A message of support

misskl

Hi DFW'ers,

I graduated from the debt free wannabes forums about 6 months ago. I had constantly been in debt all my adult life, from the age of 18, until the age of 30.

Here's a summary of my borrowing:

Got x 2 overdrafts of 2k = £4k in total
Got a 5k loan to help an existing business
Got a 2k credit card to set up a business
Got 3k on a card
Got 8k loan -for car and to pay off overdrafts

That's £22,000 in total I have borrowed, and last November I became debt-free.
If I can do it, you can! Here's some tips:
a) do whatever it takes to be debt free. I ended up working a part time job at the weekends as well as my full time job. yes, I was knackered, but I had to get myself out of it.
b) recognise how you feel when you are tempted to spend - you will either be feeling in a good mood and think f**k it, or in a bad mood and think the same. WALK AWAY! your emotions last moments compared to your debt.
c) Come off facebook/social media. It can be hard to see everyone having a good time whilst you're trying to get yourself together. But you need to focus on yourself and not compare yourself/feel bad about your situation.
d) Educate yourself about money - this has been the hardest thing for me as I've never been taught about money, but its easy to do really. go get a load of books out on the library or watch youtube videos. You'll start to cherish money instead of it going out your life as fast as it came in.


I was in a dark place, felt like I had nothing to live for, like I was a failure (i went to live with my grandma aged 29 living out of a suitcase) but you know what, when you're going through hell, keep going! you can do it xx

sourcrates

misskl wrote: »

d) Educate yourself about money - this has been the hardest thing for me as I've never been taught about money, but its easy to do really. go get a load of books out on the library or watch youtube videos. You'll start to cherish money instead of it going out your life as fast as it came in.

That, is a really good piece of advice.

Living within your means, and balancing a budget, should, in my opinion, become a part of the national curriculum.

School may give you the means and opportunity to earn a good living, but as far as I am aware, there is no emphasis on day to day financial awareness, or how to manage credit properly.

You see lots of posts on here from people who have had debts from there early life, and the phrase "buried my head in the sand" seems to crop up a lot, it usually sets the pattern for the rest of your life, unless you educate yourself on these matters !!!!

Bobarella

Thanks for popping by Misski, very inspiring to those of us still on the debt paying treadmill. Really happy it all worked out for you!

[Deleted User]

misskl wrote: »

Hi DFW'ers,

a) do whatever it takes to be debt free. I ended up working a part time job at the weekends as well as my full time job. yes, I was knackered, but I had to get myself out of it.

Yes how does this work? when you have a contract of employment that doesn't allow secondary jobs - some employers see it as a conflict of interest (while I can't work out if you had your own business if that made it easier or was a way round it) so I can't help think you were incredibly lucky to service two unaffected in reality, otherwise great inspiration
I can imagine you must have been very tired x

CurlyTop

Well done on getting there. I got there in November 2013. What a great feeling it was. I'd not had a great time of it, particularly when one creditor took me to Court not once but three times! They never got any extra money from me.

The ironic thing was that after I was DMP free I put in an application to see if I could claim any PPI back. Guess who owed me over £10,000 .....yep, you got the creditor who had taken me to Court. In all I received over £14,000. It enabled me to do the home renovations that were next on my list to do.

I'm now 18 months debt free and there are some days where I do splash the cash...that is if you call buying something on sale in the m&s outlet store that's last seasons style as opposed to paying full price for this seasons stuff, splashing the cash.

Best of luck with how far you've come. Here's to your next adventure, which judging by your signature I take it to be the saving up for a place of your own. I still stay here for inspiration, together with viewing some frugal blogs...frugalqueen in particular.

I don't intend going back. Keep the faith

faithcecilia

Deleted%20User wrote: »

Yes how does this work? when you have a contract of employment that doesn't allow secondary jobs - some employers see it as a conflict of interest (while I can't work out if you had your own business if that made it easier or was a way round it) so I can't help think you were incredibly lucky to service two unaffected in reality, otherwise great inspiration
I can imagine you must have been very tired x

I think those who are contractually forbidden to take second jobs are in the minority, a lot of people do have 2 or even more jobs - at one point I effectively had 2 fulltime jobs, doing 9-5 in an office and 6-midnight in a pub and I know I was far from unique. Yes it can be exhausting but its worth it to see the debts getting paid off.

misskl

Yeah, I was exhausted. Doing a full time marketing job then worked as a children's entertainer on weekends as a Disney princess!

It's probably something you can do for a short period of time. I prefer to work hard in a short space of time to pay things off rather than waiting years.

ShakeItOff

Deleted%20User wrote: »

Yes how does this work? when you have a contract of employment that doesn't allow secondary jobs - some employers see it as a conflict of interest (while I can't work out if you had your own business if that made it easier or was a way round it) so I can't help think you were incredibly lucky to service two unaffected in reality, otherwise great inspiration
I can imagine you must have been very tired x

In my experience as a HR type, I have never come across a contract that outright forbids a second job, but often you would have to make your main employer aware. In the case of where I work, you have to get express permission from our HR Manager or an Exec Director. I have never known them to refuse one, but I can't recall ever seeing one with a conflict of interest arise. Definitely worth checking your contract of employment. Hope that helps!

FireWyrm

faithcecilia wrote: »

I think those who are contractually forbidden to take second jobs are in the minority,

I'm pretty sure that I would never accept a contract which was so binding, or, I would have negotiated a salary that I was more than happy with and meant there was no need for a second job. It astounds me the kind of !!!!! from employers people are prepared to put up with. I have taken paycuts because I did not like the terms and conditions of a job offer and accepted the slightly lower paid one instead.

isaisababy-

This is a really good post. I have 5k of debt on a loan currently, which will be paid off in 3 years. Wanting to make an early settlement on that, but cannot seem to find a good way to save.
I need to do what you say and cherish my money what comes in. So hard though!
I'm currently in a new job, where from next week, I can start doing time and a half overtime. Going to aim for a 6/7 day week, 12 hour shifts!