I've got myself into a MASSIVE debt in 9 months...

UrbanDanceSquad

Fletchasketch wrote: »

Your mindset needs to change. Yours and your wife's I think. .

That's the problem, isn't it OP?

weebit

Hi all,

I'd like to thank everyone for their advice. I've taken on board a lot of what you've said. I appreciate that a lot of you have been in my situation before and have made a lot of sacrifices to get your debt paid down. Whilst I want nothing more than to be debt free, I'm not going to do it "at all costs". I'm not going to completely sacrifice my social life in order to pay off the debt. I'm able to make extra payments at the same time. However I will cut down on things but not stop them completely. YNAP is really helping already. It's the perfect time of year to start out, just before Christmas. If I can stick to the budget at this time of year, then it should be easier during the rest of the year. We've also decided that we're going to move house. As mentioned, we want together with no one else, so the only option is to move to somewhere cheaper. Our tenancy lasts until April but the contract allows us to move out within the last 2 months without penalty, so we'll start looking for new places towards the end of January.

The budget tells me I should be able to pay off £400 extra towards the debt on top of my minimum payments. If things stay as planned, I should be able to get my debt balance to around £40,000 by December 2016.

Lemonsqueezer78

Good luck Weebit - report back on your progress.

FinallyGettingFree

Great that you've started with YNAB, it's really addictive :-)

Let us know how you get on.

determined_new_ms

Weebit I honestly wish you all the best. I guess my post has been misinterpreted. I was wanting to show you that you can still have a life and do things but on a much smaller budget than you currently are. Of course it's your life and it's your choice how long this hangs over your head.

As I said I wish you all the best

Fletchasketch

I wish you the best too. I will say though- that you can still have a social life very cheaply- beer and wine from Lidl is excellent value and great quality and to be honest, now I'm in my thirties also- a night in with friends is often a lot more pleasant than a night out on the town.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

hohum

I just wanted to add my voice to encouragement. We are also of the mind that we wouldn't go laser focused to repay debt. We have lowish income (in comparison to national averages) and are self employed. Our debt was in the region of £3k but it was expensive as was mostly overdraft debt. We were paying £90 a month in bank fees and interest when we started our journey. I think my lightbulb was more a flame of indignation that I was not giving my bank (who had not been exactly helpful) any more of our money.

YNAB really clicked for us because of the flexibility and ability to prioritise. You can have anything but not everything, which is what I think people are saying. If you want to take flights to see family, maybe you need to go to less gigs. You can only spend the money once, I find we often tend to allocate money three of four times over. And that's the problem, kidding oneself about how much money is spent, and that if you spend £100 on travel it is no longer available to spend on your bills - and viceversa! I also liked the acknowledgement that no month is typical. This had always been a problem for us, as our income is lumpy and all the advice about 'spend x a month' just didn't work for how our income worked. Using Ynab to not double count our income, and then making sure we have money set aside for regular big expenses has been life changing!

One thing to note: using YNAB was really, really hard in the first couple of months. It's quite confronting as you are dealing with a) the reality of what you actually spend b) how little income you have, if you're like us c) preparing for the future whilst dealing with mistakes of the past. Stick with it though, I think it could be really good in your situation.

Teacher2

"The budget tells me I should be able to pay off £400 extra towards the debt on top of my minimum payments. If things stay as planned, I should be able to get my debt balance to around £40,000 by December 2016."

Way to go! Good luck.

Keep on with YNAB as it's practical help.

Larac

I just read this thread and personally think you will need to consider a DMP. I had a similar debt of around £50K and found that the CC kept increasing the apr rates until the minimum payments were absorbing all my salary. I was some what dellusional that I could manage to keep going and that eventually I would pay off my debts, which at the rate I was going would have been 25+ years. I took out a DMP, the accounts got frozen and I will have cleared the debts within the next couple of years. Not having access to credit is a blessing in disguise as it definately shapes your spending behavious around 'needs and wants'. It also taught me alot about having to budget - was and still is a harsh lesson. Wish you the best of luck.

patman99

Not quite sure why UrbanDanceSquad has such a 'thing' about emergency funds, but I am glad the op sees it from my perspective.

Even though I have a load of debt, i am off to Download next year. Ticket, parking and 5-day camping cost £265, tent cost £75 (but will easily make this back if I decide to sell it afterwards). All paid-for by doing surveys.

Weebit as you and your wife live in London have you thought about mystery shopping ?. There is a thread on this somewhere and you can make good money just by visiting shops and asking questions.

You could earn enough to pay for a gig or two (once you have paid tax on the earnings of course).