Gambling / Hoarding / Debt / Depression

Just2Ashamed

Right, well, I have taken some sort of charge! I looked at the interest rates on my cards and at the repayments I'm likely to be able to make and decided to take out a loan to consolidate things as lots of the debts were on CCs with horrendous interest, so here's how things now stand:

£4900 loan @ 23.20% = £135.23 repayments per month for 60 months
£1000 CC @ 0%

There are no early settlement penalties on the loan and I'm hoping to get it paid off much sooner so hopefully won't end up paying the full amount of £8113.80, but even if I did then this would still be less than I would have paid if the debt was still on a high interest CC.

To stop this happening again I'm going to cancel my cards except the 0% ones and drastically reduce my available overdraft. Hopefully this, in conjunction with the gambling-blocking software, will mean that I can't get myself into a similar state in the future.

So, from now on it looks as though this diary will be for me reducing the loan amount and starting to build up some savings! I have to say, the world feels much brighter now and I feel like I've taken a positive step

Just2Ashamed

It's been a while since I've been on and I need to take stock. There have been some changes, many positive but lots of negative too.

Positive:
Things have continued to improve in our marriage
We have moved to a much nicer area to improve things for our daughter and my mental health
I have returned to work part-time and can make a bit more of a financial contribution
Husband has a new job which has improved his mood and slightly improved finances
NO GAMBLING :j :j :j

Negative:
We now have a huge childcare bill each month
Expenses of maternity leave have added to debt
Rent is almost double what we were paying before
nPower messed up our bill and by the time it was rectified the debt has grown to almost £1000!

So, the situation as it stands:

0% CC1 £2300
0% CC2 £1600
0% CC3 £1330

Loan £4200

nPower £690

Husband's debts: £2650

Current total: £12770

That figure is incredibly scary, especially as I've already been making overpayments and reducing it - but at least I now know where we are.

Just2Ashamed

Monday was a rare child-free day so I had the chance to take stock of our finances as they currently stand and have been able to budget for coming months.

New budget:

Groceries £300
Nursery £442
Petrol £125
Electricity £53.17
Gas £83.06
Water £40.00
Mobile phones £69.32
Rent £595.00
TV, landline and broadband £53.84
Milk £16.00
Council tax £114.00
House insurance £10.80
TV licence £12.12
Savings £200
Car payment £30
Playgroup £7.50
Presents and christmas £50
Entertainment and meals out £50
Hair, opticians and dental £50

Total = £2301.81

I am going to cancel spotify and our which subscription. When the mobile and TV contracts are up for renewal then I will be downgrading those too. Obviously I will be looking to come in under budget, and any shortfalls are going to be split between saving (in case the next month is higher) and paying off debts.

This budget should give us around £540 each month to split between our debts, although obviously some of that will be eaten by minimum payments, etc.

Just2Ashamed

Having looked at the total debt and the amount we should be able to repay, our debt free date currently looks like it will be in 2 year's time, February 2017. Hopefully I can reduce that by living a bit more thriftily and selling more things to bring in a bit more income. Onwards and upwards!

Just2Ashamed

Paid £1200 off the loan from savings :j Planning to reduce DH's credit card debt after payday so hopefully that total will come down too. Still not getting very far with nPower, actually struggling to understand how incompetent and unhelpful they've been - will be switching as soon as humanly possible :eek:

Two council tax free months now so that will help with repayments and also really need to get some things sold - I had a look through my loan statement and added up interest, that's certainly helped with motivation!

Aaleigha

I have some of your diary but stopped at post 21
for very different reasons to you I comtemplated ending my life and have self harmed - at 57 you would think that I would not feel the need to do that having suffered from depression for years but a circumstance happened out of the blue and I cannot say what an effect it had on me
I want you to know how much I feel for you - not a gambler myself - so I cant say I understand BUT I do understand how scary the debt is when I young mum I was the same many credit cards and a bank overdraft they kept putting up

so one think I would like to say is get the money out the bank in cash for the food bill and ONLY spend what you need to (my food bill includes all things supermarket and farm market) but not dog food

I would like to be here for you to talk to when times are bad - and help you celebrate the little successes -

I have a spread sheet onto which I have put every single thing we have spent money on and will complete a month before going through it and finding things that we can do to cut costs and live more frugally
my husband wants to get a credit card and I have put him off till the end of the month so I ca prove we dont need one - that means me cutting right back and he is of course spending as usual - typical
so just to reiterate
I dont have debit but did
I dont want to go back into debt
and I really want to support you in any way I can

Hx

Just2Ashamed

Thanks Aaleigha, that's a really kind and helpful post. I'm glad you're in a better place right now and hope things continue to be positive. I'm going to stay on top of my diary now as it helps to constantly take stock of things and not bury my head in the sand so hopefully we can support each other Hope your husband gets on board with the thriftiness too and sees that a card isn't necessary xx

jodles16

I just wanted to pop on and say well done you! You didnt have to come back on here but you did and it sounds like you are kicking debts butt! Amazing congratulations on your daughter, getting things back on with your hubby, moving somewhere better and facing up to the gambling, very inspirational stuff!

Best of luck with this journey, it seems to me that with that great repayment this month 2017 will be more than achieveable!

Jodles

Aaleigha

Just here to see how you are
H x

Just2Ashamed

Currently working (slowly) on hubbie's debt, then will be back to focussing on the loan. Was accepted for a much longer 0% deal so have transferred a couple of the smaller balances which were due to start incurring interest soon. It's all coming together, slowly but surely. Really need to start on selling though, roll on car boot season!