Small Steps Out Of Massive Debt!

Bobarella

Good to hear progress there Georgina

GeorgianaCavendish

dktreesea wrote: »

Hi GC,


Congratulations on your LBM. I have been in your position, using shopping therapy to overcome depression, with twice as much debt as you have amassed. The banks loved it. At one stage one of my credit cards had a limit of £18k. Now that I am in my fifties, I hate things with a passion, don't bring anything into the house unless there's an equal volume going out of the house, and celebrate every foot of free floor space I create each month. I don't really even shop for enjoyment now because everything I like gets the question "Do I need this?" and even if the answer is yes, gets further interrogation "Why exactly do I need this?"


I still occasionally have a coffee out, (Waitrose, free but our Waitrose requires a purchase. No problem - they're the only supermarket in town that carry Vogels bread) but invite friends over rather than meeting them at a coffee shop. They get fruit salad as a dessert instead of cake.


I was wondering about your £90 a year annual fee for the anti virus for your computers? This seems way over the top for me. We use Kaspersky, £12.50 a year digital download off EBAY for 5 computers. If you only had two computers that need it, it's around £8 a year.

Thanks so much for posting! I am starting to develop a dislike of "things" too, my sister gave me a couple of bottles of bubble bath last week which was a lovely gesture but all I could think was "I've got no space for this!".

I admit that the anti virus thing was purely because I had an auto renew on it. I cancelled the auto renew so I won't get caught out this year, and I'm going to research alternatives. Kaspersky sounds brilliant!

GeorgianaCavendish

Bobarella wrote: »

Good to hear progress there Georgina

Thank you

JoJoC wrote: »

It must be a time for deadlines and work-related busyness, because I'm the same at the moment! Currently procrastinating, putting off doing something tricky, but I'm going to make some notes and plans and get back onto it in the morning. Hope you get through it all

Ugh, what is it about this time of year?! I've got an enormous pile of papers I need to deal with on my desk and I have a devil of a headache thanks to an evening of letting off steam with colleagues (and a few bottles of wine bought by my boss). Two of my colleagues are on holiday next week, so I'll be picking up some of their work too :mad:
Oh well, at least it is nearly the weekend

GeorgianaCavendish

Finally got the hotel expenses refunded to my Barclaycard which means that the balance is now under £10,000 :j OK, not under 10K by much (balance now £9963.28) but the next direct debit should see a further balance reduction of around £105. Even though it is not a big reduction in the scheme of my overall debt, breaking through this £10,000 barrier feels like a big deal.

I'm now counting down to payday, extra exciting this month because I will get a bonus which I have earmarked for paying a chunk of the MBNA debt. And instead of being !!!!ed off that some of my bonus will be going to the Student Loan Company, I'm actually quite excited to see what that does to my balance when I get my annual statement in a couple of months.

Have a great weekend everyone!

boxofpaws

Brilliant! I love seeing the numbers come down. When are you updating your signature?:D

GeorgianaCavendish

Bonus day today! I was very fortunate this year and got a higher bonus than I had been expecting. I used this money plus the money in my Paypal account, money from TopCashBack, surveys and focus groups to pay £5763.01 off my MBNA debt which means that my MBNA balance is now £2054.52 :j

I was also able to pay off the outstanding holiday balance, and my Barclaycard refund went through in March so that balance has come down a little bit.

I'm really pleased with this! A bit disheartening listening to my colleagues talk about what they are going to buy with their bonuses but I keep telling myself that my total debt is now under 30K and my credit card debt is under 15K. That is a massive boost to my 2017 debt busting!

My updated March Debt Totals are as follows:

Total debt (excluding Student Loan) is £28,112.90

HSBC Personal Loan : £12877.06
Interest rate 8.9%, 34 payments left

Credit Card Balances

HSBC £2357.14
Interest rate 21.9%

MBNA £2054.52
Breakdown as follows
£543.75 @ 10.9% (rate ends September 2017)
£541.28 @ 10.9% (rate ends October 2017)
£969.49 @ 10.9% (rate ends November 2017)


Barclaycard £9,963.28
£480.36 @ 27.6%
£9,482.92 @ 18.6%

Catalog £722.63
Interest rate 17.9%

Furniture Finance £603
Interest rate 0%, 7 payments left

Holiday £0 left to pay
Interest rate 0%, must be paid by 25th April 2017

GeorgianaCavendish

boxofpaws wrote: »

Brilliant! I love seeing the numbers come down. When are you updating your signature?:D

I've just done it, feels so good! :j

JoJoC

Wow, wow and more wow! What an awesome chunk off your debt! Impressive

GeorgianaCavendish

JoJoC wrote: »

Wow, wow and more wow! What an awesome chunk off your debt! Impressive

I'm so pleased! :j

kirtsypoos

That's an amazing amount to pay off - congratulations!