First Steps to Solvency

Drawingaline

Well done on offsetting the watch cost with a bag sale. Definitely a way to do it if she wants to keep getting these sort of products. 

You sound more focused now. 

warby68

Right OP, you need a break.
Make an old fashoned list of the things you want to deal with next and then park it for 24 hours. Walk the dog, play with your son, reconnect with your wife. Rome wasn't built in a day.
Its a busy thread because you're quite an unusual case but don't feel you have to keep up with the pace .
Most people will still be here when you get back.
PS I suspect you won't take this advice but it is well meant. 

purplehippo276

alt80 said: I’ve just downloaded and set up Yolt (better reviews than money dashboard (that app seemed to have two different but similar apps). Thank you so much, it’s saved a lot of time for me on spreadsheets and being able to see the cards alongside the current account really helps.

Brilliant!  Yes, so much easier than updating spreadsheets constantly!  I find that having that degree of control over outgoings really does help reduce stress - hope it works for you!

getmore4less

The point was with step one is that when min payments are £1k you still pay them but if you put £1k(less interest) back on the cards you are debt neutral 

No new debt. 

You said you can't make this month without putting stuff on the CC if it is more than the min payments debt goes up, less debt goes down. 

You need a plan at least one year ahead that shows debt neutral. 

You can then look to improve on that. 

Looking a month ahead you are risking setbacks  min forward look is a year. 

alt80

Just been sat playing with the yolt app categorising all the transactions. Helping me to understand things a lot more. We spend a lot more than I had originally accounted for in the soa tbh. I can see what we need to cut back on though.

@getmore4less I understand now. Thank you and I think that’s something we could definitely aim for and would be progress - atm it’s just going up and I’ve been sat for hours every night into the early hours of the morning working out how to pay it off or trying to. Couldn’t see the wood for the trees. 

@warby68 you’re right I need to find some way to get to and stay asleep at night and perhaps just have a day or two away from thinking about it. When I decide I’m going to do something I usually take action until it’s done can be quite driven definitely sleep deprived now tho.

enthusiasticsaver

This is busy today and you seem to be getting to grips with this. Glad you dodged the bullet about the Apple Watch etc by suggesting your wife uses her bag sales money and keeps some of her nail money for personal spends.

Going from spending on credit to budgeting, living within income and paying debt down is like turning a tanker around. It takes time and if you are having trouble sleeping stepping away from spreadsheets and budgets in the evening may help. Eventually you will find a plan which works for you.

getmore4less

alt80 said:

Just been sat playing with the yolt app categorising all the transactions. Helping me to understand things a lot more. We spend a lot more than I had originally accounted for in the soa tbh. I can see what we need to cut back on though.

@getmore4less I understand now. Thank you and I think that’s something we could definitely aim for and would be progress - atm it’s just going up and I’ve been sat for hours every night into the early hours of the morning working out how to pay it off or trying to. Couldn’t see the wood for the trees. 

@warby68 you’re right I need to find some way to get to and stay asleep at night and perhaps just have a day or two away from thinking about it. When I decide I’m going to do something I usually take action until it’s done can be quite driven definitely sleep deprived now tho.

I think this is part of the instant gratification, now you have worked out there is a problem you want it fixed yesterday.

Problem here is this is a long term project and needs breaking down into manageable chunks. with well defined goals that give you that fix.

I think that the step one mentioned earlier is a good first goal and should be manageable once you have the year ahead down on paper(or any tool of your choice) you can make it balance (money in == money out) with the debts not going up you have a base you can move forward from

The next mini goal is debts going down by the min payments, if that goal is too big a single step as it is nearly £1k out of £7k (14%) you could break it down into smaller chucks say look for 5%(£350) savings as a goal do that 3 times and you are going to see the debt start coming down quicker each time

You have two business to run trying to fix your finances in a week is just too much, get the books balanced and then maybe 1 mini goal a month to have a break.

With good tracking of where the money goes you may find the spending drops anyway because you start thinking  about it rather than just spend.

I think a good multiple mini steps goal  would be to get the spends down to just your main income and all the money coming from the letting business(£1,500pm) going towards the debts.

ryanm8655

getmore4less said:

alt80 said:

Just been sat playing with the yolt app categorising all the transactions. Helping me to understand things a lot more. We spend a lot more than I had originally accounted for in the soa tbh. I can see what we need to cut back on though.

@getmore4less I understand now. Thank you and I think that’s something we could definitely aim for and would be progress - atm it’s just going up and I’ve been sat for hours every night into the early hours of the morning working out how to pay it off or trying to. Couldn’t see the wood for the trees. 

@warby68 you’re right I need to find some way to get to and stay asleep at night and perhaps just have a day or two away from thinking about it. When I decide I’m going to do something I usually take action until it’s done can be quite driven definitely sleep deprived now tho.

I think this is part of the instant gratification, now you have worked out there is a problem you want it fixed yesterday.

Problem here is this is a long term project and needs breaking down into manageable chunks. with well defined goals that give you that fix.

I think that the step one mentioned earlier is a good first goal and should be manageable once you have the year ahead down on paper(or any tool of your choice) you can make it balance (money in == money out) with the debts not going up you have a base you can move forward from

The next mini goal is debts going down by the min payments, if that goal is too big a single step as it is nearly £1k out of £7k (14%) you could break it down into smaller chucks say look for 5%(£350) savings as a goal do that 3 times and you are going to see the debt start coming down quicker each time

You have two business to run trying to fix your finances in a week is just too much, get the books balanced and then maybe 1 mini goal a month to have a break.

With good tracking of where the money goes you may find the spending drops anyway because you start thinking  about it rather than just spend.

I think a good multiple mini steps goal  would be to get the spends down to just your main income and all the money coming from the letting business(£1,500pm) going towards the debts.

Couldn’t agree more. I’m the same with needing that instant gratification, as I’m sure a lot of people in debt are...I broke my debt up into manageable chunks so that I get that gratification. The toughest time now is the lull between DDs and payday as there’s nothing happening.

alt80

Instant gratification and also fear if I stop I won’t start again. 

Posted in what debt free thing are you doing today but if I decide to look back on this today was the day I arranged the third car going...

Thanks. Well I’ve arranged it. The third car is now going.

what debt free thing am I doing today? 

1. Counselling session for my mindset.

2. Taking a 1-2 day break from trying to make all the figures work. Come back to it with a fresh mindset in a few days and get some sleep.

RelievedSheff

alt80 said:

Instant gratification and also fear if I stop I won’t start again. 

Posted in what debt free thing are you doing today but if I decide to look back on this today was the day I arranged the third car going...

Thanks. Well I’ve arranged it. The third car is now going.

what debt free thing am I doing today? 

1. Counselling session for my mindset.

2. Taking a 1-2 day break from trying to make all the figures work. Come back to it with a fresh mindset in a few days and get some sleep.

Sounds like an excellent plan.

And well done on the car. I know that was hard for you but it is your first big step to being debt free.

You will look back on this post in the coming months and years and realise that this was your major turning point. 

A break from the figures is a good idea, and try and get some good sleep.