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.

Bluedog
re loan, definitely worth a try
if nothing else your credit file will now be covered in green flags.

Puffer
Endowment policy
strangely enough I have a spreadsheet for that

could you message me with ...

• the name of the provider
• when it started
• how much you pay each month
• how much the sum assured on the statement is

and I'll tell you what it will really pay out and thus what the net present value of it is

and well done on geting the tax returns done

Foureyed
well done on starting to tame the CC debts
the overdraft ... it all comes down to which borrowing cists you the most as a %age of the total per month ....

Oh my...we're all busy bees! Well done everyone...on phone so not able to name check individually but welcome new comers and updaters...go us!!

Not much to report today...packed lunches and dinner from fridge/freezer made for a NSD,plan same tomorrow. Mums b/day on Sat so cake and a card (budgeted for).

Have been offered use of a static caravan for 3 days during Easter break...free! Woohoo

Also, read on another thread about The Orchard at Tesco...it's a survey type set up. I registered couple of days ago,got email tonight to say sending me 500g bag pasta for free and 75p shopping voucher.Couple of offers like that a month would add up-every little helps lol...

my finances are normally OK, but DH getting a puncture at 5am today was not in my budget sheet!

Talkinpeace if the tyre has life left in it then he might be able to get it plugged for a fraction I the cost I a replacement tyre. Have a hat with the tyre place

Nightmare TiP is it repairable,or new tyre job?

I've just realised that we have gone 7 weeks without using the credit cards. That is the equivalent of a miracle in this house It wouldn't have happened without you guys.

That's brilliant pixie!
I'm waiting for the usual payment to dhs card to come out so I can top it up to 500. If I pay at any other time the usual dd doesn't come out so I get confused! If I do it same day it counts as same payment. It's almost 6000 so I am determined to get rid by Xmas. ESP as he is on board now and I have promised we will do his overdraft after that.

Fantastic Pixie - well done you! And Nerf, DH on board...brilliant result!

Pay day next week for me...will use same approach as last month ie budget and put every penny I don't need towards CC1 repayment.

Will have some work expenses next week that I pay upfront then claim back so need to budget for that too...

There's 15k on one of his cards at 17.9 which would take 30months at 500 roughly. I am actually quite tempted to secretly tackle that one, but doing the smaller ones means that I will free up the payments to them quicker, so could then do that one. I need a spread sheet!
15k approx 30 months at 500 (min 220 which has to be paid)
6k approx 12 months at 500
Then could do 720 to the other one?
Could then do

Mum I really think you are going to get there more quickly then any of us! You are so good at just paying it, I'm still in the coming up with ideas/looking for the magic answer stage - although I have managed to save 500 for emergencies and I don't think we've added much to cc.

Pixie
Well done. Lasting 7 weeks means your patters of expenditure are starting to change for ever.

Bluedog Mum2Fergus
The hole is over an inch long - a piece of metal - and DH limped it back to the house in the dark. Luckily my wonderful tame garage sorted a replacement while I've been at the gym so I'll be mobile again shortly, if £150 worse off!

Nerfmother
You have got a solid plan. Be willing to flex it but I suspect that you'll never stick your head in the sand. RESULT

Thank you talkin
Minor wobble, back on track
Tyre is a pain - I hate spending unnecessary cash now. Do you have a decent tyre place? We use sts

I think I've just accepted that I am the magic answer...it wont sort itself so I need to drive it. At the minute I'm in an 'all or nothing' frame of mind...breaking it down into chunks really keeping me focused. Never mind its likely to take me to 2021...right now my focus is remainder of CC1 that I couldn't balance transfer (1600), once that done will break down CC2 goals...and so on

Yes it's like denial isn't it. I kept looking at our income thinking how can I not just pay all this?
Anyway, dd for 150 goes out on Monday. If I too up to 400 not 500 I can reduce our overdraft (packaged account) to 300 which means no fees - it's one of the perks, a free overdraft of up to 300. That's a plan!

Hi all, I think I'm trying to do too much too fast after ages of sticking head in sand. Any tips for pacing myself? It seems to have taking over my every waking thought and I am soooo grumpy with the kids at the moment.
I did do another (part) balance transfer this morning.
Storage clear out is on track for next week.

Tax returns filed (provisionally)
Overdraft is not maxed out anymore.

That's a massive amount of results just a few days and you are all brilliant.

Puffer
allow no more than an hour a day to it :
take a concrete step each day and then nothing till the next step the next day
after two weeks you'll have a solid staircase up out of your debt

I'm tinkering with an endowment sheet at the moment, but as my lovely garage came and did a temp repair I can go do the food shop for the weekend!

Love that analogy TiP...each step is building the staircase...

Puffer, I had a few days like that; you know you want to cabbage and plan but it's impossible to do it all at once, because you have to wait for payday and then you can only do something small anyway.
I set up a graph on excel which shows the debt in a chart. It's gone up in feb by a cple 100 but I think that's where I estimated in jan. Would that help?
Main things are to realise you can't do much except try not to spend money! And then there's only a cple of active things to do anyway - make a payment, list all the debts, get paperwork ready etc

Ooh yes Nerfmother!
TiP: Ok thanks, will down tools now and try and stick to 1.5 hours a day (I am slower than you...) to build a very steep and solid staircase

Wise words Too tired. My main one is seeing if I can set up my own business. Always been a goal, I have a good idea currently. Also to spend oodles of time with the kids, as you. There are just not enough hours in the day for all I want to do.

Too tired, that's exactly it.

God too tired, that's amazing! 8.5k just otherwise lost.