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SusieT78 Debt Free Diary

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  • Everything okay?
    If you have built castles in the air, your work should not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them

    Emergency fund 0/1000
    Buffer fund 0/100
    Debt March -1,119 (April) -889 (April) -498 (April) -378 (May) -875 July (190)
  • SusieT78
    SusieT78 Posts: 56 Forumite
    Everything okay?

    Thanks for asking doingitanyway. I hope you're doing OK too? I've not been on the forum for a while, but I've still been tracking every penny I spend and all household bills on my spreadsheets.

    In the middle of October I wrote to all my creditors to advise of my financial situation, enclosing a copy of my budget, and offering the reduced payments until my situation changes. I also asked for all interest and charges to be frozen going forward.
    I've just heard back from them all. All of them have accepted reduced payments as a temporary measure and will freeze interest and charges. So long as I make the agreed reduced payments they will not take further legal action against me.
    They will still have to follow their procedures in sending me statements, marking my credit file as late, and then in a few months they will send me default letters and then default me with the CRAs, but at least I know that the letters will come and that there will be nothing to worry about when they do.
    They've also said that they may pass my debt onto a debt collection agency, but if that happens they will inform the DCA of the payment arrangement that is in place.
    I'm much less worried now. I was pleasantly surprised that they all agreed to freeze interest and charges. At least every penny I pay from now on will go towards repayment in full.
    With interest and charges being frozen I'm confident I can have it all paid off within 25 years, which might seem like a long time, but at least it is achievable. Much better than the 100+ years it would take if interest and charges weren't frozen.

    For September, I reallocated the £12.20 from the medicine pot to the grocery budget to stay within budget for the month.

    Final September Totals were:
    September groceries/toiletries/cleaning: £337.62/£340 (99.3%)
    September Petrol: £73.48/£100 (73.5%)
    September NSD: stopped recording NSD, for now staying within budget is the important thing
    2017 Paypal Birthday/Xmas fund: £70.98 plus £15 Amazon voucher
    2017 Quidco cashback: £16.20

    For October, I reduced the groceries budget by £10 to £330, petrol budget remains unchanged.
    I've not really been doing the surveys this month, so really need to get back into that.

    Running totals:
    October groceries/toiletries/cleaning: £325.72/£330 (99%)
    October Petrol: £99.54/£100 (99.5%)
    2017 Paypal Birthday/Xmas fund: £70.98 plus £30 Amazon voucher. Spent: £14.93. Remaining: £86.05
    2017 Quidco cashback: £53.27
  • Wow, you have done fantastically well.
    Sometimes when people go quiet they have lost direction but not you!
    Well done for contacting the creditors and getting arrangements and interest frozen.
    I'm no expert but at some stage you may be able to offer settlements so it may not be 25 years at all...

    You sound in control and that's a good place to be
    Well done :)
    If you have built castles in the air, your work should not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them

    Emergency fund 0/1000
    Buffer fund 0/100
    Debt March -1,119 (April) -889 (April) -498 (April) -378 (May) -875 July (190)
  • SusieT78
    SusieT78 Posts: 56 Forumite
    I can't believe it has been 9 months since I last posted.

    Not much to report really in terms of paying off any debt, but it is not exactly bad news either.

    All interest and charges have remained frozen, so the tiny payments I have been able to make have reduced the balances. All credit accounts are now defaulted, but on the plus side that means in 6 years time the defaults will drop off my credit file - not that I want to borrow money again.

    I have managed to live within my means for the last 9 months, and have a little emergency fund so when something unplanned has happened I have managed to sort it without resorting to credit - which I wouldn't be able to get anyway as my credit file is trashed.
    The money I have been making from surveys has come in handy when there has been an emergency and for Christmas and birthdays.

    I found myself staying up almost all night reading the threads on MSE so needed to stay off MSE but I have continued logging everything on my spreadsheet. Things have been more challenging since April with the rise in council tax, water rates, energy prices etc as my budget was balancing to the last penny. But when i sat down with my OH to go through the budget (not mentioning my debts) he just said he didn't need to know the ins and outs, just how much more I need each month for the bills. The upshot is that we can't balance the spreadsheet on his basic salary, but if he does one overtime shift per week then we can.
    I will need to return to work part time so we can manage the budget on just basic hours without relying on overtime, so I'll need to find a job that fits in with school hours and term time.
    My mental health has not been good the last few months and I'm not ready to return to work just yet, so for the next few months I'll be focusing on trying to get into the best place I can mentally. The last thing I want is to start work and have a complete mental breakdown like I did in my last job.
    I'll only need to do 12 hours a week to make the spreadsheet balance again without needing OH to do overtime (assuming we don't have to pay for childcare if I can find something term time and within school hours).

    Although no real dent is being made in the debts, I am still confident it will get paid off, as once the mortgage is paid off I can use the mortgage money towards the debts, so it should be less than 25 years before I'm both mortgage free and debt free. That doesn't even take into account that I'm likely to return to full time work once the children are adults, so in reality I expect my debt free date will come forward.

    I've actually started seeing more of my friends as we do free activities together or they come over to my house to watch a film when the kids are in bed. I'm planning a summer holiday of walks and picnics with the kids, so overall 9 months on I think I'm in a much better place than I was.
  • Hi Susie, didn't want to read and run. It's great to read that you are doing so well in managing your health and feeling better then before :) well done on recognising that you need to feel in a certain place to get back into work, I've made the mistake of going back too soon and know now that the wait to feel better is worth it tenfold!

    Enjoy the holidays :)
    19/12/14: Spent 10 years of savings!!
    :heart2: ..... to buy my first home. :heart2:
    11K OP 31.03.19

    Current goal: €151,000 deposit Ireland and counting, to buy Spring 2022 we hope!
  • doingitanyway
    doingitanyway Posts: 9,886 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Mortgage-free Glee!
    Well done in sticking to the plan Susie. (Slowly slowly catchy monkey :))

    More importantly you sound strong emotionally and are in touch with what you need to stay well.

    An emergency fund no matter how small always helps. Having just a little put away has proved good for my mental health. It is a stress buffer for me :)

    It is great that you have found a way to see your friends more without spending much. Your family-free activities sound good too :)

    Welcome back.
    If you have built castles in the air, your work should not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them

    Emergency fund 0/1000
    Buffer fund 0/100
    Debt March -1,119 (April) -889 (April) -498 (April) -378 (May) -875 July (190)
  • SusieT78
    SusieT78 Posts: 56 Forumite
    edited 2 May 2019 at 2:15AM
    Thought it was time I popped back with an update.

    I'm pleased to say everything is working out well.

    All of my debts bar one have been sold on to DCA's. The other one is being managed by a DCA but still owned by the CC company, this DCA have been very nice in all my dealings with them, it may sound like a strange thing to say but it's actually been a pleasure dealing with them.
    I provide all the DCA's with my updated budget every few months - still only making very low payments as it's all my budget will allow. I don't really hear from them - except for the occasional letter offering a discount to settle the debt in full and saying if I can't settle in full then thank you for continuing with the payment plan. Sadly, I'm not in a position to take them up on their offer of a discount yet. But it gives me hope that my debt free date might not be as far as 25 years away (24 now) as any discounts could bring that date forward.

    I recently found a little job to fit in around our family life and my partner's job - this covers the deficit we had in our budget based on my partner's basic hours. Luckily he got enough overtime so that we were able to live within budget in the meantime.

    I still log every penny I spend on a spreadsheet, it helps me feel in control and means I stay within budget at all times.

    I updated my budget for this tax year and based on our combined basic hours we can cover all bills, and pay £25 a month into an emergency fund. I'm still on token payments of £5 a month to the creditors as supported by my budget - but the good news is that we've now been living within our means for the last year and a half, there has been no additional borrowing and the debts are reducing by £60 a year. Whilst that might not sound like much, once the mortgage is paid in full in 12 years then I'll be able to put the majority of the current mortgage payments towards the debts and at that point they'll reduce by thousands a year.

    My partner is aware our basic hours only cover our living expenses and no luxuries so he still does the occasional bit of overtime. Because he takes no interest in the actual amount of the bills, when he does do overtime I put a some of the extra money into the emergency fund, I put some into a fund for eventual debt repayment (but this could also be used in the event of an emergency if necessary), I put some aside for birthday/Xmas presents and then with the rest I just say "We've got £x amount left over this month after bills". So, we have been able to take the kids on days out, get the occasional takeaway and we put some aside to do one of The Sun holidays from £9.50 - they never end up being £9.50pp but are good value anyway.

    We had a couple of household appliances break last year, but because of the emergency fund it was no problem and we had new ones delivered within a week. Prior to my lightbulb moment this would have been put on a credit card. We also had to have repairs done to the car to get it through it's MOT, again the emergency fund covered it, whereas previously it would have gone on the credit card.

    I've also shopped around for the car insurance, house insurance, broadband etc. so when things like council tax and water rates go up the difference has been covered by savings in other areas.

    My projected debt free date might be 2043 but I'm feeling very positive and it's thanks to the advice and posters on the MSE forums!
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