Indebted Dunce's quest to be debt free

Indebted.Dunce

I have been lurking on here for a while now and never really had the courage to post till today. I am hoping today proves to be a real turning point in my life.

My problems really are self inflicted, I have been struggling with gambling on and off for the last 14 years (a conservative estimate of my losses would be extremely high 5 figure sums, if not 6 figures), but no one else knows my situation.

I am hoping this diary will give me an outlet and hopefully keep me on track and log my progress.

The situation

Assets

Current account 1 1,181
Cash 120
Total assets 1,301

Liabilities

Current account 2 (overdraft) (842)
Total OD (842)

Credit Cards
Barclaycard 1 (5,952)
Barclaycard 2 (1,805)
Capital One (464)
Natwest 1 (915)
Natwest 2 (2,207)
Total Credit Cards (11,343)

Loans
Family loan 1 (12,870)
Family loan 2 (3,203)
Season Ticket Loan (478)
BL (5,327)
NW Loan (4,958)
Total Loans (26,836)

Total liabilities (39,021)

Net Worth (37,719)


Positives (if there is such a thing)

• I am in a decent paying job and when I don't gamble, I am actually quite frugal and therefore tend to have a healthy surplus (crazy I know).
• All the credit cards 0% except one which is at 5.9%

Action points

I have opened a basic bank account and I have set up a weekly DD to transfer my "spending allowance". The idea is that once the money is gone, it is gone. No ifs, no buts. This is going to be the hardest bit particularly as no one knows my situation and I know I will be inclined to keep up appearances so I will have moments of "let me take a low limit credit card just in case".

I will be cutting up the cards except one, which I will leave behind at home together with the other debit cards (except the basic account one).

If all goes to plan, and more importantly if I keep away from gambling, I should hopefully be debt free in 3 years time! Hopefully, if I sort out my mess I have everything to live and strive for. I am only 26 and much of my life to look forward to. I just need to keep reminding myself that "gamblers never win and winners never gamble"

rj_ws

This is a great start. Hopefully this will help some positive pressure on you will gain inspiration from the board members.

I wish you good luck with your project my friend.

Indebted.Dunce

Thanks RJ.

I am certainly hoping that the post and the board members can help me.

Indebted.Dunce

So I have spent most of the weekend trying to work out my finances and figure out a DFD, and I reckon I could be debt free in 27 months! It is certainly a challenge and will require a lot of discipline on my part but who said it was going be easy!!

The numbers are based on £50pw spending money which would basically mean everything, except rent; travel; and bills (so food, going out, clothes, books, haircuts, you name it), has to be paid for from the spending money.

Daunting and distant as it is, I am really looking forward to starting 2015 (the year I turn 30!) debt free!

I will try to post weekly and monthly updates on the progress! For now, I ought to try to go back to sleep!

justajamjar

ID, I know a few people who have been in your situation or are still. Work out what caused the gambling habit and how you can avoid it. I know a guy that went to AA to deal with his addiction. Sounded like his was a mixture of his belief in football betting prowess and avoiding life....

The other thing you can look at is if you do well in your job you may get a massive raise in the next few year which will speed things up. I know if I get promoted that will be a c.40% raise...

Good luck and take each day as it comes.

I would also increase your weekly amount or not get disheartened if you go over. The goal must be realistic and achievable. (it may well be for you)

Indebted.Dunce

Thanks Justajamjar.

It is probably a case of avoiding life, high pressured job with long hours. I am in the process of trying to figure it all out. The GA didn't work for me so I am in the process of self referring myself at the National Problem Gambling Clinic - CNWL. Did your friend crack his addiction through GA? If you don't mind me asking, what are the other guys doing?

40%? Wow! That is absolutely fantastic. I know what you mean about the job, and I am hopeful that there will be a payrise and maybe a small bonus but realistically it is unlikely to happen as we have had three rounds of redundancies in the last 6 months.

Increasing the budget and getting disheartened has crossed my mind, and you are right that the goal needs to be realistic and achievable otherwise I may give up or worse fall off the wagon! I will try the budget for a couple of weeks and if required, make changes.


Thanks a lot for your post and wishes!

Good luck with the promotion, hope you get it soon!

ID

Indebted.Dunce

Time for my first weekly update.

I have spent a lot more than what I had budgeted for (about £60 more) but have managed to keep away from gambling. I guess, I would rather overspend a bit more than go crazy and gamble (my loses tend to be hundreds of pounds if not thousands)!

Positives

I have not gambled! This has been great for me as I have not lost a ton of money that I can ill afford to lose. I have also noticed that I have been a lot less snappy with people around me!

Action points

Just two simple ones: try to keep within the budget and, more importantly, keep away from the table.

justajamjar

Is the gambling physical casinos? You can ban yourself from them as well...

No idea where he is at, I havent asked him directly, although I saw him tonight randomly. Its one of those that everyone knows about it and talks about it but not to his face. Terrible I know.

I would definitely look at the budget increase as you need to ensure you can meet the goals and then stick to them. Good to hear the first week has gone well dude

Indebted.Dunce

Thanks for the tip Just. I have self excluded myself from many of the places but I seem to be capable of new places to gamble as there are plenty of open casinos now (don't need to register or anything, just walk straight through).

I am definitely going to increase my budget just not sure what to, I will be working out my spending habits etc over the next few weeks to enable me to create a realistic budget. I will still have a budget but not be as strict if I am £10 - £20 over (I know some people will disagree but so long as I am not gambling, its a very small cost worth paying)! I can hear some people say "why budget at all"? The answer to that is quite simply I don't want to replace one addiction with another.

Indebted.Dunce

It is pay day next Monday and I am hoping to have paid off c£1,250 so that my debts are below £36,500. The amount paid off will be c£150 less than my target but there have been a couple of exceptional items this month like my prof subscription.

I will post an update of the financial situation next week after I have been paid and all the payments have been made!

Indebted.Dunce

Considering I am not slaving away or out gambling / drinking away my hard earned money, thought I would post here. I will try not to waffle as much as I normally do.

Financially, I made progress but since my last post I have incurred £250 of expenses (see below) so I will have paid off abt £1k this month.

I decided to do some financial housekeeping and to get rid of sources of funding in case temptation gets the better of me so I decided to cancel cards with hefty limits - MBNA (£5,600) and AMEX Gold charge card (generally about £10k pre-authorised, and the reason for my loans and overdrafts as I have been able to withdraw up to £7.5k cash at one go and the balance needs to be paid off within 2 weeks of statement date so maximum "interest free" period is abt 6 weeks).

Whilst I was on the phone to MBNA, an idea struck, why not try and wing a 0% SBT so I can pay off my more expensive debts! Didn't manage to get a 0% but got a 6.9% LoB with a 5% fee, did a calculation and decided that it is still significantly cheaper than my Barclayloan. So have request a SBT for £5k at an upfront cost of £250 :eek: (hence the spend)! I should hopefully have the money in my account by close of play Monday which is perfect cause I get paid on Monday and can pay off the Barclayloan, have got a settlement figure for £5,477 and should save £400 - 500 over the life of the deal.

In the other news, I have successfully closed down the AMEX card. One more source of gambling funds gone (sorry, I know it sounds pretty bad)

Additionally, it is 6 weeks that I have been clean. Not going to get my hopes up as I have generally been a "binge gambler" where I will be clear for weeks and then go absolutely crazy! I am hoping that having access to just £100 through a Halifax Easycash card on me (which is highly, highly embarrassing - I feel like I am 13 and but more importantly the look that people give me that they know I am in financial !!!!!!) on me and having no access to more credit will prevent a blow out!

Finally, as sods law would have it all is not going perfectly well for this Dunce, my 3m tastecard trial is expiring and am not sure whether to pay £80 to buy one or not! I have used it a fair bit but am not sure if I will use it enough to save that much, plus I have not got spare £80 so I will just stick to paper vouchers for now!

I promised not to waffle but I am afraid I probably broke it by the 2nd paragraph. I really do admire people who can write beautifully but more importantly succinctly and clearly!

On that note, I wish you all a good weekend!

ID