"Thevinternet's still in debt" diary
thevinternet
Forumite 1.1K Posts
Yes, welcome to yet another diary thread! Apologies to those who think these are a waste of time. I just know that it will help me to keep on track, so it's something I need to do.
Just a quick intro for those who don't know anything about me - I'm in my late 20s, and I'm in about 40k worth of debt, which breaks down like this:
Unsecured loans: 10,017.64 :eek:
CCs: 5309.66
Unpaid taxes: 1,600
Student loan: at least 16,000 by now - but I need to get a more accurate figure
O/D: 1,250
Loans from family/friends: £6,600 :eek:
= a shocking £40,777.30, all "achieved" under the age of 30.
I had my lightbulb moment back in February, when I got a letter about my unpaid taxes (which then were about 5k) threatening for the bailiffs to come round. I live with my partner of two years - he knows I have some debts, but not how bad they have got. Horrifyingly, my only way out was to take out ANOTHER loan (which I've added into the amounts above) to pay it, and even more horrifyingly, it was all too easy to obtain. But the thought of bailiffs at the door still makes me sick, and I've become rather a reformed character since that fateful day.
I'm retraining at the moment to get a better job, which explains partly why I'm in this mess. I'm working part-time though - I only had one job when I started my course, but I now have two jobs totalling around 26.5 hours a week, plus I do AQA, Ebay and bingo etc. I'm now in a position where I can afford all my monthly repayments, and with a lot of hard work and a little luck, I can make a few overpayments too. Amazingly I've missed very very few repayments on CCs and loans, so my credit record isn't too damaged. Not that it matters - after I pay this off, I'm never getting into credit ever again!!!
Really though, my debt came from living above my means for 9 years, especially when I was doing my first degree, and respending on CCs I'd paid off with loans etc. Also I got myself into a mess with taxes when I was self-employed for two years. It's the usual story of sticking your head in the sand and hoping things will magically get better, although now I can see what a total idiot I've been.
This board is inspiring me to sort it out though, and now that I've hit rock bottom, I can feel that things are going to get much better for me. I'm learning a very hard lesson, and I don't intend to ever be so spendy again! (a serious addiction to buying expensive pressies and taking taxis everywhere did for me, so I don't even have anything to show for it all!!)
Anyway, thanks to everyone for all their help and support so far. I'll try not to be so rambley in the future - I just wanted to give everyone a rough idea of where I am.
V xxxx
Just a quick intro for those who don't know anything about me - I'm in my late 20s, and I'm in about 40k worth of debt, which breaks down like this:
Unsecured loans: 10,017.64 :eek:
CCs: 5309.66
Unpaid taxes: 1,600
Student loan: at least 16,000 by now - but I need to get a more accurate figure
O/D: 1,250
Loans from family/friends: £6,600 :eek:
= a shocking £40,777.30, all "achieved" under the age of 30.
I had my lightbulb moment back in February, when I got a letter about my unpaid taxes (which then were about 5k) threatening for the bailiffs to come round. I live with my partner of two years - he knows I have some debts, but not how bad they have got. Horrifyingly, my only way out was to take out ANOTHER loan (which I've added into the amounts above) to pay it, and even more horrifyingly, it was all too easy to obtain. But the thought of bailiffs at the door still makes me sick, and I've become rather a reformed character since that fateful day.
I'm retraining at the moment to get a better job, which explains partly why I'm in this mess. I'm working part-time though - I only had one job when I started my course, but I now have two jobs totalling around 26.5 hours a week, plus I do AQA, Ebay and bingo etc. I'm now in a position where I can afford all my monthly repayments, and with a lot of hard work and a little luck, I can make a few overpayments too. Amazingly I've missed very very few repayments on CCs and loans, so my credit record isn't too damaged. Not that it matters - after I pay this off, I'm never getting into credit ever again!!!
Really though, my debt came from living above my means for 9 years, especially when I was doing my first degree, and respending on CCs I'd paid off with loans etc. Also I got myself into a mess with taxes when I was self-employed for two years. It's the usual story of sticking your head in the sand and hoping things will magically get better, although now I can see what a total idiot I've been.
This board is inspiring me to sort it out though, and now that I've hit rock bottom, I can feel that things are going to get much better for me. I'm learning a very hard lesson, and I don't intend to ever be so spendy again! (a serious addiction to buying expensive pressies and taking taxis everywhere did for me, so I don't even have anything to show for it all!!)
Anyway, thanks to everyone for all their help and support so far. I'll try not to be so rambley in the future - I just wanted to give everyone a rough idea of where I am.
V xxxx
0
This discussion has been closed.
Latest MSE News and Guides
Replies
It tells me I will be debt-free in April 2016 :eek:- how daunting. However, that's only with my current payments, which total £500 a month - I reckon once I'm working full time, I'll be able to bump those up and pay it off a lot quicker.
I'm 35 in 2015 - so ideally I'd like to have it all paid off by then, if not a lot sooner!!
Earn an extra £5 a day in April = £150
Bronze Olympic challenge: £378.52 so far
Plus another 5 debt-free goals for this particular month:
1. Pay £100 off my Lloyds TSB credit card.
2. Cancel my Lovefilm membership, even though it's only a few pounds a month.
3. Sell my karaoke cds on Ebay.
4. Bike to college instead of taking the train at least 4 times (which will save me £10 in total)
5. Make £100 on AQA.
I've got a busy month ahead, so I'll need lots of luck!!
Another 3% shaved off 10/12/08
ANOTHER 4 % June 09:beer:
Now I've got to revise until the early hours though for a test I have at college tomorrow - and I'm just sooo sleepy!! I just want to go dreamland and snooze away!!
On the plus side, my total from the £10 a day challenge in March was £380.91 - not too shabby for my first attempt at a monthly challenge! It was mostly down to AQA, Ebay and the lovely bingo of course!!
welcome to diary land
took me a year to pluck up the courage and I'm loving it already, may you continue to the path of DF'ness
1. So far this month I haven't been able to earn any extra cash due to exams.
2. I had to spend £5 on a new pair of ballet pump shoes today as my old ones literally fell apart as I was walking about. On the plus side, they are very pretty! But I feel like I've been naughty somehow by spending on clothes!
3. I went over my overdraft limit and got charged £10 by the bank. Urgh, I hate that! I don't mind if they have to charge me, but why can't they wait until I'm back to within the agreed limits to do it?! Now they are just making it harder for me to get back under the limit - so I'm sure they'll be able to charge me again....and so it goes on. They are a bunch of money-grabbing g*ts who make it harder for those of us in trouble, not easier..:mad:
On the plus side, the new part-time job is going well. Can't wait until the end of the month when I'll be getting my first pay-cheque from them....it'll be so exciting to actually see a reasonably substantial amount of money go back into my account for the first time in ages!!
V xxx
I received a cheque this morning for £140 after cancelling some Payment protection insurance with a CC, which was good news - in the bank with you tomorrow!
I also managed to do a balance transfer from a card with 17.9% to one with 6.9% for the life of the balance. It's only for £200 but should help in the long run. However, when I put it into the snowball calculator, it actually made my future debt-free-day further away...how weird is that?!
No luck on free Gala bingo tonight, but I will keep playing ever Thursday just in case - I remain the eternal optimist.
Is that wrong I wonder? I don't like sponging off him, and I wish that I could tell him the truth about my debts, but I'd just feel so ashamed, and I'd be so worried that he would think less of me because of the size of mess I've gotten myself into.
He's a wonderful man though, and when these debts are a bit smaller, I will tell him.
I had a nice time this weekend - I really didn't do much, just worked on Saturday and then chilled out today....at least I've not been spending much cash!! Tonight I went on AQA for a little while, then won £10.55 on bingo, so all good really!
On my snowball calculator, it recommends that for the debts I owe friends/family, I should be putting £5 a month away for now. Now because I'm basically incapable of having money in the house without spending it :rolleyes:, I applied today for an ISA it can go into in the meantime. It might as well earn a little bit of interest, and it'll help me focus on these debts - even though I'm lucky not to pay interest on them, they should almost be more important to me in a way than the loans and credit cards. These people mean a lot to me and I feel sooo bad for having leaned on others financially in the past. Well, now I can start to put that right.
However long it takes me to complete the journey, at least I am on the right path now.