Help! How do I not lose motivation and ruminate whilst I wait out my debt plan

Willrdouglas1809

Hi,

A quick overview into my life for the past few years may help with some guidance, so I'll start there. I'm 28 and had been managing debt via balance transfers, but keeping the original cards as well as other usually BNPL and store credit type debts from essentially I was 18 with it peaking around COVID time. During that time I did look at an IVA, was told it wasn't recommend, so kept struggling until 2023 when it got too much and entered into a debt management plan with Payplan

At the time I had around 24k of debt, with 22 of that going into the debt plan. Then after about 18 months I realised I couldn't manage that finally account and just went direct with them to do a debt plan.

In addition to this, a hobby I thought I could turn into a business went very poorly and now owed 4k in business debt. This is fully responsible by me and entered a management plan with them at £200/month.

As it currently stands I owe the below and I'll put the expected finish date.

Payplan - £397/month - Sept 2027
Paypal - £40/month - July 2029
Business Debt - £200/month - March 2027 (I do resell items for help cover this payment, but usually have to add £30-80 from my regular wage to cover the payment)

So about £12k left to pay across the board

I do have some new credit which I got to help rebuild my credit profile, but this is paid in full EACH MONTH and the balance is nominal in the grand scheme as the max I can borrow is £400.

My main aim is to clear this old debt by the time I'm 30 (sept 27) which I had been on course to clear quite easily, my work have put extra working restrictions on me and I can no longer work from home on Fridays (Despite the fact I travel 60 mile for essentially a half day) so had to adjust what I pay my debt plan to cover this.

My new plan was to save what I can towards paying the Paypal at the end of this year and get that settled in early 27, this could be easily done by just saving £50 a month.

Whilst in theory it sounds ok, I know how my brain works and I have struggled a lot to not just waste every penny I have and then sit and wallow in self-pity and harp on about past mistakes. This reason I has stopped me from saving money and really making any decent self progress.

I know all the strategies, I've cut regular costs where I can and don't' really afford myself much creature comforts and I'm always just an inch away from being able to make a good in-round with savings and at the last moment that incident we should be saving for happens. This then effects me mentality and I will go quite self-destructive or look for a quick way out.

I am very motivated at this moment, but I know I could slip any moment. The fact I cannot say today "I'll save something" and I have to wait for payday really demotivates me and again becomes a hindrance. 

Does anyone have any experience with these issues and managing your mind whilst in these scenarios?

I know I did better last year, but it's human nature to compare to others, so I just need to prove to myself I can do better this year.

Any questions I'm very welcome to answer and would love to here some ideas!

MEM62

Your motivation comes from where you want to be in the future.  Debt-free and in control of your finances or in the same situation as you are in now.  Once you have had your lightbulb moment that should be a no-brainer.  

ManyWays

Why cant you add the paypal into the DMP to get their high interest stopped?

The payplan debts, have any been sold to debt collectors? 

Willrdouglas1809

MEM62 said:

Your motivation comes from where you want to be in the future.  Debt-free and in control of your finances or in the same situation as you are in now.  Once you have had your lightbulb moment that should be a no-brainer.  

The motivation will be there, but trying to maintain that over long periods is where I struggle. I find myself either easily put off and just not wanting to even care or feeling hopeless quite quickly and the pattern repeats.

So my issue is "I know where I want to be, I know the steps, but how do I stop my old behaviors or habits taking over me when I get down or demotivated?"

ManyWays said:

Why cant you add the paypal into the DMP to get their high interest stopped?

The payplan debts, have any been sold to debt collectors? 

I could have added it and did look at this, but at the time I couldn't afford to bring that in-line with the same finish point so wouldn't have to reduce the payments to each individual creditor and I didn't want to disrupt that, so went with a low payment initially with Paypal until I can afford more. They currently aren't charging me interest either, so there's not major motivation to change that.

As of December (NatWest sold the debt they inherited from Sainsburys then) 8 out of the 9 remaining have been sold to debt collectors. The last being a payday loan I had and a tiny Klarna purchase that got looped in got wrote off since it was like £15 at the time they did it.

ManyWays

The debts sold to debt collectors, if they were cards or loans, have you looked at asking the debt collector (not the original lender) for the CCA agreement? Some of them may be unenforceable so you can simply stop paying.

Willrdouglas1809

ManyWays said:

The debts sold to debt collectors, if they were cards or loans, have you looked at asking the debt collector (not the original lender) for the CCA agreement? Some of them may be unenforceable so you can simply stop paying.

I've never heard of one of those, what exactly is it?

ManyWays

See this article which has a link to template to send as well as explaining what this is all about: Credit agreements | Getting information | National Debtline

Debtfree2026

I joined this forum in November 2024 - had my lightbulb moment in Dec 2024 and since January 2025 have managed to reduce my debt from £27k to currently just over £14k.  I do appreciate that am very fortunate to now have surplus income to put towards my debt so I haven't needed to enter into a debt plan etc.  I spent over 5 years struggling to pay minimum payments on my debts, quite literally just paying the interest and it wasn't until I started utilising balance transfers that I've been able to make a proper dent in my finances.  I now have one remaining credit card and a personal loan. 

Your post resonates with me because my biggest 'issue' is worrying about motivation.  Generally I am very determined and motivated to get rid of my debt.  The fact that I have paid so much off in 2025, plus I haven't had to use the card at all for a year is so liberating.  But it does weigh on my mind that I spend £1,000 a month servicing these two debts and realistically will be until the end of this year.  I have a diary on here and I've mentioned in it before that I almost want time to go quicker.  Every pay day is when the debt reduces that bit further and gets me closer to my aim of being debt free but I want to be debt free now!  I want to have that extra £1,000 to go towards my savings, my children - and I want that now!  Not next year!  Yet sometimes I think 'would it be terrible if I buy myself some new makeup and just make the minimum payments this month?" but I never do.  I always come to realise that when the debt is gone, I can buy myself some nice new makeup guilt free if I want!  

I'm rambling and probably not helping - I guess I'm trying to say that a lot of people on here will understand your worries.  For me, reading some of the debt free diaries is really motivating!  That's partly why I started my own - although it isn't the most thrilling read!  Waiting for the next pay day is somewhat frustrating - once it hits the debt goes down and then the countdown begins for the next one.  The last year has gone by soooo incredibly quickly and I am so happy to be where I am now.  Knowing where I will be in another years time is what continues to motivate me when I'm feeling a bit low and tempted into old habits.

Willrdouglas1809

Debtfree2026 said:

I'm rambling and probably not helping - I guess I'm trying to say that a lot of people on here will understand your worries.  For me, reading some of the debt free diaries is really motivating!  That's partly why I started my own - although it isn't the most thrilling read!  Waiting for the next pay day is somewhat frustrating - once it hits the debt goes down and then the countdown begins for the next one.  The last year has gone by soooo incredibly quickly and I am so happy to be where I am now.  Knowing where I will be in another years time is what continues to motivate me when I'm feeling a bit low and tempted into old habits.

I think that's the main thought that plagues my mind when I try to talk about it with people and they just say "well just pay it off" and "just stop spending money" it's like that's all well and good until your demotivated, emergency payment comes up or even just a pattern of behaviors that you've lived with all your life see still there 

I think I will look through some of the forum posts and hopefully this will help it click for me and maybe create my own journey, even if it's just holding myself accountable

sourcrates

"Help! How do I not lose motivation and ruminate whilst I wait out my debt plan"

Well myself, I played games with the debt collectors, this was back in the early 2000`s, before they became all "touchy-feely", when they used to call me 3 times a day and threaten to tell my boss I was in debt, or they were coming (themselves lol) to take my furniture, or that they would "see me in court" if I didn`t pay what I owed them.

Me, being a pragmatic kind of guy, I was well aware they couldn`t do any of the things they were threatening to do, not without a court order and a whole lot of legal stuff going ahead first, they were just trying to frighten me into paying, so I decided to have a little fun with them, wind them up, basically annoy the hell out of them, so I did.

Every time they called the caller was so rude, they used real old style DCA tactics, we`ll break your legs type of stuff, so I just argued with them until they hung up, any letters I returned to sender, or asked them to provide evidence of my liability, something they were not big on doing back then, most of the time if you asked for evidence, they would simply ignore you.

This was during a period where I was looking at a way forward with the debts, and the collection companies were just relentless in their pursuit of them, that`s how I coped with it, thankfully they don`t (all) behave that way anymore, but my tactics were simply to have a little fun with them, as it took away the fear, its just a walk in the park these days compared to back then, probably why you find it hard to be motivated, its become more of a sterile operation debt management, very easy to set up these days, and collectors tend to behave themselves as well, all the fun has gone out of it now, but I guess that`s a good thing as its much easier to get the help nowadays.

Willrdouglas1809

sourcrates said:

This was during a period where I was looking at a way forward with the debts, and the collection companies were just relentless in their pursuit of them, that`s how I coped with it, thankfully they don`t (all) behave that way anymore, but my tactics were simply to have a little fun with them, as it took away the fear, its just a walk in the park these days compared to back then, probably why you find it hard to be motivated, its become more of a sterile operation debt management, very easy to set up these days, and collectors tend to behave themselves as well, all the fun has gone out of it now.

I think that's how I felt when just briefly looking at getting settlement figures and was just curious with some and one was basically equated to 1 less monthly payment over paying 18 months early and thought why would I even bother?

Or it's the opposite, where there's been a couple months where I've had to do a reduce payment and it's always one of the debt agencys trying to collect like £8 in underpayments when it probably costs more to run the automated service then even bother to chase it