living the 'high' life: £100 per week

fieldend

Not a very glamorous life, I know. I'm a walking cliche. On the positive side, I have a happy and healthy child (and I'm relatively healthy too) and I have some good friends and family. And I have a good job and own my flat, even though it's heavily mortgaged. My credit history is unblemished, so not all is lost...

I won't bore you with the details on how I got to this stage... here's the current situ though:

Health: I'm decently healthy BUT I've gained more than one stone in about 6 months. Got a bit depressed, low energy, stopped yoga, and spent way too much on the sofa with Netflix. My goal is to lose that extra stone, hopefully a bit more, and leave the sofa. I don't want to do anything radical, but this should be achievable in 3-4 months if I become more active and watch what and how much I eat.

Singleness: not much I can do on this one at the moment... I'm stuck at home most evenings, being a single mother. I cannot abuse my friends for babysitting, although we do exchange some time like that. My family and my ex all live abroad (although that is changing, my ex got a 3-yr contract job close to where we live, so I hope once he moves back here, I will have more free time for myself). I've recently joined OKC and Tinder, the idea being * I have to do something about it * so we shall see.

Debt: I left the most important one last. Well.. all are important, but this one affects everything in my life, it worries me and makes me feel depressed and mad at myself. My credit card debt is over 9K, I've got negligible savings and a big mortgage. I gave myself until end of this year to clear this ugly debt - but this isn't really achievable unless I get paid my year end bonus in full. If not, I absolutely need to pay all credit card debt before May 2017 when my 0% promo rate runs out. This is the main reason why I'm starting this diary and I'm not allowed to fail. My income isn't exactly low, but I have to stop living beyond my means. First measure is to put all holidaying on hold, until all my credit card debt is gone. Will also start taking other steps, like reducing spend on eating out, and groceries bill, and so on.

My regular outgoings rounded up are as follows:

• £1400 - housing-related (mortgage, insurances, council tax, service charge, ground rent, gas, electricity, water, phone, Internet, TV, mobile phone)
• £150 - monthly Oyster card and top ups
• £350 - before & after-school childcare and clubs, school lunches, child uni savings
• £500 - credit card repayments. Minimum payments are ~ £90 but I will never repay my debt if I pay minimum (and continue spending on CCs..)

This leaves me with about £700 per month for daily living expenses - groceries, clothes, fun, and so on. It's completely manageable on paper - I just have to make it work in reality, set a budget for these and stick to it. And put away the credit cards forever, which is harder than I thought, I've been trying to do that for months now, and I couldn't get myself to do it. I don't think I can say I had my light bulb moment until I stop touching credit cards.

Please wish me [STRIKE]luck [/STRIKE]strength, I need it. Thank you!

bedhair

Welcome to the boards
You’ll find the people here are all so supportive and experts as they have either gone through the same or are making their own journeys through the ups and downs of a DFW life.
I will follow your progress with interest - Good luck x

fieldend

Thank you. I feel really bad about my debt... so many people on here seem to do well with much less money... I got most of this debt over the past 2 years. Four years ago I was at £3000, and that was the most I ever owed (not counting mortgage). Then I got down to ~ £2000, and after that I completely lost control over my finances - a new boiler, too many holidays, eating out too frequently, buying expensive things, and mostly not keeping track of money and credit card balances.

Cat_Loving_Lady

Most of the people who read/write on this forum are either in or have been in the same boat so you are amongst friends. The one good thing is that you debt comparative to your earnings isn't ridiculously high so your aim to pay it off is realistic. Good luck !

fieldend

Thank you Cat Loving Lady you are right, just it's hard for me to see the light at the end of the tunnel right now, I think I'm (more than) a bit depressed at the moment (been like that for months).

Your signature definitely gives me hope!

fieldend

Just posted SOA draft on the debt free wannabe board, called "SOA Advice - thank you" (I can't post links).

It's work in progress, many of the daily living expenses are my clumsy attempt at budgeting for the future, not current reality.

MERFE

Maybe being proactive in dealing with this will help with the depression too. And exercise.

Can you freeze or cut up the credit cards? So you haven't closed the account, can request a new card if you need to but don't make any impulse purchases. This is what we do to stop us using them.

Good luck with your journey, you can definitely do this x

fieldend

Thank you! I Being active def helps me. I have an underactive thyroid gland (lifetime treatment) so I once I fell off the wagon, it all happened very fast... my thyroid was affected by lack of exercise and in turns it affected my metabolism so it's a vicious circle. I cannot blame it only on the thyroid though, I've became a couch potato!

Yes I will put the credit cards in a sealed envelope and hide away. Hopefully that will work. No more carrying around just in case. I've also deleted the credit cards from my ebay, amazon, and ASDA accounts - so that I don't use them to buy online either.

MERFE

well done making those first steps.

I am definitely a couch potato too, getting motivated is very hard but we will do it.

My daughter has an underactive thyroid so I can understand how that can make you slow. She gets super cold too. We play a game where I go round the house turning down the radiators and opening windows and she goes round turning them back up again, its great fun x

fieldend

I have the cold issue too! I can't stand extremes - very cold or very hot (being cold is worse though). There are so many issues that are thyroid-related frankly I'm ignoring/got used to most of them, I've had these since I was in my early 20s. And I know some of them can be helped with exercise and eating healthy food, it's not the end of the world. Cynical me says 'at least it's not cancer'.

I had * fun * tonight, I put all my credit cards bar one in an envelope that reads 'Don't open the effin envelope, idiot! Don't do it. DO NOT open the envelope. Take a deep breath. Put the envelope back in the drawer. You don't have any available credit, you're over £9K in red. This envelope doesn't exist. Your credit cards don't exist.'. I won't seal it until Thursday (pay day) because I only have £1.65 in my bank account and not enough food to last until then, I need at least bread and milk and eggs and some fruit for my DD, for her morning snacks, and I don't want to go into overdraft.

fieldend

PS. I sound pathetic. Oh wait, I am pathetic...

Off to sleep now though, I promised myself that I will go to sleep before 11 every evening when I'm not going out (which is most evenings). Lack of sleep contributes to my depression. Good night diary.