The only way is up.....

theuphillstruggle

Today is the day that I start my diary, and finally get a grip of my spiralling out of control finances! :eek:

In 2012 i returned to the UK with my daughter from the middle east with literally only the items in 4 suitcases as belongings! We had been living there for 5 years with my partner, when that ended I decided to bring us back home.

We rented a flat for 6 months as we began the house hunting process, before finding an absolute wreck, that we both fell in love with....

I was fortunate to have some savings to cover out rent, be able to put a lump sum of £125,000 into the property and only take on a small mortgage of £50,000, I used £45,000 of savings towards the renovation, and my daughter had 2 years left of school which came in at £25,000 and then that was me, every penny spent, so we had a house that was just about finished, but nothing inside.... so it was a case of hello credit cards!

I never planned to spend £55,000 on renovating, I had hoped for around £25,000-30,000 and £10,000 on appliances, furniture, sorting the garden...and to have some savings left over, but with one problem after another all I seemed to be doing was throwing money at builders, plasters, electricians, plumbers, joiners etc

Before i knew it, it was 2015 and I had credit card bills coming out my ears, i finally sat down and counted them all up....£16,700 :mad: in a year! I knew I was in a bad situation before we got to this figure, but I blanked it out and as soon as one card maxed out, I applied for another!

2 weeks ago I decided it probably wasn't the best idea to apply for another card and add to the ever growing debt mountain, and it was time to sort this mess out! I had 4 credit cards sharing the £14,200 debt, and a £2,500 overdraft....

My daughter has £15,000 of savings that were left to her from my Mum, so rather than making only minimum payments to my credit cards, paying over draft fees every month, I have decided to use £12,000 to pay off a lump of credit cards and my overdraft, and i have kept 2 cards, one with £2000 on it and another with £2200. I stupidly applied for credit cards before i actually needed them, so the % free rates were wasted on most of them, these are the only 2 that are still % free, one until January 2016, the other October 2016.

I have thought long and hard about using my daughters money, but financially this seems the best way to do it....she knows nothing about the money, so won't be asking for it, but the intention was always to give it to her for her 21st birthday - March 2017.

A lot of the credit card debt could have been avoided, did i really need to use Farrow and Ball paint, does my house really need to be a shrine to Laura Ashley and The White company, were Miele appliances the be all and end all - no, but whats done is done.

So here I am, £66,700 in debt and hoping to gain help, motivation and top tips along the way with my focus of getting my unsecured debt gone as fast(ish) as it arrived!

xxx

theuphillstruggle

I know that in order to get rid of my debt i need to be spending less and have ways to earn more...today i am going to start with spending less! a few weeks ago i bought a new dyson - i currently have an oldish model that a friend gave me, it still works perfectly well, but i was lured in by the dyson v6 absolute £449.95 plus £29.00 for 3 years extra protection, total £479.94! I love dyson and could normally never fault them, but this hoover is meant to last 20 minutes a time, it lasts about 13-15 and then takes 3 AND A HALF HOURS TO CHARGE!!! I still had to use my hold hoover for the hose part to get a good clean of the stairs so decided i would use the new one for a quick going over if i saw any crumbs etc....i was essentially paying close to £500 for a brush when I think of it!!! :mad: I was still in this mentality a few weeks ago, this is how current the new me's way of thinking is! Anyway, called John Lewis, and as I am within my 28 days and the charge isn't lasting as much as it should, i can get a refund...so at least thats a good dent into the credit card! :T

I normally buy lunch most days in work, buy bottles of water and a coffee from Costa, i have estimated i am about £7 per day, that is £35 a week that must stop now!! With regards to food shopping i tend to eat out 1-2 nights a week, takeaway 1-2 nights and the nights that I do cook, i do aways cook from scratch, but I also go to Morrisons and buy what I need for each meal...along with picking up a load of crap, i spend about £30 a time! There is a Lidl close to my work, I am going to start my weekly shopping in there.

This week i am going to try and spend as little as possible, I have estimated £25 this week but I hope to have some left over as I plan to eat as much as I can that I have in the cupboards without having to spend any money.... is £25 a week realistic for 2 adults?! I don't know, but i am going to try and find out!

I am going to go and do a meal plan with what is in the freezer, cupboards etc and i'll be back to post it.

xxx

HappyNow

Sounds like you've had a tough few years; it must have been difficult coping with everything on your own. I suppose something had to give and it ended up being the finances.

I couldn't quite work out the figures. Is the £66700 in your last paragraph the total debt including the mortgage? And you'll be left with £4200 unsecured debt after using the legacy money (which I agree is your best course of action - you can then save it back up when you've cleared all the unsecured debt without interest)? If so then that's not TOO bleak a picture and you sound very determined to get it sorted.

I know you've read my diary so you'll know I am a massive fan of YNAB to help you budget. Getting that would be my top tip. My second-to-top tip would be to write in your diary every day if at all possible, it really helps with keeping the momentum and focus - and add a signature so you can watch the debt figure reducing

Good luck and I will keep popping back to cheer you on!

theuphillstruggle

yeah thats right, £50,000 is my mortgage and i have paid off the majority of the cards that now had interest added onto them/about to start occurring interest with the £12,000 so the remaining £4700 is spread over 2 cards both interest free until January 2016, and October 2016. I need £16,700 to be paid by March 2017. I paid off a chunk when i got paid in May so i have left myself what i think is the bare essential to survive but as this is my first month i am hoping to have some savings left to throw at the debt. From June next month until March 2017 i have 22 months to save this up so i need to be saving £759 per month which should be do-able if i can break away from a life time of old habits i.e. handing my debt card over constantly, not reading bank statements, going out for lunch, clothes i don't need, dinners out, buying lunch/coffee/bottled water, wasting half the contents in my fridge every week, and i am sure i could go on! I do need to account for the odd treat, birthdays, christmas etc, but hopefully my current lifestyle will become a treat as oppose to the norm!

I will look into YNAB and adding a signature, i am hopeless with technology so hopefully those aren't beyond me!

thanks for the good luck, i need all the luck i can get! x

theuphillstruggle

I have decided i will record all my daily spending on here, as i think it will help keep me on track!

I went to John Lewis to return the dyson, put my card into the reader - my pin was wrong!! with all cards i normally change my pin so they are all the same but goodness knows why i haven't with this one - typical! it is newish and i purchased the hoover online and i know i paid for carpets with it over the phone, so i don't think i ever got around to changing it! So basically, it was a waste of time! Have since called M&S and they are posting me out a pin reminder in the next 5 days! Parking is normally free on a Sunday, but that has now changed! £1.50 for the first hour, so that was a waste of £1.50, fuel getting there, and my time! :wall:

I then went and put £25 petrol in my car, I have budgeted £40 a week, but I am hoping it won't be as much...I only really use the car for work and short journeys at the weekend. For work I am 22 miles there and back to work each day, but I have no clue what that means in petrol costs! I went to Tesco, normally i go to the first petrol station i come across, but I have decided that from now on I will only use Tesco so I can earn club card points! I need to remember to always use the card, as often i grab a card from my purse and don't even bother with club card if i am in Tesco. I didn't even realise club card points can be used in places other than Tesco, and as I don't shop there I have never really bothered with the collecting points...going to put the key fob on my keys and have a look online about ordering an extra one. I did get extras when i applied for mine, but who knows where they, when i get them i will give my daughter one too and tell her to get her fuel from there also.

I then went into Lidl for some basic essentials £15.52 and I feel i got so much for my money!

6 pints of milk £1.30
brown bread 40p
mince £1.49
chicken breasts £2.59
bananas 34p
plums x5 £1
oranges £1.29
carrots 49p
leeks £1.19
cabbage 63p
pepper 49p
eggs x15 £1.25
yoghurts x6 85p
cream 55p
tin of tomatoes x2 62p
passata 35p
ketchup 59p - own brand, i normally am very brand loyal to Heinz...it tastes the same!! need to start doing more swaps!
carrier bag x2 10p - really need to start taking my own

I am very pleased with what i got for my money, this would have been at least double in Morrisons i'm sure if i shopped how i normally would by picking up all the known brands.

Hopefully i won't need to spend much more this week, maybe some more fuel and i do need to go and buy dog food tomorrow for one of my dogs that is about £20-25 but it does last 4-5 weeks.

I know i am only in day one, but writing in this diary i think is the key to keeping me on track!

theuphillstruggle

had a good look through the cupboards and freezer and with what i bought today i don't think i should need to spend another penny this week on food - fingers crossed!

tomorrow night i plan to have left over spaghetti bolonaise i made last night and got some garlic bread in the freezer too. tuesday nights i work late so i can never be bothered to cook, this is normally when i grab a takeaway on the way home, but this week i'll have toast and beans or scrambled egg when i get in and my daughter will just have to fend for herself for dinner! wednesday night we will have salmon, rice and vegetables, thursday night will be something with the chicken so either fajitas or maybe chicken in the bag with one of those sachets with probably rice and veg again if we have that....friday i'll make chilli with the mince i bought today and again with rice or maybe make a burrito, saturday i'll have chicken gnocchi and garlic bread...and on sunday i have some turkey breasts in the freezer so can make a roast dinner from this - i might not stick to this exact meal on the exact night, but these are all the things i have in to make dinners so i'll be having them on that night or another night!

For lunches all week in work, depending on what i have for dinner on what nights i can either take in some leftovers or i have plenty tins of soup, bread for sandwiches (egg mayo, tuna mayo or cheese) so i shouldn't be paying a penny in work - i think i am going to leave my purse at home so i won't be tempted! I will also take in porridge sachets, yoghurt and fruit for breakfast as i normally skip breakfast which results in a chocolate/cake/biscuit purchase around 11am with my coffee for an energy boost!

In work i also buy at least one bottle of water a day, i think it is £1.19 which is ridiculous as my desk is about 2 meters from the water machine with free plastic cups! failing that i have a water filter in my fridge i should be filling up my own bottles, so that is the end of the bottled water purchases! Also in work we get free tea & coffee and from the canteen you can buy a hot water & milk in a cardboard cup for 28p, i buy about 3 of them a day and i also buy a daily costa in work which is about £1.70....but, if you bring in your own cup then hot water and milk is free! i bought a ceramic travel mug a while ago as i don't like the plastic ones but it has never made it into work - it is now about to go into my bag!

These changes should make a good dent into my over all monthly spends to throw at my debt!

Trixxibell

Hiya,

I've found you and subscribed xx good luck can I suggest posting a SOA it's what I say to everyone as it gives you a realistic idea of expenditure xx I posted a link to one on the main board of you can't find it let me know xx

theuphillstruggle

hey trixxibell, yeah i need to get around to doing my SOA! do i make one for my current spending for food etc or what i aim to be spending? x

theuphillstruggle

Today was a no spend day! Didn't spend a penny and feels great! Took everything as planned to work and didn't leave until later so didn't have time to pick up dog food, really must get it tomorrow as i have now officially ran out! So hopefully tomorrow that's all i will be spending.

I need to read into making a payment a day and how i can do this....I have withdrawn everything out the bank that i plan to spend and put the cash in envelopes, i have only left money in for direct debits coming off and planned to do this every month and pay debt straight away.... not sure if this is the right way to do things?! will get reading some more diaries!

Called Amazon today as i am chasing them up for a Lovefilm account that they took £4.09 off my bank for 4-5 years! i noticed this a month or so ago but still not heard nothing! Called today and notes on system say i am due a refund however only the person who is dealing with my enquiry can do this - apparently they will call me in 24hrs, so hopefully they will and can refund me and i can get that put towards a credit card!

I've decided to get rid of one credit card at a time first - both interest free so starting with the smallest balance which in May when i got paid i rounded it down to £2000! That card also has the Dyson hoover on it so when i am able to get that refunded that will make a good dent into it!

off to read some diaries x

theuphillstruggle

could someone please tell me how i follow a diary? i can't for the life of me find it! - do you get notification when people post/able to save where you are?! i spend ages trying to find diaries i have been reading and then ages going through the pages until i get to where i left off! i have added some contacts which i initially thought was me following them, but would seem thats not how you do it...

thanks in advance if anyone reads this and can help x

mumstheword***

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