Thanks for the advice Wendy. I don't always feel like I'm doing great - sometimes I think that every single day acts as a lightbulb moment, as every day wonder to myself how the heck I got in this mess to begin with! I think I'm still feeling guilty about my debts, although I know that isn't a particularly helpful emotion at all.
I've got a set of goals for May - as always I only expect to make some of them work, but I will do my best this month to achieve at least more than one of them!! They are:
1. Pass my exams at college.
2. Pay £100 towards my Lloyds TSB credit card.
3. Make £100 extra through AQA work.
4. Make £5 a day extra overall, totalling £155 for the month
5. Take a packup into work every day for a week.
6. Finally cancel my lovefilm membership, though I think that I sent the final DVD off this week (hurrah!!) It's a good service, it's just that we don't need two of us in the house with it.
Some lofty aims indeed as I'm a busy bunny this month with exams, but they are over by the middle of May so I'm hoping to pick up the slack then.
Sending my love and big hugs to everyone out there who is trying really hard under these difficult economic times. xx
Hey ho, it's thevinternet here, back again in the early vampireish hours of the morning!!
Totted up my debt at the moment and it's currently standing at £38,742.74. Still frighteningly high, but it does me good to see it written down like that and stops me spending. Still, it's less than where I started, which is the main thing.
I'm a little bit worried at the moment because I was talking to my boyf the other day. For those of you who don't know me, my boyf knows that I'm in debt but has no idea how much it is. He's lovely and supportive but quite a cautious man, and I think it would freak him out if he knew, therefore I've never told him.
Anyway, I'm not worried about keeping it a secret, but about him finding out by accident. The other day I was telling him about my brother's girlfriend. She is 80k in debt, but my brother has no idea....a tricky situation indeed.
When I told my boyf about this he said 'Wow....that's a dumpable offence I think!'
Would he think this about my 38k?
Now my debt is not his debt, but mine...and all getting sorted out, I never miss payments etc ever.
Is personal debt ever a reason to dump someone?
I had no idea that his mind worked like that. What do you guys think? To be honest it makes me glad that I've never told him how much I owe. But it makes me sad too - I'd like to think that if he was in trouble, I'd support him, not dump him for it! Then again his family are rich and I don't think he's ever really had to struggle...maybe he doesn't understand how easy it is to get into debt?
Hi Tustastic, thank you so much for your lovely posting and your kind words. It's always nice to get a bit of encouragement, and the downside of not informing partners about debt is that you don't get any. So thanks - it's amazing that strangers can be so kind on this forum, but I guess we all understand when we are in the same boat.
As regards my partner, he is aware that I'm in some debt and I think that he has noticed that I am better with cash than I used to be. I wish I could tell him but I just know how much he would worry that I'd slip back into my old ways. I do owe him some cash, but it's about £500, and he's fine about me paying it back whenever (in fact I have already started to). My new tighter ways have had advantages for him too - I bought his car insurance via Quidco, and not only got him a much cheaper deal, but also will give him the £75 cashback when it comes through. I would never have joined that site without a recommendation from people on here.
He owns his own house outright, so there's no need for talk about buying a property together, plus neither of us want children, so I think I'll be ok on that front. I will tell him when the time is right, but as you say, I will wait until I've paid a good bit of it off - ideally when I'm sub 25k as I don't think that figure sounds quite so scary as 40k!
I think I've sorted the overdraft problem now, as I haven't been charged for going over this month, but thanks for the advice about the A and L. I have a graduates account with Barclays so get free mobile phone insurance and other benefits, plus I've been with them for 7 years now so I don't really want to switch. If only I could keep that account AND my A and L account, then I would love that £50 bonus!!
Anyway, thanks again - and I'd love to hear what anyone else thinks about my boyf's 'little comment'. There's always the chance that he could snoop through my stuff and easily find out how much I owe one day, which is what worries me as then he could possibly accuse me of deceiving him and it would cause a big hoohah.
Hey ho everyone. It's been a good few days since I was last on these forums, and I've been away far too long!!
So what's happened recently? Well, I've finished my exams (woo hoo!) so no more uni for me until October. This is bad, because I've been concentrating so hard on them that I've completely ballsed up my challenges for May :mad:, but it's also good, because it now means that I can concentrate hard on making mullah for a few months!:T
I'm working full time in the week now, plus about 7 or 8 hours at the weekends. So I can bring home about £259 a week, plus any extras from bingo, AQA or Ebay, for about 12 weeks. This will hopefully make a sizeable dent in my debts over the summer, plus I'm going to work on paying my OH back all the cash I owe him to keep him sweet (he's been a bit stressed about money in the last couple of days, so I want to do all I can to help him).
At the moment I'm paying about £500 a month off my debts, so by increasing this to around £700 a month over the summer (maybe more), I can try to keep things ticking over ok in these tricky economic times.
My current debt is £38,609.32, though this will come down by about £300 in the next few days.
God, it is still enormous, but I know I'll get there - step by tiny step.:rolleyes:
Your posts come across as being full of determination and of you having a really possitive mental attitude and I'm sure this source of inner strength that you have will get you through this.
Keep posting and we'll keep reading and supporting you.
Good luck and well done. :T
:beer: Who knows where thoughts come from - they just appear!:beer:
Beer Worshipper, you're fab. Thanks so much for those words of encouragement. I can only speculate that I get any strength I have from my mum, who was a wonderfully determined woman, god rest her soul.
I am almost crying with joy as I write this - the taxman has paid up with a rebate of.....wait for it.....£656.37!!! :j:j:j
It couldn't have come at a better time, as I was about to ask my brother to lend me £100, and now I don't need to. Thank you, HM Revenue and Customs!
I'm going to celebrate by paying off some more debts....and by buying a lovely pair of shoes. Just one little treat, I promise.;)
Just a quickie - current debt stands at £38280.23.
Have decided to spend £200 of my extra money to begin with on paying off debts. Despite the fact that it's against snowballing principles, £200 is for my OH, as he's been soooo good to me over the last few months.
He was so cute when I told him, like '£200?! Are you sure you can afford that?' Bless. xxx
Good news - my boss has offered me extra overtime over the summer, meaning I'll now be working around 48 hours a week in one job, and 7 hours a week in the other job.
Bring it on! I'm determined to pay off one of my credit card balances by October.
Hey guys, it's ages since I posted - just wanted to say that I'm still hanging on in here!
The extra hours are exhausting, but I'm seeing some results. My total debt now stands at £37,515.83, so I notice that I've knocked a fair chunk off since my last post at the end of May.
I just worry about what will happen when I go back to college in October - I worry that I'm not going to be able to afford the £500 odd I need each month to make loan and CC repayments etc. Whilst I do get a bursary, it's only around £3,000 a year, and I'll need most of it for food, transport, books and equipment etc. I'm seriously considering taking a year out - but then I'll lose touch with all my friends on the course who are a great support network for me and keep me motivated. Aaargh, what to do?! I only need to last until next July, when one of my loans will be paid off and my monthly outgoings will be seriously reduced.
Could I renegotiate the Egg loan to pay less for a longer time? Even if this cost more in the long run, would it be worth it to keep me afloat? I'm currently paying about £249 a month, with 3 grand left to pay.
Replies
I've got a set of goals for May - as always I only expect to make some of them work, but I will do my best this month to achieve at least more than one of them!! They are:
1. Pass my exams at college.
2. Pay £100 towards my Lloyds TSB credit card.
3. Make £100 extra through AQA work.
4. Make £5 a day extra overall, totalling £155 for the month
5. Take a packup into work every day for a week.
6. Finally cancel my lovefilm membership, though I think that I sent the final DVD off this week (hurrah!!) It's a good service, it's just that we don't need two of us in the house with it.
Some lofty aims indeed as I'm a busy bunny this month with exams, but they are over by the middle of May so I'm hoping to pick up the slack then.
Sending my love and big hugs to everyone out there who is trying really hard under these difficult economic times. xx
Peace out,
V xxxxx
Totted up my debt at the moment and it's currently standing at £38,742.74. Still frighteningly high, but it does me good to see it written down like that and stops me spending. Still, it's less than where I started, which is the main thing.
I'm a little bit worried at the moment because I was talking to my boyf the other day. For those of you who don't know me, my boyf knows that I'm in debt but has no idea how much it is. He's lovely and supportive but quite a cautious man, and I think it would freak him out if he knew, therefore I've never told him.
Anyway, I'm not worried about keeping it a secret, but about him finding out by accident. The other day I was telling him about my brother's girlfriend. She is 80k in debt, but my brother has no idea....a tricky situation indeed.
When I told my boyf about this he said 'Wow....that's a dumpable offence I think!'
Would he think this about my 38k?
Now my debt is not his debt, but mine...and all getting sorted out, I never miss payments etc ever.
Is personal debt ever a reason to dump someone?
I had no idea that his mind worked like that. What do you guys think? To be honest it makes me glad that I've never told him how much I owe. But it makes me sad too - I'd like to think that if he was in trouble, I'd support him, not dump him for it! Then again his family are rich and I don't think he's ever really had to struggle...maybe he doesn't understand how easy it is to get into debt?
V xxx
As regards my partner, he is aware that I'm in some debt and I think that he has noticed that I am better with cash than I used to be. I wish I could tell him but I just know how much he would worry that I'd slip back into my old ways. I do owe him some cash, but it's about £500, and he's fine about me paying it back whenever (in fact I have already started to). My new tighter ways have had advantages for him too - I bought his car insurance via Quidco, and not only got him a much cheaper deal, but also will give him the £75 cashback when it comes through. I would never have joined that site without a recommendation from people on here.
He owns his own house outright, so there's no need for talk about buying a property together, plus neither of us want children, so I think I'll be ok on that front. I will tell him when the time is right, but as you say, I will wait until I've paid a good bit of it off - ideally when I'm sub 25k as I don't think that figure sounds quite so scary as 40k!
I think I've sorted the overdraft problem now, as I haven't been charged for going over this month, but thanks for the advice about the A and L. I have a graduates account with Barclays so get free mobile phone insurance and other benefits, plus I've been with them for 7 years now so I don't really want to switch. If only I could keep that account AND my A and L account, then I would love that £50 bonus!!
Anyway, thanks again - and I'd love to hear what anyone else thinks about my boyf's 'little comment'. There's always the chance that he could snoop through my stuff and easily find out how much I owe one day, which is what worries me as then he could possibly accuse me of deceiving him and it would cause a big hoohah.
V xxxxx
So what's happened recently? Well, I've finished my exams (woo hoo!) so no more uni for me until October. This is bad, because I've been concentrating so hard on them that I've completely ballsed up my challenges for May :mad:, but it's also good, because it now means that I can concentrate hard on making mullah for a few months!:T
I'm working full time in the week now, plus about 7 or 8 hours at the weekends. So I can bring home about £259 a week, plus any extras from bingo, AQA or Ebay, for about 12 weeks. This will hopefully make a sizeable dent in my debts over the summer, plus I'm going to work on paying my OH back all the cash I owe him to keep him sweet (he's been a bit stressed about money in the last couple of days, so I want to do all I can to help him).
At the moment I'm paying about £500 a month off my debts, so by increasing this to around £700 a month over the summer (maybe more), I can try to keep things ticking over ok in these tricky economic times.
My current debt is £38,609.32, though this will come down by about £300 in the next few days.
God, it is still enormous, but I know I'll get there - step by tiny step.:rolleyes:
Tara for now,
V xxxx
I didn't want to just read and run.
Also, I wanted to say you're doing really well.
Your posts come across as being full of determination and of you having a really possitive mental attitude and I'm sure this source of inner strength that you have will get you through this.
Keep posting and we'll keep reading and supporting you.
Good luck and well done. :T
I am almost crying with joy as I write this - the taxman has paid up with a rebate of.....wait for it.....£656.37!!! :j:j:j
It couldn't have come at a better time, as I was about to ask my brother to lend me £100, and now I don't need to. Thank you, HM Revenue and Customs!
I'm going to celebrate by paying off some more debts....and by buying a lovely pair of shoes. Just one little treat, I promise.;)
V xxxx
Have decided to spend £200 of my extra money to begin with on paying off debts. Despite the fact that it's against snowballing principles, £200 is for my OH, as he's been soooo good to me over the last few months.
He was so cute when I told him, like '£200?! Are you sure you can afford that?' Bless. xxx
Bring it on! I'm determined to pay off one of my credit card balances by October.
The extra hours are exhausting, but I'm seeing some results. My total debt now stands at £37,515.83, so I notice that I've knocked a fair chunk off since my last post at the end of May.
I just worry about what will happen when I go back to college in October - I worry that I'm not going to be able to afford the £500 odd I need each month to make loan and CC repayments etc. Whilst I do get a bursary, it's only around £3,000 a year, and I'll need most of it for food, transport, books and equipment etc. I'm seriously considering taking a year out - but then I'll lose touch with all my friends on the course who are a great support network for me and keep me motivated. Aaargh, what to do?! I only need to last until next July, when one of my loans will be paid off and my monthly outgoings will be seriously reduced.
Could I renegotiate the Egg loan to pay less for a longer time? Even if this cost more in the long run, would it be worth it to keep me afloat? I'm currently paying about £249 a month, with 3 grand left to pay.
Any advice gratefully received, as always! xxx