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meerkatpie

Good Evening Ladies, Gentlemen and Others,

This is my first time to the forum, so please do bare with me.

I have done a lot of thinking and I have decided it is time to open up about my debt issues.

At 23 years old, I have probably been in debt since as soon as I could obtain credit at 18. Starting off with a small credit card, this soon mounted up to the point where I took out a loan to cover the credit card, then another credit card and so on.

Now I am wanting to save for a house, but there is no way I am getting a mortgage without a change, so here we are.

I have a pretty poor relationship with money. When I did turn 18, I was left to be free with my finances, I never had any parental advice and we never learn about money management in school.

This relationship was made worse when I managed to land a job in a very well known High Street bank. This was a blessing, as I loved my time there, but a curse as all I saw was money, what I didnt factor in, was that I dealt with mainly older people, with much more worldly knowledge and who had worked hard for what was in their accounts. Now, that made me want money and the only way to have more than the small salary I earned, was to borrow, meaning that I entered a debt spiral... bad times.

Fast forward a few years, I have a new job and I have become more humble, I don't care about the flashier things or the newest tech. I want to be happy and have a little home I can call mine, but I can't do that with my debt.

So here is time for a change and to a new life of being debt free.

My situation is better as I have recently been overpaying, but I am not there yet:

Income - approx £1700 a month

Debt:

Tesco Loan - £7800
Barclaycard - £3500
Car Loan - £15800

My payments are:

Tesco loan - £500 (£231 standard payment and £269 Overpayment)
Barclaycard - £100 (Minimum is about £77 at the moment)
Car loan - £293

The barclaycard and the car loan are both 0%.

I save approximately £400 a month too ready for my deposit, I still don't know if I can take the plunge to save nothing so any advice would be appreciated.

I have £100 on rent (board), £150 spending money and the rest goes on things like my phone contract, insurance payments and other bits and pieces.

I am working to be debt free, due to my circumstances wanting to buy in my own home and with me being on my own, my affordability is very low with me having to repay debt, so here starts my journey!

Any help would be very much appreciated!

Tahlullah.H

Good luck with your debt free journey
Tx

bd80s

You sound like you have good plan and a lot to chuck at the debt each month, good luck!

ImpulseSpender

I was in a similar situation to you in terms of no education in money management, wanting the 'flashier' things in life, keeping up with the Jones' and ended up with £9K of debt at 25 (which I appreciate isn't as high as your debt). Now I've paid all of my debt (excluding about £120) and I am saving to buy a house. You will get there! It just takes discipline and focus. Good luck!

meerkatpie

Tahlullah.H said:

Good luck with your debt free journey
Tx

Thank you!

meerkatpie

bd80s said:

You sound like you have good plan and a lot to chuck at the debt each month, good luck!

I am hoping so! Thank you!

meerkatpie

ImpulseSpender said:

I was in a similar situation to you in terms of no education in money management, wanting the 'flashier' things in life, keeping up with the Jones' and ended up with £9K of debt at 25 (which I appreciate isn't as high as your debt). Now I've paid all of my debt (excluding about £120) and I am saving to buy a house. You will get there! It just takes discipline and focus. Good luck!

It is very easily done and looking back, I can see how much of a mistake it was. Well done in paying that down, that's brilliant!

Thank you very much!

meerkatpie

So, today has not been good with my budgeting, I have had to pay my £50 excess on my phone insurance as I cracked the screen, so that is limiting me.

I decided to take a trip into the peak district though, me and my friend took snacks, fruit and other home-made things so we only had to pay for parking, which was better than going out for a meal as originally suggested. 

I don't have too much left following payday, I have £50 until the 27th August for my general spending, which, if I am very careful should be fine - but no flashy spending!

I am finalising my budget - I currently have £2500 in savings, I am very tempted to pay off some of my tesco loan with this, then overpay all that I would have been saving, so that would be about a £700 overpayment and the normal payment would mean I would shed off approx £900 a month, but that would be 5 months of no saving and back to square one for my house deposit so I'm not sure if I can take that plunge just yet

meerkatpie

Unfortunately I let slip at work last night. Everyone had a takeaway and it was just too hard to refuse, unfortunately that means I am about spent up until I am paid next month, but I have set aside some money for essentials.

I have some plans to see friends next week, we've decided to go walking and take our own sandwiches and snacks so not only do I her the fresh air, I haven't got to spend a fortune on eating out (I'm sure that's where all my money goes).

I've managed to squeeze in some more overtime too. I'm trying to do an extra hour per day so that it doesn't burn me out, but will be a nice little sum in my wages which I can throw at my loan.

I don't think I can lose the safety blanket of my savings, but at the same time I don't see any benefit of putting anymore away whilst I have my debt, at least it is there as a reserve fund, but from next month, I have set up a standing order to pay £660 on the loan as well as the £230 standard payment. I am hoping this will bring it down by a nice amount, but we shall see! The quicker it is gone, the more I can save in the long run anyway.

meerkatpie

So I haven't had a bad couple of days.

Despite some overtime, I have had a few days off to enjoy the sun.

I've been using the time of tight spending to go on plenty of walks, I'm trying to get my steps in and lost a bit of post-lockdown weight!

On that note, I have made an investment for the gym... I know it's £23 a month, but I still had a little in my budget for it and I think it will do me good and it is a great reason to not go out and workout instead!

My friend took me for a treat last night; we went to wagamamas for the eat out to help out and it it was only £17 for starters, mains and 2 drinks! 

So far, we aren't doing well with the budget for this month. £15.07 remaining and 15 days to payday, but I am going to try my best! 

Hope everyone is doing well this week and enjoying the wonderful weather!

meerkatpie

So, time for an update I think!

I haven't updated this too regularly I'm afraid, but not too much happens so I think I might stick to a monthly update? 

Either way, we have a little bit to go through for this month. 

To start with the negative, unfortunately, my grandparents have had some problems with the car, so I have had to help them out, so my credit card debt has gone up a little. 

Although, we have a few positives!

Whilst I had help with the car, I have used an offer on my Barclaycard, so it is 0% until February 2022, so it isn't really doing too much harm by being there. 

Also, I am SO proud, that I took the plunge to stop the saving to pay off the debt! I have managed to pay £900 off of my Tesco loan and to make sure that I have a little reserve pot for emergencies, I am working a little overtime, so when this builds up more, I can add that to my loan too!

So here is where things stand as of today...

Tesco Loan - £6677.51
Barclaycard - £3925.49
Car Loan - £15422.75

Whilst we have had a little setback with the barclaycard, but it is not the be all and end all. My priority is the Tesco Loan as this is the heaviest interest at the moment so I am proud of my little achievement in paying extra. It felt so difficult to do, without saving so it is baby steps; plus, my Tesco monthly payment goes down with each month so I can increase how much I overpay!

Well, that is August... if there is anything more to report soon, I shall, otherwise, I will be back in October with my next update!

Stay safe!