Finding a future after debt

NeverendingDMP

Well done. You are making great progress. 

ceremony

NeverendingDMP said:

Well done. You are making great progress. 

Thanks @NeverendingDMP! It feels slow sometimes!

After the usual weekly/monthly payments came out the total debt is down to £8,127. I'm now £100 behind on the council tax arrangement and planning to throw a bit more at that next time I get paid.

My new passport arrived. It's the "so dark it's black not blue" one. It's interesting to see it in real life! I'm kinda sad that I need it for work rather than going somewhere nice, but even if I could afford it, I think I'd wait til next year for a holiday haha.

I know it's not logical but once the smallest payday loans are below £100 I'm really tempted to clear them just for motivation. I keep telling myself I should throw everything at the council tax (and I am over-paying, at the rate they agreed the arrears would take 7 years to clear and I'm aiming to have it gone in just under three), but it feels like it's barely moving and it would be nice to make some "progress". I'll have to mull that one over some more. I'd love to hear other people's thoughts!

ceremony

I've just noticed that the AttaPoll survey app lets you cash out to Revolut! I've cashed out a fiver and paid it off the urgent CCJ. It's not a lot of money but I just do surveys while I'm on the bus or otherwise 'not doing anything' so it's basically free money to bring the debt down. All helps

ceremony

That's another 'extra' £50 paid off on the council tax today, so £50 behind on the arrangement. A bit of pocket change thrown at some of the other debts too.

I've got a big project from a new client, it's going to require hard work for the next week or so, but it will be a nice paycheque when it comes through, so I'm pretty happy about that.

One thing I've noticed being stuck at home though is the place is a real state! We've become borderline hoarders and the clutter is really claustrophobic when you're at home all the time. The last week or so I've devoted an hour a day just to tidying up. It'll take a while to make a difference but I already feel 'better' about it. We really need to redecorate but that's going to have to be a job for once the debt's paid off.

My spreadsheet says 33 months to debt free at the 'fixed' rate of repayment, which means I'm a month ahead so far. It's satisfying to watch the estimated debt free date get closer. I've been neglecting the emergency fund and overpaying instead, so it's crept up to £105 from Save the Pennies. I guess that's still progress!

moneyonmymindsam

Hi 
Caught up on your diary, but just wanted to say you sound really brave. I can vision you throwing your pocket change "at your creditors" and it made me laugh to myself 😂
You really are making headway and should be proud the rent arrears paid off and paid off three.
I think if you want to pay off the small pdl's when under £100 then do it as your debts, your choice and you know what keeps you motivated.
You are really doing so well I just hope you know that. When you do get there I wonder if they would accept full and final settlement offers to clear these? Often around 60% of your original debt so worth a shot and the worst they can say is no.
Keep it up you totally got this💯

ceremony

Thanks for your kind words @moneyonmymindsam! The encouragement is appreciated! I am tempted to offer a full and final settlement to the £509 debt when they next write to me. I haven't been able to reach anyone 'useful' to work out a payment arrangement with them yet due to the coronavirus. The other debts are fairly small and the DCAs have mostly been reasonable. I'd feel better clearing them if I can, because I racked the debt up and I'm now in a position to start paying it back. I feel less bad about asking for a settlement when they're making it hard to work with them.

The council tax arrears scare me. I've been over-paying wherever I can but it's such a large figure! I really want to get on top of things though. I've asked for a state pension forecast and I think I need to catch up with some NI payments (from being self-employed but not paying Class 2 NIC because my earnings were so low, but I didn't put in for the exemption). That's yet another thing to add to the list of payments to catch up with, but at least according to the preliminary forecast I got from the website it looks like it should be possible to catch up and get the full pension.

ceremony

We started clearing some stuff out today, got some old furniture and a bunch of bags of rubbish taken away, there's still an awful lot to do though! We have so much junk I'll be sorting some more 'stuff' out over the next few days, then booking a bulky rubbish collection. It's going to take a while, but I think tackling a bit every day is the best way.

The area I live in has been added to the watchlist because of a surge in cases. I suspect we'll end up in local lockdown in the next couple of weeks. I work from home so I'm not too worried about that side of things, but not knowing when / if my evening job is ever coming back is stressful.

I paid a bit more off today and the current debt is down to £7,993 - slow going but finally under the £8,000 mark so that's a nice milestone!

moneyonmymindsam

Well done on the clear out and amazing under 8k. You got this.
Think everyone same with lots of junk things.  
Sam x

ceremony

Thanks @moneyonmymindsam!

We were definitely in danger of being hoarders so it's really, really bad! Not normal tat, but never throwing ANYTHING out. We were broke for a lot of years and it made us really weird like that. Prior to the pandemic, we weren't spending much time at home so didn't notice how bad it had gotten. Being at home all day has drawn attention to it and it's actually pretty stressful to live like that.

It took years and years to get this bad, and it's going to take a fair while to sort it out, like the debts I guess, but making a start has already helped my mood.

I bought a load of plastic storage boxes from Wilko and I've started boxing up things to keep and chucking anything questionable. More stuff is getting chucked than kept. The plan is to do a little bit every week. By the time the place isn't a disaster area we will hopefully have made a big enough dent in the debt that I'd feel comfortable spending some money on redecorating. That's the plan anyway!

NeverendingDMP

Clearing out will definitely help. I find school mornings far easier on days when the house is tidy ish and horrendous when its cluttered and I'm having to route round to find things. 
The thing to remember about your council tax is although it's a big number you have an arrangement. They are happy with that so it's okay and eventually the numbers will get less.
Excellent news on getting under 8k too