About time I sorted myself out

poppytattoo · 28 August 2018 at 4:06PM

Hello everyone,

I have been incredibly lax in this forum, despite constantly lurking on the forum I haven't been ACTUALLY posting. BUT I am pleased to say that I have been trying incredibly hard to sort out this debt and whilst it's not going overly fast, I can be proud of certain changes in my spending habits that I have stuck to.

Things like - not buying any new clothes. I haven't purchased a new item of clothing since last year, apart from one day where the offices I work in had a "sample sale" of designer clothing. It cost me £70 to fill a box with anything I could fit in - dresses, work shirts, pants, shoes, THREE COATS, etc all for me. I also ended up with presents for all of my family that I put away (blazer for OH, suit for little brother, denim jacket for cousin) and anything that I thought better of afterwards I sold on eBay, Shpock or carboot so I think it was worth it.

I also haven't bought any cosmetic/toiletries items unless they were really needed - my biggest spend on this is dry shampoo as my hair is notoriously a mess hours after washing - using up the stores of makeup and shower gels etc that I've got over the years that have been either gifts "too nice to use" or free samples/hotel minis. I used to spend around £40 in Superdrug a month, no idea how, but now it's more like £3.

I haven't bought a lunch at work since January either - in an emergency where I've had no packed lunch, I've nipped over to Morrisons for a tin of soup or, if I don't plan on having a big dinner that night, a jacket potato with beans and cheese, a smoothie and a cake (which is £3 in the meal deal).

We've also not been to the cinema, not been away at all overnight (except for one long weekend camping, which cost us about £65 for the three nights including food, we borrowed all the equipment and just walked the dog and read and talked). We haven't done any meals out except those with family - say Nandos for my brother's birthday.

It's just been other half's birthday - normally we spend about £150 on each other, this time I got him three very nice personal gifts and spent in total around £40, did silly things like a themed geotagging day out and organising a huge game of rounders (his childhood favourite) with family and friends. Free as we had the bat and just went to a nearby park.

So, despite it being slow progress and trying to put money aside for our wedding too (which goes against better instincts and advice but the wedding is booked and we don't want to lose all deposits) I'm feeling pretty proud at how strict I've been with myself this year. I'm in no way complacent and I know this debt problem was all my stupid fault, but I feel so much better that I'm not just trying to pay it off with more debt or managing to convince myself I'd solved it easily.

Planning on doing a full statement of affairs this week to understand more about the different interest rates I'm looking at. Will post the full thing when I can.

poppytattoo · 28 August 2018 at 4:11PM

Forgot to mention - got in a sticky situation a couple of months ago where I slipped above my overdraft limit thanks to a work problem (a pre-paid hotel on a business trip that turned out not to be pre-paid, and I had to put the cost on my personal debit card). The charges with HSBC were extortionate whilst I was trying to fast-track my expenses which are normally paid at the end of the month. For two months it was getting worse as the overdraft charges (around £270) were pushing me back over my limit, eventually I got up the courage to ring HSBC's money problems line and they were incredibly helpful when I explained the situation and my worries that I'd never get back into my normal overdraft. They even offered to refund me the charges I'd paid, which they didn't need to do as it was technically my fault, and helped me get back on track.

Thistlewhistle · 28 August 2018 at 4:42PM

Hi Poppytattoo,

Really good news on the money HSBC gave back to you. That must have been a good feeling. I had a similar sinking feeling a couple of months back when I realised that all the little emojis I was adding to my text messages turned the free messages into a picture message at 25p a go, resulting in a bill £90 more than normal!!!:eek::eek::eek:
A horrified call to my provider resulted in a £25 rebate as a goodwill gesture but still cost me £65. What a wally!!

Good luck with your debt repayments going forward. We've not heard from you for a few months, so how is it going?

Thistle:p

poppytattoo · 19 March 2019 at 6:22PM

Hi everyone. I have come crawling back at my absolute wits end and I honestly feel like I will never feel happy again.

Since I last posted - OH was in a car accident that meant his car was a write off. We were left without a vehicle between us and ended up putting a deposit on a cheap, but new car - which we are hoping will last us at least 10 years - which has now taken my total debt to around £31,000

Other than that we have continued to be really "good" - I've not had a haircut in two years, I have sold the majority of my possessions that are worth anything, I haven't bought any clothes except to replace ripped tights and one emergency Primark dress when I was at work and my seam split. We don't go out, we don't drink, we don't get takeaways. We eat the cheapest food we can find. I have retained my gym membership (£20) because it is the literal only thing that keeps me sane, but I have been so depressed for the past month that I have barely been.

I am managing all of my payments but only just and I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere. The majority of debts are slowly being chipped away at but it will still take me around 7/8 years at this rate to pay off.

I've been working really hard to get promoted at work to try and boost my income (I have been applying for other jobs) finally got offered a promotion on Friday and I couldn't even be happy about it. I went home and cried all night because the extra money after tax will only come to about £220 per month and it feels like f*** all in the grand scheme of things.

Please can someone tell me that I am not alone as at the moment this is all I can think about and I cannot get any work or uni work done because I am constantly bursting into tears. Last night I had the mother of all panic attacks and honestly thought I was going to stop breathing. I am struggling to see how this will ever get better.

katsu · 19 March 2019 at 6:53PM

I'm sorry things are so tough for you.

Why not post an SOA here and people will offer ideas.

£220 a month is an extra £2.4k off your debts for the year, that will make a noticeable difference.

Are you keeping track of how much you have reduced your debts by? Maybe you need a sense of progress and to be able to identify the impact of the new car. The car belongs to you both I assume, and so you will both be paying towards it?

You were in £21k of debt a year ago. How much a month are you managing to reduce that by? Is it going down every month?

Maybe if you talk more about the details of your plans you can get more inspiration here.

You are totally not alone: you can read other diaries for reassurance there.

I promise this will get better.

poppytattoo · 20 March 2019 at 12:16PM

Hi Katsu,

Thanks so much for your kind words and advice. I do just have these moments where it all seems so overwhelming. After your message I realised I'd never actually properly kept track of how much I was reducing the debt by, so I've looked into it this morning:

That initial 21K I thought I had was actually £23325.18 of debt! No idea where I'd gone wrong in calculating that. That figure has now gone down to £18763.38. So that has been reduced by £4561.8

The total cost to repay the car will be £15895.40, the amount outstanding is £13246. So we have paid off £2649.40 of that since June 2018.

SO - what I've learned here is that the total debt was actually 39220.58 (!!!!!!!) if you count the car. I can only assume this has come from me not taking notice of interest and how that affects the total debt - I think I was maybe focusing more on the "how much I've taken out" than "how much I will actually have to pay back".

It now stands at - I think - £32009.38. More than I originally thought I had.

However, it also shows that in the past just over a year I have paid back £7211.20, which is more than I'd have guessed at. I am making progress and I am chipping away each month. I've never missed a payment yet.

I will do a full SOA as soon as I can (I'm in a bit of a bind time-wise lately, undertaking a master's degree in my spare time which is eating away at my time) but here's a brief run down of where the debts were, and where they are now - and THIS time I've used the full cost to pay back the debts not just what I thought I'd spent.

Car - was: £15895.40 now: £13246
credit card - was: £5000 now: £4581.28
Dental fees payment plan - was: £1558 now: £972
HSBC debt consolidation loan - was: £11767.81 now: £8210.10
HSBC overdraft - was £5000 now: still £5000

poppytattoo · 26 March 2019 at 12:30PM

Hello all,

I had a big uni deadline yesterday, managed to make the deadline but only after three straight days of working on my living room floor surrounded by papers, and an all-nighter on Sunday. I'm feeling good that I got it done and out of the way, but a bit rubbish that I left it so late - I let all my various other worries get on top of me, and was obviously overwhelmed and emotional last week.

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas of how to boost income. It is against my contract to be employed anywhere else - I really would be happy with a job waiting tables for the odd weekend here and there, but as I work in a finance-related job that is fairly high visibility, it really would reflect badly on my employer if anyone spotted me.

I have done some bits of freelance writing on Fiverr etc, but I end up with £5 for about three hour's work sometimes, which is fine but I don't know if it's worth the additional stress and deadlines on top of everything else?

poppytattoo · 1 April 2019 at 10:32AM

I started my new job today and I've been working hard on bringing in a piece of new business - if they sign on the dotted line I get a percentage of the contract for the year, which would amount to an extra £120 a month after tax. It's been a long time in the making so I really do hope it comes off.

Trying hard to stay positive. This is a tough time of year for me as I lost a pregnancy seven years ago at the beginning of April and sometimes it still makes me sad - especially when I think that it will take me years and years to be in a position where I can have children financially.

I hope everyone has a wonderful month x

poppytattoo · 2 April 2019 at 3:34PM

A small win for me yesterday - as a master's student I get cheaper bus fares to and from work - they used to only do weekly passes, but now there is a student monthly pass which has saved me £6.

My mum also bought a top, it turns out it didn't fit her and she's given it to me with the receipt. I'm going to take it back to the shop (she bought it when visiting me and doesn't have a store nearby) and I asked her if I could give her the money back, but she's told me to keep it, so that's another £7 I'll get this week

April is always expensive for us in terms of the sheer amounts of family birthdays and this month we also have a wedding to attend 260 miles away. We booked a cheap airbnb ages ago so will do self catering the night we arrive - we were invited for a dinner the night before the wedding with a load of friends and brunch the day after but have turned both down. I've decided to wear an old dress - only worn once and hopefully it still fits. Will try it on this week.

Kitten868 · 2 April 2019 at 7:42PM

You never forget a baby you have lost. They are a part of you always and you never stop being sad, you just learn to live with the pain. Be kind to yourself. You will come through the worst days.

You don't see it but you are actually nailing this. Could you change up your tactics to feel more successful? Could you snowball and focus on one debt? Say prioritise the credit card? Its difficult as loan repayments are high I know but there will be some way of reframing things so you feel more successful. Maybe its colouring off squares as your debt reduces? You're getting there.xxx

About time I sorted myself out

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