The English Rose goes frugal 19 April 2022 at 8:41PM in Debt free diaries 22 replies 1.7K views

EnglishRoseJane

Well it's time to de-lurk and start my very own debt free diary.
Somehow I've managed to get myself in Aproximately £17k worth of debt plus another £5300 to relatives. It's definitely time to face the music and make a plan to get this paid off and gone.

My debts are:

£1500 credit card (Maxed out) 
£2500 catalogue 1 (Maxed out) 
£2132 catalogue 2 (Limit £3750) 
£7174 bank Loan (47 Months left) 
£1701 small loan (up in Sep 2024) 
£1312 small loan (up in Dec 2024)
£530 payday loan (up in Aug 2022)

Away from the official debt I also owe the following:

1)£300 cash to my Uncle - Will be paid back in 2 months

2) £5k back to my Mom (Its her funeral fund that she allowed me to borrow. She doesn't want it all back yet). 

I got in this mess and only I can get myself out of it. 

I am married with 2 young children. My Husband is lucky to have a stable full time job that covers all of the house bills, mortgage, phone contracts, car payment etc plus loans we had for work on the house. I work 30 hours per week in a minimum wage paid job. My salary is for food shopping, petrol, clothes for all of us, days out, Birthdays and Christmas etc plus all of my debt! My take home pay each month is approx £1090 and £140 ish family allowance/child benefit. 

My monthly payments are approx:

£178.50 bank loan
£41 small loan
£57 small loan
£85 cc - which I use once paid
£60 catalogue 1
£35 catalogue 2
£106 payday loan (up in 5 months) 

Petrol is approx £40-£50 per week

Food shop is £65 ish per week

EnglishRoseJane

My plan is to pay back my uncle first and to pay off my 2 catalogues and my credit card with any left over cash each month. I am happy to let the small loans run their course for now. Once my credit card and my catalogues are paid off I plan to split any left over cash between my bank loan and the money I owe my Mom.

In order to save money I plan on doing the following:

*Batch cook
*Always make lunches for work
*Limit take aways to once per month 
*Stop buying branded clothes for the kids
*Shop in charity shops more
*Sell unwanted items
*Make do and mend where possible
*Have mainly free or low cost days out as opposed to paid attractions
*Make my own coffees instead of buying them when out
*Cut down on driving to save petrol

LeeXenon

Good luck with your debt free journey.

Just an idea (you may have already done this!), if you say were able to stop pending on CC1, by paying £85/mo on the £1,500 balance in theory you could clear it in 17 months if you were not charged interest. There are fee-free balance transfer offers out there if you are eligible. This could save you some money on interest payments?

I'll follow along for the journey, as I'm also working away my debt too. Again, good luck!

EnglishRoseJane

Right, It's Aproximately 3 days until payday for me. We have roughley £9 left in the account. We have enough food in and the car has petrol.

I'm owed £6.40 cash plus another £8 for selling some kids clothes, so I'm hoping to get that soon. Just need to deliver the items.

My plans for tomorrow are:

*Make packed lunches for work
*Prepare Dinner in the slow cooker 

*Cancel catalogue 3, which is thankfully paid off. If the account is shut down then there are no temptations

*Reduce my credit limit down on catalogue number 2, so I can't rack up anymore debt on it

*Deliver said Items so I can pick up my cash

EnglishRoseJane

LeeXenon said:

Good luck with your debt free journey.

Just an idea (you may have already done this!), if you say were able to stop pending on CC1, by paying £85/mo on the £1,500 balance in theory you could clear it in 17 months if you were not charged interest. There are fee-free balance transfer offers out there if you are eligible. This could save you some money on interest payments?

I'll follow along for the journey, as I'm also working away my debt too. Again, good luck!

Hi LeeXenon, thank you for the follow. I will check out your diary too. 

Thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately my credit rating is shot due to all my debt. Its always paid on time and I've not got any late marks. I think its to do with the ratio of my debt. Hopefully this will be an option once my score improves  

Fingers crossed I can get my rating back up to excellent again as the debt reduces

WinterWarrior

Good luck. I expect the payday loan and catalogues will be very high interest, so it will be worth tackling those first. Just think how good it will feel when you are debt free. 

EnglishRoseJane

Thank you Winter Warrior

Yes that's very true. The pay day loan finishes in 5 months time. Once that's paid off I will use the extra £106 per month to pay down the catalogues

vampirotoothus

Hi it's recommended that you pay just over the minimums on the CC debt, so round up the direct debit to the next £5, as it improves your credit record. Good luck on your journey V x

EnglishRoseJane

Hi V

That is brilliant advice, thank you.

Patiently awaiting payday.. which I think and hope will be this Friday, so 2 more days 🤞

I will then be able to see what I've got to work with! Minimum wage is going up to £9.50ph too 😉 so hoping for a few extra penny's 😀

EnglishRoseJane

Well today I did everything that I planned to do. We took packed lunches to work, I made Dinner in the slow cooker and there are plenty of left overs for tomorrow. I cancelled my catalogue account that was paid off a few months back. Less temptation that way! I also reduced the credit limit on one of my other catalogues.

I delivered the items I had sold so I now have a little cash. Just waiting for my friend to cough up £8 from some kids clothes that my DS had outgrown.

So I have £11.40 in my purse
£8 cash incoming
£0 in the bank but all bills are paid, we have food and petrol and payday should be 2 days away.

Total is £19.20 but I owe £6 to the milkman and £4 to the wheelie bin cleaning man so that leaves £9.20 once my friend pays me.

Hubby has advised me he's got £14 left in his account too so that's good.

I've just got our little boy to sleep so time to chill out with my little girl before she goes to bed. They are only up this late as its the Easter holidays still 😁

I will probably learn some more French on Duloingo tonight once my little girl is asleep. I'm loving it! I'm almost 35 and haven't studied French since I left school in 2003, but its amazing what comes back to you. I just use the free app though and put up with the adverts! 

EnglishRoseJane

My friends just paid me so I can add the £8 cash 😊