Round 2 of Trying to Get Debt Free

So this is the first time I've tried a Debt Free Diary, although I've been using MSE for many, many years.

My first big fight with debt came as a result of accumulated credit cards & consolidation loans, sparked off while I was at University, but was a shadow my husband & I lived under for most of our 20s. Eventually we were up to six cards, a loan and three overdrafts between us. I cracked and told my parents about it when the endless round of late payment charges and using the credit I'd scraped from the last month's payments to do the grocery shopping got too much, and my father was able to lend me some capital to make partial settlements on some of them. We got the loan paid off, set up self-managed payment plans with the remaining debts, and started paying as much as we could towards settling things with Dad.

That went on for several years, with Dad occasionally lending me another chunk to get another card settled, and eventually we'd got down from over £25-30k and seriously considering bankruptcy to about £10k owed only to Dad.

And then we moved, and I made the mistake of using a new credit card to get some stuff for the new house, and it snowballed from there...

That was about 5 years ago, and although I'm nowhere near the stress and strain of the previous situation (I've got balances totalling about £5.5k held on 3 cards, all of which are currently on 0% deals for at least the next year, and I use a cashback card to do the grocery shopping, but pay it off every month so I'm not paying any interest on it) I don't like the fact that I've got myself back here. Dad will be paid off in less than two years now, and by that point I really wanted to have cleared everything else as well, although it's not looking likely.

I'm trying to address what causes me to spend impulsively, and say yes to things I can't afford. I haven't accumulated a great deal of stuff, just some essentials for the house. We got rid of the car, all my clothes and most of my shoes are bought second hand, I don't buy jewellery or make-up, and we budget household spending very carefully... but I do tend to buy takeaway food or go for coffee & lunch in cafes when I'm feeling down, or get snacks from the shop near work, and I have a feeling that's the main source of this. It doesn't seem like much at the time, but £10-20 a week over the last 5 years and I can see how it's added up.

I want to try and use this diary to make myself accountable to someone, and keep a log of how I'm progressing in the hope that it motivates me to stop this from growing any bigger.

My starting position, as of 20th March 2019, listed in order of clearing under current monthly payments:

• Tesco Credit Card - £327.58 (paying £32 until 0% deal ends in Feb 2020)
• Child Tax Credit overpayment - £387.84 (paying £24.24 until Aug 2020)
• Dad - £4,220 (paying £200 until Oct 2020)
• Lloyds Credit Card - £741.94 (paying £30 until 0% deal ends in Apr 2021)
• MBNA Credit Card - £4,404.25 (paying £44 until 0% deal ends in Jun 2021, then looking to refinance unless I can clear it before then)

I also have about £8k in student loans but I'm not even factoring this in; I'm on the old system so unless I suddenly get a significant pay rise there's no danger I'll have to pay it back any time soon.

So there it is...