit that I was here about 5 years ago and that I did get within grasping distance of my debt free date.... Within a month or two, so I could actually taste it.

Then everything went to pot!!!! My marriage broke down and I found myself a single parent trying to juggle everything.

Well to cut a VERY long story short.... Here I am up to my eyes in debt again and ready for the challenge of starting the DFW journey AGAIN!

The debts have really piled up over the last 2 1/2 years as I was off work sick and that my money dropped as expected.

I have now been back at work since May and now that I have a normal regular income again I want to start getting it all under control again and start hacking the debts within an inch of their life.

Will be grateful of any advice and encouragement that you may have to offer as you guys did me so proud before. :T

Beencounting

Good luck silkglade

Been

Polly_Wolly_Doodle

Hi!
Great to see a new diary!
Can you face putting your debts and APRs down in writing or a SOA?

Good luck xx

silkglade

Hi everyone, sorry not been around to reply and put anything new on here but finished working nights today..... got a nice weekend off though now:T

Only been up since lunch time and finally now have a time to chill......

RIGHT the debts mmmmmmmmmm Gulp!

Here we go, they are all credit cards except one !

Egg £3,355.80

Egg money £2,799.17

Sainsburys [STRIKE]£1,859.75[/STRIKE]

Halifax one £6,270.34

Amazon £5,897.06

Virgin £3,231.50

Barclaycard (oh's) [STRIKE]£446.95[/STRIKE]

Halifax (oh's) £3,454.23

Nationwide card [STRIKE]£793.93[/STRIKE]

Nationwide OD [STRIKE]£755.90[/STRIKE]

IN ADDITION TO THESE ARE THE BITS I OWE FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Also OWE my DAD [STRIKE]£300.00[/STRIKE] (last payment is end of October)

My mum [STRIKE]£2,500[/STRIKE] £2,300(paying her back £100 a month, and she insists does not want more than this)

Oh's Mum £1,000

and a friend £1,500 as last month bless him he lent us this money to help us out as we were overlimit of the overdraft... the money has been put to good use as it got us out of the overdraft and paid off the Nationwide cc which was at almost £800.

OMG that works out at a total debt of [STRIKE]£34,164.63[/STRIKE] now £29,808.10 :eek:

My friend lending me this money has given me the lift I needed to get out of the helpless and unable to do anything about this phase and to now attack all the debt and pay as much as possible as quickly as possible. He is in NO rush or given any time limit on when he wants it back... I have asked him for 2 months notice so that I can save the money from the extra payments to give it back when he requires it.

The good news is that as of my next pay day (yes I am looking towards that all ready and it is ages away) my dad will have his final payment and we should have enough left in the bank from this month added to some of Octobers pay to pay off OH's Barclaycard in full too.

So even though I have incurred a debt from a friend we will have managed to clear 4 debts in 2 months so to speak.;)

It will be great as then we will have an extra £300 towards other debts each month in addition to Sept and Oct. YAY :T

I hope that makes sense. :A

Silkglade

silkglade

Just edited the last post to include the total debt owed................... :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Feeling rather sick now:(

After the Barclaycard is paid off I am going to attack the Sainsburys card as looking at the statements I am only actually paying 20pence off the balance each month.....

Interest is £41.64 and minimum payment is £41.84!!!

silkglade

Well I have some good news as it appears that I have have a refund due for an overpayment on the service charge part of the rent since April :-)

£372.86 on it's way back to me so it can go towards the debt :j

Well looks like Barclaycard will be gone this month now instead as will keep my final payment to my Dad as planned.

silkglade

So what on earth is WRONG with me........

I have sat down with oh and we have decided on amount of money for food and petrol.....

We have worked out that on an average month will have £511 for extra payments (concentrating on one at a time).

Why am I feeling so down and lost about it all....... I mean up till last month we were still INCREASING our debt to the point that all the cards are currently maxed out.

So surely having extra to pay off them should be a good thing, why am I feeling so deflated and defeated by it all?

So much so that I feel like crying!

silkglade

Well in true and dappy silkglade fashion I got my figures wrong again....

After going through our monthly finances AGAIN several times it turns out that I must have taken off my mums payment twice :doh:

We actually have £611 to go towards our extra payments starting November (last payment to my dad of £300 in October) :T

This means that all being well I will have the sainsburys cc paid off in 3 months... though might be a struggle with xmas coming up. So then that will then be another £42 a month into the monthly fund for extra payments making out amount £653.

We are MAJOR cutting back on xmas this year and spending a maximum of £50 on each of the children. Not sure if we will eaven bother with each other as it all costs extra money.

I really must stick to this plan and stay on target....... I really must stick to this plan and stay on target....... I really must stick to this plan and stay on target.

silkglade

Hi everyone, I have now got my signature sorted and the debts are in order of lowest to highest and the order in which we intend to pay them off. Really scary stuff

I will use the minimum payments no longer needed from the finished cards to add to the payments to the next one that way should reduce the time that each one takes.

We've had some good luck yesterday saying that the final amount was in for the service charge part we pay is in and we are owed £372.86 and is now as a credit on our rent account and to contact them if we want a BACS or cheque payment back.... Of course I do!!!! Letter already sent.

So that means once that money is back in our bank account the Barclaycard will be paid in full (which would have been next month instead)

SO depending on how much I get in overtime next pay day we are aiming to make the last payment back to my Dad AND pay £600 (hopefully) off the Sainsburys card. (we will have just over £600 a month towards extra payments once my dad is paid off)

Then November and December we should be able to do the same and get that one finished with before the end of this year. YAY (as would have been Jan)

My Credit card companies have been refusing to re issue my cards so that one runs out at the end of Jan 2012 anyway so I very much doubt they will either. So there will be NO temptation to re use it either.

Hoping that this is the right way to go about it all and that we all stick to the plan and get this sorted asap.

We have also decided that every time we totally pay off a debt that we will have a nice family take away as a little celebration of keeping going. (not for the Barclaycard though as it is being paid too close to the beginning of our journey).

silkglade

Well the start of a new week and lots of work ahead of me this week.....

I am feeling a little stuck in limbo at the moment as we have made all these plans to pay things off and to start regular extra payments but can't do any of it yet.

Good news is that the barclaycard should be paid off in the next week (when we get the refund from our rent through) which is a bonus.

But really waiting for pay day as then my Dad will be paid off too which gives us a nice extra £300 a month to throw at the cards.

We are hoping to be able to manage £600 at the end of this month due to the refund paying most of the Barclaycard, which should leave us with money still left in the bank to carry over for when we get paid at the end of the month. With that and the fact I worked some overtime last month (which will be paid this month) we should be able to start with our regular £611 extra payments this month.

Any over that will go towards xmas as we have not started on that yet.

I will also have some overtime in the next month too and we have decided that we will still pay £611 off the debt and keep that for xmas too, there is no point making such an effort to pay these debts off then just start adding to them again.

Have a good start to your week everyone. I am looking forward to work as a distraction really as been doing nothing but going over and over our finances ALL weekend.

greenanne

hi there silkglade.

thanks for dropping into my diary.
i know what you mean about wanting to get stuck into your plans but there is always something else that needs doing first.

it sounds as though you are off to a good start though.it will be great to have your dads loan and one of the cc's paid off.
and as for having money left at the end of the month well thats just unheard of,i think i would be doing handstands if that was me:T
keep up the good work.