My light bulb moment and the start

More_or_less_me

Hello! 

I'm posting on here as I've had a read through some diaries and it's so nice to see the support on these forums and the reassurance that I am not alone. 

To be brutally honest, this isn't really my lightbulb moment, I've known for some time that something has to be done about my debt. But I've not been in the best position to do much and then I make it through another month and bury my head in the sand again. Not a great way to deal with things but there you go. 

So I have £14800 in debt to pay off. I have already managed to pay £1200 off but progress is slow. I have very little spare money left over at the end of the month. 

I use a debt repayment tracker app. I have a budget spreadsheet and I have a cash envelope purse. But I don't follow these properly so that is my first promise to myself. That I WILL get in control of my finances.

I also need to start saying no more. I know this seems odd coming out of a pandemic and everyone desperate to see each other again, but the financial toll socialising takes is very draining.

Anways, I'm off on a tangent. Essentially my situation has changed a LOT in the last 8 or 9 months. My husband and I separated so I became a single mum trying to get by on VERY low wages. Then my landlord decided to unsettle myself and my children even more by asking us to leave our home as he wanted to sell. So on December 1st I moved into a new place. The rent is higher as of course the cost of rentals and general living has gone up. So I've had to adjust my budget. It leaves me very, very tight but the alternative was to end up in emergency accommodation and hope that the council had a property available at some point. My council does not go in for building social housing and the waiting list can be 6 months or more. I felt my children did not need this on top of their dad leaving so this is the situation I find myself in. We will get by, but I am struggling financially. 

I have managed to speak to two of my creditors who have been so nice about my situation (I always worry about judgement for some reason), and I am now on a repayment plan with them. My aim is, if there is anything left at the end of the month to throw that towards my debts starting with the lowest figure to keep me motivated and to start the snowball repayment idea. 

Things I do to help myself:
I meal plan, buy most things secondhand I.e clothes, books furniture etc. I shop in aldi and I bulk buy at a use by date warehouse near me. I dont have any car payments as it was secondhand. I haven't been on holiday in over 9 years. I colour my own hair and trim it too. I make do and mend a lot. I also spend most evenings sitting with a book and one lamp on to save electricity. This sounds super depressing 🤣🤣 But actually that's my idea of a perfect evening. Add in a cup of tea and a cosy blanket and I'm happy as can be. 

I do however have certain items of furniture that I have bought on credit (second hand would have cost similar....why are wardrobes and chest of drawers so expensive on gumtree and facebook marketplace??? So I got new from IKEA and am paying those off too). I have three credit cards to pay down, one of which was a 0% balance transfer so I'm payinh that one down the fastest. I have to buy fuel. I do treat myself and the kids to a takeaway, usually when I have hit a point of burnout. But I know I need to just keep a frozen pizza or ready meal in for these evenings. I pay £25 a month for my daughters swimming lessons. I have a store card that I am paying off too. I work 30 hours a week as a teaching assistant so nearly full time, but fitting in with my kids school hours. Although I am still paying for my sons nursery as he hasn't started school yet.  I do get help from universal credit for this and am able to get 30 hours of free child care due to working full time, unfortunately the 30 hours doesn't cover the time he needs to be in nursery each day due to juggling my daughters school drop off and my start time at work. ....I think that's about it.

Phew. As you may be able to guess I am often frazzled, tired and overwhelmed but I am slowly finding my groove. And part of that is needed to be in control of my finances too. 

Anyway. If you have read this THANK YOU SO MUCH. If anyone has any advice please do throw it my way. 

Take care everyone. 

slowprogress

Wow you',e certainly got a lot  on your plate but it sounds like you're managing wonderfully. A book a coffee and a cosy blanket is my idea of a perfect night in too. I haven't got a lot to add but will keep up with reading your diary, I'm just starting to tackle the debt myself. One thought is there any option for working extra hours at the school, breakfast club or after school provision? Although I would imagine any extra would be swallowed with childcare fees for your own xx

More_or_less_me

slowprogress said:

Wow you',e certainly got a lot  on your plate but it sounds like you're managing wonderfully. A book a coffee and a cosy blanket is my idea of a perfect night in too. I haven't got a lot to add but will keep up with reading your diary, I'm just starting to tackle the debt myself. One thought is there any option for working extra hours at the school, breakfast club or after school provision? Although I would imagine any extra would be swallowed with childcare fees for your own xx

Thanks so much for your reply! It makes me feel like I am not on my own here on this island of debt!!

Yes, I have considered working extra, but like you said, the money would mostly get eaten up by childcare. However I have considered a second job while my kids are with their dad, however this is only a couple of hours on a week day evening and every other weekend. But I will definitely look into maybe a zero hours job, casework, delivery etc. Thanks for your input. I really appreciate you responding. Good luck on your journey too!

elbree

Hi @More_or_less_me 👋 Welcome! I've had a very similar journey to you and promise it will get easier as the repayments go down. I think it's the boredom of it taking so long that I found the hardest!
 I WISH I had found the forum earlier and now love threads like the grocery challenge and 'Tilly Tidying' where you round up spare change into debts every day. Surveys are good too. This makes me feel like I'm making daily progress. Ultimately though you're making ends meet, putting a safe roof over your kids head AND paying back to provide for better security - if it takes a while so be it, it gets easier as the kids get older. 

shell16

Morning, and its great you are on here keeping yourself accountable.  

I started my journey back in August, its been hard especially with Christmas too.  Most of my savings got chucked to my Christmas Spending so Im back to zero from 2022.  One thing I have not done is to add more debt to my credit cards.  So my savings are Nil from December 2021.  I got paid 18th December so Have started to add to my emergency fund, this is a priority as well as keeping upto date on my credit card min payments.  I also chuck a little extra when I can from account round downs - PAD payments.  These can surprisingly add up, could you do this, even a pound can cut your interest, every little bit helps?

I think you need to do the following:

1) Complete a SOA, get it all out in front of you. Can you reduce your bills, mobile, internet etc?
2) Get an emergency fund set up, even if its £500 for now, do not add more to your debt.  
3) Budget to Zero, try and give every penny of your pay a job.  Be truthful to yourself.  Go back over 3 months of spending and set your budget.  Its trial and error so be prepared to revisit this often and adjust. 
4) Try out some challenges on here, NSD, Grocery challenge, PAD - Payment a day challenge etc

Something I have been doing quite a bit in December is watching people on You Choob doing their own budgets, what they include.  Ive personally bought myself a budget book from Amazoon but you can easily make your own from a cheap A4 Pad or Spreadsheets? Track your spending every day. 

Ive also found some Apps on my phone which are free you could try and help me:

1) Debt Payoff Planner - This follows the snowball or avalanche method
2) Easy Bills reminder - Input when your bills are due and how much so you can keep track
3) Gift List - Its for Christmas this one, but you can add people to the list, how much you would like to spend and also a handy reminder icon for when you buy said gift and also another when you have wrapped it up!  It then totals up your spending (Wished) so you can tweak if necessary.

Other bits that could help you to add some extra cash to debt payoff...
1) Surveys, have you tried these?  
2) Could you have a clear out and sell on FB Market place?

Just one final observation - You mentioned about splitting from your husband.  Is the debt joint?  If so he will need to be accountable too for half the total.  What support is he giving in respect of your children, childcare payments, clothing etc?  

Good luck on your journey, I will be cheering you on.

More_or_less_me

elbree said:

Hi @More_or_less_me 👋 Welcome! I've had a very similar journey to you and promise it will get easier as the repayments go down. I think it's the boredom of it taking so long that I found the hardest!
 I WISH I had found the forum earlier and now love threads like the grocery challenge and 'Tilly Tidying' where you round up spare change into debts every day. Surveys are good too. This makes me feel like I'm making daily progress. Ultimately though you're making ends meet, putting a safe roof over your kids head AND paying back to provide for better security - if it takes a while so be it, it gets easier as the kids get older. 

Thank you so much for your response. I'm sorry it's taken me a while to reply. I've had look through the challenges and some of them look like great ideas and little things I can do to achieve my goal. 

I agree, I am worried about getting bored on my debt journey but I need to keep reminding myself why I'm doing it. Thank you for your advice. 

Karonher

Have you tried apps such as Shepper? Sometimes they have jobs on that cover general stores/corner shops and an hour or so could easily bring in £25.