One Payment at a Time

MissPennyMoneySaver

Hi Everyone 👋🏻

I was a member of these forums a good while ago, but ended up drifting away and my old account is inactive. Back then I had a bit of debt and was trying to stay afloat. Now I’m older (not wiser) and part way through my debt journey once again 🙈

I wanted to start my own little diary here for becoming debt free. 

So let’s begin with my story

I am MissPennyMoneySaver, I am in my mid 40’s (on the downward slope to 50! 😱) 

I have been in debt pretty much all of my adult life 😞 I am single and live with my cats in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 

I have suffered with Depression and Anxiety since my early teens, although not formally diagnosed until my mid-late 30’s. Unfortunately when my mental health takes a dip I tend to spend money on literally crap! 🙈 Then when I begin to feel better I struggle to deal with the fall out of paying the money back and more often than not I’m left with stuff I either don’t want or don’t need anymore. 

It’s been like this since I was 18 and got my first credit card. 😞

I was then in a vicious cycle of credit cards and loans and eventually in my mid 20’s in the mid 2000’s I ended up in a Trust Deed. Come 2009 I was finally Debt Free for the first time and I began my next quest, buying a new car then a house deposit! 😊

The car came along first in 2010 and I purchased my car outright. 😁

I had that car for a good 10 years before it started to cost me a small fortune in repairs, after that I got a newer car for a great deal that I paid for it again outright, and I’ve had that car since. 

2013 I finally got my own place, the only way for me to get on the property ladder was with a Shared Ownership property I was in my mid 30’s by then, I love my home and the location. Living on my own was a massive adjustment and I stupidly got another couple of credit cards, after some time I consolidated these and had a big bill that eventually sat unpaid. 😞

I also discovered online shopping credit and built up quite a bit of debt with that also.

I went through a bit of time where trying to juggle lots of different things and ended with my missing rent payments, without realising it I had also missed a mortgage payment which I needed to sort as well. 😞

I had a problem with council tax a few years ago due to them trying to take several thousands of pounds from me that was a mistake on their part, I was advised by them at the time to cancel my direct debit. The only problem with this was I forgot to restart it and I ended up a good few years in debt with that as well. 😞

I work 2 jobs, I work my full time job Monday to Friday and a part time job that is as and when so not a steady income, it  depends a lot on the time of year and can be lucrative in certain months, other months I may not work this job at all. I only rely on my main full time job for spending and saving which isn’t a lot. Once I am debt free I will reevaluate and come up with a new plan with the money I am throwing at my debts just now. 

In August 2022 I was diagnosed with a life long autoimmune disorder which since I was diagnosed it has messed with my mental health again, this time however I knew what it was and wasn’t in denial like I was for many years before I was formally diagnosed the first time a few years ago. I’ve made positive progress in getting help and although I’m still waiting for therapy I’m dealing with it and not going down the spending route! 😊

The start of this year I had a whopping Car bill from the garage due to several things going wrong with my car. Thankfully I was able to find it within my car savings account and it has enough to cover my MOT and service which is happening today. 

If you’ve made it this far

Thank you and welcome along to my debt free journey.

MissPennyMoneySaver

PS - I’ll do a Debt breakdown in my next post 

MissPennyMoneySaver

Debt Breakdown 

My light bulb moment with regard to my debts was in February of 2022, I have a CCJ against my name for the council tax arrears, I then started tackling them head on. I contacted all the debt collection agencies for the 3 larger debts, I have been paying these off at £50 a month each since March 2022. 

I paid off my mortgage arrears in March 2022, then the rent arrears were gone by November 2022. 

Recently I upped the council tax payment to £100 a month from March, come August I will up the Shop direct payment to £100 and I am hoping by December 2025 I will be Debt Free once again and I am hoping to stay that way. 

Starting Debt - £9485.27

Council Tax - £4039.97

Shop Direct - £2959.04

Credit Card - £1508.59

Rent - £830

Mortgage - £147.67

Current Debt - £4450

Council Tax - £2600

Shop Direct - £1650

Credit Card - £200

Rent - £0

Mortgage - £0

MissPennyMoneySaver

How life has changed

I didn’t get into a shed load of debt by being organised! 

I am the first to admit I am absolutely awful with money! 🙈

At the end of February I sat down and worked out exactly what comes out of my account each month and I now know what I am dealing with. 

I’ve always been the type of person just to spend first then worry about where the money is coming from later (NOT advised at all) 

I’ve had a couple of bank accounts for quite some time and used both for my day to day spending but never really kept track of what I was spending the money on.

So I set myself up with this:

Account 1 - my main bank account that my full time job salary goes into and my bills come out of. I won’t be use this account for spending from at all. 

Account 1 Savings - same bank and I have started putting what ever money I have left  at the end of the month in the main account into this. 

Account 2 - Where my pay from my 2nd job is payed into. My plan is to keep 1/4 of this pay in this account (pay varies month to month depending on shifts I pick up) the other 3/4 will go into my holiday account. 

Account 3 - A new account, to use solely for Groceries and Fuel. 

Account 3 Savings - I’ve set this up for a save the change with the money being rounded up to the nearest £1 every time I spend. 

Account 4 - My holiday account, I got this last year for a family holiday and have found it useful when outside the UK, I don’t tend to use it otherwise. But it’s great for holiday money. 

I bought myself some little notebooks and have used these to track my spends and so far it seems to be working for me.

MissPennyMoneySaver

What March taught me! 😁

💡It’s taken until now to finally have that big bright lightbulb moment about my finances! 💡

1. I budgeted for the first time EVER in my adult life - it actually made life so much easier! 🤦🏼‍♀️🙈🤦🏼‍♀️

 I didn’t even move money between accounts this past month, like I have done for a long long time! 

 I knew exactly how much money I had for spending and kept within that for the entire month. This also included a 2nd weekly food shop as I had unexpected visitors and didn’t have enough food in for them as well! 😁

2. I NEED to review my budget EVERY month - some bills like my mobile are changeable each month even if it’s only by £1 or £2 plus other bills have increased from last month as well. On my budget I’ve also added when insurances, TV licence, mobile phone, road tax etc are up for renewal so I can shop around nearer the time. 

3. I was much more AWARE of my spending - made me really think if I needed certain items or not, even in my food shopping! 

4. Having a separate account for, Bills, Food and Fuel, Fun Stuff, Holiday works for me. 

  My second job pay goes into my fun stuff account and I then moved 3/4 into my holiday account. 

I had a couple of larger payments this last month from my holiday account including flights for a trip away in May and my new passport (new passport - applied on a Saturday and had my new passport and old passport retuned by the following Friday!) 

With all the accounts I have a savings account attached and I’ve been using them for a save the change sort of thing

5. FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER I FEEL IN CONTROL OF MY FINANCES - It’s made me so much more aware and also made me think if I really need something or am I just WANTING it. 

It’s only taken me just shy of 46 years to realise this is the way to go! 🤦🏼‍♀️😁🤦🏼‍♀️

peb

Well done, you've made aot of progress.

Maybe once you are debtfree you can look into staircasing as you love your property