Looking into the light and starting afresh

shrimpy_80

I used to be a regular on these forums many many years ago and managed to clear over £18k of debt, all racked up on frivolities and whilst earning little more than minimum wage. Looking back now it seems staggering that I managed to achieve that, and even more staggering that I have allowed myself to undo all of the good work and slip back into debt

The money situation is making me feel anxious and sick on a daily basis and I know its time to start getting back in control, rather than letting the (lack of) money control me, so I'm hoping this diary will keep me in check. It probably won't be the most thrilling of reads but at least it will have a happy ending :beer:

With that in mind, today's To-Do list looks like this:

List Shpock items
Research on Discogs
Delay Repay claim
Look at selling unused holiday at work
Check out AirBnB
Cancel Sky
Clear old inbox
Return hair dye
Add up total debt :eek:

ImpulseSpender

Welcome back, good luck on your journey. You've done it once before so why not again

doingitanyway

Well done for facing up and coming back. You know you can do it

shrimpy_80

Thanks ImpulseSpender and doingitanyway Have done the scariest part now and updated the total debt, not great seeing it in black and white but the only way from here is up. Any tips and/or motivation gratefully received! Definitely going to sign up for the £10 a day challenge again, just rounded up some bits to list on Shpock/Ebay...

shrimpy_80

Update:

List Shpock items Photos taken and found a few extra bits
Research on Discogs
[STRIKE]Delay Repay claim[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Look at selling unused holiday at work[/STRIKE] Can only buy, will ask to roll over
[STRIKE]Check out AirBnB[/STRIKE] Listed the spare room so will see..
Cancel Sky
[STRIKE]Clear old inbox[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Return hair dye[/STRIKE] Will take tomorrow, receipts sorted ready

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary

shrimpy_80

Thanks Beanielou!

Managed to list 4 ebay bits on my way to work today so a good start. I need to get a chunk paid off my MBNA card as soon as possible as I am behind on my payments - I am determined to get straight even if it involves listing the entire contents of my house in the short term!

pidge04

Good luck to you! Well done for getting stuff listed on eBay. I find I have absolutely no attachment to anything I own now and will happily part with it for cash!! All the best.

shrimpy_80

Still plodding on here, have just done a tally and horrified to see my Barclaycard has gone up due to being behind on payments but this highlights the importance of keeping a close eye on the figures and not burying the proverbial head in the sand.

Trying to take the positive from this that overall 4% has been paid off. Feb is the last month of repaying our gas debt so that will give me an extra £100 a month to play with, but the biggest lifesaver has been offering our spare room out through Air BnB which is really the only thing keeping me able to make any payments at the moment.

Really frustrated today as OH hasn't paid his car insurance so our latest Air BnB payout will have to go to cover that. I could write a whole new post on that subject but this probably isn't the place.

Overall I remember the horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach when I wrote the original post and, although it hasn't gone away, I at least feel I am in a better position now and have taken some positive steps. Hope anyone reading has a positive, MSE day

shrimpy_80

Well, the debt busting has taken a bit of a back seat recently and although it hasn't got any bigger, I definitely haven't attacked it as I planned. Did a fresh tally up yesterday and it was better than expected which is a positive, but am sadly lacking in both means and motivation.

Have opened a new bank account today which I'm going to use to separate out my spends for the month once payday hits. I'm really struggling with ways of making extra income, when I cleared my (much bigger) debt last time I was on a far lower wage but feel as though there were so many other ways of bringing in the pennies - and although they were literally pennies they all add up. Need to get thinking/motivated.

savingholmes

Good luck on your journey. Perhaps the first step is to ditch shame. I did the same as you and built debt back up having cleared it. You can get to the other side. Just need to create a big enough why. Why do you want to get debt free this time? What difference will it make? What will you be able to do in future that the debt is holding you back from?