never ending debt free diary

Huskyrunner

Hi i am on a debt management plan i should be debt free by the time i am 43 at the current rate i am currently 36 years old.

I have 17000 worth of debts that were scattered everywhere payday loan companies, credit cards, overdrafts etc

i am paying 200 a month its a tiny amount in the scale of things but i am doing every single online survey going too bring extra cash in. I am a member of the below can anyone recommend any other online survey sites too boost income

opinion outpost
one poll
toluna
opinium research
isay
panel opinions
global test market

top cash back i use also but it takes ages too pay out

Re me and my partner and some background we have being together ten years and are solid but financially we have being under a lot of !!!!. My partner is a youth worker and has lost so many jobs due too lack of funding government cuts. All of this combined with me getting made redundant by barclays 12 months ago has being fun and games.

i am now working again my other half is working for an agency and has a well solid youth worker job.

Huskyrunner

hoping too help anyone i can on here too, i have worked in the banking industry 11 years for barclays.

Any Barclays questions send them my way i will help if i can

Huskyrunner

well today has being a killer for i am having one of those days where i just want too hibernate.

I should of mentioned in my diary initially i struggle really badly with mental illness and sadly its a factor why me and my partner got into a mess. I was diagnosed in january as having cyclothymia after 7 years of having gps give me anti depressant and anti depresssnt that either didnt work or would work for a bit.

The net result has being i have had a lot of time off work and my income fluctuated alot the company i worked 4 were helpful but after 6 months off i spent along time on ssp on more than one occasion.

Things are improving now slowly i am working full time in a less stressful role, my partner is working full time its just getting me down quite abit the level of debit around my neck.

16000 plus with cccs (monthly repay 202)
student loan debit 16000 (comes off as a tax deduction 35-50 usually)
mortgage 70000 ish 425pm

i have a very small savings fund which is basically set up for home emergencies really and car bills. Its only at 110 quid but i am putting 20quid a month into it and odds and sods like top cashback earnings

last year in 2 months we had 2 car breakdowns and repair bills of near 300

Storm desmond took our back fences down 200

and then the week before xmas i boiler broke 175


family luckily were great but it was a killer asking my father in law for help

re our finances i dont know what too do really do i pay more off my debts, save more, pay more off my mortgage. I want the money free cycle too end and enjoy life a bit at the moment everything that comes in goes straight out

DawnW

Hello Huskyrunner, I notice you posted on the small things thread today, so thought I would stop by and say hello

I don't have debt any more, but am early retired and live on a small income, so have to be careful. In your place, I would use survey money etc to build up the emergency fund before I paid extra off the debt. If you have a bit of money behind you, you don't have to worry nearly so much about applicances breaking down, car repairs etc as you have the money ready in savings to cover the costs - so less stress

It seems a long haul, but it is good to see the debt finally coming down - are you with one of the free debt charities for your DMP? If so hopefully your creditors have frozen interest at this stage?

AspiringButAnxious

Having a small emergency fund has helped me feel a lot more secure. My current plan is to prioritise saving in my EF and rainy day fund (which I can use for non-emergency but unexpected expenses, which gives me a little more freedom), but once I have £1,500 saved I will hit the debt as hard as I can to drive it down ASAP.

Obviously it's a personal choice, but this approach makes sense to me because it means unexpected expenses won't be put on the credit card, which I struggle with because it would be an increase in debt and I previously got in the habit of thinking "a bit more on the CC balance won't make much difference" — an attitude which further increases debt very fast!

Huskyrunner

Thanks for replying Dawn

yes we are re our debt management plans i tried going through payplan initially but they were a nightmare at the set up stage. My partner went through step change so i basically followed suit. I kept never dealing with the same case handler and communication was very hard.

All of the debts the interest is frozen bar 2 ie paydayexpress who wont freeze the interest as a result step change are paying them more. My repayment is 200 but i am looking at rejigging stuff so i can hopefully get my repayment too 300pm i dont want too be 40years old and still have this around me neck.

My plan is too try and get the emergency fund to 500-750 before the end of the year.

Then i think i will leave it at that and from there try and build another saver i have too start clearing stuff sooner.

I owe 16944 but the issue is most of this is made of 2 large debits and around 10-15 debts that are 300-500 pounds each

I was an idiot with payday loans you name it i used them and messed up when i got made redundant

Huskyrunner

AspiringButAnxious wrote: »

Having a small emergency fund has helped me feel a lot more secure. My current plan is to prioritise saving in my EF and rainy day fund (which I can use for non-emergency but unexpected expenses, which gives me a little more freedom), but once I have £1,500 saved I will hit the debt as hard as I can to drive it down ASAP.

Obviously it's a personal choice, but this approach makes sense to me because it means unexpected expenses won't be put on the credit card, which I struggle with because it would be an increase in debt and I previously got in the habit of thinking "a bit more on the CC balance won't make much difference" — an attitude which further increases debt very fast!

i think i will set my ef higher maybe 1500 too then from here i will start hitting my smaller debts more. The end of last year nearly knackered our xmas luckily my partners dad bailed us out with a £1000 which i am still paying back.

The stress of last year and a lot of medication changes but so much stress on me and my partner. I am remembering right its yourself aspiring and anxious who like my self has being diagnosed with mental health problems too.

Huskyrunner

My aim is i want this 16944 gone by the time i am 40 lol

Then i can get my mortgage down and happy days

My mortgage has 70000 on it ish but where we live i begrudge paying more off it untill my dmp is gone as theres no point having no mortgage with 16944 and a knackered credit rating around my neck.

Positives in my new job i work nights so i get a nice shift allowance and if i behave keep me nose clean etc i will get a 550 bonus every other month before tax.

Hoping too use them too get this dmp down quicker

Survey money i am using too slowly build up my savings

Huskyrunner

Just opened a new saver with rci bank thats a 0.2 percent improvement on my crappy post office one ☺

1.45 percent

Huskyrunner

I treated myself today 100 quid spent on new running gear i got paid today and today i received my first bonus at work 350 quid. I put 25 extra into my emergency funds and 75 in a repay debt early fund :-)

just checked £4.50 cashback on the running gear ��

sillyinthepast

I found you :-)

Well done on your bonus at work. I need to build my emergency fund up too. We have nothing at the moment all of our savings have been used since dh went on sick.

I know what your going through with mental health. I suffer from depression and anxiety and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Xx