I've Hit Rock Bottom. Time to Get Out.

dvlpr.

Hello,

Long time lurker of these forums, but I wanted to start a diary to keep myself accountable for the journey I am taking currently.

Im a 28 year old male living in Wilthsire.

My Story
I wasn't always in debt. Up until the age of about 20 I was fairly frugal, I was earning the minimum wage and didn't have stacks of savings but still had enough to get by on. I remember saving up £2500 over a year for my fiancees' engagement ring which is the most money I have ever saved in my life.

It went properly downhill after this period when I started to earn a bit more money. I can't remember exactly what the catalyst was. I went into my overdraft and stayed there. Honestly, my attitude was just "oh well". I just look back at how careless I was and am so angry with myself. I wasn't paying for anything, but I was just essentially throwing money down the drain.

I managed to get myself to a fairly good place when me and my partner started renting a property. I still had no proper savings, but we managed to just about scrape the money together for the deposit. We managed to get accepted for a 5-year interest-free credit card and spent around £2000 on furniture for the house. The plan was to pay it off over the next few years and it would be fine.

It just went downhill from there really. Before I knew it I was maxing my overdraft out on my debit card (I have a 5k overdraft limit) and so was my partner. We were just buying stuff we didn't need and not budgeting properly. In a tight situation, we managed to secure a debt-consolidation loan, but before I knew it I was back in the same situation.

Before we moved in, I had been teaching myself software engineering and managed to get a new job as of October last year. My annual salary went up by £15,000 but the problem just hasn't gone away because I have kept ignoring it and not changing my spending habit. Im just started sinking slower than I was before.

It infuriates me, because I really don't understand how I have been so careless over the years. I just have never learned my lesson, I think this is down to me burying my head in the sand if I am being completely honest. I just got a message that I have hit my overdraft limit again this month, and I still have ten days left until pay day... This is what has provoked me to start this thread. This cannot go on.

Whilst my partner is also in debt, I want to keep mine separate from hers. She is in a better position than me and is actively getting out of it. I will mention when anything significant happens on her status though.

Starting Numbers
HSBC: £-5000
Virgin: £-5000
Argos: £-500
Barclaycard: £-1500

I also have a £12000 loan that currently my partner is paying for.

SOA
My salary has increased by 10k as of this month. The below represents my first paycheck.
Salary: £3100 (Was £2600)
I also have my own business I run on the side. Some months I will get money from it others I won't so I'm not counting that as a figure. I will mention in my diary when I get extra money.

Monthly Outgoings:
*For now these figures are rough, this will be filled out in much more detail over the next few days*

Mortgage/Rent - £700
Council Tax - £177
Gas - £20
Electric - £20.53
Internet/TV - £45
Phone - £55
Food - £300/400
Car Payments - £600
Petrol - £200
Overdraft/Card Payments - £200

Total: £2417


It was fairly close before, and I realise that I had probably been going over my £2600 monthly amount. Hopefully with this extra money things should start to ease off.

My plan of attack is to start with the Argos/Barclaycard payments because these have the highest interest.

dvlpr.

As a side note to why the car payments are so high...

I few years ago I made the stupid mistake of getting a massive finance deal out on an expensive car. I think ultimately this is where most of the issues have come from.. It was eating fuel, was super expensive to insure and fix. I tried to jump ship after a year but was properly stuck.

The car started to break, and I had absolutely no way of handling it. In desperation I managed to swap the finance deal to a new (much more frugal/reliable) car, paying roughly around the same monthly payments).

The car finance is £460 a month, which I am paying £300 of but also pay insurance and tax. My partner drives it to work. I also have another car for me to get to work which costs around £150 a month for finance payments, tax and insurance.

kazwookie

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £700
Council Tax - £177
Gas - £20
Electric - £20.53
Internet/TV - £45
Phone - £55
Food - £300/400
Car Payments - £600
Petrol - £200
Overdraft/Card Payments - £200

How many people does the food budget cover? if it only two of you, then you need to look to cut this.

OH and I spend about £150 per month of food and all cleaning products, I cook from scratch.

You also need to keep a spending book, write down everything thing you spend, as I think you have missed items out such as coffees out / papers / insurance / car maintenance etc etc

Godo luck

dvlpr.

Yes, this is something I will be revisiting at some point and filling out in much more depth. I just wanted to get up what I was roughly spending. The figures will be much more exact over the next few days.

That covers two of us unfortunately. Definitely something I need to sit down and work out how to improve. We cook from scratch most days as we are both following a slimming world diet. This does also include cleaning products and coffees.

foxgloves

Well, at least you have realised that your overspending is unsustainable now, rather than letting it continue for several more years. I constantly overspent my income from age 19 to 44, & although we are now massively reformed characters & paid off around £35k of debt, I can't help wishing we'd done it a lot earlier.
Now, that grocery spend can defo come down. We budget £50 a week. There are two of us - my husband has an enormous appetite - & one large greedy cat. Our grocery spend includes cleaning products - we are very minimalist with these as you really don't need a different product for every cleaning job & branded sprays etc are pricey - & cat food. Sometimes we overspend our grocery budget a little & sometimes we manage an underspend. We cook everything from scratch. No ready meals & a takeaway only about 4times a year. Can you believe that when we first started debt busting, we saved an eye-watering £2k a year simply by taking packed lunch to work instead of popping out to buy expensive sandwiches, coffees, etc?
Good luck! It can be done with a change of mindset.
F

[Deleted User]

Best of luck on your journey