Hoping to avoid a crisis......

Moneysaurus

Well here goes, a shiny new diary.

Let me give you some background to me, professional, three children, one husband and a lot of debt!

The debt comes from years of overspending and it is now the time to do something about it, well in fact I started to do something about it in September when I had my LBM, but six months on I am finding it hard going. I am hoping the diary helps to keep things on track.

Both hubby and I earn good salaries, combined in the region of £150K per year. Debt at LBM was in the region of £100K all unsecured.

We have made inroads, but the debt still stands at £87K. I am pleased with the £13K paid off, but there is still a long way to go and I am increasingly trying to think of ways that I can justify my next purchase. So far I have manage to stay on the straight and narrow, but it is tough at times. I am hoping this diary helps me to stay focussed!

I haven't got all of the details of the amounts owed and to whom on me, but I will look to update the amounts later.

I have looked at other diaries and read other threads too, this has provided some inspiration and I am thankful for that.

I think we are fortunate to not need a DPM at the moment, but I could see with the way things were going, unless we stopped spending, this is a route we may have to have taken.

Please help to keep me on track. I want this debt gone and to save up for things like normal people do and not add it to a credit card to worry about later.

Thanks

Moneysaurus x

OnlyICanDoThis

Hi Moneysaurus, :j
Happy New Diary and welcome to the forum!

We seem to have had our LBM around the same time and I have a similar level of debt now! I shall be checking in to see how you are getting on J.

Good luck on your journey, it’s going to be a long hard slog but just think, every 24 hours passed is 1 day closer to being debt free for life!

We can do this!

All the best,
OnlyICanDoThis x

snowscreamer

Hey Moneysaurus (great name!)

I say this to everyone, but have you looked at YNAB? My situation is similar to yours with a healthy combined salary (nowhere near as high as yours but higher than the majority on here) and debt (much lower than yours in this case!) caused merely by overspending. For us, YNAB has changed the way we think about money totally. Just categorising all spends and allocating amounts of income each much to each category eg. £600 on mortgage, £50 on electricity, £200 on fuel etc has helped us enormously. We're down from spending £500-1000 more than income each month to £500-1000 less! And we're not really feeling like we're being austere. We still belong to a nice health club, shop at Ocado, allow £150/month spending on the house £100/month spend on eating out and £100/month on other leisure activities. So you can achieve debt reduction without changing your lifestyle too much - it just involves keeping track of your spends and spending each penny a bit more wisely. Even when we are debt free I intend to stick to our current budget as we are getting a nice lifestyle from it whilst feeling in control and saving for a rainy day / unexpected curveballs. It's an epiphany!

Good luck on your journey - I'm subscribing

wishus

I'll subscribe too!

I'm also on good wages - like Snowscreamer, not to your level, but I feel so privileged compared with many on here. I have debt I've had to take on, not being in a position to just be able to save up first. I also have big dreams and need move on up asap.

Great to hear you have already made some progress already. You can do it! :T

Moneysaurus

...so far..

I know we are lucky to have good salaries, but we have been irresponsible and impulsive in the past, NEVER saving and just buying it on credit. :mad:

I have lost count of the number of times that we have consolidated onto loans. It is hideous. :eek:

The big difference this time is that I have cut up my cards and concentrating hard on clearing them. In fact I have already cleared and closed my M&S card.

However, there are three more to go.....
One Barclaycard, one MBNA card and one Tesco card. The Tesco is on a 0% deal, so less of an issue in terms of urgency to clear the debt as it is incurring no interest, but still needs to go.

We still have other loans too

It is good to know that others have cleared the mountain we have to clear and I am pleased to not have been judged this far. We should have never needed to borrow outside of our mortgage and possibly cars, but we were always trying to keep up with the Joneses. That was our big mistake.

I will definitely have a look at YNAB, so far I have downloaded our bank account each month and colour coded our income and expenditure and so have an idea as to where the money is going. This sounds like it might be a more formal way to do this?

It is going to be a long journey, but one that I am determined to succeed in.... every small step and all that.

Moneysaurus X

monz

It doesnt matter what you earn you are doing something about your debt like everyone else is and thats all that matters xx

Moneysaurus

Hi Monz

Thanks for the lovely message :-) it is much appreciated.

We are trying to sort out our debts and that feels good and appropriate!

Debt busting is the way to go :beer:
X

Beanie514

Well done on paying off the 13k so far thats no mean feet no matter what your earnings.

I think we have all been guilty of trying to keep up with the Jonesess at some point or another when you think you should be able to being similar circumstances ect but remember they may be living on credit too.

Best of luck

Moneysaurus

Thanks to those who have replied, it does help to have some feedback. I know that we are in a privileged position with our wages, but our debts are still horrendous and are causing sleepless nights. This is how the count down looks by Month from August to the end of February.

One of the main reasons for this diary is you can see the amount paid off lessened between Jan and Feb, this was down to me spending too much and taking my eye off the ball. It needs to get better!!!

So please bear with me :-)

Month

TOTAL
DEBT

%
Outstanding

Aug-14

£97517

100%

Sep-14

£92915

95.30%

Oct-14

£90172

92.49%

Nov-14

£85991

89.56%

Dec-14

£85854

88.04%

Jan-15

83646

85.77%

Feb-15

83496

85.62%

PinkPoppies

I think it is very easy to be lulled into a false sense of security when it comes to good salaries.

I don't know about you, but I think each time our income jumped with promotions and so on we had in our heads an idea of the sort of lifestyle we *should* be having on our earnings, but actually the reality didn't quite marry up long term!

Sounds like you are doing a great job so far, and it will only get easier and easier. I'm sure you'll have more CC companies lining up to offer you more 0% balance transfers once decent chunks have come off the interest charging cards you are currently bashing down- and then you'll be able to pay things off even faster.

I think diaries on here are a great way to help focus and I always find things slip a bit here when I don't check into mine regularly. So many inspiring supportive people!

Will subscribe! :j

tootallulah

Well done on the start you have made, it is tough to make the first moves but you are well on the way. Think what fun you will have when you can allocate all of your salaries to things you want rather than debt. I second YNAB it appeals to my on-line life!