The long haul supporters thread...

dubgirl

Hi everyone, welcome to the new bods. KP wanted to let you know we sold a car!! Not the Saab mind, but the old shed ( very elderly Astra), only got £200, but better than nothing. Was going to chuck that on the cc, but sods law intervened and had to buy the Saab a new battery thats £60 of it gone already, hey ho x

In_Search_Of_Me

princesspeach (138)
margb(139)

welcome both - tell us a bit about you - how you got here etc and join in. Long haul is very up and down so good to have people along the road ahead - esp as people dip in then come back after a brief blip (from observation - not everyone does!!).

yah on flogging the car dubgirl...at least you can pay some of the cc?!! I got new jeans and bras today as nowt for winter but think, with teh exception of a couple of tops, that I'm pretty much done!

MargB

ooooo my very own number :T

Well here's abit about me, and no doubt it won't be short.

I'm a 45yr old female living in Shropshire. I guess the money issues started when my late partner and I moved in together about 10 years ago. Cos he was going through a divorce, all the bills and the mortgage were mine, but he put into the house all that he could from his salary. Then he developed a serious heart condition so was not able to work. That left all of the financial burden on me (plus the worry of looking after him etc etc etc). I ended up extending the mortgage to pay debts .... stupid thing to do, I now know, but we all make mistakes.

To cut a long story short, he died in 2004. Fortunately he had an insurance policy which paid out enough to cover the remaining debts of his and pay for the funeral.

Since the house was in my name only, the mortage wasn't paid off by his death. And losing him caused me to go off the rails a bit, resulting in large-ish credit card debts. I was spending on utter rubbish. Not even admitted to my best friends how much of a mess I'd gotten myself into.

Well a couple of years ago, I managed to finally get a grip on myself and started to get rid of the credit card debts. As of last month, I became credit card debt and overdraft free. And thats when I really got my LBM. I realised just how much money I have wasted on interest payments and extending the mortgage over the years. Horrible feeling !!!

Added to which I'm off work at the moment with depression and stress. I'm not the only one from the office either. Not the first time I've had these issues except this time I'm not going back to work until I KNOW I can cope with the workload(and the cousellor and doctor say so).

So I've plucked up the courage to plunge in to declare wanting to be debt-free. And I've also realised that (short of a lottery win) there is no quick fix to paying the debts back. So its down to me. I've read enough posts on these forums to know that I can do it as so many of you are doing incredible things with your debts. I can't help but be totally inspired.

The first step for me seems to be to get a spending diary together. I know how much I spend on leccy, oil (no-gas area), mortgage etc, but its the rest I'm wondering about. If I have to write it down before I spend it, maybe I'll think twice about getting it. Since its the first of the month, seems a good place to start as well. Then I can see where the money really goes.

I should be revising for an exam on 15th, so once thats out of the way, I'll
-go through all my direct debits, make sure I know what each and every one is for and cancel any that are not needed. Will also try and look to see if I can get things cheaper.
-list a few things on ebay to see how I get on. Got a house full of clutter, so I'm sure I can have a good clearout at the same time.

So yes I'll be around for a long time yet. Feel a bit like a kid about to start a new school. All very exciting, but still a bit nervous about the journey ahead.

Happytogetdebtfree

Hiya marg b, sorry about your oh, you have come to the right palce for support on debt because it is a long and tiring journey and sometimes its harder knowing you have a long way to go, well done on clearing the credit cards, what might be an idea is if you have somall loans maybe you can get a 0% credit card that you can transfer to the current account that can pay a loan off then make sure you work out how much you have to pay over 12 months or the length of teh 0% deal to clear it before intrest starts then close the card account id be tempted to do it but my credit rating is crap and i cant get a 0% deal so im accepting paying the intrest on my credit cards lol !! pain isnt it gosh when i have no loan or credit card payments il be a months wage better off lol !! hope everyone else is well xx

geranium72

I'd really like to join this thread please

Current debts excluding mortgage are just over £90,000 EEK - but I am now finally dealing with them. I earn a decent salary so we are paying off quite a bit per month but are paying horrendous interest on some cards etc and have no real way of getting new 0% due to high debt levels.

We have run this up by living beyond our means and me doing online gambling - which I have stopped and am not going back there.

Would be nice to get a number and keep on track via this thread

Thanks for all the useful posts tips and support on here

Happytogetdebtfree

Hi geranium welcome to the thread its definatley a great help, im sure you will get a number soon, have you posted an soa on the main board people can look at it, also i too can not get 0% credit cards so im paying teh intrest but eventually the amount of intrest gets lower lol ..... im saving for my wedding so its hard to just pay lump sums but by mid june we should have all teh cash for wedding so we can start paying an extra 500-600 a month on debts...... its easy to live beyond means when you are taking much notice of debt but i feel sick sometimes of how stuoid we have been, i feel pretty good that at 24 i can recognise i need to do something oh is 30 so we are working real hard for the next 2 years to get debt down then look to moving to a family home xx

geranium72

Hiya
I haven't yet done a SOA but have cut a lot down and we are managing for now

Thanks for the welcome!

Happytogetdebtfree

well if you feel you are doing the bet you can that is all you can do, i find the soa useful for myself then everymonth i redo it and it shows me just how much i have taken off my debt as an whole which is much better for me rather

MargB

Thanks for the nice welcome on here.

Re my loans - I had thought of getting a 0% cc and doing a transfer, but I'm not sure I completely trust myself to clear it off in time at the moment. maybe thats something for a little later on. At least in the meantime, I'm making regular payments to get shot of them (eventually).

Although I lost my OH in 2004, which was an experience I wouldn't wish on anyone ... although so many of us get it, I do try to be positive about it. At least he died at home 'cos I know he would have hated to have been in hospital surrounded by machines etc. And he died when he was asleep with his best mate Benny the cat (who has also since died) curled up asleep on his lap keeping him company. The ambulance man said he wouldn't have known a thing about it. Since we all have to go sometime, thats the way I want it for me ... although not till I'm at least 100 years old.

I've actually got a new OH (well a couple of years OH), who has been absolutely brilliant. He's been so incredibly supportive to me since we met, even when I got depression the first time. Many guys would have run for the hills, but not him. He says he's in it for life and he wants to make me happy. So I'm very very lucky. The only down side is that he works at Heathrow, so until he gets a job up here (not likely in the current climate at the mo) we're putting up with the seperation when he's at work. The plan is for him to get a job up here and then move in with me. In the meantime, he gives me a little money each time he comes up to pay for his food, leccy etc (he wanted to), so I've saved it all up and thats Yule sorted for this year, presents and all.

I will get round to posting an SOA sometime, but I want to see what my outgoings actually are. I could make a guess, but I'd probably be wrong and I might as well start off with an accurate picture.

Happytogetdebtfree

hey marg b, sounds like a good idea, thats nice that your husband died at home in his own surroundings, im a nurse and work on respiratory so alot of our patients are pallitive and its nice when you can get them home or to the hospice it makes abig difference for the family..... debt busting for me is a pain, im in the middle of decorating CHEAPLY i might add lol..... oh has had interviews for 2 new jobs one is a non confirmed job boffer which will bump him up by 6k the other will bump up 10k so increasing our monthly surplus to a nice amount to pay debts and save for wedding.... it can get tough when all you seem to be doing is paying debt ..... we have in the past few months managed to be on time with all credit card payments not spend on them for months all at my mums so i couldnt if i wanted to lol !! and we have made a nice plan that we are going to be debt free in 2.5 years with some very hard work !! ithink my debt is now at 77k which is alot and doesnt include a mortgage ooops that was my first soa it is now 75177,32 so it is going down gradually and thats just with the minimum payments we pay so once we can kick some debt it will be rolling down id like to get to below 70 k before we get married in august, maybe even 65 k but i dont want to beat myself up if i dont get there so il stick with 70 k for now hehe x