Time to turn this around

FiscalPickle

Nearly 6 months has passed since my lightbulb moment, as predicted the grind and the boredom of drilling down debt and trying to be frugal with everything has grown. I've crept into my overdraft through lack of planning, which is a result of a distinct lack of enthusiasm.

To try and inject some of the enthusiasm back, I've done a forecast of what the debt is likely to be by the end of the year. With a fair wind, it will be under £12k. Once I get to a certain point, I'll be able to chuck almost £900 per month at the debt and it will diminish fast. Getting to that point though, feels like light years away.

By autumn 2019 the finish line will be very much in sight, I will hopefully by then be better at planning, discipline with money and completely unlikely to ever take out a personal loan or fritter money on a CC ever again.

*Sigh*

Cherryfudge

It sounds as though it's hard going. These things seem longer looking forward than they do afterwards, looking back, but you can do it! Sometimes even silly stuff can be a motivator: 'wombling' loyalty points (my DH never really bothers with his so I grab them), playing with that calculator somewhere on this site which tells you how much you are spending on regular small treats over a year, even selling incredible stuff on ebay (there is an article somewhere about people selling the tubes out of toilet rolls). Maybe you can find something to get you through this phase till the £900 a month part kicks in, when I expect we won't see you for dust - that's a whopping chunk to pay off on a regular basis!

FiscalPickle

After a weekend of absolutely zero spends, I'm very much looking forward to payday this coming Friday. Got a few nice things planned for the long weekend out of the entertainment budget, including the cinema and a meal out. There may be a couple of drinks either at or after work on Friday, in [STRIKE]honour [/STRIKE] horror of GDPR becoming enforceable.

I'm just waiting for one more interest certificate and then I can submit my tax return. Every year, getting this from HSBC is unnecessarily complicated. I have a feeling that I might be in line for a small rebate, fingers crossed. If so, it's going straight to the Virgin CC.

I had another look at my MSE Credit Club profile, according to this I am using 45% of the available CC credit I have, but conversely it still says my affordability for loans/CCs is poor, as it perceives my disposable income to be rubbish. Well they're not wrong about the disposable income, it's going to be so much healthier once Debt Mountain has been eradicated. However, if I were using the maximum almost £14k of credit available (*shudders*) it would be even worse? Perhaps it factors in the whole amount, its a moot point really as I was just curious. I still have an excellent score of 984, so things are looking good for once the debt is cleared and a house deposit has been saved. :j

Drawingaline

Hi fiscal pickle, just been catching up. I am also at the incredibly bored stage with debt busting. Mine is on the back burner until the madness of the summer holidays are over, plan is 2k between sep-dec, we shall see lol!

Onwards and upwards....

FiscalPickle

A bit of an update on the weight loss front; I've mentioned before that I binned off Weight Watchers, then I had a bit of a break from counting and weighing. I decided that I really missed the gym I used to go to, they do a really good variety of classes which for me are as good as personal training. When I was getting in shape for my wedding, I did kettlebell and barbell/abs classes, they really made a difference to my measurements. As I get a corporate membership rate, I've decided to tweak the budget to fit that in in lieu of WW as exercising is also very good for my mental as well as physical health. I've recently started spinning, which I was a bit intimidated by before but now I've got the hang of it, I really enjoy it.

I'm using the free version of My Fitness Pal to track ingoing calories, I've got it set at maintenance and aim to eat 300-400 less than that Monday-Friday to create a good deficit along with the exercise. I will only weigh myself once a month, so I've got at least 3 weeks before my next weigh-in. This has really taken the pressure off, one bad week can't then turn into two. I think this approach may work better for me in the longer term. I'll also take photos and measurements as I go along, as the scale isn't necessarily the best measure of success.

FiscalPickle

Bit of a development, I put the money chat off with Mr P for some time and probably left it too long. I got really upset about what I perceived to be his lack of commitment in terms of planning to build up joint savings and buy a property together. I had assumed that he was in a much better place financially than me, then I fessed up to the debt. Turns out he has debt too, it looks like a similar amount to mine, if not a bit more, at first blush. He has been sticking his head in the sand for some time, we were both spending on CCs trying to keep up with each other and our ‘lifestyle’, without any communication over our respective financial situations. Quite bizarre for a married couple really!

I’m so glad it’s all out in the open, it feels like such a relief and now we can work together to tackle it. He has more CC debt than I do but no personal loan, however none of his CCs are on 0% and his repayments aren’t really denting the debt. I’ve got him to sign up to MSE credit club so we can see what is what, it looks like there may be some old debts still on his Experian report so we need to look in to getting those taken off, as his credit score is quite low. He is still financially linked to his ex as well, they only managed to sell their joint property 2 years ago. The CCs are no longer being spent on, I will suggest that he cuts them up once we’ve managed to shuffle the balances onto 0%. I’m also considering putting some of his CC debt onto a 0% offer I have with MBNA, to take some of the weight off him.

The next step is to create a joint spreadsheet showing exactly what is what, we can then work together to trim some of the fat off the joint budget and be able to throw more at our debts. I think by working together it will go much easier and a bit quicker, as we will both be on our frugal debt-busting mission together. :money:

enthusiasticsaver

Good that you are now on the same page and can motivate each other.

pidge04

Just had a read of your diary for the first time. Earlier on, you wrote about how we cannot borrow our way out of debt and how the only way out is to claw our way out, tooth and nail. Wow, this really resonated with me having borrowed to try and get out of debt in the past. It has never ever worked for me. I can claw my way out though and do whatever it takes, as you wrote.
Sounds like you have had some twists and turns. I am anticipating hitting a slump in a couple of months. I wish you well.

Cherryfudge

Interesting that you and Mr P are in similar circumstances, and brilliant that you've been able to address it. It sounds as though you'll be leading the way but you're both headed in same direction.

FiscalPickle

Thought I’d do some updating of totals, the debt now stands at £16,767.02. I’m happy with this progress, by this time next month it’ll be in the £15k bracket as I’m planning to pay off a total of £862 on payday at the end of June.
The total paid since LBM now stands at £4,499.45 – I’m sure I could manage a 55p overpayment to bring that to a nice round figure. The figure paid to date represents 21% of the original debt total.