Just introducing myself to the board

jo1972

Hello all :wave:

Hope you don't mind me starting a new thread, just wanted to introduce myself to you all cos I'm new!

I've been in horrific debt (prob not as bad a some out there but bad enough for me!), all started around 15 years ago when I couldn't make one month's payment on my poll tax for £90 or summat so I decided to go get me a £1000 loan to pay it, spent all the money on frivolous things, didn't pay the poll tax and had to get another loan to consolidate etc etc. Six increasingly larger loans, store cards, credit cards and HPs later and things esculated quite seriously until last year when I had the council baliff and carpenter turn up to evict me, my husband (who knew nothing about it ) and 3 kids from my house due to rent arrears and I decided I needed to stop ignoring it!! I'm very lucky to have a very nice boss that paid my £4,500 arrears over the phone by credit card to the housing office while we were all standing on the doorstep

Things are improving, I've paid off 8 creditors, 3 to go but have arrangements with them all, I no longer have sleepless nights either!

Now I just need to find a way to get paid and pay the bills and make the rest of my salary last me to the next pay day, any tips or hints will be gratefully received.

Thanks for reading my essay :rotfl:

Look forward to getting to know you all!

Jo.

GreyPilgrim

hi Jo, thought I'd be the first to welcome you to the board.

GP

crawley_girl

Hi Jo

Welcome to DFW! I think we can all relate to getting a loan and then spending it on something totally different to the original purpose. I certainly do! Ditto the bigger loans, the credit cards, the store cards, the HP etc etc.

How about a full SOA for us to have a peek at... check out SS's sticky at the top of the DFW board for a bit of guidance.

What a lovely boss you have! Sounds like s/he saved your bacon.

Check out the Old Style boards too... they are really helpful at cutting food bills.

:heartpuls CG :heartpuls

Snaggles

Hi Jo, you've made loads of progress already - you can probably teach us a thing or two about making your money stretch....but as crawley girl says, if you do want a bit of advice, pop your soa up so we can have a look at it. A spending diary is a great start if you seem to have money left on paper, but the bank account tells a different story - you just write down EVERYTHING you spend, and then when you look back over it, you can tell where you could make cutbacks.

Good luck!

Crown

Welcome aboard!

Hope you keep posting as were all in this battle together

Good luck

yellowmonkey

Hi

Welcome and ,my lord, you have a good boss.

Have a nice bank holiday

ym

jo1972

Thanks for your replies and welcomes!

I will sort out all my figures over the weekend and get it all down on paper (pc) next week for you to pick at lol!!

I feel like a weight has been taken off my shoulders already by joining this board today, I don't feel so alone. I've only managed to save 80p so far today but feel great!! So thank you everyone

Jo.

southernscouser

Hi Jo! :hello:

Watch out for me coz I'm a serial flirt! And I see your married so that makes you more of a challenge!

Seriously though, welcome aboard. :beer:

Snaggles

Only managed to save 80p?......If you do that every day, that's nearly £300 per year.....

Snaggles

I was just going to do the 'watch out for southernscouser' newbie warning, but you beat me to it

Maybe we should make it a sticky!

southernscouser

Snaggles wrote: »

Only managed to save 80p?......If you do that every day, that's nearly £300 per year.....

Off the top of my head it's £292 p/a!