The long haul supporters thread...

Keeping_Positive

((((hugs)))))LTM07 Being a long haule I know how endless it can seem and I have some slack. I personally would look at option 2becasue if things are so tight thenwhats the point in living IYSWIM? As long as you are careful not to go mad then it seems as plausible option.

Sorryto hear about the car Dubgirl, put ours in Autotrader for 6 weeks online £35 so will let you know how it goes. A the moment the two cars have eaten nearly all my savings so really need this car to go.

dubgirl

Hi, LTM at the end of the day your health, happiness and family are the most important thing and dont feel guilty if you go for option 2. It is no good being a matyr and slogging your guts out to end up making yourself ill.
Wendy - dont know what will happen if we cant sell the car, at the moment the other car is still leaking oil and we dont have enough money to fix, OH has already borrowed some money off his mum to buy a new sump (dont know what that is) as that needs replacing as well, he found this out at the weekend when he was having a look! We'e been well and truly stung when we bought this car!

ltm07

Thanks for the support ladies,it is so much appreciated. OH came home from work this morning & I haven't mentioned anything to her yet. I am still pondering on what to do or whether to suggest consolidating some of our debts. Sometimes I think I need the brain of an accountant to stay on top of the money situation:rolleyes: ! Will sit down & do our sums later to see if it is worth doing or not. On the positive side I do think we have started to organise the budget alot better. We now budget everything monthly, whereas before we budgetted some things monthly & others weekly. I have been thinking of another way at going about the whole DFW journey. It isn't ideal but if we budget everything that we need to then our debt will not shift much & may even increase a little for the time being. However one of our loans finishes in July & also OH should hopefully be going full time in June, picking up extra shifts in the meantime, so hopefully our debts will keep going down, even if it is only slightly. So sorry about the rant last night & I know that there are other people alot worse off than us. I guess we will all have our highs & lows along the way. At the end of the day on paper we should be DF in 43 months, so allowing for some slack & doing all the things that we want to/need to we will be happy to get there in 5 years. Another 7 year loan would be a massive commitment in our situation, but at the same time would make life easier in our current circumstances. I will let you know what we decide to do & my mind is telling me to stick things out for a while & if we do find it too hard to deal with,then the loan is there as another option. Thanks for reading folks & thank you so so much for your advice.

1_step_closer

Aw sweetie! I had to reply and say that I think it is very difficult isn't it? It can seem as though we take one step forward and a gazillion back but we all get like that. If consolidation for part of your debt will work for you, ease off some stress and make you relax a bit more then I would do that. If you do get any surplus income in a few months perhaps you can squirrel it away in an isa or something? Use it when it matures to take a huge chunk off another debt?

I think we all have to relook at stuff as money is going to get very tight now for the foreseeable future (yeah thanks gordon brown) as we need some leeway for emergancies.

You take care

1 step

ltm07

Thanks 1 step. As you say things are very tight for most people nowadays, & i'll 2nd that about Gordon Brown & his clueless party! I like your idea regarding the ISA & may look into that. We have worked so hard to get most of our debts onto low LOB & 0% cards, it would seem such a shame to consolidate them all onto a 7.4% loan, even if it does make our lives easier & lowers our outgoings. As I said i my last post, maybe the budgetting for everything we need to is the best solution in our situation & if we have to dip into our overdraft now & again so be it. We have managed to pay off little chunks of our debt every month this year bar January & although we haven't paid massive amounts off we are slowly heading in the right direction. As many of you have said before, the DFW journey is a marathon, not a sprint, so NONE of us DFW's should feel guilty if we don't get there as fast as we'd like to. After all, we have borrowed the money not stolen it! So we will aim for our DFD to be February 2013(my 40th birthday) & do our best to get there before, but at the same time enjoy life & not let our debts hinder us too much. Thanks for reading & for your support. All the best!

In_Search_Of_Me

Hugs LTM...it does seem never ending when youre a long hauler which is why I set this up as we're unique & hopefully will all help each other through the highs and lows. Looking at your start date it looks as if you may be experiencing the 1 year blues...ie you've spent the last months sorting, paying off, flogging with very little fun and a certain amount of "had enough" invariably creeps in but beware!! My 1 year blues put me back thousands & I had to have another LBM and start again...now I'm back into it big time & realise that I needed new challage & to look where I slipped. For me it was replacing tat shopping with grocery shopping so I've been sorting that...last few weeks I've spent half what I used to & have been more innovative with cooking and less wasteful. Things like coke are a treat rather than the norm and managed this week to spend 5.97 on emergency beer on Tues but nothing else & 2 wk ago managed 2.88!! (0% alch though!). Plus you need to find cheap fun...I spent age feeling deprived & miserable but now rediscovered things like cooking, allotment, reading & started going to a book group for non MSE "me" time which I love...
Only you can decide re the loan but what I would say is look at the interest...if you get it you are likely to be lulled into a false sence of security & shop again and end up even worse off and not necc happier. The first year IS the hardest and it does get easier I promise as soon you will really see the impact of spending less & paying more off but there is no denying that its tough going...stick with us though and we WILL all get there! Slowly but surely....

Keeping_Positive

I do hope the first year is the hardest its been about 7 months since ours/mine ISOM :A .

Feeling bad about the cars and a few extra spends this month but just done a rough budget for June and not as bad as I had feared:D . Really need the car to go or alot of savings will have been wasted . Another £100 and will have reached the 10% repaid mark:j .

LTM If you have some changes such as loans ending and have great rates ie nil then a loan probably not the best if you can hang on a use temp overdraft instead. Hope whatever you decide goes to plan :A .

In_Search_Of_Me

I can only speak from experience Wendy & did find it took me time to change habits & settle in to the dfw way of life...the not spending was horrendous initially!! Now purchases are needed (generally!) well thought out & not spur of the moment...

dubgirl

hi everyone, I think it is only naturally to go through the doldrums on this DF journey, that is only to be expected, i think one trick is to ensure that you try if poss to factor in some cash for a treat, no matter what it is, even if it is a couple of quid occasionally for a magazine. Its a bit like a diet, if you continually deprive yourself, then its likely that you will give up, well thats how I see it. No bids yet on car - ends tomorrow morning.

Poosmate

Evening all,

I haven't posted on this thread before so please excuse me for butting in. I guess I probably will become a regular if that's ok as I too am a long hauler! Snowball calc says 2016 for me but I don't really believe it. I think it might be longer or it could be shorter.

At the beginning of April I had my LBM and I cried. For the first time in years of debt I realised that I was precariously close to not being able to keep just one account within it's agreed limit because the interest would knock it over by a few quid. I had a 5 day business/holiday trip to go on and wasn't looking forward to it at all even though it had been paid for. My LBM forced me to take a long hard look at my income and outgoings - I had to find the money somehow to put into the endangered account just to cover the interest.

To cut a long story short, I found that I'd got extra money in my bills account, so I was able to keep the wolf from the door for April anyway. I then spent the whole of one Saturday moving bits of money from one place to another and noting what earnings I had where and how I could increase them. I drew up a "debt plan of action". I wrote down everything I needed to do to keep my head above water for a couple of months whilst I found a second job. I checked the status of my online earners, MutualPoints, Ipsos, Valued Opinions and resolved to earn all the points possible every day from then on. I ordered my £20 from MutualPoints. I ordered my commission from the catalogue I used to run £154.74 (yay didn't realise it was that much!). I checked my gas/elec bills and was able to reduce my monthly payments by £22. I finally got round to banking a cheque for £50 which I'd received for Christmas.

Once I started there was no stopping me! I started to feel more positive.

I couldn't believe what happened next......

My lodger returned! With the extra money I got from him I bought a brand new oven and gas hob. I'd been without an oven for 6 months since my lodger had moved out as I was unable to make ends meet without his money. The oven and hob (RRP £317) I got off Ebay for £69.99. Result!

I bought a raffle ticket at work and won £200 shopping spree. That's really scary as I haven't shopped for clothes for years. (I go into Matalan, buy a bra or whatever it is I need and leave the shop - that's how I've shopped for clothes since I can remember). Most of my clothes have been given to me or are cheap imitations. Needs must! I know that I can't buy any fashionable clothes with that money as I will probably be wearing them in a couple of years time so they will be timeless classics or plain blouses/jumpers that are neither in or out of fashion (well from what I've seen you can add £10 at least to any item that is seen as in fashion anyway - soon eats into £200).

I guess what I am trying to say is that you never know what's round the corner. Over these last few weeks I have been so lucky in that good things have happened at the exact time I've needed them but I also know that I will need a couple of new tyres for the car within the next couple of months, my washing machine might breakdown or freezer pack up, my guttering may fall down. I know I can't rest on my laurels but the dark days around my LBM are ingrained in my memory. I will use my lodger's money to get me back on track but am still finding other ways to boost my income to bust those debts.

Sorry this is such a long post and the original reason for posting was to respond to Itm07.

Itm07, I can see from your posts you are going through a really tough time but I can see the light for you - you say your OH is hoping to go full time in June - that's NEXT WEEK!!!(more or less). Please, please keep strong for just a month or two more that's where the light is. Your OH going full time and the end of one of your loans. Please can you weigh up 2 more months of toughing it out compared to another 7 year loan? 2 months of hard or 7 years of still hard but not quite as hard as the next 2 months. Please see the light that I can see for you.

Hope this helps and once again I'm sorry for making my entrance in such a long post.

All the best

Poo