From financial hell to heaven by 2020 (hopefully)

Soozzi

After lurking on these boards on and off for the past few years it’s finally time to face my debts head on and try to be debt free by the start of 2020.

So when was my LBM? Today. Because today is the first time in 2 years I am up to date with all payments on all debts and bills. And I feel so good and like a weight has been lifted. I want to feel like this all the time so I must keep up with everything and start the journey to being debt free!

Let’s rewind to 2 months ago. I was 3 months behind on my council tax (£450), Lloyd’s credit card (£75), MBNA credit card (£75) and 2 months behind on my Barclaycard (£80). I also owed a total of around £800 to 4 different debt collection agency’s on behalf of British Gas, Wonga, O2 and Very.

Now how did I get myself in this situation? In late 2016 I was diagnosed with Guillian Barre Syndrome. I’d gone from being a healthy 32 year old to being completely paralysed after my immune system messed up and started attacking my nerves instead of a sinus infection. My upper half came back to me after around a month but my legs took a long time to catch up! I was off work for an extremely long time and maxed out 3 credit cards (all had £0 balances) just to get bills paid because I was getting paid £900 less than usual because I was on statutory sick pay. Credit card debt now stands at around £3,000. I’m so glad I had the sense to reduce the credit limits on all 3 5 years ago otherwise it could have been worse.
OH also had to use his credit card on bills and his balance is now £10,000 (He is waiting on £12,000 inheritance to come through to pay this off). He had a balance of around £5,000 before I got ill.

I do have extremely bad days where I will just cry and feel guilty about getting so ill and causing the debt but OH will always tell me it couldn’t be helped and we did what we had to do.

I have been back to work now for a year now and apart from some perminant nerve damage in my arms and legs I am pretty much back to normal.

We are both so annoyed with our selves for not having any savings before hand. We both spent money on luxury’s and never really had anything left over at the end of the month.

So as it stands today my debts are as follows:

Lloyds - £791 (19.9% APR)
MBNA - £783.26 (24.9%APR)
Barclaycard - £1,632.59 (29.9% APR)
Ratesetter loan - £361.74
Lowell - £199 (The last of the debt collection agency debts)
Sister 1 - £85
Sister 2 - £190 for a family holiday in April

Today was payday! I always put £900 in the joint account to go towards bills/food/fuel. I have just upped my contract from 20 to 30 hours and did a lot of over time so this month I had a lot to spare! What ever I get paid over £900 is mine to use for my debt repayments. I refuse to let the OH help me.

He gets paid every Thursday and he gives me £25 pocket money every Thursday. I may use this for debt repayment if there is nothing I need to buy.

So far today I have:

Paid min payment on barclaycard of £40 and made an overpayment of £120 to get it below my credit limit as late payment fees and the like had pushed it over.

I have paid the min on MBNA of £25

Paid Sister 1 £40. I have now paid her £115 of the £200 she lent me to pay off 2 debt collection agency’s last month.

I cleared my BPO collections (on behalf of Wonga) debt by paying the last £54.

Put aside Lowell payment of £20 and min Lloyds payment of £20 ready for their due dates.

Paid £85 to pay off my negative PayPal balance (scammed by a buyer on eBay. They sided with them)

Ratesetter loan payment of £75 came out of account. Last payment is January 2019.

Phoned up the council and made an arrangement for paying the remainder of the years council tax now I am up to date and have avoided going to court.

I applied for a Chrome credit building card. I know some people say not to get more credit cards when trying to pay off debt but this will strictly be for food and paid off in full each month. After 18 months of constant late payments I think it will be good to fill up the credit history with more positives and dilute all the late payments! Got accepted with £1000 limit. How I got one so high I’ll never know. Credit score and history is shot to pieces! But it’s never gonna go that high. £200 max on food a month.

I must sit here now and think of a plan of action. Should I tackle the highest Apr card first or go lowest balance to highest?