Small Steps Out Of Massive Debt!

GeorgianaCavendish

brizzlegirl said:

Great progress GC, hope you’re having a good weekend 

Thank you brizzlegirl! Weekend has been great so far, we did a fun pub quiz last night and I’m just about to start making some burgers for dinner today. Hope you’re having a great weekend! 

GeorgianaCavendish

Isitdoable said:

GC, I've just caught up on your diary as I have been AWOL due to this whole Covid nightmare!  Just wanted to say that I still find your journey and your drive very inspiring.  And I am incredibly envious of your emergency fund, even as it is.  We are so much in the sh** right now because of having nothing, and its really cemented in my head the importance of addressing this.

Thank you so much, and I’m really sorry to hear that things are tough - I hope the situation improves for you very soon.  

The coronavirus stuff has really made me reassess my priorities about emergency fund saving. 

GeorgianaCavendish

May Debt & Savings Totals 

Debt : £11,825
HSBC - £4,250
0% rates in order that they will be paid off (HSBC applies payments to the oldest balances first) 

• £988.65 exp Sep 2020
• £514.50 exp Sep 2020 
• £1,425.17 exp Aug 2020
• £1,321.68  exp Aug 2020 

TESCO - £1,400.00
0% until April 2021 
(sticking at the minimum payment of £25 per month until HSBC is done)

MBNA - £6,175.00
0% until April 2021 
(because of where my balance transfer occurred in the billing cycle, I had £0 minimum payment at the end of April. From the end of May I'll be paying £75 per month)  

'Debt-buster' Savings: £571.50
(I already had £171.50 in this account before transferring my 'debt-buster' savings for this month. Any extras like rewards from surveys or cash back sites will now go into this account instead of going straight on my credit card)

IrishSean

Are you down from £35k to sub £12k in just over 2 years?

That's amazing : VWD 👏 (m'lady!)

Keep up the good work 💪 DFW in no time; imagine the feeling going to bed that night?!

S😀

IrishSean

Doh, 3 and a bit years; maths not my strong point, maybe explains why i've a diary here too, lol

Still, your paydown is fantastic 👌😀

Verbatim

Great progress GC. Your totals are really coming down fast.

GeorgianaCavendish

Thank you Sean and Verbatim! It's been an up and down 3+ years but I feel so much better this year and that the end is in sight  

Back in 2017, I had a large personal loan, I was paying high interest rates on all of my credit card debt and I was still repaying my student loans.  The debt has been up and down (I had a horrible 2018 and undid a lot of progress) but I have also been lucky to receive a couple of bonuses from work which helped me to clear chunks of debt at a time and then get 0% balance transfer offers to move the other debt across. 
The most dramatic change was when I finally repaid the loans. That freed up around £700 a month that I'm now able to pay off the credit card debt, and from this month,  "practice" with saving money. But thanks to the MSE boards there have also been lots of smaller changes along the way that have helped me change my way of thinking too. The biggest change from that is facing up to reality and making sure that I know exactly what interest rates I'm on, when they expire, what my minimum payments are etc - that is such a difference from when I first started! Even when that knowledge really sucked because the figures were so high, it does feels good to be in control and to understand what is happening with my money (instead of seeing it as this mystical thing that just vanishes from my bank account without any input from me!). 

Tracking my spending was another big one. I was the Queen of Optimistic Budgets. I would easily convince myself that I didn't spend more than £10 a month on takeaway coffee and never jumped in a cab, and then draw up punishing budgets and debt repayment plans. But that first month when I looked back over my transactions and saw the reality was really shocking to me! (The worst was all the "nothing-spends" on things like coffee and taxis where I didn't even have anything to show for it, and the things themselves hadn't been particularly nice or enjoyable - they were just convenient)

I am still not the best at having a really detailed budget, I've tried several times with YNAB but that level of detail seems to trigger my spendy impulses rather than control them. Having broad categories and a little bit of flex for some discretionary spending seems to work much better for me (even though this is a fraction of what I used to spend!) 

PositiveBalance

It is good that you have figured out what does/doesn't work for you. There's no point pretending to be someone you aren't - as you have noticed, it doesn't work.

Therr's a reason it is called PERSONAL finance - cos it's personal!

GeorgianaCavendish

PositiveBalance said:

It is good that you have figured out what does/doesn't work for you. There's no point pretending to be someone you aren't - as you have noticed, it doesn't work.

Therr's a reason it is called PERSONAL finance - cos it's personal!

Very wise words!  

astrocytic_kitten

Just catching up on your diary, @GeorgianaCavendish, and finding it very thought provoking. I also feel that I’ve managed to direct the spending urges to debt repayments and seeing the balance decrease, I’ve cleared debt only to run it up a couple of times before so I’ve been wondering how to make this one stick. It’s really interesting to see you work through the same issues too, having a savings plan alongside debt is genius!