Our road to recovery-Part 2

ltm07

Well we've paid the deposit for the wedding(£350) so the ball has started rolling! Went for a few beers to celebrate a the local Wetherspoons & then our local !! Had to piggybank everything though 2 weeks before OH's payday as we have thrown all our money budgetted for food,petrol etc. towards the deposit, so again the debt update looks alot worse than it actually is,+ one or two transactions are still going from one account to another. On the downside some !!!!!! has scraped the paintwork off my car. Parked it near work & it looks as though someone has tried to park behind me & caught the bumper:mad: ! So got to get some quotes for that. Having a quiet weekend this weekend as OH workng the next 3 nights, so we won't be spending too much( spent too much on takeaways last weekend to be honest). So hopefully by the end of the month we should hopefully be below £31k. Thanks for reading & here is new update.

Debt at LBM(July 1st 07) £33,744.47
Debt Today(June 13th 08) £32,529.63

ltm07

Well here goes, if this post offends then please stop here;) ! I am going to type my most honest & open post now since I started logging on to the DFW forum last year. Forgive me if any of it sounds arrogant or ungrateful, but I would rather say goodbye like this than people wonder where I have gone & it would be plain rude to disappear from the forum without saying farewell. As you may have noticed most of my recent posts have been quite negative about tackling our debt problems full on & some of you may have also noticed that I haven't logged on much this week,although I have lurked now & again. I really do feel that I have no more advice to offer people, especially with the way we are allowing ourselves alot more slack than we should do ourselves. This isn't an easy decision,but we are ready to tackle this DFW journey our own way, & to be honest I no longer care whether it takes us 5 years or 15 years to be DF. Our mortgage is under £70k & our debts are £32k. We both have fairly well paid jobs & we can manage to pay our debts, we have no plans to buy a more expensive house, so in reality we are no worse off than most 1st time buyers who borrow £100,000 to purchase their own home, only most of them are borrowing over 25-30 years & we only have 16 years left on our mortgage. I do appreciate that there are people on here far worse off than ourselves & that this forum & Martin's site as a whole is a Godsend to them, as it has been to us. However logging on here day in, day out is getting out of hand for me & also the feeling of taking 2 steps forward & one step back every couple of months does put me on a downer for days & it ain't healthy for me. I am not saying that I will never log on again, maybe I just need a break from it all, but at the moment I just want to get back to enjoying my life. I have asked myself the question; Was I happier before LBM & the honest answer is that I was, but at the same time I am glad that we did have our LBM as things would really be out of control. We have taken on board so much from you good people & have changed our spending habits accordingly. Going to carry on with the whatsthecost calculator but write the total every Friday in my little diary at home, as opposed to here. I don't want to sound like a spoiled kid but I want to get back to doing the things that I enjoy, going for a pint with my mates, taking OH & DD for days out & generally just living life to the full, without feeling guilty or the need to come here & explain to everyone that I shouldn't have overspent. I would like to say thanks to you all for your advice & for reading this thread & our previous diary(I have written both diaries but have also included OH in everything). I would also like to say thanks to all the long haulers, especially ISOM & Wendy( well done on selling the car Wendy). As I say I may be back one day, I may not, but I would like to wish you all the best of luck in your quests to become DF. So I'm now signing off & just for the record, our latest debt update is £32,177.37! God Bless, LTM 07!!

firesidemaid

hi there

i think that is a very honest and heartfelt post - i often have minor battles with OH re. paying off the mortgage vs having another meal out. we are both at opposite ends of the spectrum so we try and meet halfway.

i just had a look at your soa again, to see what debts you have at what aprs etc. i have found recently that my cleared cards are offering me some good 0% BT offers. your rates are not that bad anyway, but if you get the chance to clear one of the cards eg mint, you may get a good offer - that way you can use the c/cards to lower the rates and pay the money off quicker without you really doing much (or reducing your spending) IYSWIM.

hope you are all ok. good luck with the wedding plans! hope you have a lovely day.

ltm07

Just popping back to say thanks to you firesidemaid & I will defo look into seeing if Mint will BT at a lower APR. Just capped our Gas & Electric til September 09 wih Eon, to try to avoid the 40% price hike that is being predicted. Going to stick around on here, but only come on a couple of times a week,as I really was starting to spend too much time on here, so I'm dropping out of the £10 a day challenge & the £8000 a year challenge, as whilst it can be motivating when things are going well, it can also be downheartening when things aren't going so well IYKWIM. So from now on I am just going to stick to this thread & the Long Haul Supporters Thread & just log on now & again. Thanks again Firesidemaid for your support.

embarrassed_about_my_debt

I completely understand what you mean ltm,

Doing all the chalenges can take up alot of time etc. Im in a similar position, my debts arent at a stage where they arent managable, i still go out and still enjoy doings things. Maybe build in a social budget to your soa to allow you the treats etc? I have it in mine and makes the budget much easier to stick to and i dont feel like i've cheated then. :beer:

I will still be keeping you on my subcribed list to see how your doing

ltm07

Thanks EAMD & I will continue to check out your diary. I know that things will fall into place for us & OH's wages were excellent this month, so debt update looks so much better. Our theory now is work hard, play hard so the harder we graft & the more overtime we do, the more treats we can have without it affecting our debt. We(me in particular) was geting way too obsessed with the DFW thing & as I have said before, we have learnt from our past mistakes & will be DF sooner or later, but we aren't going to beat ourselves up about it if it takes longer than expected. All the best & here is new update.

Debt at LBM(July 1st 07)-£33,477.48
Debt Today(June 27th 08)-£31,058.86

ltm07

Well it's one year since our LBM & we have managed to pay off £1883.81 so far! Without the help of Martin & you folks we would never have managed to pay that much off! It has been an up & down year & we have hopefully found some sort of balance. Saying that at the rate we are going it will take another 16-17 years to pay our debts off:eek: ! I have tried to be open & honest in all of my posts so far & I will continue to do so. One of our loans finishes next month so that will be another £97 a month that we can throw at our debts. We can't go to the extremes that we first went to during the first year of our DFW journey, but we have managed to keep our spending habits under control & will continue to do so. I have started to do more hours at work again to ease the pressure a little & so we can enjoy more treats whilst still paying debts off, although OH still not heard when she will be going full time, so she's trying to pick up a few extra shifts when she can. So for us this road to recovery may well be a long way off yet but as long as we can put food on the table & enjoy our lives without overspending too much, then we don't mind how long it takes to get there anymore. Thanks for reading & will update again on Friday!

Debt at LBM( July 1st 07)-£33,744.48
Debt Today(July 1st 08)-£31,860.67

ltm07

Hi all!! Well only managed to pay a small amount off debts since the 1st July, as both lawnmower & freezer packed up last week so had to get new ones:mad: . To be fair the freezer had lasted a while & was given to us by a friend & the lawnmower was £30 from Asda. I had lent it to my brother & it blew up on him! He said that he would buy us a new one but I said that if he gave me a hand tidying our garden & help me take freezer & other rubbish to the tip then I would let him off! It turned out that I ended up helping him shift a load of rubbish from his house too:rolleyes: ! It was last Sunday & it took us all day to shift everything but it we had a good laugh & it got me out of house for the day! So the new lawnmower cost £80 & freezer cost £170,we are both doing extra hours at work to recuperate the cash! Thanks for reading & here is new update!!

Debt at LBM(July 1st 07)-£33,744.48
Debt Today(July 4th 08)-£31,768.91

dancingfairy

Sounds like things aren't that great for you at the moment. What with the lawnmower and freezer and your OH's work.
Glad your debts not going up though at soon you will have that extra £97 a month which you will really start to notice improving your debt.
Keep up the good work.

Keeping_Positive

Sorry to hear about the broken lawnmower and freezer LTM07, At least you have paid some debt off.Wishing you both lots of available overtime to clear the extra cost ASAP (and hopeully an unexpected payrise!)