Dan's desperate dash towards solvency

MrsPorridge · 28 February 2017 at 2:06PM

Dan - I see how worried you are - but flipping that around (silver lining and all that) it has made you face up to your spending habits. Better now than carry on as you were and have to face it when it would be much worse in years to come.

Good luck with your journey - as you have already discovered there is lots of help on this site.

When I first started I joined the PAD thread (payment a day) on credit cards. That was really helpful for me. If you haven't already then have a look at that thread. I didn't realize that I could pay off a few pennies every day if I wanted to. It wasn't much to start with but every penny brings it closer to the debt free date.

worriedDan · 28 February 2017 at 2:52PM

MrsPorridge wrote: »

Dan - I see how worried you are - but flipping that around (silver lining and all that) it has made you face up to your spending habits. Better now than carry on as you were and have to face it when it would be much worse in years to come.

Good luck with your journey - as you have already discovered there is lots of help on this site.

When I first started I joined the PAD thread (payment a day) on credit cards. That was really helpful for me. If you haven't already then have a look at that thread. I didn't realize that I could pay off a few pennies every day if I wanted to. It wasn't much to start with but every penny brings it closer to the debt free date.

Thanks Mrs Porridge,

I am trying to look at the positives. I am sure I will be feeling much better soon, after all we have had this debt for a while, so it makes no sense that I am suddenly a nervous wreck over it!

worriedDan · 28 February 2017 at 6:04PM

So it's started. I've been paid and made some payments a la the new budget. it's a good feeling that the next payday is only 27 days away as this means a total of 3k will be cleared from debts in less than 4 weeks

worriedDan · 1 March 2017 at 4:54PM

Today has been my best day by far since the start of this journey. After a truly dreadful couple of weeks I feel like the fog is lifting,

A couple of colleagues have been really kind this week after noticing my stressed out state. One of my close colleagues who I have confided in, sat with me today and showed me her budget. Her income is the only income coming in to the house. It is about half our income. She has about 40k of debt that she is repaying from this salary alone. She gets stressed, but nothing like I have been. relatively she is in a worse situation and yet she just gets on with it. This was a real wake up call for me.

It's time for me to stop thinking about the overall figure and start focusing on the small milestones, which for me will be the first 3k repaid by 28th March!

Thank you all so much for your kind and supportive comments. It has really kept me going on days when I have felt in total despair.

Moneywhizz · 1 March 2017 at 8:43PM

You are very fortunate to be able to pay off such a huge amount each month. Your debt will be gone before you know it and you will be able to then make good choices about what to do with all that extra money. That will be such a benefit to your mental health, not to have to worry about money. Just keep thinking about being free of debt and keep focused on the milestones along the way. You can do this. Good luck.

worriedDan · 1 March 2017 at 10:39PM

Another big milestone tonight. My wife, worried about my stressed our state, asked me how much we owed. Up until now she has said that she didn't want to know or that I didn't have to tell her. She asked me if it was more than 40k. I said " It's in the fifties" ( It's actually about 55K ish ).

She was shocked that it was that much BUT she wasn't angry or disappointed. Her only concern was that I had been shouldering the burden of it for so long. For the first time in probably 3 years I feel like a weight has been lifted. The amount of debt wasn't the issue - I can see that now. It was the secrecy, the embarrassment and the shame. I have told her all of this and she can't believe that I held myself solely responsible.

We have sat and looked at our budget properly this evening and have decided to take a slightly more hardcore approach with a view to clearing it even more quickly. We are hoping to clear 2k a month!!!!! We can totally do this now that we are both on board. this means that we will have about £1200 left to feed us, fuel our cars, pay for sons after school clubs and build up some savings fairly quickly. If we can't manage on £1200 then we have serious issues!

My only regret is not having this conversation a couple of years ago,