Surprise Debt!

Hayleswildventure

Hi all

My husband and I have been going through some extremely difficult times. I haven’t been coping well, but trying my best using yoga & meditation, walks in nature etc. I wondered how my husband was coping so well. It turns out he wasn’t. His coping strategy was secret gambling, spending and drinking. He admitted all to me on Wednesday and I am so in love with him. 

But I am now a debt free wannabe !! 

I’ve been reading through some of the diaries - what does debt neutral mean? 

So here’s my best summary of debt, ordered with highest APR 0% first:

joint account overdraft £450 (I knew about)
husband current account overdraft £1500 (I didn’t know about) 
Aqua credit card £650 (I didn’t know) 
barclaycard credit card £7000 (I didn’t know) 
virgin Mastercard £4500 (I knew about ) 
load from my dad for new car £4500

total debt £18,5000 ish 

I haven’t put exact figures on here as it’s late. 

My husband works full time and earns £3500 after tax a month. I am a yoga teacher but currently only teaching one class a week as our youngest is only 4 months old. 

I’m just stunned and gutted. 

Please do share with me your biggest piece of advice for clearing debt and / or inspirational stories ? 

I feel we should be in such a better place by this point in our lives and should be doing so much better for the children !  

X

MatyMoo

At least you now know and want to deal with it, but an awful shock I would think!

Debt neutral would be where you have debts but savings of the same value……I suspect you aren’t there 😣

I would start with a statement of affairs which will show all your income, expenditure, assets & debts. Try to be honest with what you spend now, maybe use the last 3-6 months bank statements to start with, and & people on the forum will help you to work out how & where you can save to give you funds to chip away at the debt. 

moneyman_34

I learned a good method of clearing debt in the first lot of debt i had due to my ex wife. Call ALL the creditors and set a payment arrangement up on minimum amounts you can.
From there concentrate on paying off the smallest debts first with additional payments each month. Once that's clear do the same with the next lowest one. There may be some months where you can possibly just clear one as it is getting smaller.
It worked for me and I created a spreadsheet that estimated when each debt would be cleared. As well as an overall amount and when it would be cleared.  This way you have a target date to work towards and maybe you could try and beat it.

twiggy86

I can't imagine what a big shock that must have been. My advice would be to tackle the debt a penny at a time! No payment is too small and it is amazing how quickly the add up to something big. Good luck on your journey!