£43,000 on credit cards...I want to be free!

I_Want_to_be_Free

5 years ago I joined MSE under a different username and managed to pay off almost £17k in just over a year :T (I started around £45k years before but this was the final push) Now I'm back and my debt is £43k :eek: but the difference is that it is debt I've taken on to save my business otherwise I would lose everything. I've paid off a similar amount of debt before so I can do it again and if the business really picks up then I will be able to pay it off much quicker but I'm going to work on the assumption that my salary will not increase.

I cannot tell you how stressful this year has been for me. It started with us changing the business profile and outsourcing our warehousing and fulfilment. It all went horribly wrong with the fulfilment company fleecing us for 10's of £thousands. This year began with us serving them notice and then they charged us 4x the original price to get our stock back which had to be paid in advance. We had to pay for 2 sets of premises, rates etc and sales nose dived. We had to make 2 people redundant, 1 of whom was a really close friend of 20yrs We are still struggling but should have paid most of our suppliers by the end of this month.

On a personal level my long term boyfriend ended our relationship unexpectedly in March whilst I was in the midst of legal battles with the fulfilment centre. So I had to say goodbye to the life I thought I would have, the future husband, future house but most especially, my future children that we'd already chosen names for. In all probability I will never have my own children now and that has been probably the hardest thing to deal with. Also my best friend has mental health problems and tried to kill herself and still is in and out of hospital 3 months later. Yeah, my life is rubbish! :eek:

I'm afraid that the stress just took it's toll on me. I pretended I was alright and plastered a fake smile on my face but I was eating and drinking a huge amount of sugary and fatty junk food as I am a stress eater. Fast forward a few months and I was off to the doctors with insomnia and other, more strange, symptoms. Turns out that at the tender age of 36yrs I have higher cholesterol than they'd like and I'm hurtling towards pre-diabetes despite me running 10k's and half marathons! I have also just been diagnosed with Stress-Induced Depression. They don't want to medicate me though as it's not something wrong chemically in my brain, I "just need bad things to stop happening to me" (doctors words!)

All in all, it's been a pretty :wall: year......BUT......

Everything revolves around money. I don't have the life I want, I can't go travelling if I want, I can't change anything because I have so much debt. So, the only way to get my health better and my life to how I want it to be, is to pay off my debt, little by little. So here I am. A bit older than I was in 2012 but armed with the knowledge that I did it before so I can do it again. It will take a lot more than a year but I know all the tricks from the challenges on here to make that debt free date edge closer day by day.

I am just working through a budget and then I will know how much I have to pay off my credit cards extra to the minimum payments which are £900 a month on their own :eek:

But like I said, I've done this before so I can do this again. I just need to bunker down for the long haul and use every trick in the book to save/make money 2017 may have been utterly horrendous so far but I am determined to make the last part of this year the turning point in the life I want! :j

I_Want_to_be_Free

So this morning I have brought everything I should need into work so I don't have to spend anything. I am aiming for 1 NSD today!!! :j

My_Own_Back_Door

Good luck on your journey!

littlemissbudgetqueen

Good luck - hope you end up with a NSD!

Scott_Weiland_2

Good luck with your journey, I hope we can all help in some shape or form.

900 re the cards is astronomical, are the cards on 0 percents etc?

I_Want_to_be_Free

Thanks for your support everyone, it means an awful lot especially at the moment! :A

Yay I got my NSD today!!! :j Really happy about that. I've already planned my meals for tomorrow so fingers crossed I can get my 2nd one too

Unfortunately I've just double checked the balances and I've got the figure wrong. It should be £44,924 :eek: Crikey!

6.5 out of my 9 cards are on 0% (1 credit card has half the balance still on 0% and the rest isn't anymore). I'm afraid I cannot get anymore 0% cards to do balance transfers because I have so much debt. My goal is to pay down the highest interest credit card first and move from there. I want to pay off as much as possible extra to my monthly budget if the business starts to improve enough for me to start taking extra out. If not then I have loads to sell on ebay anyway which should bring in a few hundred pounds. It's a small amount but better than nothing and at least it will declutter my house!

Tonights job is to properly sort out a realistic budget! I hope you're all having a great evening despite the weather today :beer: xxx

I_Want_to_be_Free

Well today wasn't a no spend day, however, it was both a success and a failure at the same time. Normally I would go into a shop or a supermarket and buy whatever I wanted but today I really thought about the purchases I made. I still spent too much but I realised that I hadn't planned what I would buy first. I must make sure I always write a list and stick to it! So yes I spent a bit more than I wanted to (only about £5 too much) but I thought about what I was buying (instead of mindlessly throwing things in the trolley) and I realised I needed to have shoppung lists in future.
I picked up my 4yr old niece after work from her "big school". She looked so cute in her little uniform! She stayed for dinner and we watched Scooby Doo and nows she's fast asleep in the room next to mine. She's my world and I love her to bits!
On a work note, all of the Directors (me and 3 other family members) had a very long meeting today about how the business is doing and what we need to do to prep for Christmas... Then we started talking finances and I'm relieved that everyone is in agreement that we should be able to pull money out of the business next year to help pay off our debts from this year. This should hopefully mean that I could make a decent dent in what I owe depending on how well the business performs. Things are on the up though and we're all feeling a bit more positive! Hope you've all had a lovely day! Xxx

I_Want_to_be_Free

I got a surprising NSD today!!!!! :j That's 2 in 3 days! I will definitely need to do a shop tomorrow but I'm sticking to my budget of £10 per day

I_Want_to_be_Free

I really wanted a NSD tomorrow so have been shopping in preparation. Only fly in the ointment is that my fuel light will come on tomorrow. Dammit :rotfl: To be honest I might not class fuel as a spend cos it's necessary and I always try to choose the cheapest pump in the area. What I'm trying to focus on is my unnecessary spends especially food shopping.
Anyway, I spent more than my budget but I had to bulk buy some things so I can reduce my budget for next week accordingly. It was things like a big bag of cashewnuts which costs £6 but it's better value than buying the smaller bags and it will last me a month.
The other thing I really want to cut down on is food waste. I am atrocious at it! :eek: I'm trying to see the NSDs and budgeting as another way to curb my wasting. If I'm meal planning then I'm far less likely to waste food. That's the plan anyway :beer:
Well, goodnight everyone! Another debt busting day tomorrow!!! :T:T:T

worriedDan

Hi - Well done for taking the plunge and posting! We owe a similar amount to you so I know how it feels when you are at the start of your journey.

Perhaps post your SOA so that people can comment and suggest other ways of saving money

I wish you well on your DF journey!

I_Want_to_be_Free

Well yesterday was a fantastic :money: MSE day :j:j:j I rang a couple of credit card companies to see when my 0% rate expires. Unfortunately about £15k will jump onto the standard rate of about 18.95% in December... :eek: Anyway, I spoke to them and they have told me to ring back on Dec 1st and they will reduce the interest rate down to approx 6.9% (depending on lender) :j I'm already on the high rate with N@twest so they are moving me onto a Clear Rate card which is 6.684% instead of 17.74% (big difference!). This means that my minimum payment will go down from £114.40 to £87.00. I can then use this to go off my other card which is at the high rate. I've also had a couple of balance transfer offers from some of my cards as I have paid a few £100 off each. One I can transfer to 0% and the other is 4.9% so they'll both still help reduce my interest amounts.

I got another NSD yesterday and should get another one today as I'm not feeling very well so won't be going out. The race I planned to run tomorrow is also out. I'm gutted but I hadn't paid for it so it will save me £26.55 in race fees. My races are something I am loathe to give up to be honest. I don't drink, I don't smoke or gamble or go out much and if I do then I always drive. I don't have a gym membership or anything like that so it really is my one vice. It's all budgeted in though as I love doing them and getting the nice shiny medal and t-shirts afterwards. I know someone reading this will probably wonder why I don't just do Parkrun... it's a very good question! I've often thought of doing it (did it once years ago) but I just can't get myself out of bed unless I've paid to...! So I'm happy enough to get up early at the weekend for a race if I've paid for it but I know that if it's just for Parkrun then I'd look at the weather or the clock and go straight back to sleep! :rotfl:

I really feel like I'm in control of my finances again for the first time in 5yrs!!! The last time I was in this much debt it was easier cos most was from a large loan and the others were all on 0% credit cards that I could just keep shifting about. Now it's different cos I cannot get anymore 0% cards so I'm just doing damage limitation. This is all business debt though so I can promise you that I will never EVER get another credit card unless I will be paying the balance off in full each month. If I want a new kitchen for my new house for example, then I will simply have to save for it! The stress of being in so much debt is simply not worth it.

Anyway, I hope you're all having a lovely weekend so far :A