Wish I had found this site sooner..........

taffycrook

Hi folks,

Here's my story so far............
5 years ago I split up with my wife. After a couple of months of drinking and denial I was forced to look at my life and take stock.
I didn't know it at the time but this was my light bulb moment.
Taking stock of the situation left me with a few tough calls.
but I left my ex wife and confronted my debt.
I had a well paid job for my skill set and plenty of overtime if I wanted it.
This enabled me to keep on top of things but not re pay any debts untill the divorce came through along with any proceeds from the sale of the house.
Dispite most of the debts being amassed between us most were in my name only. The court gave the ex a sum about 1/4 of the proceeds and the rest to me.
At this point I owed £35K and the £7.5K I paid off my debts seemed a drop in the ocean. All I had to show for my life was £17.5K of debt.
But it was about to get worse the car loan was in my name but I didn't have the car and the ex decided to no longer pay it. It was no up to me.
Debt now £22k.
To make matters worse I was about to take a pay cut. It was crazy at the time and I barely managed to get by but I had a plan. I was going back to school.
So with a debt of £22K I left my £26-28K job for one which payed £12K
2 Years of evening study and I would have a qualifaction, this was my ticket to ride the debt free train.
However i managed to get 3 jobs in the 2 years of study and now earn £42K if I hit all my targets (not too hard).
My debt is now just under £10k I have done it all wrong and would of paid far more off if I had found this site sooner.
But I have a nice car (no finance) a company car, been on holidays (never managed a holiday apart from my honeymoon whilest I was married). I am in a loving relationship without whose support I doubt I would of managed any of this. I have been able to spend time with my hobbies as I no longer work 60 hours a week.

No matter how bad it may look there is hope follow the advice on this site and you will manage to control your debt rather than it control you.

I am reclaiming my bank charges, and overpaying my debts to the tune of £400 a month and aim to be debt free in 18 months.

oscar52

I thoink most of us feel (myself included) that we wish we had found this place sooner.

hypno06

Now that you have found it, stick with it and see if you can become debt free before the 18months you mention.

ltm07

Hi,i know where you are coming from. My partner & i are currently £32.5k in debt with a £71k mortgage. Been trying to pay them off without looking into which ones we should pay off first. Thanks to a poster on the forum we have found a site called whatsthecost.com. If we follow the payments properly on this site we will be debt free in 61 months. I work as a postman & we will be on strike on Friday,so i will lose over £60 in pay. However i will be using this day as a day to cut down some of our outgoings. Got a leaflet through the door saying that new customers to virgin broadband only have to pay £10 a month for 12 months. We currently pay £18 so i will phone them & ask them to reduce it to £10. Also got Sky,i will phone them & ask them if they have any deals that i can take advantage of. Also going to transfer our Halifax account to Nationwide as we are currently paying over 13% on our overdraft + a £10 monthly fee. Nationwide only charge 7.75% + no monthly fee. Will also try & get a better deal on our mortgage. Currently paying £481 a month & this will be going up another few quid after the latest interest rise. Not had chance to put my SOA on here but will definately do so during the week. Also transferred my mint card to citibank so reduced the interest on that from 17.9% to 5.8%. With the help of you guys on here & also Martin's excellent moneysaving tips we will crack this sooner than we think. Good luck with clearing the rest of your debts,you should give yourself a big pat on the back.

Midnight_Sky_2

Well done for what you've achieved so far. I'm guessing that it's been a long, hard struggle on your own...the beauty of this site is that there are so many people who do truly understand what you're going through and are also there for you through the ups and downs and the good and bad.

Like Hypno says, now you've found this site stick with it. Try the snowball calculator to see just how much quicker you could clear your debts by chucking another few quid a month at them (sorry, I've only just recently done my own snowball and I'm totally obsessed with it ).

Good luck and keep posting to let us know how you're getting on.

Midnight

taffycrook

Thanks for all the support.
I will stick with it, and keep the updates coming.
If anyone else finds themselves in a similar position please do something about it. I am no expert and have done most of my debt management wrong but the feeling of being in control which at last I feel I am, is well worth the effort.

reformedEffortMaker_2

i only joined a month ago, been on almost daily since. Scarily, I cant remember how I stumbled upon it! :rolleyes: