My SOA and Situation Realisation

Verityspinelli

Oh and well done to you O P you’ve made excellent progress, keep up the good work.

BenWyvis1

Felt compelled to register just to say what an inspiration your journey has been. I'm pretty much in exactly the same position as yourself (minus the kids) in terms of income and debt, and reading your post has given me a right boost with lots of ideas. Cheers mate, and keep it up!!

Ben :-)

EssexHebridean

shteca wrote: »

Thank you Dr! I should have updated sooner but as you know, life and all. I will make an effort to update and I am coming to an end of my credit card debt so that will be a big moment for me then.
Appreciate all your kind words and support
With regards to yourself, I noticed in your signature you mention having just £2k in debts but £1k in savings.
Why not just use the savings to clear it down to £1 debt and make a bulk payment and clear completely?

Two words - Emergency Fund.

shteca

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Two words - Emergency Fund.

*doh* of course!!
Excellent work!!

shteca

BenWyvis1 wrote: »

Felt compelled to register just to say what an inspiration your journey has been. I'm pretty much in exactly the same position as yourself (minus the kids) in terms of income and debt, and reading your post has given me a right boost with lots of ideas. Cheers mate, and keep it up!!
Ben :-)

Thank you Ben. Knowing other people out there are in similar situation + supporting me makes all the difference. I come back to the MSE forum just to update my situation and to keep myself responsible for my actions. Maybe worth you doing it as well. It feels great when you get it off your chest and write it down.
Hope you are seeing some progress too.

shteca

A quick April 2019 update!
Progress is being made, I am now at below £30,000 of debt. Total now stands at £27,274.55 as of this month.
Main thing has been paying off more of my £7,500 overdraft. This has been extremely costly for me at around £130/month in interest and I have made big progress in clearing this down this month to it now standing at £3,500.
I had a good month with work and with getting rid of some of the other borrowings it has meant I have had more money to throw at my overdraft.
With it coming down too the interest payment has come down again meaning more going off the balance.
I am hoping to have this cleared this month as long as work continues to be as good and at which point I could finally close the thing down and NEVER open it back up again.

enthusiasticsaver

Well done and reducing that overdraft is certainly worth it as they are a really expensive way of borrowing. You have paid off almost 50% of your unsecured debt since last May. If you keep it up you should be debt free in about a year. I agree about getting rid of the overdraft. Never used one thankfully. Most people say they are the worst debt to get rid of.

shteca

I agree! It is so difficult as my brain always sees the available balance rather than the actual balance so it’s easy to keep spending the money.
It is also such an expensive form of borrowing and getting rid of it for ever is going to be a huge moment for me.
When I look at my figures it also makes up a large percentage of my debt so getting rid will be a milestone.
Good on you not taking out an overdraft. I went full idiot with my borrowing

Pip_Boy_111

shteca wrote: »

I agree! It is so difficult as my brain always sees the available balance rather than the actual balance so it’s easy to keep spending the money.
It is also such an expensive form of borrowing and getting rid of it for ever is going to be a huge moment for me.
When I look at my figures it also makes up a large percentage of my debt so getting rid will be a milestone.
Good on you not taking out an overdraft. I went full idiot with my borrowing

This. A thousand times this. This was the biggest thing with me too with all available credit. The biggest change I made that helped was changing this attitude.
Had to post just to say your progress and attitude is truly inspiring. A real advert for knuckling down and getting at it :T
As always with these diaries, it not only helps you, but others (like me) with inadvertent support and ideas. Not to mention inspiration when you hit the inevitable low moments, where it feels as though everything is a grind after the initial surge of enthusiasm has worn off. Thank you :beer:

shteca

Pip_Boy_111 wrote: »

This. A thousand times this. This was the biggest thing with me too with all available credit. The biggest change I made that helped was changing this attitude.
Had to post just to say your progress and attitude is truly inspiring. A real advert for knuckling down and getting at it :T
As always with these diaries, it not only helps you, but others (like me) with inadvertent support and ideas. Not to mention inspiration when you hit the inevitable low moments, where it feels as though everything is a grind after the initial surge of enthusiasm has worn off. Thank you :beer:

Thanks Pip Boy, keeping coming back to the Forum and reminding myself of why I am doing this and knowing I am not alone is such a motivator for me. I just keep thinking of the final result.
Thanks for keeping in touch.