The Longshot route to a new life!

Itsa_Longshot

Hi everyone,

I’ve been lurking around here for the last couple of days, and been encouraged by the amount of support and advice I see you all giving each other in the diary section in particular, so I’ve decided I should sign up for a quite simple reason - I need help! It really is time for me to make some changes, so here we go…

Here are the debts and the goals I’ve set myself, more of a story in the second post else this will be far too long!

Summary of my debts as of the end of June ’15:
Credit card 1 - £5,372.11
Credit card 2 - £217.51
Loan - £3,988.21
TOTAL - £9,577.83

My goals:

Short term:

• Join MSE and start a diary - DONE!
• Join some MSE challenges - DONE!
• Investigate credit transfers - DONE! Credit transferred to 0% card
• Investigate debt consolidation - DONE! Not doing.
• Investigate changing monthly direct debits to annual (insurance, TV license etc)
• Get rid of unnecessary monthly payments (computer service, possibly dental plan)
• Come up with a recovery plan and set a debt free date

Mid term:

• Finish degree course (two years remaining)
• New job with better pay and nearer home
• Improved health and fitness
• Investigate pensions

Long term:

• Debt free by ??/??/??
• New/upgraded computer fund

Long long term:

• Buy a house

Month end debt tracker:

• June '15 - £9,577.83
• July '15 - £9,467.22 - 1.15% paid
• August '15 - £9,216.37 - 3.77% paid
• September '15 - £8,865.60 - 7.44% paid
• October '15 - £8,570.06 - 10.52% paid
• November '15 - £8,496.86 - 11.29% paid
• December '15 - £8,377.48 - 12.53% paid

Itsa_Longshot

A quick story on the background to my debt - graduated from university in 2002, started full-time work in Jan 2003 where I was for just over 5 years before the company was closed down (or rather, moved elsewhere in the parent company) but received a good redundancy package. I decided to enjoy myself and my money for a while, but one month became three, three became six, six became a year… I was out of work for 22 months in the end, started at my current job in Jan 2010, where I still am now. As you can imagine I went through all of my redundancy money and savings in those 22 months, and had some help from my parents towards the end. Quite relieved to find a job, but sadly despite having a steady income, my outgoings aren’t quite so steady.

My bank called me in in 2012 and we put my debts (overdraft and credit card) in to a loan, revised again a year later, but things aren’t much better now.

The debt totals above are given on pay day, and I make credit card payments early in the month. The loan was originally around £8k so I’ve halved that, but the credit card debt has cancelled that out.

2015 hasn’t been a good year so far - I hit an animal while driving which led to a repair bill of £250 (insurance excess is £250, so no help there), and then recently after a service required new brakes and discs which was another £300. Not much I could do there, but a voluntary expense was £200 on a new bike - I decided to do this because as well as sorting my debts out, I really need to improve by health, fitness and general well being. I’ve done plenty of cycling before, but my old bike was about 18 years old and really not safe! The cycling is going well so far though.

As well as working full-time, I’m also studying part-time for a degree with the Open University. Five years down, two to go! Annual fees for this are around £850.00.

The odd thing is that I do keep good track of my monthly spending, I’ve just not really done a great deal about improving my situation. I’ll put up a bit of a budget in the next few days and take things from there.

Thanks for reading (if you've made it this far!), hopefully I didn’t bore you too much, but it actually feels quite good to put all this in writing, and I’m looking forward to discussing things with people who are or have been in a similar situation.

Onwards to a debt-free life!

spendaholic1986

Hello!

Good luck with your debt free journey! I also recently started a diary on here and have found it very therapeutic! I look forward to reading your updates

Itsa_Longshot

Thanks, spendaholic! I think you're right about the therapeutic aspect, I was even laying in bed last night thinking about this while failing to fall asleep. I've woken up this morning and taken my first step (well, second after joining here!) by cancelling my National Lottery monthly direct debit.

I've been playing one line on each Saturday and Wednesday draw for a while, but the money really is better spent elsewhere. £4 per week saved, that's £208 per year.

Having played the same set of numbers for so long I now need to avoid looking at the draw results, even though I full well know that me cancelling increases the odds of those numbers coming up by absolutely zip, I'm not going to do it!

Itsa_Longshot

I've looked back at my outgoings for June, and this is how things panned out:

1. Rent……………….…....…. £720.00
2. Broadband/phone….….........£39.50
3. Mobile…………………......…£11.94
4. TV licence…………......…….£12.12
5. Dental plan…………......……£12.50
6. Car finance……….…...……£221.18
7. Petrol………………......……£136.87
8. Car insurance………...……...£26.33
9. Car repairs…………....…….£302.89
10. Food……………….....……£124.42
11. Gifts……………….....….…..£42.99
12. Lottery……………..........…..£26.00
13. Degree course fees.…......£103.77
14. Football ticket………......….£82.72
15. Amazon Instant……...…...…£4.99
16. Entertainment………...……£76.43
17. Computer service plan......…£6.99
18. Credit card interest….........£77.58
19. Loan interest………........…£23.00

TOTAL…………………..........£2,052.22

My income (all salary after tax) is £1880.48, so for June I’m at -£171.74.

(1) Rent is inclusive of council tax and utilities, only excludes telephone
(9) New brakes and discs required, hopefully won’t see anything like this for a while!
(10) Reasonably happy with this amount, though I need to be cutting back more
(12) This will be gone soon, no payment in July
(13) The last payment for the unit I’ve just finished, will be no more fees until November (I think)
(14) This is the third of four interest-free monthly payments for my 2015-16 season ticket
(16) Bit higher than it might otherwise be, due to £35 on an Amazon FireTV Stick
(17) This really has to go!

Looking ahead to July, these will all go:
9. Car repairs…………....…….£302.89
12. Lottery……………..........…..£26.00
13. Degree course fees.…......£103.77

Which should put me around £430.00 better off next month. One more month to go on my season ticket, so hopefully from July to October I’ll be able to make a good amount back. This will then reduce by £100 or so when the next part of my uni fees kick in, which I think will be November, but I still need to apply and finalise this. I really need to make sure I start making money back every month though, and hopefully no more £300 car repairs!

I need to work on the credit card interest too, see if I can get that debt transferred to a 0% card - see goals!

Looking forward to a much better July! :j

Bobarella

Hiya
One thing really stood out in your first post. I really wouldn't recommend looking at consolidation. So many people on here have bad stories about ending up wracking the debts up again once the consolidation occurs.
It's good you know why you are in a bit of a hole & now you can start to climb out. The fact you already keep tabs on your spending should make it easier as that's a skill many don't have.
Good luck with it all anyway
Bob

Itsa_Longshot

Thanks Bob. I did the consolidation thing about three years ago when it was credit card and overdraft debt, hence the loan. And then built up the credit card again. :mad: I put it as an option again, but I'm far more tempted by doing the credit card shuffle and losing the £75 per month interest - my task for this coming weekend is to look in to that more.

Itsa_Longshot

So I've been reading through a few other diaries and now feel very inspired and motivated! :j Friday tomorrow, so I've set myself a few goals for the weekend:

• Sub-£20 food shop (after £5 voucher)
• Put together a budget for the next 6 months
• Apply for a 0% credit card and balance transfer
• Two 10+mile bike rides
• Start de-cluttering, 1st target: clothes

OnwardAndUpward81

Hey there, I'll be watching to see how you get on. Good luck with the journey. I also agree with Bobarella, having recently done the consolidation thing, put myself back in a pickle again! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel though. Have a thorough think before making your decision.

Itsa_Longshot

Itsa_Longshot wrote: »

• Sub-£20 food shop (after £5 voucher)
• Put together a budget for the next 6 months
• Apply for a 0% credit card and balance transfer
• Two 10+mile bike rides
• Start de-cluttering, 1st target: clothes

Well I'm calling that a successful weekend!

The food shop came in at £12.48 after the voucher, which was a surprisingly satisfying moment at the till! Put together a bit of a budget for the remainder of the year, still needs a few tweaks though it shows I need to keep cutting back. Applied for a 0% card which has gone through, so should receive that in the coming week and confirm the credit transfer - will be a saving on interest of around £75 a month which is great.

Bike rides of 10 miles and 15 miles, the last half hour of which was in the rain! :doh: Made a bit of progress with the clothes, but it's a small step in a big de-clutter project. Too much stuff lying around I don't need - I don't think there's a great deal of value anywhere should I sell some of it off, but I'll see what can be done.

OnwardAndUpward81

I see your journey is starting well. Keep going and joining MSE challenges sometimes helps too. If you have DVDS and CDs check out music magpie, you don't get a wonderful amount but it is quick and definitely money to put towards debt or savings.