Sewn's determined to do this........one final time 21 March 2022 at 1:20PM edited 20 July 2022 at 11:01AM in Debt free diaries 49 replies 4K views

Sewn

So......hello, I'm not new to these boards but haven't been here for about 10 years, so long that I've had to create a new profile.
A bit of background, I came here about 15 years ago when we were heavily in debt, with young children, lost my mum and was in a job I hated, leaving that job meant a massive drop in income for me and reluctantly we went down the IVA route with around £60k owing at the time. I'm not proud of it but there we are.

Did I learn anything from the IVA?, no, apart from being on the breadline for the years we were in it, no, since it ended we have steadily increased our debt burden again. Our kids are now grown, both have left home, well, one is at uni, and to be honest for the last couple of years we've just been treading water, paying bits off here and there but not really tackling it and sorting it out.

Over the last couple of years my earning potential has gone up exponentially and I know I'm very fortunate, but that STILL hasn't made me grab that opportunity to pay things off, I'd just fritter it away on rubbish a lot of the time. Things came to a head late last year when I was in a full time job, but working extra hours on top self employed, initially to give us extra income for the nice things, but I ended up feeling where I couldn't have any time off for fear of not being able to pay our bills. I handed my notice in in October with a view to finally going full time self employed and left my job at the end of January.

This was the time I sort of had my LBM and decided I needed to look at this as an opportunity to sort out our debts. Now I am self employed, I can earn more in 4 days that I previously did in a month employed. I am fortunate that I have specific skills that are in high demand and there is more work out there I can handle. but I'm also conscious that if I don't work, I have no income and with the debts we have that's a scary thought.

So at the beginning of last month, I sat down and added it all up, it came to around £50k, sigh. On the one hand I feel like I have used credit for 30 years and I don't know if I have it in me to change. On the other hand, I do remember what it was like coming out of the IVA having that freedom back, knowing our money was our own. We're getting older, I'm 49 and DH is 56, he wants to retire in 3.5years. I want to work 3 days a week and start enjoying life so it has to change. We have a mortgage that's now £97k on a house worth £250k, the aim is to pay the mortgage off in the next 5 years if we can.

DH is good with money, he only spends what he earns, I'm the spendthrift and in the past he has taken out credit cards to transfer my balances.....and then I have spent again. So the majority of his debt is mine.

I am now working all hours, I am lucky if I have one day off a week, but I am earning significant sums and it's allowing me to pay down quickly. I've decided to tackle the debts in DH's name first as I know he won't then spend on the cards again, then to tackle mine. DH's balances originally came to 20K in early Feb, they are now down to £8700, yes that's correct, I have paid £13k off in just over a month. This is what there is left to go:

DH:
MBNA £3942
Halifax £4700

Me:
Vanquis £2530
Lloyds £4700
Next £2530 (this is in DH's name but it's my debt)
Virgin £5630
Very £2748
Paypal £2997
MBNA £7700

About £37k

I am paid weekly currently for the work I do and my diary is full til August. This week on Friday I aim to pay £2500 off DH's MBNA card with the remainder paid off next Friday alongside half off his Halifax balance, the remainder of the Halifax card will be paid off the following week and then he is debt free apart from his pcp loan for his car.

I am confident with the work I have booked I can pay everything off by July, but this involves me sometimes working 14 hour days and some weeks going 2 weeks without any time off. I'm finding this tough, I'm tired and drained and not recovering when I do have a day off. I feel like all I'm doing at the moment is working and sleeping, DH is doing the housework, cooking meals etc as I'm just too tired to do anything when I get home.

We have a 4 day trip to London booked next month and then we are going to Portugal for a week in May just the 2 of us, our first couple's holiday since before we had the kids so I'm really looking forward to these trips and will give me a much needed break.

So why am I here? you might think I'm earning amazing money and should not be in this position, but these debts weren't built up when I was earning amazing money, my current income level is temporary as I can't work at this pace forever, and prior to this last few months, I was on a normal salary, we've been in the position where we had £10 left spare each month after normal bills were paid, I know what hardship is.

I'm here for the accountability, I don't want to pay this off and start racking it up again, I need to change, having gone through an IVA I don't care if I miss a payment and get a threatening letter or a mark on my credit file, it doesn't bother me in the slightest, I wish it did! So I'm hoping by being accountable and keeping this diary I can learn to live within my means, stop being impulsive, help out my kids more and have something to show for the money I'm earning - time, time to love the simple things in life and to spend with those whom I love.

adben12

Good luck with your journey. 

Sewn

So we're a week on and I managed to pay another 2k off the Halifax card 3 days ago, we couldn't pay down the MBNA card of my DH as planned as he was still waiting for the PIN to arrive to be able to use the app, why do they sometimes make it so difficult to pay things off? so we decided to tackle the Halifax next,  I am hoping this weekend to have enough to clear the Halifax card and then we can start making inroads into the MBNA. So current debts down to around £35k

I've been feeling incredibly tired the last few days and have had a constant headache for 6 days now, I'm sure its just down to my workload, I had yesterday off but just feel exhausted. I'm now at the beginning of a long stretch of work and haven't a day off until 8th April which at this stage seems a loooooooong time, but then I have the best part of a week off work and a few days away to look forward to which will hopefully give me some time to relax and unwind.

Taking time off means no income for me with me being self employed now so I do feel immense guilt but at the same time, know that to keep this level of work going I need to take a break, we've made significant inroads over the last few weeks so a few days off in the grand scheme of things shouldn't make too much difference.

The MBNA one will probably take us around 3 weeks to clear, we have a few expenses coming up I need to account for, flights for our holiday in May to book and the garden is being returfed mid April £500, we had the patio done last year so it took a massive beating and needs doing before the summer. I have to allocate some funds to those. It will feel a big achievement getting all DH's debt cleared though.

Amber1980

Hi there,you’re doing great,just wanted to drop by to say I was self employed for twenty years,still am in one of my part time jobs, and have always felt terribly stressed/guilty/anxious etc about taking any time off,even when I’ve been really unwell,but in the last couple of years even though financially I’m worse off than ever I have really tried to realise I need regular breaks,it took me years and physical and mental health problems before I started to actually listen to my body,don’t over do it and enjoy any breaks you have,all the best xx

Sewn

Thanks Amber1980, being self employed is completely new to me and I'm still adjusting, I think I'm working so much as I still worry that if I'm without work at some point we would be in dire straits as we wouldn't be able to afford our essential outgoings on DH's salary alone let alone payments on all the debt and I really don't want to go down that road again.

So while I have available work booked I just feel the need to work as much as I can and pay down the debt as fast as I can so I can then start building some savings for the leaner times. Having said that, I did have to cancel an evening job on Monday as I felt so ill, today is the first day in the last 2 weeks I've started to feel better, earlier this week I was so poorly but then DH tested positive for covid on Tuesday, I am still negative, despite us having the same symptoms but me being much more sick that him, how does that work? In 2 years since the pandemic started I have never once had it despite 2 occasions now where a member of our household has, can't get my head around that but never mind.

I've paid another £2k off the Halifax card today so there is just £1k owing on that one now and it's gone, Halifax have offered DH a 0% balance transfer for a year with a 5% transfer fee, I'm not sure whether to take advantage of it for my Vanquis card balance (which would be paid off in July anyway if I did the transfer as I'd then leave it til last) I need to work out if the 5% fee on the balance of £2700 would be less than the interest that would accrue, if I didn't transfer that balance then I would pay it off at the end of April anyway, not sure whether it's worth it.

I'm expecting another £2.2k income in the next few days, it should have been in my account this morning but hasn't been paid yet, as soon as that comes in the Halifax balance is being cleared and the remainder will be paid off DH's last card MBNA, that one will take us most of April to clear, I think there is about £4k owing on it as we've had to use it for a few bits and pieces this last week.

I'm looking forward to a break from work, I finish next Thursday and we go to London on the Sunday for a few days, it will so be so nice to have a few days off and do something different than just be at home and take the dog out for a walk as lovely as that is!, the original plan was to have all of DH's debt paid by the time we go away next Sunday, as it stands there is likely to be £2k outstanding debt of his before we then start tackling mine, but I look at how far we've come and we've paid down almost £20k of debt now since the end of Jan and that's something I'm bloody proud of.

Gettingtherequickly

I don't usually come on these forums, but your repayment over the last couple of months is amazing and you have every right to be proud of yourself.

One thing you need to think about, either now, but certainly when you are debt free in your planned timescale of another couple of months, is putting sufficient money aside for HMRC. 

Enjoy your breaks!

Sewn

Absolutely Gettingtherequickly, that will be my plan for the latter half of this year to start putting the tax aside

Aspiration

Great job repaying the debt and stopping the spending!!

Reading your diary as you point out, please make sure you have some time off planned otherwise you’ll make your self ill. You’re clearly highly skilled in your area of work, taking 2 days off per week between now and July would only equate to roughly another month. Would it be so bad working 5 days a week and paying it off in August instead of July?? 

Impressive start and subscribed to cheer you along! 

Sewn

Thanks Aspiration, yes you're right and in the grand scheme of things another month isn't going to make much difference apart from to my sanity!, I am planning from July to have more time off and I guess I just think at the moment, keep my head down and keep plugging away!.

It's not been the greatest of weekends to be honest, Hubby has booked some concert tickets for us for the end of October and we've had to book the weekends accommodation now and pay upfront which.....has gone on the credit card!!! I'm annoyed now as it's this kind of impulsive spending that got us into this mess (again) in the first place, so that's another £750 debt, just like that! I will be paying off another £2-3k later this week when my invoice is paid so in essence we are still chipping away at it but still.... these old habits are really going to take some time to change.

We are going away on Sunday til Wednesday and that needs paying for out of this weeks money, plus we still need to book our flights to portugal next month (which will go on a credit card for the section whatever it is protection)  but I've booked some extra work tomorrow evening which will net me an additional £300, I do have Friday off this week aswell and I'm looking forward to the break.

But what I need help with is how you stop 'relaxing' as you pay the debt down? this starts to happen every time, I relax a bit thinking 'it's ok, we have more breathing space now' and then before I know it its creeping up again.

Oh and I'm still covid negative, hubby is day 5 now, but I'm thankful for small mercy's as I wouldn't be earning if I end up positive and forced to isolate

I need to update my totals with the additional debt and new payments and see where we are

purplelady99

Sewn said:

Absolutely Gettingtherequickly, that will be my plan for the latter half of this year to start putting the tax aside

It sounds like you are doing fantastically well with your debt repayments. However you do sound at risk of burn out with all the hours you are working but I understand you wanting to make money while the opportunity is there. Re the tax although you’re in a rush to pay everything off would it be better if every time you get paid you put a percentage into a separate account to cover your tax bill? What if the work dries up or you do burn out and need to take some time out from working later on in the year? I’m not wanting to be negative, more pragmatic, so if you save the tax element as you go along then you will have the monies there ready when you need to pay the tax. 

Sewn

Thanks Purpledady99 and I have heeded your advice, I've just had a lovely week off which has given me time to think and reflect, prior to my week off I worked 17 days on the trot with a few 12 hour days amongst that, I've decided I need to cut my workload down a little so have cancelled a few committments and am learning to say no and turn things down. It means it will likely be a few more weeks before things are paid off fully but that's not a big problem when it comes to my sanity!

I'm a week away from our holiday to Portugal now and I am so looking forward to a week in the sun.We are still chipping away at the debt and the total is now down to just under £34k, I'm awaiting an invoice for work that should be paid this week and I should be able to pay off another £2.5k by the end of the week from that and then we will nearly be in the 20's which will be amazing, it's starting to feel that the end is almost in sight, hubby has £4k left now which when we started a few months ago where he owed over £20k I'm really proud of how much we have paid off so far