£31k of debt to go in 18 months.

mark55man

Very good start - 18 months will go by in no time 

18 months is long enough to get really set into the new way of life and learn to embrace it, but also long enough to have one or two bumps in the road, but I can see you  will get over them with that PMA (Positive Mental Attitude)

When it comes to eBay and market-place my get up and go got up and went, but I really need to try again and you are setting a very high bar though!

flapflop

Thanks @mark55man I really am feeling good at the moment. I'm dreading the bump in the road and the slog but I'm hoping that keeping the diary will allow me to re-read how far I've come when I am feeling deflated.
Sold £55 over night so got that posted today. The new ebay payment thing is a real pain in the bum. I used to save the money in Paypal and now it gets lost in my account and only gets transferred once a week. I might set up a new account for that money to go into. 
£4.45 spent today on 12 eggs, milk and spinach and a bag for life. I'm annoyed at myself for spending 20p on a bag. What has happened to me? 
My son loves terror birds and I have seen a big, soft terror bird at the local newsagent and I know he would love it but it is £13. Usually I would buy it without a thought but I first saw it 5 days ago and haven't bought it.....yet. I'm going to get him to save up from his chores and then on the weekend we can walk there and he can buy it. Technically it is still me buying it but I know how much he will love it and lets face it, a walk to the local newsagent is a day out at the moment. 

dawnybabes

You’re doing brilliantly. 

You’ve no rent / mortgage ? 

flapflop

dawnybabes said:

You’re doing brilliantly. 

You’ve no rent / mortgage ? 

No, very fortunate there. 

flapflop

So, bad news is that I bought the toy. Good news is that my son chose the smaller one which was £8 instead of £13. Bad news is i bought a choccy bar for £2. Good news is that I paid another £34 towards PayPal. A very mixed day indeed. 

Adorian

flapflop said:

Okay, why am I here? This pandemic has put a lot of things into perspective for me. I have seen my boss be off with long covid for over 3 months now and he is a fit and healthy guy. I am not a fit and healthy person and, as the only income for our household, our finances need to be prepared for the worst. I know this sounds pessimistic and doom and gloom, but it is the reality. Our son is disabled, and my partner is full time carer for him, and my income is all we have. We do receive DLA for our son but of course that is used for him and his needs. The truth is that I have spent a long time buying ‘stuff’ in a bid to make us happy and to buy happiness. I have finally come to the realisation that this just doesn’t work. I’ve also consolidated loans and then just borrowed more money to buy more stuff. I’m now at a point where if the car fails or the house collapses, we have no money, no savings, no back-up plan and no-where to turn. I may need to have an operation soon. If that goes t**ts up, all I will leave my little family with is debt and no future. This makes me sadder than I ever thought it was possible to be. 

No-one knows of the financial mess we’re in apart from me and I am too embarrassed to tell anyone. It’s my mess caused by me. The good news is that it can’t be fixed but it certainly won’t be quick or easy. So, here goes nothing and everything:

Paypal credit £1974.00

Bank of Scotland loan £6463.99

Yorkshire bank Loan £5873.43

Tesco credit card 0% £6299.17

Virgin credit card 0% £9507.00

Next £278.30

Very £617.09

Simply be £62.95

Total £31,073.95

There we go. £31075.93 worth of debt with absolutely nothing to show for it. No memories, no bricks or mortar, just a house filled with stuff that I have never needed. 

Right now, I know I should feel miserable and deflated but I feel kind of empowered. Like I am taking back control. I am doing this for my family so that we (or they) can have a financially secure future that we will be able to fill with holidays and good times without the regret and worry that is currently associated with that. 

Here is my income and expenditure:

Income                                                                    Expenditure

Pay £1,605.00                                                        Energy             £85.00

CTC £346.00                                                         Council Tax       £186.00

Carers £160                                                           Loan 1              £390.00 (minimum repayment)

Child benefit £86                                                    Water                £41.00 (capped rate tariff) 

Total £2,197.00                                                      Credit card 1      £99.00 (minimum repayment)

                                                                               Credit card 2      £50

                                                                                Prime                 £17

                                                                                Home insurance £19

                                                                                Broadband          £32

                                                                                Mobile x 2            £110 (20 months left to run)

                                                                                Netflix £12

                                                                                Food £200

                                                                                 Total £1,241

This leaves me with £956 per month to put towards the debts. In February and March, the money from council tax will be used towards the car insurance and MOT so sadly no extra funds there. 

I have started selling everything we don’t need or haven’t used for a year and have managed to raise £800 so far (so much optimism). I have put this into a savings account as the boiler really will need to be replaced soon (I’m hoping to eek out another year) and I would love to have the money to pay for that rather than utilising credit. 

I have put all this info into a snowball calculator and according to that I should be paying the Paypal credit first, followed by the YB loan and then the RBS loan but I think this month I will clear the Very and Simply be with the remainder going to Paypal and then clear Paypal next month. That would then be 3 credit accounts cleared in 2 months which would be a huge motivation. I also need to see about cancelling the Paypal credit as it is far too easy to pay with that in just one click. My new mantra should be ‘if you can’t afford it, you can’t have it’ but the Paypal line of credit doesn’t lend itself towards that notion. 

Wish me luck! 

Congratulations on taking that first step. It's horrible realising how much debt you have, but just drawing that line in the sand and taking control of your spending is really liberating. It's early days for me too in the world of DFD but you've actually inspired me to make more effort to sell things that are just cluttering up the flat. Good luck to both of us!

dawnybabes

Have you run your figures through UC .?

Ive just done it for you to see. 

Couple rate (over 25) - £594.04
1 child - £281.25
carers element - £162.92
High rate DLA - £ 460.29.           Low rate DLA - £128.25
——————————————————————————
                   £1498.50.                                 £1166.46

wages £1605 - 512 (work allowance) = £1093 x .63 = 688.59

High rate DLA = 1498.50 - 688.59 = 809.91 UC Payment or

Low rate DLA = 1166.46 - 688.59 = 477.87 UC payment 

carers is deducted pound for pound (though it looks like more as you get carers x 13 a year and UC 12) 

plus you’d still be getting DLA, family allowance. 

If you want more info just shout 

flapflop

@dawnybabes Thank you for that but does the calculator need the gross pay or net pay? That calculation is based on my net pay. 
My paypal balance has somehow reduced by £125.25 overnight and I have no idea how. I'm not complaining but it would be helpful to know where that money came from. 
I sold something on Ebay last night so that is an extra £18. I also have £77 coming from Ebay today which I will put towards the Paypal debt. I started looking at some of the debt free challenges last night and was reading how every pound paid towards debt helps so that is what I am doing. If I have a spare £ it is going to wards that. Try and get it cleared ASAP. I'm a bit worried about the loans as I need to phone up to pay extra and won't be doing that every time I get a spare £ so I guess I will have to find a way to save them up and pay a lump at a time. The debt free challenges are really helpful for motivation. 

dawnybabes

It’s based on the wage figure you take home.  As awful as it is if you are claiming DLA you generally are better off on UC 😭

flapflop

@dawnybabes I have submitted a claim for CTax support as Turn2Us showed that we may be able to claim £11.14 per week. I'm just gathering every ounce of my life history which they seem to need to process it. I will have a look at UC. I was always told that legacy benefits were better than UC but I shall have a look. Thank you.