Dark Sunday's 6 Year Plan

Dark_Sunday

Woke up this morning & it was dark, wet, cold & quite depressing. Had a HUGE hangover when analysing the normal festive season's over indulgences & more depressingly the irresponsible overspending.

It was a true DARK SUNDAY for me. I felt so depressed & despondent when reflecting this morning.

This afternoon I went for a run (slow jog really), cleared my head, felt better & decided that once & for all I'm gonna get the finances sorted & ALL of the debts cleared.

So it's a realistic 6 year plan to clear ALL of the debts including: mortgage, loan, overdraft & more importantly the dreaded credit cards.

Give or take a few £s the overall debt is £72k. I'm too ashamed at this moment in time to publicly post a breakdown of the debts, as the credit cards are quite frankly horrendous & a real cause for concern.

Here goes a long haul of wishing my life away for 6 years.

Roll on January 2022.

Baldybear

Good luck for the future, heres to a debt free life

Dark_Sunday

Thanks BB

Spent last night on the internet going thro all the accounts & writing down all the debt numbers....bleary eyed on here reading diaries, etc. back at work today so no time for wallowing in self pity. Just gone thro' monthly outgoings to seen what can be reduced. So here is the plan for cutting some costs immediately:

1. Cut weekly shopping bill.
2. Reduce SKY subscription (must phone tonight).
3. Change current account if possible (pay £16 per month for "benefits" we don't use).

Some CC payments due this week so at least I can make a small start to getting the debt down.

Dark_Sunday

1st CC payment off so debt reduction started. CC interest really is a killer :mad:

Phoned SKY & managed to get £20 reduction per month for 1 year for being a "loyal" customer.

Next task to see if current account can be changed to one with lower monthly fees.

Looks like Jan & Feb should be pretty good for virtually no spending except living costs. Should be able to reduce debt by well over £1k for each of these 2 horrible winter months.

lincs1205

Sounds like you're doing really well dark, don't be to hard on yourself though. You will get there.

kirtsypoos

Hi Dark,

Try not to feel too down - at least the worst is behind you! It can only get better from here as the amount of debt you have will be going down now you have had your LBM.

Chin up!

Dark_Sunday

Thanks for your very supportive messages. I'm now sort of coming to terms with these huge unsecured CC debts, especially as I've seen a couple of posters on here with similar amounts - I guess I'm not alone. only real option is a long, hard, frugal, struggle with the CCs.

Went to bank & was able to change current account to one with less "benefits" so saving £13 per month. I've obviously been paying over the odds for a very long time for invisible "benefits".

Phoned high % apr CC to see if they could reduce interest but was told "NO".

kirtsypoos

Hi Dark,

Have you thought about claiming against the bank for the packaged bank account? I only had one for a few months but just got a refund of the amount paid plus interest, maybe worth a try?

K

Dark_Sunday

kirtsypoos wrote: »

Hi Dark,

Have you thought about claiming against the bank for the packaged bank account? I only had one for a few months but just got a refund of the amount paid plus interest, maybe worth a try?

K

Hi Kirsty, never even thought about that....is it something similar to PPi ?

Kitten868

Hello!

There's a template letter somewhere on mse for complaining and reclaiming bank charges. If you never used any of the benefits I think you definitely have a good chance.
PPI is another good one. People say 'oh I don't have that' - that's exactly the point - you don't know unless you ask. ANY credit you've had: mortgage, loans or credit cards ask the companies to check for you directly. That's be a nice cash injection
So what's the plan? Get it all on 0% and pay £1000 a month?
And don't be embarrassed my mortgage is massive! You've seen the light and now you're making a change it's all upwards from here x

kirtsypoos

Like Kitten says if you use the template on mse it's very easy. Mine was only just over £30 but the interest was almost as much again so worth doing...it's money towards the debt at the end of the day! Mine only took 1 letter, so worth a try!