The road to recovery

Thomm042

Today is the first day in my long road to recovery.

I have finally come clean to my parents about my debts and I am glad that everything is out in the open. I’ve been given a second chance and I am eternally great full for that and I will never be able to thank my parents enough for that.

I have decided that the road to recovery involves more than just owning up to my debts; it is about learning from the mistake and growing from it. To this end, I have decided that I am going to keep a weekly post of how I am doing. Without fail, on this day, every week, I will post as to how I am doing mentally and financially. I know that this is going to be an uphill battle, and sharing the story with people will more than help aid my recovery.

I hope that in time, other young people like myself who have got themselves in the same position as me will see this thread. As if it wasn’t for this forum I don’t think I would have been able to get to today.

Currently I feel so much relief that it’s all out in the air. I have been thinking about my budget and I what I really should be able to live off weekly, to stop me from spending beyond my means. I’m also thinking about the savings I need to start making for a rainy day and the ways I can do this.

So here we go. Day one. £7654.93 left to pay.

jwil

Good luck and well done for speaking to your parents.

I did see your other post. You can do this!

[Deleted User]

Good luck and well done for telling your parents xx

NeverendingDMP

Goodluck. Id recommend finding the 1% challenge. It breaks debts or savings targets down into much easier chunks and if it suits you and your parents debt payoff agreement its a nice challenge to help you build better savings or debt reduction habits. In essence you dint get bogged down by the big number and break it down into more realistic chunks.
Your 1% for your debts would be 76.55 which is not as scary sounding so easier to motivate yourself to.

Thomm042

Today I think is a good day. A great day.

Last night I sat down with my parents and we paid off all my debts. I had used all the money that I had left in my account to pay one of my debts off so it was 9 more to go. There were two companies that had closed by the time we had got to them, but I will be paying those today. Today is also payday, and I have decided that I will use the majority of my pay to pay off the remainder of debt. I will have £350 for the next three weeks until I get paid again (it doesn’t seem like a lot but I have been living off this the last couple of months anyway!!).

This will mean in total I will have already paid back £1700 of my total debt which feels amazing!!!! 😊

The total left I have to pay to my parents is £6240. As I have two jobs with a relatively good income, we have agreed that I will make a monthly repayment to my parents of £1040, which will leave me with a very comfortable £1100 left of my wages to live off each month. I will be working 7 days a week but in my head I know I only have to do this for 6 months and then I can give up the weekends. It’s not forever!! I have looked online and someone mentioned that they managed to pay back their £20,000 debt but snowballing them so what I might be able to do is make the minimum payment of £1040 to my parents each month and anything I have left over can be used to pay a little extra off that month.

After I have repaid all my debt I’m hoping that in 6 months I will have managed to learn to be frugal, and would like to see that I can maybe budget to spend only £600-800 in a month whilst saving the rest of my main salary each month.

I have to be honest though, I am now a little bit scared about spending money and the thought of buying things does freak me out a little! But hopefully this will turn from fear to frugality.

Here we are. Day 3. £6240 left to pay.

[Deleted User]

Lovely to read the change in you, you sound much more positive

Happy Friday and Happy pay day too xx

gwynlas

Good to see you back and being so positive,
Whilst you seem to have a good plan don't forget that you have to live so cut yourself some slack and don't work yourself into the ground, I've worked seven days a week in the past over two jobs but you do need to pace yourself.
Hopefully you can gain some inspiration from others on here and that this wake up call is a lifelong lesson.
I cannot preach not being debt free until later life but am in the position where I can lend myself money for bigger purchases out of saving now and pay myself back without interest.