AGirlWrites: 13k to 0k in 18 Months

AGirlWrites

Good evening everyone,

Finally decided to dip my toes in the Debt Free Diaries water. I have dabbled with a debt free quest before but never really committed. However, I had my lightbulb moment the other day, decided to total my debts up and was really shocked by the amount £13,088.44, I always assumed it was around 8k. I earn a good wage and I live alone so there really is no excuse for it. I have been so irresponsible with my spending, never worrying and just whacking everything on a card. I'm sure you know how well that goes...

I've spent the last 2 nights going through my last 6 bank statements, working out where my money goes, recording all my card balances and coming up with an action plan to really tackle it this year. The good thing is I earn enough to really cut down on the non-essentials and put that towards paying off my cards.

I have worked out a budget for myself that is strict but not so much that i'll give up straight away. Which means i've pledged £917 to debt repayments, which according to the debt snowball means i'll be debt free in 18 months time. :j

I'll write down all the debts in a later post, but for now I just wanted to say hi, I hope you don't mind if I join you all.

AGirlWrites

Okay so... the damage is as follows:

Barclaycard: £4653.40 - 0% till Feb 2016
Barclaycard: £719.90 - 0% till Apr 2014
Capital One: £1823.83 - 34.08%
Amex: £4200.87 - 25.9%
Catalogue 1: £1084.24 - 34.1%
Catalogue 2: £97.24 - 34.1%
Natwest o/d: £500 - costs approx £6 p/m

Jeeeeze it was not nice posting that, but i'm doing this to shock myself into changing my ways. My current plan of action for this month's pay is to pay the minimums, clear the 2nd Catalogue and chuck everything else at the Capital One card. I want that one cleared and account closed asap, never realised how high the interest was on it.

ani*fan

Hi there AGirlWrites


Nice to meet you over on my diary and best of luck with your debt busting. £917 is a massive amount to be throwing at it every month, I'm sure you'll get there in no time.


I look forward to hearing how it all goes for you.



:-)
a*f

AGirlWrites

ani*fan wrote: »

Hi there AGirlWrites


Nice to meet you over on my diary and best of luck with your debt busting. £917 is a massive amount to be throwing at it every month, I'm sure you'll get there in no time.


I look forward to hearing how it all goes for you.



:-)
a*f

Thanks ani*fan! It is a lot but I really want to try hard to get rid of these 34% APRs as quickly as I can. I'm in the go hard or go home frame of mind at the moment. Haha!

ani*fan

AGirlWrites wrote: »

Thanks ani*fan! It is a lot but I really want to try hard to get rid of these 34% APRs as quickly as I can. I'm in the go hard or go home frame of mind at the moment. Haha!

I know the feeling, one of my cards is at 29.9% and I need to get rid of it soon. Surely with these interest rates the lenders should be categorised as loan sharks, no? :-)

killerpeaty

Hello AGW,

Well done on your LBM! It's incredible that you have made changes to find so much each month.

Good luck on your debt free journey, I'll look forward to hearing more about it.

Ani*Fan, ouch any chance of transferring it to a nicer %?

AGirlWrites

ani*fan wrote: »

I know the feeling, one of my cards is at 29.9% and I need to get rid of it soon. Surely with these interest rates the lenders should be categorised as loan sharks, no? :-)

Can't be far off being loan sharks?!?! Daylight robbery is what it is! Still I was the one spending on it, so it's my fault i'm paying the interest at the end of the day.

killerpeaty wrote: »

Hello AGW,

Well done on your LBM! It's incredible that you have made changes to find so much each month.

Good luck on your debt free journey, I'll look forward to hearing more about it.

Thanks KP, yes I have budgeted £100 per week for food and any other spending not covered by my bills direct debits. Before I thought nothing of spending £300 per week buying stuff I never use. I'm a real shopaholic. I shop to make myself feel better about things, but ironically its the shopping that got me into this much debt that's making feel down a lot of the time. I'm hoping to break that cycle so I get my 'highs' from saving money rather than spending it.

ani*fan

AGirlWrites wrote: »

I'm a real shopaholic. I shop to make myself feel better about things, but ironically its the shopping that got me into this much debt that's making feel down a lot of the time. I'm hoping to break that cycle so I get my 'highs' from saving money rather than spending it.

AGirlWrites, I thought this was interesting and really made me think. I don't consider myself a shopaholic, purely because I don't have piles of 'stuff'. But what I do is just spend on so-called essentials without planning, budgeting or thinking of the consequences.


An example would be I want to go and see a mate who lives quite a distance away. I convince myself it's essential, I love her and it's good for my mental health to keep up with pals. So I whack £50 petrol in the car, buy a couple of bottles of wine, some cake, maybe a wee gift for her and off I go. Maybe we hit the shops when I'm there, buy some make-up (it's essential isn't it?) and the whole thing can come in at over £100.


It makes me feel good too, to not have to worry or think about money, I keep telling myself I do not have an extravagant lifestyle, cos I don't, therefore it'll all be ok. But really, it won't be ok unless we make it so. The more debt piles up, the more we are in need of expensive mood lifters.


Thank you for this post. It made so much sense to me and really has given me a kick up the butt. I may be a shopaholic too, but a different kind of one.

AGirlWrites

I'm glad you could relate a*f, hopefully we can kick the habit together!!

I had a good day today, NSD and I batched cooked some a couple of things to keep me not spending for the rest of the week hopefully.

[Deleted User]

Hi AGW,

Just a though, but if your credit rating, salary etc are good, could you transfer some of the higher interest debt to a zero/lower charging card? Balance transfer?

D9

AGirlWrites

Domino9 wrote: »

Hi AGW,

Just a though, but if your credit rating, salary etc are good, could you transfer some of the higher interest debt to a zero/lower charging card? Balance transfer?

D9

Hi Domino, I have tried that but according to the soft search I wouldn't be approved for one. If I stick to my snowball I should have hopefully paid both 34% debts off in 6 months. I can put up with it for that long. I want to move house next year so I don't want lots of credit searches on my file.