The long haul supporters thread...

Pickle29

Can I join please?
We owe £55k (ouch) and made 3 payments to stepchange who are managing our DMP for us. I think it's going to take us 7 years (double ouch) but I'm hoping we may be able to increase our payments in the future with overtime etc - when it is available. I am very interested in how you manage to pay your creditors the extra that you mange to scrape together.

I think the forum is very supportive and look forward to sharing my experiences with you and gaining lots of useful information from you to help us with our journey!

Also,

poohbear59

:wave: Hi to all the new people joining us. It is a long haul but is also achievable.

We have had a bonus of an inheritance so are hoping to pay off some of our debts. This week we paid back DS3 the £5050 we owed him and DSister the £1000 we owed her too.

Still have a long way to go.....

recurrent-ostrich

I'm back. After a shocking year away, during which time we've paid mins on our CCs and then needed to spend on them to live. Everything is just *so* much more expensive. We are just wanting to get through Christmas then in the New Year it's head out of sand time and I really need to get cracking. Our current debt stands at approx £38.3K. :eek:

Happytogetdebtfree

Hi everyone, another year is drawing close and some progress has been made not huge progress but its all going in the right direction. Looking forward to a better success next year x

parsniphead

Hello everyone

I haven't been on here for a long time as things have been plodding along at the same pace so not much to say recently.

Unfortunately things have started to get harder the closer I get to the end of the journey and I find myself in real financial hardship at the moment. The ends will definitely not meet in January and I didn't get ant Christmas money which I usually end up spending on debs/bills.

I don't know if it's me being a little lax as I get towards the end of the debts or something else but I really need to be kept on the right track somehow.

Impatience is probably the biggest hurdle to be honest.

Anyway sorry to moan but needed to give myself a kick up the b*m.

Happy new year everyone. We will be closer to freedom by the end of it.

helencal80

Can I join please? I think I will be debt free in 2020, the year of my 40th birthday, but I really hope to knock a couple of years off this.


I will have been in debt my entire adult life bar a couple of years right back at the start.

flumpkin

Hello

Can I (re)join you too? I have over 65k of debt and so definitely in for the long haul. I haven't added any more this year (trying to be positive) but need to knuckle down and start dealing with my debt in 2014. I understand about snowballing but most of my higher interest cards also have the higher balances so going to target a few small ones first. Need that psychological boost! I can't get balance transfers (we have too high debt/wage ratio) and can't get interest lowered without defaulting... so small moves it is.

Good to know we are not alone... in fact I could have written this post ;-)

recurrent-ostrich wrote: »

I'm back. After a shocking year away, during which time we've paid mins on our CCs and then needed to spend on them to live. Everything is just *so* much more expensive. We are just wanting to get through Christmas then in the New Year it's head out of sand time and I really need to get cracking.

love flump x

recurrent-ostrich

flumpkin wrote: »

Hello

Can I (re)join you too? I have over 65k of debt and so definitely in for the long haul. I haven't added any more this year (trying to be positive) but need to knuckle down and start dealing with my debt in 2014. I understand about snowballing but most of my higher interest cards also have the higher balances so going to target a few small ones first. Need that psychological boost! I can't get balance transfers (we have too high debt/wage ratio) and can't get interest lowered without defaulting... so small moves it is.

Good to know we are not alone... in fact I could have written this post ;-)



love flump x

And to be fair, I could have written yours too! It's frustrating when I see people getting lots of 0% deals when we are stuck with cc debt at 20% and above and all our cards are maxxed, and from all providers, but small steps and we'll get there!

flumpkin

We will! .... just need to keep chipping away. It is frustrating when I make a £200 payment and it takes about £40 off the total... but I try not to focus on that. One good thing from last year is I closed several cards to prevent further interest hikes so even though I have re-spent on some cards there are other cards where the balance can only go down... even if very slowly.

Eventually I am hoping to get a balance transfer or a 0% deal but I think I have to accept that is some way off. I thought about speaking to my bank but saving that lifeline for if my car ever gives up the ghost and I really need a new one.

Targetting a few smaller debts I am hoping to be more encouraged to make additional payments. With such a huge debt it is hard to see how an extra £10 - £20 payment etc would help... but if I can focus on clearing a smaller one then maybe I'll be more motivated by seeing the benefit.

I have my spreadsheet of debts all ready to go ... weird to actually be looking forward to getting statements so I can update my balances ;-)

Happy New debtbusting Year to all.

love flump x

recurrent-ostrich

flumpkin wrote: »

We will! .... just need to keep chipping away. It is frustrating when I make a £200 payment and it takes about £40 off the total... but I try not to focus on that. One good thing from last year is I closed several cards to prevent further interest hikes so even though I have re-spent on some cards there are other cards where the balance can only go down... even if very slowly.

Eventually I am hoping to get a balance transfer or a 0% deal but I think I have to accept that is some way off. I thought about speaking to my bank but saving that lifeline for if my car ever gives up the ghost and I really need a new one.

Targetting a few smaller debts I am hoping to be more encouraged to make additional payments. With such a huge debt it is hard to see how an extra £10 - £20 payment etc would help... but if I can focus on clearing a smaller one then maybe I'll be more motivated by seeing the benefit.

I have my spreadsheet of debts all ready to go ... weird to actually be looking forward to getting statements so I can update my balances ;-)

Happy New debtbusting Year to all.

love flump x

And to you too. I see you have a honking OD too, ours is £3.5K. Is that on your main account? Ours is, and it's our entire monthly budget, meaning we are in the red 365 days a year. I think that's the most miserable of our debts, although not the most expensive by any means, and the one I'm looking forward to slaying the most. Unfortunately, it's a long way down our list of priority debts, and not one we can chip away at either really with our budget.