Can we have a support thread for people who are massively in debt?

[Nerfmother]

Because you can't talk about it in real life? We owe 44k, reduced from 60k in a year. Not including mortgage.
It's so depressing.
Dh is determined to pay it off and so bankruptcy or plans isn't an option. I do think its doable, just hard hard hard.

I'd be happy to join you. Current debt balance is £110k, granted it does include the mortgage. I follow lots of money blogs looking for new ways to bring the balance down (recommend Mortgage Free in Three). I've spent some time this month formulating a proper budget, set up SOS and DDs to make sure things get paid the minute I do. It does get disheartening though ...

Hi mum, love the name fergus. We are on interests free plus 200 PCM. I think we can do it. Maybe we could just keep on top of it, I know if I had to report back to someone is try a bit harder

I became debt free in 2011 after paying off over £40k of student and career development loans, with interest on top. Believe me when i tell you that you can achieve this. I remember the debt depression i actually had no idea how bad it was until the debt was paid and the depression lifted. I just wanted to wish you the very best of luck with this.

Ah,thank you!

What are your plans to start repaying the debt? Are you snowballing?

It's been a long time since last payday...but delighted that I've made it (almost,paid on Monday) without use of any overdraft or and credit facilities. I repaid £300 OD and paid Next ac in full during Nov/Dec 13.

I've set up a DD to pay £500 towards credit card #1 debt, that will clear it by Dec but hopefully it will be sooner as going to throw every spare penny I can to it

That's a really great story Bucket, thank you for sharing...any top tips to share with us?!

My top tip is to treat every penny as if it is your last. Another thing that helped was finding free ways to fill time, bike rides, picnics, reading books from the library. I tried to have other non money related goals too because i found it easy to get disheartened by the slow progress on the debts and the mountain of interest. The real trick is to keep going, month in, month out keep going. Stay focused and keep going.

Bucket, thank you.
I was snowballing, now I'm a bit lost. I have worked out that we should have 750 left after just over minimum payments and food etc but before anything else. I'm thinking I might (from a psychological point of view) save up to 1000 and them pay it off one card until it's gone. So we won't miss payments and will get to reduce the cards one by one.

Bucket that's really true. I also need to stop buying crap. I buy little treats as I can't justify big ones, but they aren't satisfying. So that's a lesson learned.

My biggest challenge is balancing desire to be debt free with the desire to drag house into this millennium lol it's only a wee 2 bed ex-Council but don't think it's been touched for about 40 years lol...

I was a first time buyer in Feb 2013 but the move from rented saves me nearly £200pm!

Well done though, it's an investment. I can't think too far ahead so I'm trying to get one card gone at a time.
Think how nice it will be to use real money on the house eventually!

Same here...I've 2 credit cards, a loan and then the mortgage. Minimum payment on all but card 1 which I'm putting everything I can too. Card 2 is interest free at moment ...

I had to wait to decorate our house too, on the positive side though all those years of debt repayment meant i had a great credit rating for the mortgage. I used to fantasize about what i could buy for the house with the equivalent of one months debt payments. It made me feel that i would be decorating the house for free because i wasn't used to having the cash.

Mum I tried spreading the payments to try to bring them all down, but it doesn't feel as good. I've done a graph on excel to try to see how bad it is.

God buckets I know that feeling! 900 PCM on debt - I could own half of selfridges hand bag collection by now!
So pleased for you though, and inspired.

So Nerf, what are your money plans for rest of January?!

We try to budget very tightly.

Note down on spreadsheet every pound you spend so you can see where you can save. (and also see where you squander).

Right now we owe about 12k. This was almost 30k just under two years ago.

That's amazing Ferret...well done you!!

I've been updating my spreadsheet this week...and I've set up a new online ac that I'll transfer my 'envelopes' money into...everything else will go to debt repayment. Until now, I've overpaid anything that I had left at end of month...from this month though overpayment will be paid as soon as I am - I'll need to manage on what I have budgeted for everything!

Just wanted to join in with bucket and give you some hope - in march we will finally have paid off our £35000 loan. It's taken 7 years of being skint but I refused to go down the bankruptcy route, although it did come close a few times.
I have kept it a secret from my family and all but very close friends. I felt so ashamed to have got myself in that situation. I will be telling my family in march when it's all cleared, I couldn't before as I would have hated to worry them all :(
Just keep plowing on. There is a light at the end, i promise you!

Thanks schlurp, it's really good to see its doable (and ferret, I'm stunned at how quickly you managed to reduce it)
Mum - no plans for January except lidl! No council tax for feb and March or water bills so all of that will be paid off the chosen card.

So glad people are chipping in with their success stories...wonderful to think it will be me someday!

So remainder of Jan for me looks like this-
Payday on Monday, DP 4 days later.
Household money goes to its ac for various DDs
Envelopes money to cover misc and annual spend goes to its ac
£500 (£194 is minimum payment) goes to CC1
Review meal plan and see what I'm needing food wise and stick to food budget
Hopefully no emergencies but have £500 set aside just incase (real emergencies only!)

Will be looking at your list again when not distracted by question time.

Forgot to add, I recently reclaimed the child benefit and am putting it in six month bonds so we can pay it all back but keep any interest. Even a tiny amount seems worth it, and dh has to do a tax return anyway

I'm in.

I have a dmp which I started in November for nearly £19k. Unfortunately it's for 9 years but my employment was terminated in the summer due to ill health. Therefore I'm claiming esa and dla and dh has just stated a new job earning much less than before.

I'll just plug away £176 per month but knowing that every penny is paying off the debt. Mortgage on top of that but I'm not thinking about that atm.

Hi slummy, how crappy , poor health is really difficult with trying to work and pay stuff off. I can't work more hours so just plugging away too.
At least we have some positive stories on the thread!

Count me in. I've just started a dmp. Owe just under 5.5k which will take 4.5 years to pay off as I only work part-time. Just got a degree so hoping things will look up soon although in my part of the world graduate jobs are few and far between. I have been terribly wasteful with money in the past, but have realised that things need to change. Am going to do the envelope banking thing as I think I will be able to see where the money goes and be able to budget better by doing that.

We are lucky that my husband gets bonuses. Each one of those gets thrown into paying off some of the debt.

I also own a property and the rent from that, once I've took the mortgage out also pays.

Our trouble is, we plough so much of our spare cash into the debt and then we end up overspending again.

It's really, really hard to change my attitude towards money.