Living in absolute DENIAL

vics199

I'm very much like you as well Lucy - I'm a professional with a fairly good wage that I should be able to live on. Yet I have around £28,000 of debt. How? Well it all started with overspending at uni. I lived with some quite rich students (well, their parents were rich anyway) and tried to keep up the same lifestyle. I also did a lot of travelling up until 2years ago (its killing me not being able to get on a plane but it needs to be done for a few years now). The rest, I don't know where it went really - a few home improvements, furniture, a car and then just stupid things like clothes, nights out, takeaways, spa days and trying to get out of debt but actually just getting myself into more debt. I calculated that when I was going through a low point a few years back, I actually spent around £3,000 just on spa breaks to cheer me up. Yes, I know, that is absolutely ridiculous and I do not plan on any more spa breaks.

But I am pleased to report that last year I paid back £6,000 and this year I am planning to pay back £7,000. Its a slow process but at least I am getting out of debt and not into more debt!

Lucy1010

vics199 wrote: »

I'm very much like you as well Lucy - I'm a professional with a fairly good wage that I should be able to live on. Yet I have around £28,000 of debt. How? Well it all started with overspending at uni. I lived with some quite rich students (well, their parents were rich anyway) and tried to keep up the same lifestyle. I also did a lot of travelling up until 2years ago (its killing me not being able to get on a plane but it needs to be done for a few years now). The rest, I don't know where it went really - a few home improvements, furniture, a car and then just stupid things like clothes, nights out, takeaways, spa days and trying to get out of debt but actually just getting myself into more debt. I calculated that when I was going through a low point a few years back, I actually spent around £3,000 just on spa breaks to cheer me up. Yes, I know, that is absolutely ridiculous and I do not plan on any more spa breaks.

But I am pleased to report that last year I paid back £6,000 and this year I am planning to pay back £7,000. Its a slow process but at least I am getting out of debt and not into more debt!

I am comforted to hear that I'm not the only one and can totally relate to you. You sound rather like me, at the time we thought we deserved such breaks yet unbeknown to us the stress that follows with the mounting debt far outweighs any *refreshing* days/weeekends we spent enjoying ourselves.

I feel terrible about my situation because at my age I should have savings, I'm not a young naive girl, I'm a woman approaching 40. I wish I'd listened to my Father all those years ago, 'save your money, don't use credit' he preached. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but it's no good crying about it now, I am so determined to get myself out of this debt hole.

vics199, You are doing brilliantly, congratulaitons on paying so much back, you've given me that extra drive! When is your anticipated debt free day and how have you been tackling your debt?

Thank you

FireWyrm

The best thing I ever did was to separate the running account from the bills account. Essentially, have a basic account with nothing but a debit card (no overdraft, no cheque book, nothing) and pay a budgeted amount for food and fuel into it on the first of the month. Never touch the bill paying account card again, for any reason. Its amazing how much of a difference that simple change makes.

I withdrew £15 from the running account on the 3rd January, and I still have it in my purse. We have cupboards full food, petrol in the car and still £135 in the running account until I get paid on the last day of the month.

I'm a complete evangelist for this type of budgeting (Rising From the Ashes is doing something similar this month I understand) and its almost fool proof. With an app on my phone I know to the penny how much there is, how much has been used and on what. I cant overspend, the money isnt there. Total reality check every single day.

Lucy1010

FireWyrm wrote: »

The best thing I ever did was to separate the running account from the bills account. Essentially, have a basic account with nothing but a debit card (no overdraft, no cheque book, nothing) and pay a budgeted amount for food and fuel into it on the first of the month. Never touch the bill paying account card again, for any reason. Its amazing how much of a difference that simple change makes.

I withdrew £15 from the running account on the 3rd January, and I still have it in my purse. We have cupboards full food, petrol in the car and still £135 in the running account until I get paid on the last day of the month.

I'm a complete evangelist for this type of budgeting (Rising From the Ashes is doing something similar this month I understand) and its almost fool proof. With an app on my phone I know to the penny how much there is, how much has been used and on what. I cant overspend, the money isnt there. Total reality check every single day.

Brilliant. I have a spreadsheet set up where I record where every single penny goes. I've set aside a budget for living expenses, a budget for bills and a budget for emergencies (ie car). I have not given myself a too tight budget to live on because this is how I got into this mess in the first place, I'd run out of cash and then I'd use the credit card. Thanks for your advice :-)

Catslovelycats

Lucy1010 wrote: »

Spending is just like a drug for me but I've put myself in my own 'rehab' and hope to come back here to celebrate debt free day.


Lucy x

I know what you mean by this, Lucy1010. I haven't racked up loads of debt, but over a period of a couple of years ages ago did find myself transferring balances across various 0% credit cards until I realised that I was starting to live beyond my means and was able to stop.
It's largely due to this site that I could. If anything, my addiction is now watching my spending and counting how much I can save. If I can change the way I think about money, anyone can!

vics199

Lucy - I don't really have a particular way of tackling the debt, I just pay all of my monthly payments plus a £40 overpayment on one of my credit cards and then pay my parents £300 a month towards the money I owe them. If I do all of that and don't spend any more on credit then that works out at £6,000 a year after taking off interest. So this years aim is to try and pay back an extra £1,000 through somehow making extra money as I can't cut back anymore on expenditure. I also haven't worked out a debt free date, I just plod along and hope to get there one day!

vics199

If I made a good guess at a debt free date i would say it would be in about 4 years - a long way away!

Lucy1010

Thanks, I need to have a debt free date to keep motivated (and challanged to beat it) - it's the only way I can do it without getting depressed :-)

I am tackling mine like this:-

I am currently overpaying my highest interest card (11.4%) by an extra £400 p/m (balance £2,791.32) and using the rest of my money to pay the 0% cards.

One card 0% runs out in April and reverts to 17.9% (balance £2,535.79) and the other 0% ends in July reverting to 16.9% (balance £5,683.48)

I will then tackle the next highest interest card with big overpayments and revert to near minimum on the lowest. I will not be using anymore 0% transfers as I'm finding this is what has kept setting me back. If I know there's a huge amount of interest to be charged then I'll be forced to keep paying the £600 p/m I've allocated for the whole debt.

Hope that makes sense :-)

suze1_2

Thanks everyone for sharing your stories. Very inspiring! It's helped me to realise that I'm not the only one and my problems are not insurmountable! Like Lucy1010, I now delete every email offering free delivery, 10% off etc. Alot of my spending was me thinking I was getting a bargain, when 9 times out of 10 I didn't need the item anyway???!!! Some warped thinking there!!! My current "addiction" is not shopping, but trying to have no spend days. Today was one of them :-)

Shelski_2

FireWyrm wrote: »

The best thing I ever did was to separate the running account from the bills account. Essentially, have a basic account with nothing but a debit card (no overdraft, no cheque book, nothing) and pay a budgeted amount for food and fuel into it on the first of the month. Never touch the bill paying account card again, for any reason. Its amazing how much of a difference that simple change makes.

I withdrew £15 from the running account on the 3rd January, and I still have it in my purse. We have cupboards full food, petrol in the car and still £135 in the running account until I get paid on the last day of the month.

I'm a complete evangelist for this type of budgeting (Rising From the Ashes is doing something similar this month I understand) and its almost fool proof. With an app on my phone I know to the penny how much there is, how much has been used and on what. I cant overspend, the money isnt there. Total reality check every single day.

I'm determined to try this too. Just got to wait until we get paid at the end of the month.;) On track for not going over my overdraft limit this month. Might sound trivial, but it will make a huge difference to us psychologically and practically next month.