Its over!

Freetobeme

Apologies if this is in the wrong forum but just wanted to share a bit of my story.

9 years ago, i thought my life was forever going to be a miserable one. After seperating with my partner of 13years i was left pretty broken but i tried to carry on. I found a home to call my own and took a motgage. i started making a new life for myself.

It all started when i took an overdraft to help buy things for my new home. They were not frivilous buys, they were essentials, bed, sofa and a new TV. after about 6 months everything was going hunky dory until i was contacted by the utility company to tell me i was in arrears. i owed just short of £400 and i could either pay all at once or increase my payments to cover. Naively i decided to increase the overdraft to pay the outstanding amount.

Before long, living in my overdraft became the norm and i wasnt really in a position to get myself out of it. Then without warning my boiler broke, so i took a credit card to pay for a new one to be installed. Without realising it i was now adding to my monthly outgoings. To cut a long story short, the credit crunch hit! i was seeing every bill increase and whilst a £5 or £10 increase on a bill dosnt sound much, across all the bills it was worth £100 more a month i needed to pay.

I hadnt had a payrise at work for several years and if anything i felt lucky to still have a job after seeing several friends lose theirs.

As the years passed more and more was needed to be bought and paid for, and before i could really take stock i had monthly outgoings to debt of approx £600 and i owed in excess of £20k. I was living off about £50 a month for food.

The worst part about it all was i was too ashamed to even tell anyone. I basically gave up on my life. All i did was go to work, eat and run. I was running 3 or 4 10km each week, because i wasnt eating much, i started losing the weight rapidly. Within 6 weeks id lost 2 stone. My friend became suspicious and started coming round with food parcels. It broke my heart to know that they knew but i still couldnt admit it. i just said i was training to run a marathon, eventually they got me to tell them what was going on. It was a massive relief to finally talk about it. from that moment they were my rock, they helped me research my options and sat with me whilst i made a decision.

I started my IVA in March 2010. I started to live again the moment my friend, helped me raise my head. I can not tell you what an amazing feeling this is. I will never take credit again in my life and i will never stay silent when i need to speak up.

To anyone out there going through anything similar to what i went through. do not sit in silence, do not feel that you are alone. You can and you will get through this.

All the best to you all.

Nargleblast

Congratulations, Freetobeme, and well done for seeing it through. If you go on the Debt Free Wannabe board, there is a Roll of Honour thread - get yourself on the roll!

sourcrates

Yes congratulations, it can be a tough road, but you have got there, very well done !!!!!!

Ericthethrifty

Thanks Freetobeme and well done, I'm a longtime lurker and it's posts like this that have kept me going through my IVA. Today my IP is preparing my F&F offer, so fingers crossed I join you in being free from debt soon.

debtfree2016

Great news Freetobeme, our IVA company are also in the proposal of a FF offer. Hoping we will feel the same. Best of luck for the future.