Finally getting my life back!!!

Choofles

Hello all.

I posted my SOA back in June and got plenty of feedback, some useful, some a bit brutal! Anyway, since then so much has changed and whilst a lot of what happened was completely against some of the advice (sorry!!), it has definitely been the best decision for me. After a few years of not being in a great place mentally, physically and emotionally things are finally starting to fall back in to place.

I sold my house which was a huge drain on me (it was a doer upper that I was never well enough to finish!) and my partner and I finally broached the big M (money, not marriage) question, looked at our finances and bought a lovely, warm, clean FINISHED house closer to his family together.

This freed up some equity on my sale which allowed me to pay off some of my credit card debts, which in turn meant I could actually apply for a 0% interest card and start getting my debts back on track.

With thanks to Monzo (its a revelation!) and a monster spreadsheet, finally I feel like I have a proper handle on what I'm actually spending and on what, and whilst I know I still need to cut back on a lot of things I haven't used any of my credit cards for a few months now. At my lightbulb moment in June my total credit card debts were around £21,500 plus a loan I had stupidly taken to consolidate previous credit card debt. My total monthly debt payments were £714 pm of which interest was over £200 pm, getting me into a vicious cycle of using the credit cards to top up when I run out of cash at the end of the month.

So 5 months later with a better grasp on things, I have whittled my debts down to :
Loan £6,404.38
Halifax 2 £5,525.89
MBNA £4,850.56
Lloyds £5,863.06
Total Debt including loan £22,643.89
Credit card debt £16,239.51

Which equates to £268 pm repayments, of that £98 pm is interest.

I've obviously got a long long way to go but until my credit score is better I'll not get any other CC offers to get that interest down to 0% so I'm going to have to chip away as best I can.

I've never been one for forums but I'm really committed to this change, I never want to get into the position I was in again! I feel lucky that things came together enough at the right time to make some big life changes which honestly was the kick up the butt I needed. I desperately want kids soon and its just not an option until the money situation is much better! So here I am a new DFW posting so hopefully I can find the support I need to stay on track!

Thanks for reading :-)

Dottles1

Well done for getting back on track, you will get a lot of support on here. I know some of it can feel a bit brutal at times but it is well meant and sometimes I've needed that. I'll subscribe and will be cheering you on. Good luck, you can do this.

Choofles

Been a little while since my first post. Coming up to Christmas has been tricky with getting gifts on a budget with a pretty big family to buy for and managed to lumber myself (Very stupidly) with a parking fine and a speeding ticket in the same month which busted my budget. Then of course the washing machine started leaking and my car gave up the ghost completely! It always seems to happen at once for me, never can catch a break!

Have ended up borrowing bits of money from our joint account here and there in the desperate attempts not to buy anything on the credit cards, which is less than ideal. So I have to confess I haven't done as well as I would have liked this month. On the positive side though, when doing my SOA some of the members pointed out that keeping my rust bucket car on the road was a false economy as it had historically cost me a lot in maintenance.Now my partner is closer to his work we have agreed to share his (much newer!) car so the time being meaning he would get lifts or walk when I couldn't pick him up (he works shifts and I work 9-5). As it's on finance it is more of a regular cost than I'm used to but hopefully won't the get sprung with as many £300/ £400 mechanics bills so I think it should be more cost effective.

I have managed to pay a hundred and a bit off the cards this month, despite the bumps in the road, made a bit of spare cash selling a few things I didn't need any more and got some money for scrapping my car so I guess it could have been worse.

Got my credit card payments down to £230 a month with only £46 of that interest. Obviously I know this is minimum payments and stringing out my debt longer but as I learn how to budget better and hopefully free some cash up I will try to pay extra off as I can.Getting out of the debt spiral is much harder than I ever imagined! If I can get the last of my cards onto 0% it would make a fair bit of difference I think. I should be due a small pay increase in April also (provided BoJo doesn't put a stop to that some how!) and will have been budgeting with Monzo for a full year so will know exactly what my average costs per year are, so for now I'm just trying to concentrate on a) not creating any more debt and b) reducing the interest/ costs of my debt as much as possible with the intention of really buckling down with a hard core budget in April. One thing I know I have to get better at is planning meals for work - I spend and exorbitant amount on lunches at my work canteen, only when I started using a monthly spending spreadsheet did I realise the damage this was doing for me. New Years resolution - food shop wisely and meal prep!!!!

I hope everyone (anyone!) reading has a lovely festive period, I can't wait to spend it snuggled in my lovely home - staying in is an absolute luxury for me now that I have a house I can feel truly comfortable in Hope 2020 brings you all much happiness xx