First Step On A Long Road

WTBDF90

Good morning!

This has taken me a few days after opening an account to get the nerve to write this post, but needs must and events over the past week or so have shown I need to start taking my debt seriously. Today is also a day where my better half is at work so I am able to sit and type this out without panicking about being asked about what I'm doing.

My current debt total is (goes off to check figures) just short of £17k.
£5000 between four credit cards, mostly high interest and right at their limits
£1375 across two online short term loans
£710 Provident
£300 AO Finance
£4,500 car finance
£1,200 overdraft with Lloyds
£2,900 self assessment tax, being paid monthly set up online
£900 Very

I wasn't going to include the car finance as this isn't something I would normally class as 'bad' debt, however I missed a payment in February which resulted in one of their agents knocking on my door the other day, asking about the missed payment whilst having blocked my car in with theirs. This was in the middle of me and my better half on a Skype chat with my parents, so that hit home like a tonne of bricks.

The self-assessment tax is for some self-employed work I do on the side, I didn't budget enough for the self-assessment throughout the year so have opted to pay that monthly.
I know there are some sh*tty high interest accounts up top there, annoyingly just over a year ago I had nearly cleared everything (bar the car finance) and yet here I am.

I shouldn't be here, I'm about 9 months in to the steadiest, best paying secure job I've ever had. I should be saving for a house deposit, not barely making it through each month, because that's what I'm doing if I'm finally being honest. I'm just about making it through each month, and that's only for the fact that various direct debits such as our TV and BB bounce and then come out at a later date instead. I can't tell you how used I am to getting emails from my bank regarding 'Unpaid Items on Your Account', which is absolutely shocking. 

I'm on annual leave this week so have been hammering the self-employed side of things, the work available dropped right down due to Covid but seems to be on the up again so I am literally picking up every tiny bit I can to try and make some progress in getting these debts down. Obviously with the thought in the back of my head to be setting aside the money for Self Assessment, too! 

Quick summary of our household - myself, my better half who is flexi furloughed at the moment, we're about £900 down a month whilst his wages are reduced, one cat who (thankfully) has proven relatively inexpensive so far in relation to vets bills, and BH's two children who come to stay a few nights a week. Our rent is extortionate but the rental market was moving so quickly when our landlord sold last year that we ended up just having to go for anything we could actually move into in time. We are looking at trying to downsize at the end of our 12 month contract, but again that all depends what is around in the area.

In some good habits from last year, I hammer Prolific, Qmee and Intellizoom whenever I get the chance to. It's just going to be about keeping up these habits when I am back to work - for so long it's been a case of 'well i've worked hard and I'm tired' which is no longer a good enough reason not to be bucking my ideas up so I can finally make my way back to being debt-free.

Apologies for the long-winded first post, I couldn't stop once I had started and it already feels like a weight has been lifted x 

Four_Seasons

Hi, the very best of luck, I shall be following your journey and cheering you on.

SGz

Good luck. I’ll will be following too 

elbree

Me too @WTBDF90! It takes guts to write it down, well done for the first step. As it's fairly recent debt has it all been a result of Covid? Is there any help available for you? 

WTBDF90

Thank you everyone managing to pop on for a little bit whilst OH is on the PlayStation...

If I'm being honest @elbree it's all through my own doing really, I think I get very caught up in trying to match the lifestyle my better half had with the mother of his children, they had the best of everything and the most expensive things so I have basically been trying to keep up with that for so long that now I couldn't even if I tried. That's on me though, he's never once asked for anything expensive or outrageous from me. It's also a case of 'I want that but can't afford it right now so I'll just put it on my card and then pay it off'....which never happened

Few small wins today, sold a cat tree that our furball never uses (he prefers to sleep on the floor, never has liked cat beds or anything) for £15, and I had returned an expensive foundation I bought as it was the wrong shade, and they gave me an e-voucher to cover the cost of something from their store, so I got the refund for the intial product and got a new one coming tomorrow for free (including delivery)

I've started working through the many things I have impulse bought over the years - selling on eBay what I can and using up other items (a teeth whitening kit I bought a year ago at least springs to mind) and lots of hair and skin treatments! 

Thinking of our food shopping, I managed to spend a lot less than last week than I usually do as I actually sat down before going to Aldi and worked out what I would buy and how much it would cost. My plan is to do this again this weekend and also hunt some YS bargains.

Making sure I return items is probably one of the better habits I need to work on - sent back that foundation and also a faulty iron from Argos which was bought less than a year ago. Granted the refund is actually going back onto a CC but money back is still money back!

Time to continue browsing through the YS thread....

elbree

Maintaining expectations of a partner (even when unexpressed!) is a really tough part of relationships so it's great that you're tackling it now. Is he on board with the DF journey? This month for the first time I wrote down what I spent on food and was quite surprised it was so high. I'm definitely tackling that next month too! 

FootyFanDan

Hey, welcome & well done on sitting down and going through where exactly you are with finances. The admitting and facing up to sorting it is definitely the hardest part so good on you for taking the steps to do it. Good luck 😊.

I have experienced the whole late payments and unpaid items on account and so on. Sometimes it just takes one thing to push you into fixing it. 

Scott_Weiland79

Try Curiouscat too its very similar to qmee an app WTBDF90 said:

Good morning!

This has taken me a few days after opening an account to get the nerve to write this post, but needs must and events over the past week or so have shown I need to start taking my debt seriously. Today is also a day where my better half is at work so I am able to sit and type this out without panicking about being asked about what I'm doing.

My current debt total is (goes off to check figures) just short of £17k.
£5000 between four credit cards, mostly high interest and right at their limits
£1375 across two online short term loans
£710 Provident
£300 AO Finance
£4,500 car finance
£1,200 overdraft with Lloyds
£2,900 self assessment tax, being paid monthly set up online
£900 Very

I wasn't going to include the car finance as this isn't something I would normally class as 'bad' debt, however I missed a payment in February which resulted in one of their agents knocking on my door the other day, asking about the missed payment whilst having blocked my car in with theirs. This was in the middle of me and my better half on a Skype chat with my parents, so that hit home like a tonne of bricks.

The self-assessment tax is for some self-employed work I do on the side, I didn't budget enough for the self-assessment throughout the year so have opted to pay that monthly.
I know there are some sh*tty high interest accounts up top there, annoyingly just over a year ago I had nearly cleared everything (bar the car finance) and yet here I am.

I shouldn't be here, I'm about 9 months in to the steadiest, best paying secure job I've ever had. I should be saving for a house deposit, not barely making it through each month, because that's what I'm doing if I'm finally being honest. I'm just about making it through each month, and that's only for the fact that various direct debits such as our TV and BB bounce and then come out at a later date instead. I can't tell you how used I am to getting emails from my bank regarding 'Unpaid Items on Your Account', which is absolutely shocking. 

I'm on annual leave this week so have been hammering the self-employed side of things, the work available dropped right down due to Covid but seems to be on the up again so I am literally picking up every tiny bit I can to try and make some progress in getting these debts down. Obviously with the thought in the back of my head to be setting aside the money for Self Assessment, too! 

Quick summary of our household - myself, my better half who is flexi furloughed at the moment, we're about £900 down a month whilst his wages are reduced, one cat who (thankfully) has proven relatively inexpensive so far in relation to vets bills, and BH's two children who come to stay a few nights a week. Our rent is extortionate but the rental market was moving so quickly when our landlord sold last year that we ended up just having to go for anything we could actually move into in time. We are looking at trying to downsize at the end of our 12 month contract, but again that all depends what is around in the area.

In some good habits from last year, I hammer Prolific, Qmee and Intellizoom whenever I get the chance to. It's just going to be about keeping up these habits when I am back to work - for so long it's been a case of 'well i've worked hard and I'm tired' which is no longer a good enough reason not to be bucking my ideas up so I can finally make my way back to being debt-free.

Apologies for the long-winded first post, I couldn't stop once I had started and it already feels like a weight has been lifted x 

try Curious Cat its another canny survey app and very similar to Qmee.

[Deleted User]

Good luck on your journey.

Pmo2
xx

WTBDF90

For some reason when I am trying to 'quote' it keeps telling me my post looks suspicious - very odd!
My better half is on board in the respect he has sussed out I am dealing with some debts but also that I'm working as much as I can in order to pay them off, so whilst he doesn't have the complete picture, we're mostly on the same page.

Thank you for your messages everyone  

I have tried to start using Curious Cat but I must have tried it before as my PayPal seems to be linked to it already, however to a different number so I will have to see if they can help with that  

The cat has been downgraded on his foot, he's been quite spoilt on high-end grain free stuff for a while so he's back onto cheap and cheerful like the rest of the household until we can justify spending that much on his food. 

Not much else to report here, really. Been able get some solid hours of extra work under my belt so should be able to manage a lot easier next month in terms of no payment bouncing etc x 

WTBDF90

Just trudged through loads of accounts and was quite shocked to see how many had my old address on them - the poor new tenants of our old house
All up to date now though!

This month is the first month in ages I haven't used some form of BNPL (usually either ClearPay or Klarna) to buy myself something nice out of boredom, next month will be the first month I don't end up re-using my CC's after making the payments on them as I'm short, so that's progress, too. 

The upcoming Monday bank holiday, I have been 'stood down' for at work, but I might see if they want to offer it to someone else so that I can get the extra money - works out as two days EXTRA pay if you take the extra money, you can also take 1.5 x pay and TOIL. That reminds me, next month's pay (end of April) should be slightly higher for a mileage claim expense also

Keep meaning to also cancel our doorstep delivery of milk because, whilst its nice and good for the environment, it's about £12 a month I could do with saving right now, so will pop that on 'holiday' now whilst I remember and give them a call tomorrow to cancel. 

Time to mooch around across my accounts and see what else I can tinker with...