Dan's desperate dash towards solvency

triple_choc_chip

Fab progress, you seem relaxed and in control. Well done!

Suffolk_lass

Well done Dan. Your most recent post makes really good reading and your in-control manner is such a contrast. I'm in that really flat period of the month where there's just one payment left from each account and it feels as though it isn't worth posting. Keep going, your progress is awesome.

Really good news that you did get the CC balance transfer limit increased BTW - it costs nothing to ask and it can save you money!

ada-or-ardor

Yeah it's so great to hear how much more positive you're feeling :-) well done!!

Ada

Verbatim

I agree;a wonderful positive turnaround. I'm so glad you're not making yourself ill with worry anymore.

worriedDan

Thought it was time for a much needed update!

It's been about 4 months now since the start of my journey. We are going really well. We have managed to stick fairly closely to our 'pay off 2K a month' target. This month we will be a bit short the target due ( will pay £1700) but for the first time in years we are not using credit and out balances are going down at a decent rate!

Some of you will remember that I made myself ill with worry at the start of my journey. I took advice, went to my GP, took the anti depressants and have recently been referred for congitive behaviour therapy. This is the best thing I have ever done. I feel stronger in myself and my mental health has improved 10 fold. I no longer worry about the debt in the way that I used to. When I read back my earlier posts it feels like I am reading someone else's story.

We are still in lots of debt as we are only in the early stages of our journey BUT we are making progress. We are on track to hit our end of Year target BUT it's fine, even if we are just shy of it.

I am thinking of ending this diary and starting a new, more positive one! I don't the 'desperate' part of the title!!

Suffolk_lass

Hi Dan,
That is a really positive update and makes for excellent reading. Please can I urge you not to change your name or diary - it will sit as an example for others who may be feeling as desperate as you were when you started. Don't feel ashamed of the things that you wrote. They are part of showing where you started and to use a much over-used phrase, they really are part of your journey. You should be really proud. Anyway, if you change your name, I might have to change mine! I am hardly a lass in the sense of a young lady (probably never was tbh) - as a young woman I was no lady (!) and now any lady-like characteristics are no longer associated with youth...

Anyway, it's good to see you posting and I hope you will do a bit of a status update to show your progress at some point.

Well done!

EssexHebridean

Oh Dan that's just brilliant to read - well done you! Understand where you're coming from on the thread title but definitely be proud of all you've done to turn your situation round.

worriedDan

Hi Everyone,

Not posted for a while. It's been about 4 months now since the start of our journey so still fairly early days I guess. this month has been our trickiest yet with loads of things to pay out. This is the first month since we started this that I have felt a little uneasy about money. Not sure if this is the fact that our budget has been strained, or the effect of medication wearing off since I came off my antidepressants. I think that its perhaps due to the fact that we are about to break up for the 6 weeks summer hols and I know that this will be a real test for us.

We haven't managed to £2000 debt repayment this month as we have had to pay out SO much stuff that was unexpected. I am ok with this as we knew that there would always be times when we had to be flexible, but I am just so determined to never go back to where we were.

I have just done some number crunching ( I haven't done that for months!!) and I can see that we have made good progress since April. We just need to keep it together over the summer!

Verbatim

Sounds like you have it all under control. Well done Dan.

EssexHebridean

I'm guessing that even if you just "tread water" - make the payments you have to make - but don't throw anything extra at the debt busting, you'll still be a lot better off than you would have been in a "pre LBM" summer holidays?

Sometimes the stuff of memories is the most important - they'll never be those ages again, and so long as you budget still works and you're going forwards not backwards, you might just want to go with the flow for a few weeks.