My journey to happy and debt free 5 January 2019 at 12:54PM in Debt free diaries 85 replies 6.7K views

Dimps_123

Just popped in to have a read and Louofoffsparkle you are an inspiration! You have given me motivation again - I'm off home to redo my budget and finally start paying some debt off.


Well done
x

Louoffofsparkle

Thanks dimps_123
I certainly wasn’t an inspiration back in October, I was struggling so badly. It’s not until I opened up to my husband and found this site that I realised that there was a way out and it wasn’t the end of the world.

Chrystal

Congratulations Lou, you're doing fantastically well.

Louoffofsparkle

I forgot to put my phone on silent last night and I was woken up with an alert from my bank telling me I had made 20p interest.

You have no idea how happy that made me. Now it’s not much but it got me thinking of how different things were a year ago;
I had over limit fees on every credit card every month and I had 8 or 9 cards. Was scraping the minimum payments by borrowing from cards I’d already paid and using payday loans.
I was terrified of opening any letters, most of them went straight into the bin.
It was such a chaotic way to be, can’t say live because I really wasn’t.

I’m so grateful that I’m out of this self destructive loop.

Though I could easily fall back into it, my card providers have upped my credit limits as I’ve been chipping away at the debt. At the same time they have been sending me letters about being in persistent debt. This is madness!! And they get around it by putting in the small print about it being my responsibility to accept or decline the increase. Yes now I’m responsible enough to say no, but 12 months ago I would have seen it as a life raft and clung to it, not realising it was making things so much worse.

mark55man

well done - that post ---^^^^^ ought to be post of the week it's just so :money: :T :T

Louoffofsparkle

A quick wee update

I applied for a balance transfer card with 23months 0%apr and no transfer fees and I’ve been accepted for it. So I’ve transferred the full balance from my marbles card and £3100 from my Santander card.

I’m waiting till my first statement is produced so I can see what my minimum payment will be then I can reevaluate my snowball calculator.
This should save me hundreds in interest and I think I’ll be free of my credit cards at least 4 months earlier!!

DancingInTheRain

Hi, just read through your diary and you're doing so well. You seem to be really in the zone at the moment. What a great result on the balance transfer card too, fantastic!

Louoffofsparkle

So time for another update

Payday has once again been and I’ve decided to try a different approach this month.
What with it being school holidays and my husband having a couple of weeks off work with stress we are not sure what his wage will be next month.

I have just paid the minimums towards my debt this month. I have been aiming in the past to pay £1100 per month towards my debt at the start of the month ( some months it’s been more) but then I start to get anxious and panicked towards the end of the month even if there is no need to be.
So I have £750 left of the £1100 so I’ve moved that to savings. Going to do this next payday as well just to prove to myself that my budget is realistic and that I’m ok with that amount of money sitting there and I don’t have to spend it!-stupid habits of old.

I paid the rest of our summer holiday off £125, we are going camping in Yorkshire, so now I’m keeping my eye out for offers for some days out and food.

Louoffofsparkle

Just made another small saving changed my sim only plan to a different provider and it’s saving me £5 a month. Went through a cash back site so hopefully it will track and I’ll get something from them.

I think it’s these smaller savings that are going to be helpful going forward.

Sayschezza

Well done you. It's all coming together nicely isn't it.