Obssession with DEBT

dorisday

Well today is the day I am starting my very own diary to help get rid of my debt once and for all.
A little about myself - im a 60s something female without a partner and have been self employed for longer than i care to remember. Got myself into a really bad financial situation about 12 years ago with cc overdraft and loan due to having employees do the dirty on me and taking my customers and of course spending what I didnt have. This site wasnt around then and I had no where to turn ended up in a IVA which didnt work and then started a DMP myself with creditors which helped me cope a lot better with the debt. Hundreds of phone calls and nasty letters really got me down and i wouldnt like to go through that again it was a nightmare to say the least.

Fast forward to present day, 6 years ago I was able to get a few more cc as credit file was clean and debts are clear. I also started another self employed where I had to do the work myself and I was/am getting paid weekly where previously it was part weekly and part when bills where sent to customer and sometimes I didnt even get paid at all although my employees still had to be paid.

Anyhow in the last 6 years I have never defaulted on any cc and have never paid interest on cc always being able to have 0% for how ever long it was available. But here is my problem - I constantly worry about not being able to pay my ccs off. I constantly worry that I will loose my customers and i wont be able to get others it really makes me extremely depressed and dont want to do much else than work. I suppose that I am hoping that I can keep working until I have cleared all ccs and have saved enough money up for when I eventually HAVE to retire.

My debts stand at £17800 over 3 ccs all on 0% interest 1 until end feb 2013 1 until end march 2013 and 1 until may 2013 so I have until then to clear them all. I keep wishing it was may 2013 and all paid off but i cant wish my life away like that I may not have many good years left. So if i write it all down on here perhaps I may ease up a bit and stop worrying.

I am going to write what I spend and perhaps writing it down may slow me up with the spending and I can get this debt gone even faster.

First spend today £27 at B&Q on plants for garden but hope they will last more than one year as they are evergreens and I have spent thousands in the last few years and change everything each year.

Hope i havent bored everyone xx

Stewart_78

Sounds like you need to take the scissors to those cards to me. Forgive me for being blunt but are you sure you aren't in a little bit of denial over this debt issue? I speak from experience as I went on for years and years switching this and that, consolidating and so on. never missed a payment, always in control.

In the end I realised I wasn't in control at all. I was a debt slave and unless I STOPPED I was always going to be one. Cutting up the cards was one of the hardest things I ever did. It was like removing a lifeline. I can't pretend things have been easy since but I have the comfort of knowing that each and every month my debts are lower and have no chance of going up again.

glasgowsaver2011

Phone all 3 companies up

Close your accounts.

Best thing I have ever done.

You then pay it back without the temptation to spend any more.

Post a SOA up...Links all over the site.

Try and cut down on the frivolous expenses (flowers etc)

Good luck

dorisday

Well today was a NSD looking on internet last night and came across some artificial grass just what I thought I might like for my back garden as its got crazy pathing down with a surround for plants. But then having read that its good for dogs as mess can be wiped up or hosed down I then thought what about the dog hairs how would I sweep them up?

I look after 3 large and hairy dogs at my home during the day and my garden is covered with hairs which I can easily sweep up because there is no grass so it seems I cant have this artificial grass think I may have saved myself a few hundred pounds.

Have cut up 2 of my ccs today Virgin and halifax so I cant use them but they were just used for balance transfers so wasnt really using them in any case just now need to cut up the other 3 ive got (these have nothing on them but do have large credits available) but im not doing it just yet I am putting them in the freezer and will use only cash.

A lot of my spending has been done through the internet when im browsing I can always find something I NEED or think i do. I just want my debt gone NOW so i dont have to worry about what will happen if i cant pay it. Think it all stems from the time some years ago when things went wrong in my business and i didnt have the money to pay bills/wages it was a dreadful time.

I do understand that ccs are no good for me as its not like im spending real money the time when i didnt have any i didnt spend as i do now so it looks like they shall all have to go.

Im setting myself the task of clearing this debt off by dec 12 thats 8 months to do it in so I shall be working my butt off lets hope i live to see it through.

dorisday

Oops forgot tomorrow I shall have cleared one cc with the amount of £6100 off thats not included in the £17800 I still owe Im counting every penny i have even found 5p on the road today so thats 5p towards my debt - daft I know but it seemed to help.

glasgowsaver2011

dorisday wrote: »

Well today was a NSD looking on internet last night and came across some artificial grass just what I thought I might like for my back garden as its got crazy pathing down with a surround for plants. But then having read that its good for dogs as mess can be wiped up or hosed down I then thought what about the dog hairs how would I sweep them up?

I look after 3 large and hairy dogs at my home during the day and my garden is covered with hairs which I can easily sweep up because there is no grass so it seems I cant have this artificial grass think I may have saved myself a few hundred pounds.

Have cut up 2 of my ccs today Virgin and halifax so I cant use them but they were just used for balance transfers so wasnt really using them in any case just now need to cut up the other 3 ive got (these have nothing on them but do have large credits available) but im not doing it just yet I am putting them in the freezer and will use only cash.

A lot of my spending has been done through the internet when im browsing I can always find something I NEED or think i do. I just want my debt gone NOW so i dont have to worry about what will happen if i cant pay it. Think it all stems from the time some years ago when things went wrong in my business and i didnt have the money to pay bills/wages it was a dreadful time.

I do understand that ccs are no good for me as its not like im spending real money the time when i didnt have any i didnt spend as i do now so it looks like they shall all have to go.

Im setting myself the task of clearing this debt off by dec 12 thats 8 months to do it in so I shall be working my butt off lets hope i live to see it through.

Dont cut them up

Phone and close the accounts.

Then you will no longer have that line of credit open