Ending the never ending debts

Reflecting

Forgot to say I spent £15 in Sainsbury’s today xx

Reflecting

Hello diary ,

Well I’ve done an amazing job of sticking my head in the sand and pretending that by not writing in this diary everything is ok, it’s not. I’m really in a mess. I’ve sat and written out my list of debts tonight and they are as follows:

Aqua CC £3176.97
Cap 1(41) £195.25
Cap 1(70) £184.75
Very £1661.92
Loan £1500
PayPal Credit £1061.25
Barclaycard £393.23
Plus ongoing legal costs estimated at £4000 but am going to call tomorrow and get an exact figure.

I’m going to write on here every day and hold myself accountable. I’ve spoken to my manager this morning and hopefully will be able to pick up a little bit of overtime. Have seriously considered looking for a second job but can’t find anything that I can work around the girls. Tomorrow I’m going to sit and work out a manageable budget to stick to. Will also relist the debts in order that I would like to pay them off and add a savings target to it too. Need to save a emergency fund but also really want to save up the divorce fees and get that rolling, would love to have that started by the end of the year.

Dog is currently poorly and requiring vet appointments every couple of days am having to borrow this money off my mum.

Xx

Honeysucklelou2

Do you know the interest rates of each debt so that you are able to know which to prioritise? Have you got a solicitor already? Mine allows me to pay an amount every month by standing order which has helped rather than having a shock when the bill arrives. Might be worth checking to see if your solicitor ( or potential solicitor) allows that.

Hope your dog gets better soon.

Reflecting

Thank you honeysucklelou2. I do already pay my solicitor by monthly standing order. But as over the time of the hearings the cost has increased they now would like me to increase the amount but I don’t have any spare at the moment. I didn’t get time to call them today but it’s on the list for tomorrow.

So I’ve worked out which debts I’m going to target first. It might not be the best way but I think it is best for me.
1) Barclaycard
2) cap 1(41)
3) cap 1(70)
4) very
5) PayPal Credit
6) aqua cc
7) legal fees

Divorce fee £550/£0

Jobs for tomorrow:
Tidy downstairs
Sweep garden
Take rubbish out of car
Phone - solicitor
School uniform shop
Garage re faulty car
Doctor re prescription

Xx

Mummy_bear

Hi, just come across your diary and I'm now subscribing. I really look forward to you tackling your debts.

I can see how you didn't realise how much debt you were in as each debt is relatively 'low'. Well compared to me anyway! But if you have loads of little debts it's not always easy to visualise them as one BIG debt and so it's hard to appreciate the extent of what is owed.

Little things that have helped me along my continuing journey

1. Meal plan.
I've stuck to this rigidly since my journey began. I look at what I've got in already and work from there. If ever I see yellow sticker meat I usually buy and stock my freezer. However, I tend to find bulk buying chicken from my local butcher offers better quality and price. I just split the portions and freeze separately. (Sorry I'm assuming you're a meat eater!) I also swap meat for Quorn sometimes as it's cheaper.
Bulk up on some meals with red lentils. You can then split a 500g mince packet and make 2 separate meals with it. I do this with cottage pie and bolognese sauce mainly.

2. Look into some survey sites.The ones I do are Prolific Academic, Qmee, Valued opinions, Onepoll, yougov and erewards.
Other people have success with swagbucks....I really can't get into that, I've tried so many times.

3. Get a jar and put all spare change in there. Look out for any pennies on the floor when out and about. I know the amounts found seem insignificant but really it all adds up and helps.

4. Look into selling on Ebay or Vinted or Facebook. I've had more success with Ebay but there are fees. I've only sold once on Facebook and that went well. Vinted is a slow burner. I've not sold anything in there yet but at least there's no fees.

5. When setting up budgets look into creating pots.They can be real pots or virtual pots. I use separate savings accounts for mine. Before starting my journey I really didn't budget properly for different things. I just hoped I had the money in the account the month something came up.
Now I have a 'pot' for my emergency fund, Xmas and birthdays, car tax and insurance, annual bills (e.g. home insurance ), school costs, home improvement fund.

6. Use receipt apps.I have Shoppix and Receipt Hog.you just take pics of your receipts on the apps and you get points. After a certain amount of points you can exchange them for rewards such as amazon vouchers or paypal payment. Shoppix is the quicker of the 2 to get points but that limits how many you can upload and how far back you go.


You probably do most of this anyway so feel free to ignore x

Reflecting

Thank you so much for such a lovely reply mummybear. I do meal plan but perhaps don’t stick to it as rigidly as I should when the kids are wanting to change meals. Point number 5 has struck a note though with the pots. I don’t think I have enough pots so don’t budget properly because I’ve not considered everything. Today was a NSD. I also phoned the solicitor and they couldn’t tell me how much I owe so they are going to send me (and charge me for the privilege of course) a letter next week to tell me.

Xx

Reflecting

Hey diary.

Feeling really down and fed up today. Fed up of feeling so alone with everything and never having any appreciation for anything I do. Things have got to change I can’t keep doing this.

Really expensive day today. £86 in mr sains on dog and cat food, pizza x 2 for the girls (they had friends over) and school shoes and uniform in the sale. Used £22.50 nectar points. £20 electric as was down to £1.11 of the emergency money. Won’t be a cheap day tomorrow either as dog has vet appointment. Payment to very went out yesterday. Don’t think I have enough left to pay the DD before payday now I’ll have to sit down tomorrow evening and work things out.

Xx

DebtFreeMonkey

Sorry to hear you're going through a rough patch. I know you're working on your budget but maybe see if you can make a few changes with things you buy to cheaper brands and whatnot?

Perhaps buying in some dough and then toppings would have been a fun (potentially cheaper) way to do pizza?

Not trying to patronise but just trying to help. I'm in a similar situation with trying to claw my way out of debt except there's just me. In some ways it makes it easier because if I can't buy stuff, I just go without and I have no pets so I can only imagine how tough it is for you.

Do you have mini goals? That way you're achieving something and have that satisfaction rather than focusing on the bigger picture. It can help avoid that feeling of being overwhelmed.

You're doing your best and it's a learning process. Don't beat too hard on yourself.

All the best and I hope tomorrow is a better day for you

Reflecting

Thank you Alicia for your lovely reply. I’ve had my day of wallowing and have picked myself up and am feeling better about things in general.

Financially I’ve no idea how to get through the next week:o. I’ve £90 PayPal payment due, £100 solicitor standing order due, and £70 water rates due and £70 in my bank and perhaps about £3 in my purse. Car is also booked in to be looked at on Tuesday to get a quote to see how much it would be to fix it. I will also need some minimal bits from the supermarket.

Bit of a breakthrough with solicitor yesterday and the potential hearing for October will not be going ahead as exH was just trying to bulldoze things into what he wants but having been reviewed he has been told he can’t and has to stick with the original December hearing. Mummybear wrote on my diary the other day and I thought I would have a look on her diary (my goodness she’s like superwoman! I’m a little bit in awe of her ) but whilst reading it I came across a post at the beginning of her diary from myself under a different user name. This then led to me finding my first diary. Reread it and I was in a pretty bad place with exH and things got seriously worse after this before the courts removed him from our home due to dv. Really hit home how much we have been through and that we are so much happier now.

Thank you for everyone who is reading xx

Reflecting

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1000
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 1100
Other income............................ 100
Total monthly income.................... 2200

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 400
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 125
Electricity............................. 108
Gas..................................... 65
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 70
Telephone (land line)................... 30
Mobile phone............................ 60
TV Licence.............................. 15
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 160
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 25
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 15
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 40
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 30
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 50
Emergency fund.......................... 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 1568


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 500

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Cap one .......................186.......15........29.9
Cap one .......................200.......15........29.9
Barclaycard ...................393.......12........19.9
Solicitor .....................4000......100.......0
PayPal Credit .................1200......90........0.009
Aqua ..........................3250......80........29.9
Salary financial ..............1500......90........19.9
Very...........................1700......55........29.9
Total unsecured debts..........12429.....457.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,200
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,568
Available for debt repayments........... 632
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 457
Amount left after debt repayments....... 175

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -12,429
Net Assets.............................. -11,929

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