The Debt Diary of a 20-something Spendaholic

BelleOfBilboa · 28 June 2018 at 7:41PM

I am 26 and I am in debt.

I loooove to spend money and I quite like to ignore the consequences…well not anymore! The only way I will be able to achieve my goal of being a home owner by 30 is to get rid of my debt! Step one: acceptance

For the first time ever I have collated all of my debts and calculated the total *drumroll*… ~£10220.56! :eek: I realise that might not seem like a massive amount to someone with a mortgage/pets/kids…but to your average 26 year old without responsibilities I think that might be quite the sum. And an unnecessary one at that!

I pay roughly £500 in debt repayments monthly and have been doing so consistently for a while now but the big figure hasn’t really gotten that much smaller. I tend to get stuck in a vicious cycle: borrow from the bank of Mum & Dad > pay back what I owe > rinse and repeat. For a while I was your typical girl living a champagne lifestyle on a lemonade wage, but now my income isn’t half bad and I really should be making bigger dents in that £10k!

I hate asking my parents for money but it’s too easy and my parents would rather I ask them than see me get a credit card...I REALLY need to learn how to live within my means!

I’ve had a little bit of a wakeup call recently as I am just about to move in with my boyfriend (literally in 2 days) and so I will be moving out of my shared house where bills have been included and into a rented property where I will need to pay for rent + bills. The rent is the same as what I’m currently paying but the bills are going to cost me around another £150 each month. We have budgeted and I can afford this but only if I am sensible with my money.

FYI my boyfriend is in a lot of debt too (accrued before we got together may I add, not my influence!) so we are in this together. He has even sparked an interest in creating his own debt free diary! You might make MSEs out of us yet

In order of priority, here’s the breakdown:
Next £362.91
Natwest Overdraft £2000
Natwest Loan £1692.30 25%APR
Career Development Loan ~£4000*
Bank of M&D £2165.35
*I have estimated my CDL figure slightly but when I get a new statement I will update to the accurate figure.

I’ve prioritised my debts and I’m going to treat them like mini goals. The Next account is my smallest debt and the result of frivolous spending so I need to get rid for good. My overdraft is scaring me a little as I accrued this as part of a student account and I have read horror stories of Natwest demanding their money back at short notice! :eek: My Natwest loans are recent debts as a result of poor planning for an expensive holiday earlier this year. I had to get a career dev loan to pay for my masters degree. And last but not least, the bank of M&D have lent me money in the past to buy my car, pay for last year’s holiday of a lifetime and that’s additional to general handouts.

If I continued clearing my debt at £500 each month (without getting into more debt) then I should have a DFD of Spring 2020! Not too bad but I think I can beat this, I would love to start 2020 debt free! This goal will require some work and some significant overpayments but I have two jobs and I also earn money from cat/dog sitting. If I commit then I can definitely do this!

I spend hours stalking other diaries on here but now I want to join the club! :j

As a result of my stalking, I have recently signed up to Prolific Academic, Grassroots Mystery Shopping and I have an eBay account to sell bits and bobs so any money I accrue from them I will only use to repay debt. My promise to you.:money:

So here goes! My first (and hopefully only) debt free diary! :cool:

Belle

redofromstart · 28 June 2018 at 9:11PM

:hello: Hi belle, happy new diary and good luck with your journey

BelleOfBilboa · 29 June 2018 at 10:26AM

Hello redofromstart! Thanks for popping by

BelleOfBilboa · 29 June 2018 at 11:14AM

I’ve had an idea…well I thought I had but my OH informed me that he had definitely heard of it before so…I’ve stolen an idea

and I thought I would share! I shall name it: Two Jars, One Debt. (Apologies to anyone who understands that reference!:rotfl:)

I have bought two glass jars and a selection of pretty blue marbles. I have labelled one jar ‘Debt to Clear’ and the other ‘Debt Cleared’. All of the marbles currently sit in the ‘Debt to Clear’ jar and represent mine and the OH’s combined debt. Each marble represents £500 of our debt and the idea is that moving a marble or two from one jar to the other as we make repayments will keep us motivated to clear it all! I’m hoping as the ‘Debt Cleared’ jar fills, we will get really keen and become super frugal…but I’ll keep you posted on that one

I’m quite house proud and I have an unhealthy interiors obsession so the marble idea is a way in which we can visualise and take ownership of our debt whilst still having a pretty feature on the kitchen windowsill

The only drawback is that it has cost me money to implement… The marbles cost around £10 on eBay and the jars were around £10 from IKEA. On the plus side, there is always a re-use for jars and I can always re-sell the marbles on eBay once debt-free!

The big move is happening in T-minus 22 hours and I have a feeling that the first thing I will unpack will be my jars of marbles!:j

Puddleglum · 29 June 2018 at 12:09PM

Hello Belle. Two jars sounds like a great idea. Hope the move goes smoothly.

BelleOfBilboa · 4 July 2018 at 3:24PM

Puddleglum wrote: »

Hello Belle. Two jars sounds like a great idea. Hope the move goes smoothly.

Hi Puddleglum, thank you for commenting!

The move went really well but I now know what I have spent all of my money on....mugs! I have so many!!

I think a car boot sale may be on the cards in a few weeks

all proceeds to go towards debt clearance of course!

Silver_Queen · 5 July 2018 at 7:16PM

Two jars one debt :rotfl:

lonelyrat · 6 July 2018 at 8:31AM

Silver_Queen wrote: »

Two jars one debt :rotfl:

Hahahaha!

Name aside it's a really good idea!! I've never hear of it before so I'm going to pretend you came up with it yourself :cool: Good luck with everything! Another 20-something spendaholic here (hopefully mostly reformed, but not quite sure!) so will be cheering you on

NeverendingDMP · 6 July 2018 at 8:43AM

There is a thread on here called 1% challenge 100 ways to pay your debt. Or similar to that. That breaks your target down into 1% which seems manageable so in you case just over 100pounds. These are good mini targets to get to if your ebaying or selling.

Good luck.

BelleOfBilboa · 9 July 2018 at 6:01PM

Silver_Queen wrote: »

Two jars one debt :rotfl:

I've really enjoyed reading your diary Silver Queen!

katsoocam · 9 July 2018 at 6:25PM

Love the idea about the marbles and the jar and will be stealing it for my mortgage :-).

The Debt Diary of a 20-something Spendaholic

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