My journey to a debt free life

Onebrokelady

I've notified my manager that I want to take my pension and take semi retirement. This will take 6months to arrange. I will the return to work for two days a week instead of the three I do now. This will give me access to a lump sum which I'm paying off the last bit of my mortgage with.
Plan one
There will be an amount left which I can use to pay off the debt but this will also mean coming clean to my DDs as they know I will have a lump sum and will wonder why I haven't used it to do the work on the house.

Plan two 
I can use the amount that's left to do the work on the house plus pay off any that's left off the debt and use the money I'm not paying out on my mortgage for debt payments.

In the meantime I'm going to contact the company that now owns my debt to let them know I will be going self managed and that for at least the next 6 months I will be paying a reduced amount of £40 a month due to my health and the current cost of living crisis. I have changes happening at work which will mean an increase in wages so it's possible my situation will improve so I will review it in 6 months time. 

Onebrokelady

Change of plan I am now going to ask to have my debts written off. I've taken advice from people on the DFW forum and they have said it's worth asking so I'm going to ask.

Ive been at work today on an early and it was quite a nice shift. I got a lift there and back so not as much time spent travelling to and fro was nice.

Im not feeling too good today so will be off to bed soon. My steroids drop down to 8mgs today and I'm not sure how it's going to go. I struggled slightly at 9mgs but didn't want to go back up to 10 so I've left it to see how I get on. I will request repeat bloods before I let them increase the dose again as these symptoms might be Fibromyalgia and not PMR.

Im off up to my mum and dads tomorrow to get my hair cut. My niece will be impressed because I've managed to go the whole time without chopping bits off my fringe 😀🎉🎉

I also need some shopping but not loads I've got packed lunch stuff and ingredients to make 8 meals plus a left over roast for tomorrow so not too bad.

 

Humdinger1

@Onebrokelady I am so full of admiration for you.   Thinking about all the factors you mention above (most of which are beyond anyone's control, unless you planned the pandemic and invaded Ukraine? ) you have soldiered on through bad health paying down debt including eye-watering interest.  You've paid off the amount outstanding several times over, no?  I think asking for a write-off is a darn good idea and going self-managed on the rest, if any.  You may not need to go into more detail than you'd like with DDs as the COL crisis is frankly no secret. Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

foxgloves

@Onebrokelady - You do so well to keep working when you have health difficulties. You always sound committed to providing good service at work & have cut your budget exponentially to try & keep up your debt payments to SC. The problem, as you quite rightly identify, is that with the very significant increases in bills & cost of living basics, your income is no longer sufficient to cover your outgoings & debt payments. And it's a 'Catch 22' situation, as your health prevents extra shifts or going full time. So I think a formal letter requesting your debts be written off is definitely worth trying. You can say in all honesty that you will never be in a position to pay them. If they refuse, then I suppose you would go to £1 token payments for as long as it takes to reinforce the message, before trying again.
I hope the formal letter produces the results you want & will be interested to hear how it turns out.
Good luck,
F x

Sun_Addict

Sounds like you've had some good advice and if they can't write off your debt they may be willing to settle for a low amount. You can only try - fingers crossed for you.

Seasidegal58

Caught up with your diary after some weeks. I'm sorry to read that you have been having a rough time with family issues and I hope that things resolve as best they can. 

Another here who thinks a write-off of your debts would be a good idea for you. 

I hope you're feeling better this morning. x

Onebrokelady

Humdinger1 said:

@Onebrokelady I am so full of admiration for you.   Thinking about all the factors you mention above (most of which are beyond anyone's control, unless you planned the pandemic and invaded Ukraine? ) you have soldiered on through bad health paying down debt including eye-watering interest.  You've paid off the amount outstanding several times over, no?  I think asking for a write-off is a darn good idea and going self-managed on the rest, if any.  You may not need to go into more detail than you'd like with DDs as the COL crisis is frankly no secret. Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

Thank you 😊 I'm going to write it today but first need envelopes and a stamp so will get those today. I also need to let SC know I'm stopping my DMP and going self managed 🙀

Onebrokelady

foxgloves said:

@Onebrokelady - You do so well to keep working when you have health difficulties. You always sound committed to providing good service at work & have cut your budget exponentially to try & keep up your debt payments to SC. The problem, as you quite rightly identify, is that with the very significant increases in bills & cost of living basics, your income is no longer sufficient to cover your outgoings & debt payments. And it's a 'Catch 22' situation, as your health prevents extra shifts or going full time. So I think a formal letter requesting your debts be written off is definitely worth trying. You can say in all honesty that you will never be in a position to pay them. If they refuse, then I suppose you would go to £1 token payments for as long as it takes to reinforce the message, before trying again.
I hope the formal letter produces the results you want & will be interested to hear how it turns out.
Good luck,
F x

Awww thanks 😊 I was first advised to cut my hours in 2003 but I managed to keep going for a lot longer but I think looking back I should have followed their advice. Still as we all know hindsight is a wonderful thing 🙄 I'm actually gutted to find myself in the situation again as I still think I should pay off what I owe but for the foreseeable it's just not possible to keep it up. I honestly don't think they will write anything off but I will never know if I don't ask so 🤞🤞

Onebrokelady

Sun_Addict said:

Sounds like you've had some good advice and if they can't write off your debt they may be willing to settle for a low amount. You can only try - fingers crossed for you.

Thanks SA I don't think for one minute I will be successful but I can hope 🤞🤞

Onebrokelady

Seasidegal58 said:

Caught up with your diary after some weeks. I'm sorry to read that you have been having a rough time with family issues and I hope that things resolve as best they can. 

Another here who thinks a write-off of your debts would be a good idea for you. 

I hope you're feeling better this morning. x

Thanks SG  the family issue will just be ongoing. Dad is deteriorating every day in his mind and I think he will end up needed a care home but it's my mum and sister who are in charge of his care so we will see what happens. Mum is also not doing too well memory wise so we need to keep an eye on her as well. It was a battle to get my sister to accept Dad had dementia and my mum still isn't convinced  he's not faking 🤷‍♀️🙄😳so trying to suggest mum has it too is going to be a challenge.

Im still not feeling too good but better than last night, the sun has just come out too so that makes everything better 😊

I have been very lax in reading diaries lately so must catch up with everyone 😊