From nearlytherenow to finallytherenow...

nearlytherenow

Hi everyone,

firstly this site is amazing, I honestly don't know how bad my situation would be had I not found it a couple of years ago, so thank you to every single person on here. BUT... I need sorting out and this diary is going to be the way that I do it and, you never know, it may help someone else in the future in the way that others have helped me without even knowing it as I read much, much more than I post.

I have felt in the past that I have had my LBM and it hasn't worked out for me. I had one yesterday and I really hope that it is the last time. I'm going to view it a bit like giving up smoking, I tried lots of times unsuccessfully but I got there eventually and had I not thought it was ok to keep trying even though I had failed in the past then I would still be a smoker today, and I'm 8 years a non-smoker! So I'm going to treat this LBM as the first one and get it sorted.

So, LBM came yesterday. It was reading a post on the forum, and I can't remember where/whose it was, but it said that the person had stopped drinking alcohol for 18 months while becoming DF. And it kind of hit me that I go out spending money on things whilst getting further and further into debt.

My situation is nowhere near as drastic as so many peoples on here. I guess I'm kind of like the person who turns up at Weight Watchers and others look at and think 'you don't need to lose weight' but the person feels they need to. For me my debt is just getting too much and I need to sort it out. I am ashamed of it, I have a terrible credit report with 4 defaults on it, and I have resorted to PDLs, and I am the only person who knows about it. So, details are:

PDL: £1160
CC1: £1325 with 1300 limit
CC2: £180 with 200 limit
Next: £185 with £250 limit

The above are all paid monthly and payments are all up-to-date.

Credit defaults x 4. 3 of these are paid off, I have worked hard to do this over the last 2 years. However, there is 1 still to be paid for £1,900 (approx) and I have not been in contact with them or made any payments for well over a year now, not something I'm proud of

Rent: £400 - I am a council tenant and now pay my rent at the end of the month rather than the start of the month. They have never written to me about this but I need to sort it out of my piece of mind. It is supposed to be paid at the start of the month so that is something to be sorted when other debts are gone.

The LBM yesterday came, as I said, from reading something on here. But I was ready for it as earlier in the week I had logged into my PDL account with QuickQuid and the amount I owed shocked me. I feel stupid to be honest, but I always thought it was about £900. Every month they took approx £300 and then I would end up withdrawing the funds again. It said on the main page 'if you only pay the minimum you will owe £2,500...' and I thought I wasn't paying the minimum as it showed future payments £300 per month for three months. I kept having it in my head I would stop withdrawing and get rid of it in 3 months, well it's been going on all year and I couldn't even say 'oh it was to fix the car', or 'oh the washing machine broke'. It has just gone on daily living, probably starting with overspending at christmas last year. Well, it was earlier this week when I noticed a little arrow underneath the 3 payments, pressed the arrow and nearly had a heart attack. The £300 payment each month was taking about £90 off the total and the rest was interest. I was paying the minimum and would never get it paid off unless I changed my spending.

I've been in and out of the PDL nightmare for about 2 1/2 years and I keep thinking I will sort it and I never do. Well this has to be it. This is my first target, to continue keeping up-to-date with other debts, but to clear this next month. I am very lucky, I earn a very good wage. I have added everything up this morning and if I pay the full amount off on payday then, once the rent/bills are paid I will have £265 for food/everything else for the month from my wages. I am also expecting an additional payment of approximately £150 the day before payday, but I will have some other bills too so if I say £265 that is the worst it will be.

It will involve a big change for me, but I keep thinking, it is 5 weeks, it isn't forever. The problem is I keep spending. I am a nightmare for food shopping, the cupboards and freezer are pretty much full. I'm always the first person at the bar when we go out and I'll have people round for BBQs etc, spending a fortune then racking up the debt.

If I can get this PDL gone, I can start to think about paying off the other debts and actually becoming debt free which I don't think I have ever been during my adult life.

I have put this in as a diary to help myself, I know this first post is really long, my apologies for that! I wanted to get it all down. Wish me luck!

I will be posting regularly to try to keep myself on track with this.

So, first target, get rid of PDL by end of August and NOT withdraw funds during September.

nearlytherenow

Day 2: still feeling positive :-)

Still on the right track. Went to theatre last night and took own drinks/snacks so very pleased with that. Also made some onion bahjis with ingredients I already had rather than buying naan bread to go with last nights dinner.

Things I'm most worried about at the moment...

1. I'm going to have to seriously cut down on my diet coke habit to save money. I drink 6-10 cans per day at the moment easily :-(
2. My crazy need to have all the food cupboards/freezer full. I just can't seem to stop this. I think oh I've got the car today I'll go and stock up on tins, when it is already full. To save money I need to reduce food bill. Even having empty cupboards at the end of sept is fine as I will have much more money to spend once out of PDL trap. But even thinking about empty cupboards makes me nervous!!
3. Cutting down on spending money when I'm out on beer etc and limiting this.

That will do for now!

nearlytherenow

Day 3: another light bulb moment!!

I realised something this morning about my full food cupboards, this journey is enlightening! So, I decided to get myself organised and do a meal plan for the week ahead to pay day to minimise spending and what was the first thing I did? What I realise now I always do when trying to save money, I went to get my recipe books. Then I suddenly thought, instead of looking at them first why don't I start with the cupboards?

It sounds so obvious doesn't it, and I've even read on here to stock take your cupboards first. But I used to start with recipes thinking I knew what I already had in and then end up either duplicating what was already there, or because I hadn't meal planned not remembering the recipes I had bought ingredients for and filling the cupboards even more!!

So, today I'm going to plan the meals for the next week, starting with things I already have in :j

nearlytherenow

Day 4: my first ever meal plan

I did it! Meal plan for next week is sorted I'll let you know if I stick to it! I added some biscuit recipes too and have started making some today, yum yum.

Only other thing to report is that I had. Cupboard sort and made. List of some things to start using up when planning meals,msg pearl barley, arborio rice, basmati rice, picalilli (3 jars!) and kidney beans (9 tins?!!) although not all in the same meal!

icontinuetodream

Good luck on your journey I've had about a million lbm's so I know where you're coming from!! :rotfl:

nearlytherenow

Day 10: Pay day is nearly here

Had a good week, been very conscious of what I have been spending and it is really making me look at where I have been going wrong in the past. That one extra round before you head home eg £20, which I didn't do this week.

Have pretty much stuck to the meal plan although swapped a couple of days around which is fine as still means I haven't headed out to the shops.

I'm going to do another one today for next week which is trickier as I will be back at work, but the slow cooker can come out a couple of days.

Tomorrow is the day that £1160 comes out of my bank. That will then mean I have £0 owing to PDL companies and it will be the first time in over 2 years I am ashamed to say. But if I can just get to the end of the month without going to it again I really think I can do it forever.

nearlytherenow

Day 11: No more PDL :j:j:j

It has gone. Completely. Going to be a difficult month ahead financially but I am going to do everything possible to get through it and hey, it is only 4 1/2 weeks! I won't be debt free at that point, a long way from it, but the joy I will feel on 30th September when my wages goes into my bank and there isn't one PDL payment to come out is going to be amazing.

I looked at the QuickQuid account this morning. £0 owing, £0 payment due, £950 available to withdraw. So I looked around on the site for where to close the account, couldn't find it though. But I did the next best thing. I wrote out a long and complicated password with lots of numbers and letters and changed the account password to that then threw away the password. No silly temptation to press one button for some money. Yes, I know I could open another account/call them/etc but I know I won't. I will think about it more clearly.

I'm free. Feels amazing :beer:

Ninno820

Brilliant - well done !!

shinner

Well done.:j

nearlytherenow

Day 13: still smiling

I sent the councilman email on Friday asking them if they could set up a payment plan via direct debit so that by the end of six months I am paying my rent in advance again rather than in arrears at the end if the month. Fingers crossed they say yes as that would be another debt sorted.

My first NSD today too yay!

nearlytherenow

Day 38: nearly there

I haven't been great at updating this diary thread, partly because I always read and forget to log in, and I've been a busy bee. But, I would like to keep it going even if I post only occasionally, just in case it helps someone some day. I know that there are so many posts I have read that have helped me in the past.

Well, I'm almost at the end of the month and I haven't used PDL. I'm really pleased with myself, also kicking myself that I didn't do it earlier, but when I get paid on Tuesday next week it will be the first time for ages that a massive chunk hasn't gone out.

I'm going to be looking at my other debts and getting rid of those, but for the moment, I'm happy to not have the PDL over my head.