16,074.43 Wrong Decisions

jnrwrighty

Hi All,

Thought i would post my debt free diary on here as I see a lot of support and advise from others and maybe get the same advice about my issue.

firstly sorry for my spelling but i have dyslexia and struggle with texting let alone making a story :rotfl:

Now my story only started about 3-4 years ago as i never had any debt except a car loan which was just to about finish... I have always been fond of gambling but always set myself a budget to gamble with (5% of my weekly income) this seem to be working for me for over 4-5 years without issue but i manage to start gambling with money i didn't own!. I was about to get a hair transplant 4 years ago and as my car loan was being completed i applied for a new loan to get the transplant, after speaking to the consultant he advise i would be better to get tablets for the hair as i wouldn't see major improvement with the transplant (basically saving me 7.5k) but now i have this loan and money in the bank and the devil on my shoulder push me to gamble it all away!... well after 12-18 months of hell i manage to get myself in nearly 30k of debt via credit card and loans!

now before anyone tell me about gambling advice! i have completely stop for over 6 months now and have blocked myself on all the gambling site i know off (even set up new accounts and disabled myself to prevent be joining new ones).

now i am sitting here on £16,074.43 worth of debt and looking to be debt free for the first time in years...

my current debt is shown below:

• Barclay card Credit Card: £1,000.00
• MBNA Credit Card: £2,150.00
• Natwest Loan: £3,872.74
• Salisbury's Loan: £9,051.69

I'm Looking to try and pay of these debt by the end of 2020 possible early 2021, going to use the snowball debt method with paying off the smallest debt first and keep on paying the same amount each month until every debt is paid.

Luckily i am still living at home so i only have keep to pay and get most of my food and household bills are paid for so i can really try and get rid of these debt before i move out in 3-4 years time.

here is the list of minimum payment i can make each month

• Barclay: £23.35
• MBNA: £64.23
• Natwest: £215.12
• Salisbury: £291.99

Other Bills i have every month

• Podcast Sub: £5
• Music Sub: £10
• Mobile phone: £21.64
• Gym: £25
• Keep/Rent: £240
• Petrol: £50

(please not all these has been reduce already (used to pay 250 a month on stupid subs)

now i currently earn just over 1400 a month after taxes and car salary sacrifice (£230 a month which has been reduce from £380 to help pay for the debt).

currently each month by paying the minimum payment i have £594.69 debt payments and £351.64 other bills which is a grant total of.... £946.33! which leaves me with £453.67 a month for other stuff but now i want to start putting more of this towards the debt.

I have planned on putting 300 pound aside for monthly expenses (10 pound a day) with the hope of trying not to spend it and just live in the gym and become super fit! this will leave me with £153.67 to pay toward debts

If the snowball calculator is correct and i stick to this then i will be debt free by November 2020! see you all then! If any of that makes sense then let me know what else i can do to make extra cash or even reduce bills would be great.

Thanks for reading

[Deleted User]

Best of luck

Supersaver88

Great job on chucking out the gambling JW, something like that to get out of hand is a one way trip into a living nightmare and serves no purpose imo.
Looking at your numbers you’ve already paid of a large chunk of debt which is great, you’re on a roll.
It seems that as far as exspenditure goes you’ve got a fairly tight ship but a proper SOA may help give a more detailed picture, well worth doing one.
Could you look at a new phone deal? Could you use a freemium music app in the short term, every little helps I guess.
How about a bit of overtime at work?
Is the salary sacrifice in relation to the car, that’s how I read it?

Good luck :money:

jnrwrighty

Will try the SOA soon as, it looks like a real good tools. going to look into the free music app and try cut my phone bill in half if possible!

my job is salary so i do not have contractor-ed hours just work until the job is done , my new role is web development so could try and create website for other people and sell them which is a good idea for me :j

yeah the car is all the salary sacrifice as i would get rejected for any loan or finances from car companies. just a price i have to pay but i have gone for the cheapest deal on the system so having extra 150 pound to pay toward the debt it really helping me.

thanks for all the good luck wishes as well.

ImpulseSpender

Welcome and good luck on your journey! I'm like you, I've accumulated all of my debt in the past 3 years or so. I also do like a little bet on football, horses etc every so often but have managed to curb that.

Will be following your journey with interest!

jnrwrighty

Right pay day in three days time and i'm skint! luckily i have no bills or need to lend any money of people this month so doing this budget seem to be working for me.

not much extra left this month to pay off the debts until payday but i have put the extra money left in the account (£10.22) into the Barclay card so will at least pay the interest for the month and the rest will cut the debt down a bit.

cant wait for November 2020 haha :rotfl:

beanielou

Well done on no gambling

jnrwrighty

beanielou wrote: »

Well done on no gambling

Thanks, been hard but just kept myself busy as the reason i gambled was to kill my boredom!

now i only put one bet on a year which my father put on for me every year and i dont even put any money toward it :rotfl: never wins as this years odd are 11000/1 :eek: could pay my debt off by may if that wins

jnrwrighty

right Pay day today and i have bad news! I woke up to seeing my account having £70-80 pound less than expected... for some reason my car scheme thing has calculated incorrectly and instead of doing tax deductions being £160-170 like the previous months i have had it £399.91 (please note this is not the amount I've been tax more the amount which need to be taxed differently due to the car scheme and tax adjustments)

so now im down 80 pound for the month which has cut my daily amount down to 7 pound a day.... still going ahead with the savings and called payroll to sort out my car scheme issues.

rolls on next payday! Also i have called the credit card company and reduce my credit limit down by the 100 pound extra i have paid this month toward the debt... prefer not to have the chance of spending the money than a good credit history at the moment.

jnrwrighty

Right Mid Month update!

Issues which have appeared this month:

1. Taxes being messed up (Payroll have messed up my wages by stating i have two cars to pay tax on instead one) basically down 70 pound.
2. Xmas present (lucky i don't have a large family and no girlfriend to spend hundreds of pound on)
3. New Job means more miles! I've had to get more petrol this month due to the more travel between sites (will get this back via expenses)

Lucky after this i still have 130 pound from my last month wages which will go toward nothing hopefully :rotfl: . No major plans for the rest of the month so i am hoping to have 50 pounds at the end of the month to pay toward the debts

Monthly Bill update! I've removed Apple Music and also my podcast sub so that will be an extra 15 pound next month which hopefully be worth it! I've signed up to a free service for music and also moved from a football podcast to Dave Ramsey (makes me laugh listening to that show).

Next thing it trying to find is a better deal for my sim only contact! that's currently around 21-22 pound and i'm hoping for a better deal in the coming weeks (black Friday deals hopefully)

Wish Me Luck Guy! Im going to be boring person for the next two years :rotfl:

Mnd

It's not boring at all. You sound as though you are on a roll.well done