Time to Face The Music

alt80

Haha realised just how much I enjoy a drink lately lol. When not in lockdown out for dinner / drinks usually at least once. Honestly classed myself as not being a massive drinker but I do definitely enjoy a drink a bit more than I thought.

RelievedSheff

We are pretty good Monday to Thursday with the drink. We don't have one unless it is a special occasion or we go out for a family meal. 

It all goes to pot come Friday evening after work though.

alt80

I have a drink most nights tbh but just one usually with dinner and a nightcap lol. Hear you on Fridays though. Don’t drink anywhere near as much as I used to though.

Your general attitude is amazing tbh. No idea how you got in debt in the first place but think your attitude to money now and discipline will see you through life happy. Wish I didn’t have the constant craving for more stuff so really admire your attitude.

RelievedSheff

We got into debt by being silly and over stretching ourselves and not knowing when enough was enough. No one to blame but ourselves really and it is only in recent years that we have started to try and get the balances down. We have been in quite a financial mess previously.

Thinks are now starting to look up, even though we took on more debt to move house we can see a way ahead now and a way to clearing the debt. Before it was just a blind panic of where is the next payment coming from and will there be enough to cover it. We could very easily have lost everything at out deepest darkest moments.

alt80

How did you get out of the mindset of nothing being enough? 

I’m accepting the payback right now very begrudgingly but know I don’t get my mindset under control it’s going to happen again. Been there before with the remo now forcing myself not to spend - go out this week I take the business card only can be trusted to only put expenses on that. Battle with this every single day but know if I ever !!!!!! my credit profile things would get really bad and at the LTVs I work to need to be ok personally - very much reliant on the credit to move forwards in property. Genuinely think I’d kill myself if I ever got made bankrupt - wouldn’t be able to recover from that I know. Not a nice place to be so need to sort the personal life out.

Glad we’re in lockdown in some ways hate it in others but it’s harder to spend or that’s what I’m telling myself so anxious about coming out of lockdown again. Keep looking at houses and cars again madness I know and doing stupid stuff like hoping a cop bans me because it gives a convenient excuse for no sports car. Yeah know I’ve got issues haha.

RelievedSheff

The wake up call was when we could so easily have lost our house and very nearly lost the boat. This would have been in 2014. At that point it was almost the point of no return and something had to be done about it. We had to knuckle down and first of all get the arrears paid off pretty damn quick and then make a start at chipping away at the unsecured debt.

It took a long time to get into the mindset of living within our means and paying off our debts and there are still times when we do dip into and add onto the credit cards, but on the whole we are happy if the overall balances are going in the right direction which they thankfully now are, even with a few blips here and there.

This last year or so with the move to the new house we have discovered a fresh start and with that we really are motivated to get rid of these credit card debts. With each balance that is paid off there is a sense of relief and a renewed urge to get the next balance paid off and the next and so on.

Starting this diary was a way of holding myself accountable and something to look back on to keep the urge alive to fight this debt battle. I only wish I had discovered this forum earlier in our darkest days and it may have helped us along then when we really needed the help desperately. 

alt80

That’s basically why I’m here and want to get this sorted - very much afraid of getting into the position of owing so much I can’t keep ahead. Only money I’ve got is tied up in property/ business and apart from my res home all owned by ltds. Useful to see other people’s points of view tbh. I thought my spending was fairly normal for the amount I earn before posting on here well I’d told myself that.

When I did the remo the cards were getting too close to their limits. Never in arrears but I saw it going that way didn’t dare apply for anymore cards. I owed just under £100k/£120k available just couldn’t admit to myself I had a problem learned nothing from remo next month balance on cards I couldn’t pay in full. Have been there with it all getting into a bit of a desperate situation but know it could have been a lot worse - that terrifies me tbh. Don’t want to lose my house or my portfolio which I know I could lose both if I go the wrong way. Main business safe unless it really did get so bad I faced bankruptcy. Could kiss bye bye to that too then and possibly even my professional membership would fail credit checks the banks do to do my job anyway so game really would be over for me. I couldn’t live with that.

Look back and it must have been !!!!!! obvious to wife, would literally tell her what card to use and definitely not use one that was pretty much maxed had all sorts of bizarre excuses about there being some deal or another yeah tried to portray being extremely financially savvy ha. Promised on far too many occasions I paid them off every month too. Ftype as much as I miss it I saved the figures I put up on here look at it every now and again and think what the f**k where you doing?? Lost £25k 911 I owned outright for it too.

Sometimes think about clearing the cards and moving away into more of a village location; tied to Notts with business but some nice places not too far from city and £650k buys a lot. Probably could knock the school on the head too he’d be fine with state in Southwell area or south of the city. Here I get why wife doesn’t want him in a state school tbh. I do like MP but not sure I should be tempted by the walking distance into town. Walking distance of some proper sh*tholes too which both wife and I not sure great for son when he gets a bit older. Fringes of MP not great either tbh but my house in The Park would be well into 7 figures that’s the only other place I’d want to live in the city. When I moved to this house from smaller place in MP so many people said West Bridgford would’ve been better for a family house can see why but just really dislike the place for no rational reason haha. Any city area the same tbh live in a nice part but walking distance of dog rough places you probably don’t want your kid visiting lol. 

RelievedSheff

Sheffield is the same. Only a few places you would choose to live which are expensive but all close to really bad areas.

We like where we are now as there dont really seem to be any really bad areas that we have found yet. Sure there must be some somewhere.

alt80

Yeah that's cities the country over I think lol. Probably not that serious about moving to a village.

Ha if you're really in the sticks might not be anywhere too bad for miles; where I grew up there weren't really any council estates for miles nothing else either though haha. 

Know what you mean about the sense of relief clearing the balances down - I got that when the BC got to £0. Just wait wait wait now for sales / min payments coming off. Frustrating. Like to throw myself into making stuff happen, get bored when I'm waiting around for stuff to happen def instant gratification lol. 

RelievedSheff

£250 paid off credit card 3 today.

Other than the above it is going to be another no spends day.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are from stores today. Breakfast was toast, the other half has taken his packed lunch to work, I will grab something from the fridge for my lunch and it is fakeway Friday tonight. Chicken tikka sandwich in a naan bread with homemade raita tonight. After work we will settle in on the sofa to watch a couple of films with a couple of beers.

Today's jobs include:

• working from home
• vacuuming the house
• dusting the house
• walking the dog x 2 (not looking forward to this today as the weather outside is foul)