Debt Number 3 : For those who feel they are drowning and want a way out

[TalkinPeace]

This thread follows on from Nerf's incredibly useful
FIRST www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/1969188-Can-we-have-a-support-thread-for-people-who-are-massively-in-debt
and then
SECOND
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/2011878-Debt-support-thread-2?
threads about realising you are in and supporting each other out of debt.

I am not in debt, any more.
Here is a link to some spreadsheets that might help
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/1987219-SPREADSHEETS-for-Debt-Control-Budgeting-Mortgages-etc

and lots of people use this
YouNeedABudget

The important thing to remember is

• yesterday is as past as the Crimean War

( we will not judge how you got into debt, but we will support you on the way out )

• this is an anonymous forum

( we will not tell your employer, family or friends of the reality of your numbers )

• this thread is about supporting people through the huge mindset changes needed to come out of debt

( feel free to offload all of the feelings that drive you to want to spend, that make it hard to save and that generally make life crap at times )

Join in, bare your soul and come out the other end.
Its worth it.
You are worth it.

Will you get decent interest on it by leaving it in the ISA? I would pay it straight off the card in case I got tempted to use it for so called emergencies. I have very little willpower though!

Credit card over ISA every time.
Then start PILING money into the ISA (when the allowance rises to £11,000 a year this summer)

Duly noted! CC it is

Work wear - I went and bought two pairs black wide legged trousers, one pair grey, two blazers and use these with a combination of existing shirts and tops. I decided that to just have a capsule wardrobe was better than all the angst. Some things are justified I think.

DH got a refund for a faulty laptop (he's been fighting the manufacturer since August with endless engineer visits, sending it off for repair etc) and should be getting £500 credited to one of the CCs this week, he's going to use my laptop as I have a work one too, it's such an unexpected boost.

It's like karmic reward for using our savings to clear the debt

can't wait til his refund comes through and the savings cheque clears so I can do a debt numbers update.

On the other hand DH found some (admittedly very old and dusty looking) mouse droppings today please please let them be from a long dead mouse!

Eek! Do u want to borrow my monkey cat, he's always depositing dead cats in our house.. And yay for refunds, I'm sure it works that way you know, pennies grow fast when you turn your mind to it and the universe has a wonderful way of working, sometimes :)

Debt update here - I've just paid £700 off our overdraft - so we are now in the fee free zone and can start on CC2 £5500 ;)

We are running our bargain washing machine through a 95 cycle and its leaking :( seriously hope dp can fix that fault :(

Puffy, 700 is amazing. Well done!
And how fantastic to get the refund Miss A

mum4 we're in a similar situation with a long interest free cc deal. Once our overdraft is gone we will do minimum payments via direct debit to the credit card and stash the extra money needed to pay it off into a place that earns interest for us. We will only pay it off about a month before the interest only finishes.

northender that seems like such a sensible thing to do. I don't think I could personally bear to part with all that cah though, once i had saved it up!!

Plus there's always the need to see the card itself reducing .. I find it really drives me.

puffy £700 is a great reduction!! Nothing in the mouse traps this morning...

I've seen a job this morning and am umming about applying... Much more money, but in a school that will be starting from the very beginning, so no GCSE/A Level for quite a few years. Still, like the idea of making them my own! What do other teachers reckon? Tempted...

ooh... is it an academy? I have friends who have had mixed experiences. One loves it, has built the department up from nothing, has loads of responsibility etc

One lost her job with no warning when the school went under, but got another one quite quickly and still says she doesn't regret it.

Had a good review of spreadsheet last night and think my plan is as follows:

• repay OD, with help of selling shares this will be repaid by end June
• from July split money available for debt repayment between CC2 (310) and loan (285). This will repay CC in full the month prior to 0pcnt rate expiring and effectively doubles my loan repayment do repay in 13 months instead of 26 months. This will save me interest.
• then onto CC3 which will easily be repaid prior to 0pcnt expiring as will have the 310+285+ the 300 that is my current loan repayment!

Sound like a plan?!

Just checking in to say well done everyone.

Not much happening here, slowly knocking the debt down. Trying to sell as much as possible atm to help fund the weeks with no pay.

Getting stress over how we'll cope over the summer holidays until my maternity allowance kicks in mid oct.

Meeting went well, I will get a special responsibility allowance for the promotion.

Also energy ombudsman got back to us to say they've ordered Our former energy company to pay us £75 compensation within 28 days because they've messed us around so much, win!!

Going to sit down tonight and work out new debt figures after closing our savings acc down

puffylovett
re washing machine : run it on MUCH cooler cycles - save money - and then look up the actual model online and see if you can find a repair video.
SAved myself a new machine the other week when ours leaked - found out how to dismantle right down to the outlet join and reassemble

Miss super news on responsibility allowance! I already work in an academy, and did in last place too - it's just what most state schools are now. I think like any state school, there will be nice and not so nice. I really like my current place, but burning need to get a bit further up the ladder. Will apply next week just to see I think.

looks like im going to be jobless next week. Grrr back to JSA I go. So fed up of employers bring twats!

Oh no Winter, sorry to hear that

its a drop of £35 a week from my wage to JSA. We was already at breaking point Just no idea what we're going to do. DP still hasn't found a job.

Oh Winter I'm sorry. Unemployment is a bugger - that is why I went Free range years ago.
All I can say is see if you can avoid going further into debt in the mean time.

We have no means of getting into debt further, just annoyed I cant put some away for when my contract was due to end in the summer

talkinpeace I was running it on a 90 so that we could see it on its longest cycle, and also because I'm a teensy weensy bit weebly about using someone else's old washing machine !!! I was giving it a clean before I used it :) need to get shot of old soap suds due to ds eczema.

And we've done exactly that, ordere the part and found a YouTube video ;) dp is still annoyed with me. However I am in talks with the guy to get him to pay for the part, the thoughtless *ker! He's taken food out of my child's mouth by scamming me the bastard..

Sorry, just a bit wound up!!!

Oh winter so sorry to hear that.. Any chance of a 16 hrs per week supermarket job to top up your jsa? Don't know if that's allowable?

They take your wages off what youd get JSA so £112 JSA minis the 16 hours paid work.

Long shot but does anyone know whether you HAVE to tell new agencies, at interviews that your pregnant? Im 15 weeks on tuesday.