Fixing my mistakes

Caspeia

I've been scared to post here. I've written this new diary 50 times already and never pressed send. Since my last update on my last diary I have really messed up. I've taken out a £10k loan, spent more on the credit cards and wasted away all my emergency savings. I shouldn't have access to credit when my mental health is in decline. It doesn't help me.

My debt total today stands at £15,395.94. That is almost as much as I make in a year which is terrifying.
I need to work out my plan of action.

doingitanyway

You have come to the right place to take responsibility for your debt and work out a plan of action. Good luck

beanielou

You are in the right place to get lots of of help & support

MissShoes

Well done for posting x

Choccygirl123

You've had a blip, but the important thing is you're back. I've done it in the past too, so you're not alone.

Remember it's the destination that matters not the route! Good luck and keep posting to keep your focus.

Caspeia

Thank you everyone.
At this point I need to set myself short term goals so I was thinking weekly. I need to work out my budget for the next week which I'll do tomorrow properly as I get paid weekly on a friday.

All cards will be left at home and everything will be paid for in cash from now on.

Caspeia

So I think I'm ready to tackle this properly now as life has settled down now.

Some steps we've taken in the past month:

1. No spends on credit cards since 17th December.
2. Overpayment of £150 on loan, got a letter a week later saying it saved me £103.66 in interest!
3. Switched the CC finishing in March to another 0% interest deal lasting 12 months, charged £114 for the fee.
4. Husband switched department at work, he was only getting one or two shifts a week over winter and his end times were varied so some days wouldn't be there a full shift as he'd be finished all the work. This new job role has set times as they can't leave until the other person comes in, this means we can more accurately gauge how much he'd get paid. Still zero hours but its looking promising he'll get 40 hours a week.
5. Put aside £50 to start emergency savings again
6. Starting putting a tenner away each week for christmas this year alongside any change under 20p (made a rule I can't spent any 1p, 2p, 5p or 10p) So far have £90 saved away in notes as started at end of November. Hoping we can treat ourselves this christmas and not have to put it on credit cards!

Caspeia

Loan: £9430.33
CC1: £3914
CC2: £892.10
Sofa: £794.92


Total: £15031.35

pidge04

Really positive that you are going to be building an emergency fund and saving for Christmas.

Are you going to focus on paying off the smallest credit card debt first or are you going to focus on both?

Good luck!

Caspeia

pidge04 wrote: »

Really positive that you are going to be building an emergency fund and saving for Christmas.

Are you going to focus on paying off the smallest credit card debt first or are you going to focus on both?

Good luck!

My plan to to focus on the smallest credit card as that is 0% interest until June, its under my husbands name and his credit score isn't as good as mine. I'm not convinced he'll be able to do a balance transfer at the end of the 0% period. The bigger credit card I plan to pay a minimum (not the minimum they say, a bit more than that) as I manage to get 0% interest deals easier, the money on this card I have bounced between 0% interest deals for the past few years.
Sofa is 0% interest so I'm going to let that naturally run its course and just keep paying the monthly payment for it.
My main focus is the loan, I'm allowed as many overpayments as possible and its the only thing charging interest right now. Last month I was charged over £90 for interest so I want to minimise the amount I'll have to pay. The overpayment I paid last month took 1 month off the loan term, thats really inspired me to keep overpaying. I played about with the calculator on my banking app and £35 extra reduces the term by a month and saves £24 in interest where £165 reduces the term by 2 months and saves £112 in interest so my goal is to try and reduce the term by 3 months each month (1 as my normal monthly payment and 2 months as an overpayment). I don't want to be paying this loan off for the next 5 years and pay over £3000 in interest!

Not sure if I'll do an overpayment next month until we hear back from HMRC, for some reason they decided to make my husband do a tax return. We didn't think he needed to as he isn't self employed so he never filed one so we have a late fee of £100. Turns out he never paid enough tax (we were told a year ago it would come off next years taxes so would have an adjusted tax code - turns out they never adjusted it) so owes £473 in tax, we're just waiting on them coming back and telling us how we can pay this back to them. We're going to argue about the late fine as its not his fault they undercharged him tax, he's always been under the PAYE system. Hoping they will let us do a payment plan as don't have the cash to pay it upfront.

[Deleted User]

Morning Caspeia,

Welcome to diaryland

Good luck on your journey, they're a helpful and friendly bunch here.

Pmo2
xx