Crunchy's Final Debt Free Diary!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

You are doing sIao well... I love the fact that you've got a lovely big holiday to look forward to, but are still chipping away at the debt on the side.

It's sad about your friends, but a reminder of how fragile a lot of peoples' finances are. I can't remember the exact statistic, but I read somewhere that the average Briton is only 3 months away from homelessness if the worst case scenario happened (or something like that).

Homegrown0

Sorry to hear about your family run in Crunchy, and about your friends who are in a precarious position financially. It really is a scary thought!

Glad the physical budget on the fridge is helping

crunch_time

Morning all

Thanks for your comments! Still ticking along here. I've been thinking a lot about debt since the family situation and the friend situation.

After the family thing, I felt like a weight had been lifted from me emotionally and I have been feeling good about myself ever since. Its a complicated and emotional situation of which heavy guilt on my part was a huge factor. I'm refusing to feel that way now hence the release. Perhaps now I will feel more comfortable being myself and not who I am 'supposed to be.' I don't think the debt has accrued from years of trying to feel better about myself but perhaps accepting things as they are will help me to release pent up feelings and take charge of my emotions and turn things around.

Sorry, that sounds very cryptic but I needed to get it off my chest.

So I have been rethinking a few things and decided to not include the car or the mattress in the debt totals. In an ideal world, we would save up for such large purchases first and then but them with cash but I am no longer going to feel guilty for not being in the perfect situation - life is too short. Long term things like furniture and cars from now on it is ok to have them on finance. We pay £10 a month off the mattress (currently £740) and £226 a month off the car. We may overpay them in the future but for now, they are ok as they are.

I just feel like I want to be 'normal' for a bit and accept where I am.

Crunchy x

Homegrown0

Hi Crunch, it's always a struggle to balance but just keep tweaking your approach to see what works for you. Glad you managed to get your family/ friends worries off your chest. That's what the diary is here for after all!

I don't include car finance in my debt totals either- I don't actually see it as debt (rightly or wrongly?). I treat mine as an ongoing bill. Whatever works for you

Willowtree222

That's a really interesting thing for me as well. If I take off my car and what it has in equity, then I would halve my debt. I have never looked at it this way before.

Do what works for you. xx

crunch_time

Homegrown0 wrote: »

Hi Crunch, it's always a struggle to balance but just keep tweaking your approach to see what works for you. Glad you managed to get your family/ friends worries off your chest. That's what the diary is here for after all!

I don't include car finance in my debt totals either- I don't actually see it as debt (rightly or wrongly?). I treat mine as an ongoing bill. Whatever works for you

That's a good way of looking at it. I used to think of it the same when it was a pcp but now we bought it with a loan and plan to overpay it at some point, I guess I have included it in the debt. I'm going to take it out for now as we are not actively thinking about it.

crunch_time

Nicnak wrote: »

That's a really interesting thing for me as well. If I take off my car and what it has in equity, then I would halve my debt. I have never looked at it this way before.

Do what works for you. xx

thank you x

crunch_time

Morning all

Payday today! I've already shuffled the money into the holiday pot. It now stands at £2300. This weekend we shall pay that amount off the balance and then in mid-May when the rest of the balance is due, we will put £2900 on my credit card. I will then pay this down by £1100 a few days later when I get paid. Very exciting times!!

The other debt I am thinking of ruling out is the £2360 we spent on turf, wood and other bits including some furniture. Currently, the £100 a month for the husbands credit card is going towards this and it will be paid off in 2 years and is somewhat to do with the value of the house so could be taken off the equity.

I guess what I am trying to do is give us a break and stop beating us up for things. I want to concentrate on the overspending part of the debt and not the things that we couldn't control. I'll give it some more thought.

Anyway, I also paid off £100 from the 'holidays from 2017' section of the debt bringing it to £400!! And I put £210 into an account to pay for school club for the next month.

There wasn't much left after that.

We haven't got much money to see us over the Easter weekend unfortunatley and holding our breath until husbands pay day next Friday.

Crunch xx

Homegrown0

From what I've read in your diary, the 'big debt total' seems to overwhelm you and demotivate you. Is it worthwhile you picking one 'debt' and focusing on that? Letting all the others tide along with whatever standard payments you've set up but only review and overpay on one so that you only concentrate on the total of that one debt, overpay to that one debt and see the numbers come down nicely? Once that's done, you can move onto the next debt and do the same.

It's obviously good to keep an overview of everything but looking at the 'big total' every day and not seeing the numbers change a lot can be overwhelming.

It was for me when I began my road to being debt-free, but now that i'm getting closer to the end, it seems a lot more manageable (i.e. seeing 13k left instead of the 27k or something it was when we started).

Just my tuppence worth - feel free to ignore

Seasidegal58

Hi crunchy - I think Homegrown's idea on focusing on one big debt at a time may really work for you. :TWhy don't you give it a try?

Sorry to hear about your family and friend situations but you seem a lot more positive now.

Have a good Easter.