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Young, free and simply stupid; MrCF takes control!

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  • Morning. Feel a tiny bit rough, had a few drinks last night with a few friends. It was at one of their houses so it didn't cost me very much :D

    My birthday was on Friday and I'm delighted to say I got spoilt. I got lots of things that I actually needed which is perfect. I was even given £155.00 which was way too much but it will get banked tomorrow and kept unspent until I decide on a laptop or what I'm going to do with the money. I think I'm just going to wait till I see my wage slip to see what I can or cannot afford to spend.

    I took £20.00 out the bank last night for drink to bring to my friends but I only spent half of it so £10.00 went straight into the Xmas pot. I should be close to £200.00 in there now.

    Still waiting for the other payment to track on TCB.. Wish it would hurry up. Been looking to see what else I can do but most of the sites are casinos which I'm not interested in :rotfl:

    Today is a day for sitting on the couch and doing absolutely nothing.

    Hope your all well and enjoying the last day of your weekend.

    MrCF
    Saving for that dream holiday
  • Wishing you a belated Happy Birthday:bdaycake:. Won't add any:beer: as it sounds as if you've had enough of that (or whatever your tipple of choice was) already;)


    It sounds as if you've had several successes money-wise and are obviously being very sensible about what you do with it. Very commendable (and unusual) in one so young:T


    Here's to a happy and successful year:beer: (the drink's for later!)
  • Well we all know about how books have some good chapters and some terrible chapters. This is indeed the terrible chapter in my life/book :mad:

    If you only have a few minutes, I advise you to come back. This is going to be a long and boring post for some. It's about getting everything out there for me.

    I was doing so bloody well since last year. I have been controlling all my spending and saving regularly. It all went wrong this week...:eek:

    OH and I had a bad week (not relationship) due to her feeling poorly. We've also had some family issues as well which haven't helped. We've both been a bit stressed and not sleeping. Anyway, for me it all went downhill when I lost the £21.00 at the beginning on the month through gambling to get money through TCB. Bearing in mind gambling is part responsible for my loans/debts along with expensive cars and holidays, this doesn't help matters.

    For some stupid reason, I deposited £50.00 into the gambling account to win back my £21.00. As you can guess, I lost the £50.00, however then deposited another £100.00 to win back the £50.00. This went in a circle and I lost the £100.00 and thereafter deposited £250.00 to win that back...... Yep as you can guess I lost everything. Throughout doing each 'bet' I knew it was wrong but the thought of winning that original money back was greater than the fear of loss so I carried on. Silly silly me!!! So at this point my ISA was down £400.00 to facilitate all these silly transactions.

    I'm certainly not impressed with myself. I feel disgusted and bitterly disappointed. OH doesn't know yet, not too sure if I'm going to tell her. She has enough on at the moment. I know for a fact she won't be in the least bit happy as she was in tears when I told her I had over £15,000 debts.

    Anyway, I read through my whole diary on here and eventually realised I've not been listening to the great advice of all you great people. You have all said on multiple occasions to pay off my loans with my savings. Every time I replied saying I needed money for this and that..but I am moved into the house now and don't really need cash held up in savings accounts.

    In order to make sure I didn't gamble away any more of my hard worked cash, I logged straight into online banking and transferred £1050.00 from my ISAS into my current account. I then overpaid loan 2 with £947.59, bringing down its outstanding balance. I'm still waiting for the overpayments to show in the loan account so I will get an updated balance in the coming days.

    Today I deposited my birthday money (£155.00) so that's cleared in the current account.

    Here are a few transactions since my last update

    Loan 1 - £307.41
    Sports Club - £9.99
    Fuel - £16.00
    Cash - £20.00

    So at the moment my diary has taken a junction in the road, turning away from money saving and purely focusing on paying off my loans. I've left £30.77 in the ISA and there is £600.00 in my current account. As I'm expecting a decent amount of overtime in this months wage, I will transfer over and keep an emergency amount of £100.00 in the ISA and that's it. The rest will go towards loan 2 and building up my xmas pot. I need to change my monthly updates now :(

    All in all, I gambled away £400.00. My expected overtime is around that figure so really all I've lost is my overtime. I was going to purchase a laptop too for around that figure but I've scrapped getting one due to my actions.

    My new aims!

    Build ISA upto £100.00 only.
    Build up my xmas pot to over £250.00.
    Pay off loan 2 by the end of the year.

    I've figured that if loan 2 is paid off ASAP, I will have extra money to either overpay loan 1 or save for our big family holiday in 2017. This is probably going to cost in the region of above £2000.

    I better stop as I'm rambling and have probably embarrassed myself enough. Feel free to be abusive and give me a kick up the !!!! :rotfl:

    MrCF
    Saving for that dream holiday
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
    edited 13 May 2015 at 7:11PM
    Well done on getting that off your chest:T. You probably don't feel much better for confessing, possibly feel embarrassed that you've lessened people's good opinion of you. But please don't feel bad.

    I don't think anybody will be kicking you up the backside, I hope not anyway. We all make mistakes sometimes. I expect a lot of us who are now struggling with debt have made plenty of poor/crazy choices on the way here. I know I certainly have and I was well old enough to have known better:o

    The main thing is that you saw the madness of carrying on as you were doing. That's something to be proud of. After all, you could have afforded to carry on gambling, you weren't exactly on the verge of bankruptcy, but you stopped before you really had to. That's something you should feel good about. Many lives have been ruined because people couldn't/wouldn't see the folly of chasing losses. Yours isn't one of them.

    I know £400 is a considerable sum but, to put it into perspective, it was one overtime payment. By using it you really only hurt yourself because your hoped-for laptop had to be put on hold. You've re-defined your saving/spending goals and things can only get better now. If you stay focussed that is.

    Please stop beating yourself up. That's an order (and I can be very bossy;))

    I hope your girlfriend is getting better and that the pair of you are feeling less stressed. Take care of yourselves. That's another order:rotfl:
  • Thank you carbootcrazy. Your words help so much. It has been a bit a roller coaster but I will now to focus even harder. I'm thinking of it that I've spent my laptop money, nothing more, nothing less.

    The fact that this has happened has made me realise how much I needed to overpay loan 2, rather than have the money sitting their doing nothing.

    The balance of loan 2 is exactly £1139.01 :j:j:j

    This WILL be paid off fully by the end of the year!

    Tonight has been another emotional night with me and OH. Away to bed to get some rest!

    Thanks again for your kind words. You are a great help.

    MrCF
    Saving for that dream holiday
  • Trixxibell
    Trixxibell Posts: 699 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary Combo Breaker Car Insurance Carver!
    Well done for confessing that couldn't have been easy.

    It might be worth unsubscribing from all the websites you use, and block them on your iPad. Remove the temptation completly. (Just a thought)

    Good luck with the debt busting xx
    3rd LBM July 2014: Debt [STRIKE]£31,416.68[/STRIKE] Down To: [STRIKE] £23,403.43[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]15th July: £25,709.83[/STRIKE] 26th March: £31,229.68
    CC £0 :j WFTC £1660, SLC £6600, Car £18,654, Emergency Fund £1,000 :T
  • patman99
    patman99 Posts: 8,532 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker Photogenic
    MCF it takes a lot of guts to admit to having an issue with gambling. I know, I used to be addicted to slot machines, so for several years I avoided pubs, clubs and anywhere there might be a slot machine installed.

    Good luck with clearing-off loan 2. The relief at seeing a loan cleared will be like a huge weight lifting off your shoulders.

    I have decided to leave your EF number intact just in case you decide to return.
    Never Knowingly Understood.

    Member #1 of £1,000 challenge - £13.74/ £1000 (that's 1.374%)

    3-6 month EF £0/£3600 (that's 0 days worth)

  • Well sometimes it is easier to write things down rather than saying things. I wonder if that's why some people write letters before they, well you know .......:o

    Anyway, onto something happier, I've had a better few days. Haven't spent much. Although I'm now also with the attitude that as I'm going to be paying my debts for a long time and after that my half of the house deposit, I may aswell enjoy myself while doing so. I might give myself extra pocket money to go and play sport, which I enjoy lots :D

    Spent another £25.00 on fuel on Thursdsy and about £15 on sport stuff yesterday. I took out £100.00 and put most of it into my xmas pot. My car loan also came out.

    My loan amounts now look like this.

    Loan 1 - £9188/£15500 = 40.7% paid
    Loan 2 - £1139/£4000 = 71.5% paid
    Car loan - £3692/£5695 = 35.2% paid

    My outstanding debt as of today is £14,019. A bit less than I actually thought.

    My xmas pot is now upto £255.00. A lot of it will be my spending money for my few days away later this year but hopefully it will just keep going up and il have a decent amount saved for xmas shopping.

    Positive positive positive!!

    Today is cleaning day :(

    MrCF
    Saving for that dream holiday
  • Kittycat1981
    Kittycat1981 Posts: 168 Forumite
    Followed you from Debt free by xmas2015. I didnt wanna read and run so saying Hi :)
    Finally dealing with debt: 01.01.2015 -£10,562.:(
    01.02.15-£8820 01.03.15-£8066 01.04.15 £7036 01.05.2015- 6128 01.06.15 £4957

    Pay ALL your debt off by Xmas 2015! #59- £5605/[STRIKE]£10,562[/STRIKE] 53%
    2015: Sell £1000 #69 £510.97/1000
    Virtual sealed pot challenge #24 £32.19/£300
  • Wow thanks for the replies. I've been on here all day learning about stuff. There is so much info. Here is a breakdown of my loans.

    Loan 1 - £15500 - 60 months - 7.3%
    Now - 42 months paying £307 monthly.

    Loan 2 - £4000 - 36 months - 8.9%
    Now - 27 months paying £128 monthly

    Car loan - £5695 - 36 months - 13.9%
    Now 31 months paying £155 monthly

    Wow now I look at it, I owe a lot of money. At least I managed to get rid of my credit card.

    I live in the middle of nowhere so I need a car and do at least 60 miles a day. There is no busses or other ways to travel. That's how my fuel bill is so big. My last car died and I quickly had to get a new car so I went for the cheapest newish car which would last. I plan on having it until it dies now. I have thought about selling it for an old banger, but then it would probably fail like my last banger. Cars are just endless money.

    I will save until I reach my target as I need to help my other half with furniture with our (her) house which she is buying next year. As my financial position is rubbish, she will get it herself and I will just help pay for things until all my stuff is paid off. I should be able to save about £500 a month, even more with extra hours from work. After my target is reached I will try blasting off the car finance or the loans. No point paying interest every month. I do see that sense.

    I will also bring food onto work everyday as I sometimes spend money on meal deals etc. All those £3 soon add up at the end of the month haha.

    Think I might put my £1000 into an instant saver and put my monthly savings there as well. I don't want it in my current account as it will disappear. Will check out accounts over the weekend.

    I feel like I've turned a corner. I'm smiling as I've seen what a mess I'm in, but I'm going to sort it out. Any more tips . Thanks. MrCF

    Hello everyone. I'm looking for some help. I'm trying to calculate how much my loans were at the time of the above post, i.e the outstanding balance.

    I'm going to get a figure for my LBM and update my sig. I think it will motivate me more if I see my whole balance coming down. I've also joined the 'Debt Free by Xmas 2015' so I can pay of as much as I can before then.

    Thanks in advance
    Saving for that dream holiday
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