Starting again

ResistTheKebab

Today I'm starting a diary to get some perspective on my position and hopefully pickup some advice on the way. I've been struggling to stay on top of it recently and I hope this will motivate me to continue.

Back in December 2012, I was able to be credit-card-debt free after carrying between £4-5k for many years running in debt-maintenance mode and 0%ing my way through. The penny dropped and at the start of 2012 I finally stopped ignoring the issue and paid it off one month at a time. I was so chuffed to get back to a good position financially and I could start to save and plan holidays etc. I've never had savings before! It lasted about 3 weeks.

In jan 2013, DW turns to me and says that she's struggling with some bills etc and she needed some help (We've always paid bills from a joint account and kept our own accounts separate). She had 21k total over 3 maxed credit cards, all expired 0% deals, so this became too much for her very very quickly. She was refused a loan and was never going to get a new card, so I decided to take it on knowing that any other options would impact anything else financially we wanted to do in future (I see the need to remortgage a few years down the line).

Thankfully I was able to do the following:
- A 15k loan from Sainsbury's (@7.5%), so around 18k with interest
- A 6k CC 0% BT, now around 8k with some additional transfers

My priorities so far are
- Existing car loan (£4k-ish @ 10.5%) £190/month
- The loan (7.5%) £295/month
- The CC (will 0% switch until paid) £85/month min.
My plan is to snowball the payments and use any extra income from bonuses or extra work I make so I can get stuck in to this and get debt-free by mid 2015.

Now obviously I wasn't exactly pleased with the added strain. For 11 months now I've had virtually no disposable income after bills go out. It's put a massive strain on our relationship. DW does work but I've always paid more towards the household bills as I earn more, I'm ok with that as long as it's proportional. Then a few months ago she left a store card statement on the side with £500-ish on it and I went ballistic. It seemed over the top but by then I was ready to walk out and after clearing up the other mess it just felt like a kick in the teeth. It took a few days but ultimately I had more to lose so stuck it out. I eventually told her that was her debt to get rid of and it needed to go ASAP, which to my relief she did.

Since then I've tried to make DW more aware of the problems she created in the first place, but the spend-what-you-have mentality seems to persist. I made sure that existing cards and store cards are closed and there's no overdraft to abuse anymore. So now it's just a case of plodding along with the payments. Relationship-wise things are getting better, more open. I'm generally an easy going guy, but the stress of dealing with this has been hard.

Anyway there we go, in 3 years time I hope to be debt free, still in the house that my family needs and still be with the woman I love. Maybe I'm daft, but worse things could happen and I've still got my health.

:beer:
ResistTheKebab