No more handbags and a lot less chocolate!

ChocaholicHandbagQueen

My username says it all really. I'm sitting here watching TV with an open tin of Quality Street which I bought for Christmas by my side and I came home from work today to a parcel from Deb**hams containing a gorgeous red handbag that I don't even remember ordering

My credit cards are all at their limits and I have next to no savings.

I have to sort this out because I'm making myself ill worrying about it and I'm tired of having too much month left at the end of my wages. My house has things that need doing to it and all I need is for one little thing to go wrong and I'm in big trouble.

This isn't my first diary, I've been a member of MSE for years. I'd like it to be my last one but I can't promise it will be. I'm notoriously bad at sticking to things, which is where this diary comes in.

I'm hoping it'll keep me on the straight and narrow and provide the occasional kick up the b*m when needed. It'll probably be really boring and full of useless information, so I apologise for that in advance.

I'm going to say goodbye now, but I'll be back tomorrow after I've worked out some figures and tried to think of some sort of plan to start paying this lot back. Goodnight x

unimaginative_user_name

I love your thread title!

Good luck with your debt free journey.

ChocaholicHandbagQueen

Good Morning UUN thanks for saying hi!

Day 1 and I'm not really sure where to start if I'm honest.

Got up a bit earlier this morning and made my lunch for work. I'm having pasta, tuna and red onions mixed with salad.

Its payday on the 24th and I've £5.74 left in my account till then and £20 in the joint account. Its doable, I just have to be strict with myself. £10 out of that £20 needs to pay for diesel to keep me mobile till payday :eek:

I'd better get ready for work, losing my job probably wouldn't be the best start to my new life. Today's the last day out of a 6 day stretch, can't wait to have a lie in tomorrow.

Hopefully, I'll be back later with a cunning plan x

ChocaholicHandbagQueen

I've just thought of an incentive to stop eating chocolate.........it gives me migraines!

Sitting in work with a horrible headache at the moment, but I think I've got a plan

Better go, shouldn't be doing this while I'm at work. I'll tell you all about it later. Hope everyone's having a good day.

ChocaholicHandbagQueen

Right, I've been thinking about how to start working my way out of this mess.

I'll add exact amounts as the bills come in over the next few days, but I can give a rough idea of how much I owe.

My mortgage was £75k, but is now down to £72k. I'm not including this in my debtbusting just yet, because that goes out every month without me thinking about it. Once all the unsecured debts have been blitzed, then I'll turn my attention to the biggie :D

1. I have a loan amounting to about £13,932
2. CC1 amounting to approx £3,000
3. CC2 amounting to approx £2,800
4. Storecard1 amounting to approx £350
5. Storecard 2 amounting to approx £450

Total unsecured debt approx £20,532 :eek::eek::eek:

This is where my cunning plan comes in:-

My loan payment is £278 per month, so I figure that if I round my debt payments up to £500 per month (spreading the additional £222 between the other credit cards and storecards) I should be debt free in about 41 months (mid 2016)

More common sense than cunning, but just about manageable if I can muster up some discipline from somewhere, which is where my diary comes in.

I'll be back tomorrow with another update, going to watch a film with BF tonight.

Victoria2322

Good Luck with your journey to Debt free

sheilds

Good luck CHQ-your cunning plan sounds very sensible indeed...and you have a great attitude so go for it:)

Homemadehappiness

Hiya,

I am in a similar situation to you, I have been an on and off member since 2009 and rejoined yesterday with a new name, new diary, new start! I need to get down to the nitty gritty but think my debts mount to around £15000 - I would also like to be debt free by mid 2016 as that is when I turn 30 and I also seek a lot of comfort in chocolate (she says while finishing off a sharebag of maltesers)

I look forward to following your journey and hopefully we can support each other along the way xx

ChocaholicHandbagQueen

Good Morning!

We're off to a good start this morning. Its my first day off in a week and its sunny

The moneysaving has already started......... I have one load of washing drying outside and another nearly finished.

I sold £15 worth of stuff on E*ay last night but they haven't paid yet. I'm really fed up of E*ay at the moment because I've had about 9 non-payers in the last month, but at the moment I can't manage without it.

Today is free listing so I'm hoping to list at least 5 items. I also have a games console to list for DS2 who's at Uni.

A little bit of background, I'm 43 been divorced for a few years, in a happy relationship with a lovely OH. I have three grown up children (I started young!) and work full time in a job I enjoy most of the time.

Hi Victoria, Hi Sheilds nice to see you, thanks for saying hello

Hi Homemadehappiness thanks for saying hi! I'm the same as you, I've been addicted to MSE for years, but mostly been a serial lurker. I decided to "delurk" and give a diary another go. I've been in debt longer than I care to remember probably about 18 years, but not to this extent. I started off with mail order catalogues and the rest is history.

Right, I'm off to hang out the rest of the washing, then its up to mam and dads to help them fill out a claim for attendance allowance........wish me luck

Victoria2322

I should put my washing outside too! and free listing better get on ebay

Hope you have a good day

ChocaholicHandbagQueen

Paperwork all done, and house sparkling!

Just had a lovely lunch, cheese on toast and red onion. I had half an onion in the fridge and a chunk of cheese going hard round the edges. They would've gone straight in the bin usually, but were actually very nice.

Cleaning done, but still haven't listed anything yet. I have to be in the mood for ebaying, which I'm not at the moment. I'm going to have a quick lurk on other people's diaries then step up to it before BF gets home from work.

I've found one cc bill:-

Total for CC1 is £2,753.72