Desperate To Be Debt Free

GreenSaints

UPDATED 15 APRIL 2013

I don’t know how to start this really – but here goes nothing.


To cut a very long story short, I’ll give you the highlights of my life up until now:

• Left school at 16, got a job, studied part time for the duration of my employment (so far so good)
• Meet my boyfriend when I was 19, settled down and got a mortgage when I was 20 (2004)
• Wanted to do a degree but knew my employer wouldn’t let me do that. Found an opportunity with another company who would give me a job after finishing university. So quit my job and trekked of to uni
• Finished said degree after 2 years (skipped year 1 thanks to my other qualifications) with some debt.
• After 4 months back in work, managed to convince my now new employer to let me take unpaid leave for 9 months to start another degree
• I wasn’t allowed another student loan or grant because I had another degree (even though I had only used my loan for 2 years, where all students could have a maximum of 4) so I was living off a Sunday job at Boots, credit cards, overdrafts and in desperate measures, the BOM (Bank of Mum) to make ends meet.
• I finished that year (or 9 months in the uni calendar) of studying and June 2008, I went back to my job to finish the rest of my degree distance learning (finished in June 2010) and have been ever since.

So that brings me to now. Getting back into the swing of working full time and having all this money was incredible since I had 3 years of living on practically nothing. So I got the garden sorted in the house, bought myself a few luxuries and other tat that now in hindsight was a big mistake.

Before I met my BF I was never in debt (I’d like to blame him for all of this, but that would be wrong………maybe only 50%) so the concept of paying it back and have 0% on purchases was all new to me. I was convinced at one point that my card had been cloned because when I opened my statement and saw how much money there was on it, I was adamant it couldn’t have been me spending it all. How wrong I was……:(

My lightbulb moment was December 2010, when I kept looking at my current account and seeing how overdrawn I was, and that my salary would go in, get me out of the overdraft for 20 minutes and then my half for the bills and mortgage would come out and I’d be in my overdraft for the rest of the month. I decided then and enough is enough.

I ambitiously set a target of £2011 in 2011 (which I was very proud of, until I saw MSE posts of Earn £11k in 2011!) so I set about sorting items to list on eBay, books on Amazon and sorted out the other stuff for car boot sales.

The day that pushed me to get going was when I got stung for £75 of overdraft fees from First Direct. It was January 2011, a couple of weeks after I started selling my items. I rang them up and cried down the phone! Not because I was pleading for them to reverse the charges, but that I was so angry! I had slogged my guts out listing anything I could get my hands on, some things selling for just 1p and to get stung like that, on one occasion going over drawn by £3.37 for 1 day. I said to the woman down the phone that they had charged me for the last time.


So in January 2011, these were my debts:

• [STRIKE]£1000.00 FD Overdraft[/STRIKE] CLEARED (YAY!)
• [STRIKE]£4065.02 MBNA[/STRIKE] CLEARED (YAY!)
• [STRIKE]£4350.87 Barclaycard[/STRIKE] CLEARED (YAY!)
• [STRIKE]£1404.73 Lloyds TSB Student Overdraft[/STRIKE]CLEARED (YAY!)
• [STRIKE]£8394.00[/STRIKE] £4,327.85 Student Loan (estimated)
  
• [STRIKE]£12742.90[/STRIKE] £8,800 BOM Loan
  

I still have a long way to go and I hope this diary/venting space would be the focus I need. I have days when the debts really upset me and all I keep thinking about is them and can’t focus on anything else (much like today) I get completely obsessed with the debt, make spreadsheets and find as many ways I can make extra money. And then there are other days when it’s the last thing on my mind and I’ll happily go out and spend (and sometimes do) and just forget about the whole thing. But I’m going to take it one day at a time, one £1 at a time....

So, that’s about it really. I’d love to hear your comments, thoughts and any advice you have. I’m all ears………well, no I’m not, but you know what I mean

pinkpinkuk

New diary =D Congratulations on paying off your overdraft.

Best of luck, I'll be following your progress. One day at a time is the way to do it.

GreenSaints

Hi,

Thank you very much

Just got home from work to find a load of money in my PayPal account from some of my eBay sales. Not a bad start to the weekend

Will update more tomorrow.

GreenSaints

Hi,

Not a lot has happened since yesterday, apart from a lot of my eBay stuff ending, so popped to the post office to send it all off.

I was thinking yesterday that I have a mountain of debt to tackle. It did get me down until I opened my Earn £2011 in 2011 excel sheet (yes, that sad to write it all down) and since January, I've made an extra £2300 in addition to my wages! It includes most things I've sold, some of them only being 1p, but they all add up.

It's always easy to think that you'll never be able to get out of the debt, but think of all the positive steps you've made, no matter how small. That's my goal today - not to be disheartened, but be determined :cool:

Beencounting

Good luck Greensaints and well done on starting a diary

I know what you mean about down and up days as sometime the thought of the journey is overwhelming and other days you can just breeze it!

Glad you're feeling positive today

Been

rainbowneeks

Good luck on your DF journey! x

GreenSaints

Hi again,

I've finally been paid for all my eBay items, so I've been packing those up ready to send off tomorrow.

I'm getting a bit panicky with 0% fixes running out (one in November, one in January) and not being able to swap to another one. I've been declined for the good Lloyds one, but I'm still waiting to hear from Santander. If I get declined from them, then I'm just going to have to deal with the interest. I've made a little spreadsheet showing the minimum payment, any overpayments I can make and what the balance would be. I've also got it to show when it'll be cleared. I'm hoping that during that time I'll be able to swap to another 0% deal.

In addition to this, I've got about 18lbs to lose, so I'm going to couple this with No Spend Days as I buy so much junk food at work! Weirdly, when I have actually money in my pocket, it really burns a hole and I spend it. If I just have my card I find I'm less likely to spend as its more of a hassle (minimum spend etc) I'm going to start tomorrow (minus my postage for eBay) and see how I get on.

On another note, I got a bit of a bargain when I went to Morrisons today. The cashier charged me for a courgette when it was actually half a cucumber. So instead of 40p, I was charged 39p - result!

maman

Just read you diary and called into wish you good luck!

I know you've spent badly in the past but you are to be congratulated on what you've acheived education wise and your debt compared with many students is tiny!

You say that you've used the BOM in the past when desperate. Well it wouldn't surprise you from my username that I know all about those. If you were my DD I'd be furious if you started paying those ridiculous APRs when I could lend you the money, interest free. By all means keep up the good work with 0% cards but if you can't get any more do talk it over with your mum.

Good luck with your NSDs. You really should plan your meals (including work lunches and snacks) as it'll save you £s and lbs!!

GreenSaints

Thanks for the response Maman

As much as I appreciate my mum helping me out, I really think I need to get this under control on my own as much as I can.

I woke up this morning feeling old – it’s the first time I’ve ever felt like this. I know most people will say 27 is no age, but I really need to start being responsible for my actions. I have big dreams and plans (one being to be able to retire at 55 – ha!) and today I’ve realised I’m getting older and older and those dreams are getting further away as I think I’ve got all the time in the world to sort my problems out when really, I don’t.

Without getting all X Factor sob story (cue ‘Never Had a Dream’ by S Club 7) but my dad died when I was 18 – so there was just me and my mum. I did a lot of growing up then as I didn’t have to do anything when I was younger. Cook, clean, even have an alarm – my dad did all that. So when I moved out at 19 and bought our house when I was 20, I was too grown up for my years. However, I think it all went a bit wrong when I went to uni (in a few ways) so I had my carefree youth between the age of 21-24, but had all these responsibilities that the average student didn’t (not only my mortgage, but my rent for my house share at uni, travel costs and food) which I was oblivious to, or didn’t want to think I had.

So, I think I need to grow up (again) I’ve decided that I want to be debt free (minus my student loan which is circa £8.5k as it comes out of my wages) by this time next year. I’ve set up at £50 standing order to my Lloyds account, and will continue to overpay on my other two cards as much as I can. It’s not going to be easy, but who said it would be?

With regards to meals – I found a website (thanks to the Oldstyle Weight Loss post) called Resourceful Cook. It’s pretty impressive – there are loads of meal plans, from £15 a week to £50 a week. It even produces shopping lists from your selections, and best of all you can have plans for 2 people.

My lunches are generally the same – salad with cooked meat (this week it’s ham) My snacks vary (depending on how bad I feel on being overweight! ) but my downfall is that I always walk into town with a friend of mine and I just buy snacks out, my weakness being a Greggs Bacon and Cheese wrap (They are a-maz-ing!). So today is my first day that I will not buy anything out. I’ve got to go to the Post Office to send off some eBay items, but that’s it! Nothing more!

Will let you know how I get on.

rachie_2011

Good for you GreenSaints... it's great that you want to clear your debt. You sound very hard working and committed... well done you!

GreenSaints

Well today I had two spends - one of diesel for £30 and the other was postage of £3.91. I completely forgot I had to buy diesel until I got in the car

Feeling a bit positive, but I'm desperate to get paid (5 more days!) I'm in my overdraft by £300 but work owe me £170 in expenses and still waiting for £50 to be transferred from PayPal. They just go straight to my credit card when it's cleared.

I managed to get two free cinema outings this week, which is a bit of a bonus Problem is, is that I won't have time to eat tea before I have to leave home. Basically I'll get back home, get changed, then leave and then won't be home till late.

In a bid to lose some weight (yet again!) I don't really want anything unhealthy (McDonalds is conveniently across the road) plus I don't want to spend if I don't have to. Any ideas in what I can take with me to munch on?