Time to work towards our future

LetsDoThis1983

The time has come to face my debts!

I am lucky that I have always been able to pay my debts and never saw them as a hinderance, until I became a single parent and a University student...
I don't want to finish Uni riddled with debt and want a fresh start when I start work to be able to start saving for a house deposit and my pension.

So my current debts are:

MBNA - £900   22%PA - PAID in October!
Natwest Credit Card £4618.98.  7.9% 
Paypal £786.70.  22%
Currys £1169.  no payment due until Feb 22
Overdraft £2500 
Natwest loan £16208.33

I am in receipt of student maintenance loan, NHS bursary, 85% of childcare paid for and I received a £1k achievement scholarship from University. I also get child maintenance and a small amount of UC.

So this month I have paid off the £900 from the MBNA card and cleared it. I have decided not to close this account yet incase of emergencies, but the card is put away and is frozen. I did this by selling some items I don't use anymore (around £400 worth) and the rest was from my student income. 

My overdraft was £3500 so I have paid £1000 off that and reduced it to a max of £2500. This too came from my student finance, above what I need until the next payment. 

The minimum payment on Natwest credit card is £75 and I am leaving that whilst I work on the Paypal next. I am currently paying £25 a month but I also do Prolific surveys and any money earned through that pays this off. So far this month I have paid a further £45 off additionally to the £25 payment. I am hopeful that I can clear the Paypal when my next loan comes in in December. 

I'll then put everything into the Natwest Credit Card and let the loan just run its very long course...

So I am working on the £9000ish debt (excluding the loan) and hoping to have cleared this before I graduate in 3 years. Once it is gone, I'll see what is left in the loan and go from there. 

Its very scary to face your debts head on, but its also very liberating to have a plan to pay them off!

I can't move anything around as I can't get any BT 0% cards as a student. I can't really work as Im doing a Midwifery degree so I have to work as well as study for my course. 

I sometimes do leaflet delivery when I can but any suggestions on how to make a bit of extra cash welcome. 

I am already on the lowest tariffs for everything, I don't pay council tax etc so cannot make my outgoings any lower than they are. 

Thanks

savingholmes

Just wishing you good luck on your journey. Well done for the sales and the clearance of debt one. You are off to a flying start... It can be done and you sound determined. 

LetsDoThis1983

savingholmes said:

Just wishing you good luck on your journey. Well done for the sales and the clearance of debt one. You are off to a flying start... It can be done and you sound determined. 

Thank you so much, that means a lot. I am so determined! I want to set a good example to my young son and give us the best life possible 

savingholmes

You'll get there - We were £70K in debt at our worst and are now less than £2K and should be debt free by the end of the year. It can be done.

LetsDoThis1983

That is amazing! Well done! There really are some inspiring stories on here. 

[Deleted User]

Well done on facing your debts. We did it some years ago and have been debt free for a number of years. It's not easy. The first thing We did was to save up an emergency fund so that if we have an emergency we have the money there. 

LetsDoThis1983

Thank you. I will definitely do this too