The road to my money all being my own!

mintymoneysaver

Afternoon All,

Long time poster, but in a totally different situation now. Separated a few years ago, and left with a little bit of debt. Then divorced and bought ex out of house. Went full time at work, but much bigger mortgage now. While buying him out I also borrowed extra and got renovations done to the house, but of course the money ran out before the work, so there was a bit more debt...

And then of course I wanted it to look nice, didn't want my girls to go without and so on. But now I've realised I'm not happy with this. I can afford the repayments, but I want to get rid of them as quickly as possible so here I am.

So I owe £750 to my mum which I'm paying back at £50 a month and she's quite happy with that, £550 on a 0% credit card till October ( this is my first aim) currently paying £61 a month for the new suite I bought for another 18 months, a smaller credit card which I usually pay off every month but has £300 on it at the moment, and then the big one, about £7500 on 0% for 26 months.

For someone who was always good with money it's been a real shock to realise I'm nearly £10,000 in debt and I want my money back for me! I earn a fairly decent wage and if I didn't have these debts I'd actually have a fairly decent disposable income!

So the plan is to move anything on the credit card this month to the 0% and then have a clean slate. I've already changed my spending habits and only use the credit card if absolutely vital ( had to buy a new bed this month, the other one broke!) but I need to get this under control.

I have signed up to do some test marking this month which eventually will bring in an extra £1200, some of which is paying for my holiday ( that was why I took it on) but anything left could go off the £550 credit card, and aim to get that gone before October. Then concentrate on paying my mum ( freeing up £50 a month) which could then go towards the big debt.

I always use this site for bills etc, so they're pretty much as low as they can be, could do my food shopping for less definitely, and need to get back to finding the coupons and bargains I used to find on here.

So thought a diary might inspire me to keep going! Will update my sig with my debts when I have final figures, that way I can keep tabs on them every time I'm on here!

Hope some of you will join me along the way x

littleskintdragon

Good luck on your journey

Sounds like you have a plan ready, so wishing you the best for it!

mintymoneysaver

Thank you. Having a plan and sticking to it are not always quite the same thing! But it's worth a try at least...

Rebecca01

Good luck x

TinyDancer_2

Good luck mintymoneysaver

mintymoneysaver

Signature updates, makes it all seem real now! So this diary will talk about my regular repayments, any extra little bits I may manage to pay off but will also encourage me to save money where I can so more can go on paying it all off...
A no spend day today, but yesterday was a round of drinks @ £9, two bottles of wine and £10 on a taxi. Hopefully it should be a pretty quiet week now, spending as little as possible this month as it's my daughter's 18th in 3 weeks. Main present all bought, but still need to pay for a few bits and pieces, the food and her hair and make up. All of which are doable out of this month's budget as long as I'm careful!

mintymoneysaver

So everything's shifted around now. £9500 on Halifax, £550 on Barclaycard. Eeeekkkk! Still that's the worst it's going to get now, the only way is up (or down!) Minimum payments off the big one, get rid of the little one as quickly as possible! The family loan will get paid off on a regular basis, with a standing order so that's a sideline for now. Barclaycard, here I come! I'm on a course tomorrow which I think I get paid about £120 for so that could go straight off it when I get it in a few weeks. Apart from that I just need to be careful this month!

mintymoneysaver

Payday, and the start of a fresh month.

New DD for Barclaycard was only going to be £94 a month, so have set up a standing order for £150, and will pay £50 towards the Barclaycard once I get the next statement. Any spare cash will pay that one off first too.

In theory, even after that and all bills paid I still have £350-400 disposable income a month which should, of course, be enough. I need to start a savings pot though as that needs to include birthdays, Christmas, clothes and any holidays, although thankfully this years will be paid for by the marking that I've done. I've shifted £137 over to start this off leaving me with £250 this month, but I have got a massive dental bill to pay this month. The marking money should start coming in soon, and is going straight in there too. Then after the dentist and holiday are paid I'll add any left over to the debt payments.

Once the Barclaycard is gone I'll up the family payment to £100 a month, and then when that's gone the remaining Halifax CC can have £250 until it's gone! Being debt free seems a long way off, but I'll be £250 a month better off when I get there, and that's definitely something good to aim for!

snowscreamer

Hi minty,

Have you tried YNAB? I'm in a similar situation to you - massively overspent on home improvements and ended up in debt to the tune of £7000 (excluding the mortgage). YNAB has totally transformed how we see money and over the last six months have managed to pay down the debts an average of £400/month and put aside average of £500/month into rainy day funds for Christmas, holiday, annual bills etc. And we are not really cutting back - well aside from more home improvements on credit! - just spending far more wisely.

Good luck - I'm subscribing!

Snowscreamer

happydays_70

Good luck, will be following with interest

Fizzy11

Good luck you sound very determined. I like the idea of the extra work to pay for holiday.