Indebted 2U

Indebted2U

Hi everyone. I've been lurking around MSE for a while now and have picked up some great tips from the site over the years. I have however decided to come clean to you and the rest of the WWW and admit I'm in debt and need to do something about it!!

I've never missed a payment on anything I've owed but probably like millions of other Brits I really can't believe I've managed to get myself into so much debt and have pretty much nothing to show for it? I had 3 credit cards, all with reasonable limits and because I was only ever making the minimum payments the costs were manageable. As the amounts grew I then fell into the trap of "Well is another couple of hundred pounds on a card really going to matter, I'm nowhere near my limit and my payments are reducing each month?" Note to self.... YES it is, going to make a difference, the limit isn't actually you're money and the payments go down slightly most months but the debt is hardly touched!

When I finally tallied up my CC debts they came to just over £10,500:( & that was as they say my Light Bulb Moment :idea:
That was a couple of months ago in March and since then I've been lucky and have managed to move all my debt onto one of the cards that offered a 12 Month 0% interest balance transfer, for a fee of course. So far I have paid off £2,800 and as the card had £2950 on it when I started, my next statement will be the last where I pay any interest. More importantly though I really hope I have managed to change my attitude to the viscous CC debt cycle? I have decided that CC's aren't actually evil, but giving them to financially unaware fools like me probably is?
Over the last couple of months I've also read hundreds of debt blogs and advice websites and only recently discovered the brilliant Debt Free Diaries section of MSE. :T
I'm hoping to use this diary as a way to stay motivated, pick up tips and remind myself that I'm not alone on the DFW journey! Please feel free to comment, or give me a kick up the backside if I falter, as often as you like and I will be forever Indebted2U :happyhear

The_Dragon

Indebted2U wrote: »

Hi everyone. I've been lurking around MSE for a while now and have picked up some great tips from the site over the years. I have however decided to come clean to you and the rest of the WWW and admit I'm in debt and need to do something about it!!

I've never missed a payment on anything I've owed but probably like millions of other Brits I really can't believe I've managed to get myself into so much debt and have pretty much nothing to show for it? I had 3 credit cards, all with reasonable limits and because I was only ever making the minimum payments the costs were manageable. As the amounts grew I then fell into the trap of "Well is another couple of hundred pounds on a card really going to matter, I'm nowhere near my limit and my payments are reducing each month?" Note to self.... YES it is, going to make a difference, the limit isn't actually you're money and the payments go down slightly most months but the debt is hardly touched!

When I finally tallied up my CC debts they came to just over £10,500:( & that was as they say my Light Bulb Moment :idea:
That was a couple of months ago in March and since then I've been lucky and have managed to move all my debt onto one of the cards that offered a 12 Month 0% interest balance transfer, for a fee of course. So far I have paid off £2,800 and as the card had £2950 on it when I started, my next statement will be the last where I pay any interest. More importantly though I really hope I have managed to change my attitude to the viscous CC debt cycle? I have decided that CC's aren't actually evil, but giving them to financially unaware fools like me probably is?
Over the last couple of months I've also read hundreds of debt blogs and advice websites and only recently discovered the brilliant Debt Free Diaries section of MSE. :T
I'm hoping to use this diary as a way to stay motivated, pick up tips and remind myself that I'm not alone on the DFW journey! Please feel free to comment, or give me a kick up the backside if I falter, as often as you like and I will be forever Indebted2U :happyhear

Good luck with it all!

roomontheend

You have made a great start, I will keep popping in to see how you are getting on and may be give you support if and when you need it. Good luck

Igamogam

*subscribes*

bigdog13

Well done for getting started
Subscribed

Indebted2U

Oh well some days are sent to try us I suppose. The day started off fairly badly with a £138 bill for servicing the car. I had taken the day off to get it done and I did call around beforehand to check prices. Luckily my local dealer was the cheapest. I then came home lighter of pocket to find the drain outside my property in a communal parking area had backed up and to put it mildly everything wasn't smelling of roses :eek:
I have had a go at clearing blocked drains in the past but this looked well passed my area of capability, so I called a local drain clearer and booked an appointment for this afternoon. However an MSE tip from my dad had me calling them back to cancel the appointment. My wise old dad had told me that if your drains are blocked it may not be your responsibility to clear them. If the blockage is at a point where more than one property's drains meet, or it is outside the boundary of your property it may well be your local water authority's issue. A quick call to Thames Water and they had a jetting van on site within 2 hours. Unfortunately they haven't been able to clear the problem and the area now looks and smells like a sewage treatment plant :doh:They've got a tanker coming this evening to have a go and if they can't clear it the roads getting dug up! Looking on the plus side, it would have cost me £100 for the local company to tell me they couldn't clear it either and that it was a Thames Water problem. Now just have to get through the next few hours without going to the loo or using the washing machine :think:

nicolula87

Oh dear I hope it gets sorted soon for you! Well done on starting your DFW journey!

The_Dragon

Urk to the stench problem! I hope it gets sorted quickly

Indebted2U

Well after 3 days and 3 visits from different drain engineers, the Indebted2U household are now feeling flush. Well ok not feeling flush but at least I can now flush the toilet without risk of exploding manhole covers outside. Top MSE Tip, before you call Dyno Rod or whatever private drainage company, check with your local water supplier as the problem can often be theirs. The bloke that's just cleared mine, admittedly it did take 3 visits _pale_ has told me that most companies would have charge £300+ for what the water company did for free :j
Other money saving news... I have cancelled Sky but kept their broadband and phone package, as it seems to work really well here and is fairly competitive. Also had a NSD yesterday and plan to do the same today. Have a great Bank Holiday one and all.

roomontheend

We just have free sat, I was with sky for twenty years. Then we moved house and they couldn't get a signal but they kept charging me because they said it wasn't cancelled. Why would I cancel a service I didn't have? We then got another company in who charged us £570, they had to put it on a fence and dig up the drive but this was the only way we could get a tv signal.

Indebted2U

So today I decided to see what free technology I could use to organise my debts, as I've never been great at using Excel or other spreadsheets. I downloaded a free debt pay off app from iTunes and stuck all the data in. I also included my mortgage which I haven't included before in any of my calculations. The app has the option of using a snowball/avalanche repayment method. For anyone whose unsure about snowball there's loads on the web about it but basically you just pay off the debts in order of highest interest, or lowest balance first etc. Each time a debt is cleared you then put that amount to the next debt. The amazing thing I found was if, (sorry WHEN, must remain positive) I pay off my credit cards, I then continue to pay the same amount but this time to my mortgage I could be mortgage free in just under 5 years time :eek:
If there was ever a reason to get my finances sorted this is the incentive to do it. So the plan is to clear the CC's and then join the MSE Mortgage Free Wannabes boards :T