Grasping the nettle!

LivvyDF97

Hi all,

After lurking on this forum for many months, you lovely people have inspired me to stop being ashamed of my debts, stop hiding from them and most importantly, MAKE A PLAN. 

So here goes. My ex-partner swindled me out of £12k, I made 2 debt consolidations but then had £6k of vets bills for my precious boy which went straight back on cc. Im paying off around £1000 a month but don’t feel like I’m getting anywhere, I take home £2650 as a helicopter engineer but I live alone (just me and the cat), my rent has gone up by 30% since Xmas and I seem to be in a never ending spiral of debt.

I’ve made some poor choices, took out high interest loans to try and fix the situation but inevitably made things worse. 

Here’s what I currently owe…
£11,458 loan £301.54/mo
£3612 loan £129/mo
£3300 cc 1 £100/mo
£2000 cc 2 £80/mo
£1058 cc 3 (0%) £50/mo
£458 store card 1 £20/mo
£220 store card 2 (0%) £10/mo

Here’s the plan…
June 25th payday, I will have around £500 spare, which I will pay towards cc 2 (should bring me down to £1500)

July 25th/Aug 25th/Sep 25th - Pay off extra £500 a month on cc 2, WILL BE PAID OFF BY SEP 25th
 
I have a bonus of around £3k coming in March 2024, which will pretty much pay off cc 1

I will keep making payments on the 2 loans as planned until all cc and store cards are paid off, then that money can go to paying off loans early.

Been feeling really depressed and anxious about my situation lately, but I’m fortunate enough to earn good money, so I’m going to try and be positive and not be too hard on myself from today onwards.

The plan will work if I just rein in my spending and stick to it.

Progress not perfect! 

Wish me luck xx

Andyjflet

I think you should take the Dave Ramsey baby steps method and do it this way, I cleared my debts within 3 years. Heres your snowball method..

1. Clear any overdraft
2. Stash £1000 in another a/c this is your emergency fund, you can start with £500 though
3. Never use the credit cards again
4. Pay the smallest debt first for the quick win, the feelings works and you'll snowball that payment onto the next smallest debt.

So in this order

£220 store card
£448 Store Card
£1058 Credit Card
£2000 Credit Card

Pay the minimums on everything else, also, stop going out and spending money, sell anything you can and put towards the baby Steps. My calculation is you will be out of debt within 2.5 years depending on your living costs.

Added, you wont get anywhere without a written budget, you do this everyday when you get paid and allocate every £1 a job, this is a zero based budget and they key to all this. 

kimwp

I personally would pay any extra to the highest interest debt until that's paid, then move to the next highest, but Andy's right in that some of those debts you can get rid of quite quickly, so that might give you a mental boost. What are the interest rates?

Martico

I'd agree with kimwp in that the ones with the highest interest rates are the ones to hammer first, while clearing something quickly gives an "easy win" boost. 

But also bear in mind that, once cleared, one of your CCs might offer a 0% balance transfer - some do, some don't, it will have a lot of depends. And such a deal could well be of help. The APRs on each of your CC and store cards would be good to know to get a fuller idea

londoner2019

Just posting to say good luck! The fact you've laid everything out in front of you is THE most important first step. And the folks on here are super helpful, non-judgmental and pragmatic. 

As an aside - a helicopter engineer! What a cool job