Light at the end of the tunnel

OutOfAHole

I just worked out I have £76,486.69 so I’ve decided to start my own debt free diary and I will be doing everything I can to resolve this. 

Felt so damn awful about this for so long and it is time I take action. It’s like I woke up and said this isn’t God damn good enough anymore. This doesn’t work for me. This ain’t gonna happen any longer. I gotta get my head out the sand and get this figured out. 

Setup a YNAB account a couple of months back and now trying to track every penny spent. I will upload a SOA as part of this.

debt as follows:

NatWest overdraft: 12,599.09: 39% was doubled in august (working on changing account to 19%, NatWest complaint open) 

NatWest MasterCard: £1,046.21: 24.9% 

NatWest Loans: 

Account 1: £18,739.29: 18.9%

Account 2: £10,177.81: 18.9%

Barclaycard: £8,394.10: 6.9% 

MBNA: £18,493.45: 0% for another year or so. 

Monzo Loan: 7,036.74: 12.1%

Initially tackling the NatWest overdraft. 

FootyFanDan

Welcome  

Just wanted to wish you the very best of luck on your journey, I know it seems a huge figure but with a plan it can defo be fixed. Good Luck! 

Couldsavemore

Hi
Like you, I've not been the best woth money and the sleeplessness and gnawing in my stomach has returned.
Good luck with Natwest and I look froward to seeing you find your way to financial freedom

OutOfAHole

Morning everyone, so last night we had no food and I would have spent £30 on deliveroo on a credit card historically. Instead I deleted all the apps, went to tesco and made pasta for £2.50 with a sauce. It was really nice, easy and really demonstrated there's no reason to order food. 

I have had a good browse on here and noticed some of the no spend day, challenges... They look like a good idea. Will try to get involved. 

Otherwise, just on back to back meetings today. Partner got plenty of coffee for the machine in the Prime Sale, so no need to buy that for a while. Other things, we switched from BT (was paying £64 a month once the contract ended in August!!!), Sky comes in on Wednesday next week, £43 including Netflix and basic TV, so £34.01 after accounting for the Netflix we already have. So still a £30 saving.

I wanted to get something super cheap, but as our freeview doesn't pickup even half the channels here (we are in a dip, even though it's North London) I couldn't really argue with the partner. We don't get ITV even... The neighbors have the antennas on their roof with a giant stick going several meters up whereas ours is down low on the chimney... I had a quote last year and they wanted £350 to install a new one with high gain, a booster, and a tall pole, so I sent them packing as the landlord offered £50 to help with it. It's still a fairly basic package, just the entertainment but we will get the full freeview and one or two more channels. Dare I say it, some things it's not worth arguing over, getting your way and having the other half miserable over a £5 saving each is probably better me sacrificing elsewhere. Also the OH is bound to say the new thing I choose sucks everyday as a gentle reminder, and if the website doesn't load in supersonic speed, that will be my choice too

Anyway, £30 off the internet bill which is a positive. We have a smart meter coming in at noon, did a switch of the gas/electricity. We saved about £25 a month on that, every little helps. 

RelievedSheff

Welcome and good luck on your journey to debt freedom.

Try not to focus on the figures too much or they will seem daunting. Just focus on the monthly payments and bringing that debt down pound by pound.

Do you have a repayment plan in mind?

OutOfAHole

The target is £1750/month including car payment of £170 (which I intend to leave until the end), I haven't included it here as work pay me a car allowance as I have to travel all the time, but their allowance is £4600 a year so once I submitted that I had a car, they gave me the allowance and it has actually given me excess cash. I have been on a snowball calculator and it's looking to be Jun 2025 to get everything paid down, I'm going to track it properly in undebt.it when I get chance to get everything input, today is meetings back to back until 5:30 not even a loo break!

OutOfAHole

I really appreciate your input, you are right, debt by debt needs to be the focus, making it more "managable" chunks. For now it's mins on everything but the overdraft, get that done, then move on, etc, etc. 

bamgbost

Welcome... would be keen to see your SOA. That will help to give you any additional advise on where to start, etc. But wish you all the best!

Sarahwithlove

Good luck you can do it just focus on making min payments and then tackling the highest interest credit first. Is there any option for you or hubby to have a 2nd job or do overtime? Any other potential income options available to you? It would all help to clear it a bit quicker. Have you done a SOA or budget for people to look at and maybe suggest ways to save? Sometimes a fresh set of eyes helps 

there_is_a_light_2

Good luck with your debt-busting - it's hard to make that first step and actually write the figures down so well done.  Take care.

OutOfAHole

Got the NatWest overdraft interest rate down from 39.9% (they increased it in October) down too 19%. PHEW. Using YNAB to capture all spending which is an eye opening thing, definitely helps a lot!