One final push BPD vs DFW

dragoneye454

Good Afternoon all,

I have been debt free before and even had a good little pot of savings. 
But in 2022 I suffered from a BPD spiral so big it landed myself (35f) and my husband (35m) into £32k worth of debt in a mere 6 months with nothing to show for it.

Since then I have been signed up to Stepchange and am down to £23k and some change.

Today we have made the decision to take over paying our debtors without Stepchange's help. The reason for this is because for the next 12 months we are having one last strong push to clear all the debts using all available funds and settlement offers when received.

This afternoon I have emailed the creditors I can to get the payments moved over. For the ones that I can't get through to (as they require a passcode I do not have) I will wait for the inevitable letters to start and go from there.

The goal is that by this time next year it will all be done.
We are currently paying £800 a month on the DMP but if we tighten our belts we can do at least another £800 a month to save for those settlements.

There will be challenges along the way as when my BPD spirals down, all I want to do is spend or go on holiday to escape anything, but am hoping the strength is there to do this.

Once it is paid I will then treat us to an amazing holiday knowing how much more money is in our pockets and start saving for our future.

So... here we go. 

Day 1: Current Debt- £23,222.70

dragoneye454

Afternoon all.
Today was money allocation day and putting it all into the pots. Zero based budget for the win.

Not going to lie, its not a great feeling know I can't spend any of it, and therein lies the mental battle, but it will be worth it.

I do alot of batch cooking as it makes sense for the house so the freezer already has 30 meals ready to go.
Hoping to make a sweet potato dhal from the Tesco book this week (62p a portion) to add some more and keep a rotation going. Definitely works out cheaper this way and decreases the excuses for a cheeky take-out as the food is already right there.
Also planning to make some shortbread for the guys who are over on Saturday.

Hope everyone has had a good day wherever you are.

Lonelygambler

Hello. Good luck with your journey. What is a BPD spiral? Sorry to ask but would like to know. 

LG

dragoneye454

Hi @Lonelygambler thank you.  Don't be sorry. Always open to sharing.

BPD is borderline personality disorder and a spiral is where your mood dramatically changes and you have very negative thoughts as well as becoming reckless. This can be for hours, days, weeks or months.  BPD is in the same family as bipolar, but your mood can switch more rapidly eg over hours rather than days. 

dragoneye454

Good Afternoon all,

Hope you are having a great Friday.

Sweet potato dhal was made last night but I may have dropped too much chilli powder into it so its head blowingly hot.  Eight more batch meals for the freezer and I'm planning to use the rest to make fritters.

The plan is also to make the shortbread today ready for tomorrow so busy busy.

On the debt front, we paid off two of the small creditors today which is a great feeling.
I'm worried about having to wait for the others to send me letters before I can start paying again. Also, because we have moved since then I don't know how long it will take.

Day 3: Current Debt- £22,717.98

dragoneye454

Afternoon all. Feeling ill today so momentum is lacking.
Made the shortbread and fritters during my lunch break yesterday so that was a win.
Today been moving some furniture and pottering in the garden. 
£30 was spent on groceries and £5 on transport. Nothing else so far so that's a win
Hope everyone is having an amazing Saturday 

dragoneye454

Good Morning all,

Hope you had a great weekend. What did people get up to?
Spent more than I wanted to this weekend but it wasn't frivolous. 
More groceries were bought for lunches and some more batch meals. Pet shop for dog food and bird feed for our glorious new garden. Odds and ends for the house and a unit to go next to my work desk as storage is short.
Knew that we would need some random things for the new house but definitely spent less than expected.

Been watching vlogs this weekend on budget holidays (thailand, poland, croatia) and am wondering why we haven't done it before. We always go for the expensive holidays but there is a whole world out there to explore.
Still not booking anything until this mountain is paid off, but its exciting to have ideas and dreams. I think it's what keeps us going.

dragoneye454

Good Morning all.

Didn't spend anything yesterday. Phew. 
Just another work day and wasn't actually too productive as still ill. 

However, today we did something crazy and used some of our savings to clear one of the debts.

This was with CARS and they offered 75% but we got them down to 50% settlement full and closed which is amazing. I know we can't do this lots and as we get to the bigger ones the longer it will take to have a settlement offer in place but.....

Lendable I don't think defaulted when we were on the Stepchange DMP and it hasn't been sold anywhere so highly tempted to just let that happen for better settlement offers.

That means debt total update....
Start: £23,222.70
Current: £19,520.10

debtfreewannabe321

That's amazing! Well done dragoneye! It really helps with morale when you get a few paid off like that!

dragoneye454

debtfreewannabe321 said:

That's amazing! Well done dragoneye! It really helps with morale when you get a few paid off like that!

Thank you. It really does. It reinforces that this can be done and it won't be forever.

dragoneye454

Bit of a sad call but always good to see both sides.
Spoke to ACI about a settlement offer to see what they would be looking at as they are one of the big ones.
They will only reduced to a max of 85% and that will show as a partial settlement.

Oh well. Always worth asking.