Escaping the clutches of evil Count Debtular

Cherry_Burton

Thank you all for replying and offering encouragement. It really does help

I nearly gave up the struggle when I was ill as I thought I was fated to get further and further into debt no matter what I did. No doubt I was a bit depressed. Then, a glimmer of light, a very old loan I made to a person I thought was a good friend was finally paid back. By the way, Shakespeare was right when he had Polonius say,

Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

That certainly happened in my case, I lost a friend and it has taken a long time to get the money back. I finally came to realise that the person concerned was never a true friend. The whole situation is very sad as we have known each other since infant school and had grown up together. She was my bridesmaid and I was her matron of honour. (Do they still have matrons of honour? Makes you sound like Hattie Jacques in a terrible old Carry On film)

Still water under the bridge, and I won't dwell on it any more. I'm now starting to chip away at the debt and very slowly build up a small amount of savings for when my current contract runs out. Henceforth I'm firmly looking to the future not the past.

My aim for December is to have a quiet family Christmas which we all enjoy without putting anything on the credit card. Can't be that hard, can it?

Bye for now

CB

in_need_of_direction

I think the words quiet and family are somewhat contradictory.

Cherry_Burton

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

I think the words quiet and family are somewhat contradictory.

Lol, by quiet I meant cheap :rotfl:

CB

supersaver1000

Hi Cherry

Just been reading your diary from the start, you've done amazingly well.

We sold our house partly to live somewhere beautiful and partly to pay off about £30k of debt. But about 18 months later we were in a similar amount of debt of about £25k on the credit cards alone, plus car loans. It was totally ridiculous but DH has no sense with our money.

Post LBM (mine) We're now down to £14,500 on the cards but I have savings of £5k, so I like to think of my total debt as £9.5k. Plus we have one car loan now of just under £10k but I don't really count that as I see it as a work expense (in hindsight Iwouldnt have it, but it was pre-LBM days).

Apols for me calling it my debt and saying 'I' a lot, but it's me digging my heels in that is getting us out of the debt. DH is a great provider but unfortunately, his spending always went up in direct proportion to his earnings going up.

So really you have done amazingly well to keep your mortgage and have what to me seems a small amount of debt.

I recently changed jobs for a promotion which didn't work out. I managed to pay off about £5k of debts during the promotion, but then ended up at a temporary job which paid the same as my old job but less hours :eek: so we've been treading water for a while - although Mr SS has kept his £300 pocket money throughout - but that's been essential because without a pot of money to limit him to, we would easily be back to square one. (Having a DH around isn't always a help financially).

Ive actually now found a permanent job, better money more hours, and which is a huge relief, but Also a worry, given my last experience in a new job. But I've learned that we do survive what comes our way. Ive been juggling bills, baking, food shopping with £45 a week, and I've made some great online MSE friends who have been so supportive. The debt journey is stressful, but it's also felt like an achievement.

Sorry for this huge post, but I know sometimes it's easy to get despondent and I really just wanted to say keep going, you will get there with it. It may seem like an upward struggle all the time, but you have your home, your family, the means to make a living, and you are doing so well.

:T:T:T:)