Starting over

lotte123

Well, this is not a great place to be. About 10 years ago I was here before, paid it all off and now have built it up again and probably more. But this was the best place for me then and I've had to get over myself a bit and realise that it's the best place for me now. So, with 2018 looming and close to £18k in unsecured debt looming over me, I'm going to get my head out of the sand and start reducing this down. If I can get it down to £15k by the end of 2018 then I will be a happy lady. This is my debt so far (will get my signature sorted soon): Barclaycard £5135.29, daughter £500, Halifax cc £1725.50, merchants £2226.62, OH £7889, taxman £187.34 = £17663.75.

I am self employed so income is hard to know but I reckon it's between £8-12k a year. Obviously debt to OH can wait but I would like to start paying some of that back especially as some of it was a loan to start up my business. Debt to merchant will soon be going on Barclaycard or else account will be closed but downside of that is that it will then be subject to stupid interest rates. But as I can't get a loan that will have to do. Taxman is set up on DD and hopefully will be due a rebate once I get my tax return in in the next couple of weeks. Halifax is on fairly low interest for next couple of months and then will be going back up again to 17% odd. Bleuch!

Have decided to rent out one of our rooms on Air BnB so hopefully that will be an extra £100-£200 a month that I can plough into the highest interest card - Barclaycard.

OK. That's it for now. More to follow. Thanks for listening.

lotte123

Just seen my old signature. Ouch.

MeenaM

good luck Lotte , you did it once so you can do it again , any chance of moving any of it to 0 interest or lower interest rates ?

redofromstart

Good luck with it. Hope you can at least reduce some of the interest.

CoffeeCakeYarn

Good luck, you've done it before you can do it again :beer:

enjoyyourshoes

Hi, thats £35 per week overspending over 10 years.

if you are self employed can you :-

Get more income (raise prices or do more jobs)

Increase margins (increase prices again or reduce stock used to generate the sales)

Do you employ people, if so performance manage them, set targets etc watch their productivity

Reduce your costs without damaging the unique product you are delivering

Cut out all those day to day, drip drip drip costs, coffee, mags, fags, booze , lotto lunches etc

lotte123

enjoyyourshoes wrote: »

Hi, thats £35 per week overspending over 10 years.

if you are self employed can you :-

Get more income (raise prices or do more jobs)

Increase margins (increase prices again or reduce stock used to generate the sales)

Do you employ people, if so performance manage them, set targets etc watch their productivity

Reduce your costs without damaging the unique product you are delivering

Cut out all those day to day, drip drip drip costs, coffee, mags, fags, booze , lotto lunches etc

Thanks. Have cut out my coffee and sandwiches. Increased my charges. The main thing for me though has been realising that the way I think about my profit has been wrong. So I’ve been doing a job and thinking that I was making £600 because that’s what I was invoicing but after materials and costs it was more like £200 and I couldn’t understand why I had no money! Embarrassing but true. So now I’ve realised that it has helped me see things much more clearly and realistically.

lotte123

MeenaM wrote: »

good luck Lotte , you did it once so you can do it again , any chance of moving any of it to 0 interest or lower interest rates ?

Sadly not. I had hoped that OH could get a loan that I would pay him back on a much lower interest rate but he got declined. I’ve got a bit more on my Halifax that I could do a BT on but it’s only 6 months. Still it’s probably worth it as it doesn’t go any higher than the Barclaycard when it goes back up. Thankfully monies owed to DD and OH are interest free. Just come with added guilt. Aim is to give DD her money back by her 21st in May. Luckily she hasn’t noticed it as it was in some premium bonds she’d asked me to cash. Like an idiot I forgot and thought the magic money fairy had given me £500 and spent it.:o