Give me some motivation! Feeling embarrassed and down about debt!

storybookgirl

Hiya!  Just wanted to pop in to say that I've got a little baby and a pile of debt too - she's spurring me on at the moment too!

I just returned to work after mat leave last month and it's so nice having a full wage back again!  

Will be nice to see you around here x

Kakiste

You'll do it! You've already saved yourself £60 a month just through two actions! As much as you are stressing now, in great news you caught it before it became a staggeringly huge amount of debt (my debts started on maternity leave too and I buried my head in the sand for years before being forced to confront it when I quite literally ran out of money. 

As someone else said, what's great is that you'll get it all paid off whilst your baby is tiny! My daughter was spoiled rotten by both halves of the family for her first christmas and hands down her favourite 'present' was a string of tinsel she pulled off the tree. 

My daughter will be 8 by the time I've paid off my debts but what I'm really looking forward to is using the £1000 I currently pay off debts each month to be able to treat her to things I've never been able to afford, foreign holidays and such. 

Well done for starting- make sure you keep going! X

enthusiasticsaver

You have made a good start in making a plan to clear the debt.  Overdrafts are notoriously expensive so moving that is a great idea and means that your credit history is good enough to still get deals.  I agree that maybe instead of aiming to pay that new card off in 8 months use the 16 months and reduce the MBNA as much as possible by next August.  That will reduce the transfer fee and won't cost you any more on the new card as it is interest free.  Tackling the BNPL first will give you an easy win.  The savings on sky movies and phone contract are also a great idea. Well done. 

Suseka97

I've no advice to add with regards to how to tackle the debts, but agree wholeheartedly with enthusiastic savers advice

I just wanted to say well done for taking control of the situation and for making a plan on how to get yourself back on track.  Don't feel bad about the debt, feel proud that you have a lovely new little family and over time the debts will be dealt with.  

Good luck  

leannes_3

What amazing people you all really are. I can’t tell you how much weight has been lifted by just reading your lovely comments. 

10 days and counting until I get my full time wage back. I absolutely cannot wait. Maternity pay is absolutely awful. I’m the breadwinner in our house, and my wage was reduced from 2150 to 650. How are mums expected to survive it breaks my heart knowing I’ve had to go back to work when she’s only 6 months due to money pressures! 

Anyway! Tackling the buy now pay later first, going to clear £250 of that in 10 days. Can’t wait! 

mark55man

so well done for your actions so far.  its clear that you have got this covered, especially when you get your wage back.

I have 4 kids, the the youngest is over 20 now, so I have experience but not recent.  What an earlier poster said is completely correct your baby won't care if its wearing designer clothes or not.  All she will care about is having fun / being with you.  Until kids are past 10 a trip to the UK seaside will be just as much fun as something sunnier so you really don't need to spend spend spend on them when they are young.  When they get a bit older they may need a bit more for clubs or school trips etc, but by that time childcare costs will be lessened so you should be ok.  The basics of having an emergency fund, making some savings for your future etc still apply even with kids.  They can absorb all your time and money but its your job to balance that.

 good luck.  also whilst your debts seem monstrous now, they are very manageable and not (by and large) costing you too much.   the trick is not to accept that the budget you have when clearing debts should be broadly similar to that which you follow after, just instead of paying debts off you are securing your future self. 

leannes_3

So today I finally got my full time wage back after my maternity leave! Proud to say we paid off another £182 of our £7,000 MBNA credit card and a whopping £215 off our buy now pay later! This means that one will finally be cleared on our next payday. I like the snowball method as I’ve had a massive mental boost seeing that one could be gone next month. I know it doesn’t work in terms of interest and I’ll probably end up paying more in the long term, but right now I just need motivation to clear it all.

So! New debt balances are as follows:

MBNA: £7080 (0% until August 2022) 3% cleared so far

Capital One: £2000 (this was the overdraft, 0% until October 2022) 0% cleared so far

Buy Now Pay Later: £223 49% cleared so far

Andyjflet

Can you get £1000 emergency fund together before you clear any more debt, this will mean you then no longer rely on the cards, cut them up. I'm on this plan and its working for me. 

enthusiasticsaver

Great going on paying almost 50% of the BNPL  debt off and it will be good to see that gone next month. Andy is right in that saving for emergencies is a priority to start moving away from using credit altogether.  However if you are paying interest as you are then I think getting together a smaller emergency fund is ok.  

leannes_3

enthusiasticsaver said:

Great going on paying almost 50% of the BNPL  debt off and it will be good to see that gone next month. Andy is right in that saving for emergencies is a priority to start moving away from using credit altogether.  However if you are paying interest as you are then I think getting together a smaller emergency fund is ok.  

It’s tough as I know what I’m like, and I feel as though I will lose motivation if I don’t see it clearing.

one of our big debt setbacks used to be Christmas, so three months ago I set up a savings account for Christmas. We put £15 a month in, which doesn’t seem much, but it will give us £180 to spend on Christmas when it comes around. That’s £180 less on credit I suppose. 

I hear your advice on the emergency fund, but for my own motivation, I feel I need to see the debt start to be cleared before I start saving. I think once a good chunk has been saved, I’ll look into setting an emergency fund up.