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.

puffy when I read that, I was picturing this:

I'm sure your DP will look very fetching .

DMP should be live within a week.

I'm taking a break from being a debtor today. Tomorrow I'll be making £5 token payments to my creditors. I just can't process anymore numbers today.

I'm going to do lots of housework instead.

Payday today. Think I have a little bit of money left from last month so will check figures and pay some off my £900 loan. Feeling positive to finish the month with something. Possibly the first time that's happened! Very tight month this month but will try to stick to budget!

Hello All

Well done Finest - that sounds like a big step forward.

Winter just keep repeating to yourself that you are a strong intelligent woman. I've been there - so poor - rocky relationship and tiny baby. I fell pregnant while still a student and there were some tough years. That being said - the debt I have now is a little to do with that but mostly to over spending and throwing things on the CC with gay abandon - sticking my head in the and about over draft and just, well, over spending. You are already wide awake to the problems of debt which is in your favour.

I have some very tentative good news. It looks like DP is going to be given a permanent contract at the school he has been doing supply at for the past six months. To put this is perspective, last tax year he earned 13K doing supply, if this is for real he will be on 27K from September which will make an absolutely enormous difference to us. Let's wait till we have it in writing though eh. I will be buying champagne if this is for real.

Otherwise I'm just ticking along. Need to wait till next week to speak to employer about child care vouchers which should help us out not CTC are no longer offering help with the nursery costs.

It was my birthday on Tuesday and I got some M&S and John Lewis vouchers which I've spent on a mini summer wardrobe for myself as I have been managing with very few clothes. It's nice to have a few new pieces that fit properly. I still have lost all my baby weight and DD is two next month. I think it's time to admit that unless I really diet this is not baby weight and that I actually level at this extra half stone now. Pre-pregnancy outfits still looking all hopeful in my drawers but they look awful on now - accentuate my tummy. Would it be worth ebaying them? French Connection and Monsoon dresses and the like? It seems like such an almighty faff and I've heard mixed responses.

MyGolden keeping everything crossed re permanent contract for your DH. That sounds amazing for you all.

Well, that was my first month of keeping track of everything I spent. It was very much as expected. We spent just under £400 on food and stuff (including cleaning stuff, toiletries and a mysterious £20 dh has taken for "sundries" at work, which I suspect means bacon butties and Mars bars!). Still too much impulse buying of chocolate and snacks going on on my part,I need to get a grip! Petrol was £115 for both of us, that will be more next month as dh will be travelling to the station every day, whereas this month he didn't start work until the 12th. We spent £41 on coffees and a bun one day and fish and chips another day , but didn't eat out otherwise and the fish and chips were to celebrate dh's new job.

So my budget is about right. I would still like to cut back on top up shops, but they are mainly for chocolate when I'm stressed at work . I try not to keep (cheap) chocolate in the house so I won't be tempted to snack, but then end up nipping into Sainsburys on my lunchbreak. I've tried not taking cash or cards, but caught out needing to pick something up from the supermarket on my way home for the evening meal and had no cards with me It was ok, I used my Nectar points on that occasions, but they've all gone now, so it mustn't happen again.

So ... a new month starts tomorrow, pay day!

Also pleased that I didn't have to pay the plumber today - he came and looked at the leak we had, but needs to come back next week with a new tap, so hasn't charged me anything yet, which is great - didn't need to touch the overdraft!

And the best news of all - dh has been paid

Because he started mid month we weren't sure if he would get paid this month or have to wait another whole month, but I have just checked and the money has gone into our bank account! Yay, happy days!

kazza that's great! Fingers crossed Mygolden for Dh to be made permanent.
I would sell the stuff on eBay, as long as you have more than just 1 or 2 things and you're willing to take a hit on some items. I sold about 30 things on eBay and made £427 in Jan/Feb, some things went for 99p and others made loads, there is no rhyme or reason to it at all (e.g. topshop stuff going for a fortune while designer brands didn't sell). Every penny helps, it's just a case of being arsed to actually list it, deal with all the crappy questions.

kinkydorito

If I knew how to embed pictures, I would put one in of a rotten tooth

mygoldennotebook you could always go and join TIP on the 5/2 threads, plus side is that it would cut down on your food bill too!

Yay to kazza paycheck, and to whoevers DP is looking hot for a permanent contract (sorry am on phone and can't scroll) all round :)

kazza can you stock up on aldi chocolate bars and take one per day to work with you? And tell yourself very for my, once they're gone they're gone?

I do this sometimes. 6 little caramel wafers for about 60p

I could Puffy, I don't eat gluten, but I'll have a look at their chocolate next time I'm there.

Ooh I've jut looked on the Aldi website - they do packs of 5 small bars of dark chocolate filled with marzipan! Luvverly!

Debt update: 29/5/14

CC1: £4692 £4595 £4532 £4467

CC2: £3781 £3675 £3659 £2,859 £1,774

Car hire purchase: £3764 £3108 £2,780

DH Old Student Overdraft: £1940 £500 £0 GONE & closed

CC3: £1692 £0 GONE & Closed

CC4: £1405.49 £0 GONE

Total: 17,274.95 £13,944.54 £11,799 £10,335 £9,021

So glad to see it drop below 10,000! It should drop more soon as DH is owed £500 onto CC2 via a refund, fingers crossed for the next 7-9 working days

Payday! Obsessively checked my banking app since midnight - always do that even though it always arrives - and the pay-off was the tiny bit extra for some half term hours I did which I had forgotten about, plus the cheque arrived for my tiny premium bond win this morning - it all helps!

YNAB is looking pretty healthy this month. Paid for end of term trips for my boys along with dinner money until the summer online as soon as my wages hit, and am itching for my road tax letter to arrive as for the first time ever I have the money saved up and I want to pay it - no more avoiding police cars for the first 5 days of July

Despite dog injections and another scheduled dental/hygienist appointment (both budgeted), I have money to save towards MOT(July - and have nothing saved yet), school uniforms (August) and some for the emergency fund. I ALWAYS end up taking the emergency fund money back again so I wonder what June's emergency will be? Last month was close to £100 dental treatment and the month before was £220 exhaust, before that was an emergency vet appointment. I guess that pot is doing it's job at least but I wish I could build it up a bit.

I do love YNAB, it gives me peace of mind every month and I don't have to constantly do sums in my head.

My debt goes under £26k this month. Which means it is officially "mid-twenties" and by the end of the summer it will be "low twenties" which psychologically sounds better to me. Should be able to boost it with exam marking money too, once I have stashed an EF away somewhere...

Arghhh big decisions to make feel as though I can no longer afford this private rented house should have waited till I payed all my catuloges off etc
Now either got to own up to parents and say I'm starting to find it hard and hope they offer me to go back home or head to council and declare myself homeless

missannersley amazing!! Have you really just about halved your debt in 4 months? Wow!

isheshingle glad you are finding YNAB works for you.. I couldn't get to grips with it. I fear I need to be a tad more organised, I feel as though I am still bumbling along a bit from week to week.
Maybe it's time for a spreadsheet?

Just done the numbers for this month, we've come in slightly under so I've swept the £100 over to the savings account. Projection for June is that we can pay off another £3k.

Beyond that not sure, DH's current contract ends at the end of next month so depending on what rate he negotiates for the next one/how many weeks of not earning in-between before we can work out where we go from there.

Ooh, I've dropped off! Marking place for later and note to self to update a bit more!! Happy Friday folks xx

Hello all, v impressed by miss annersley!
Well our debt has risen a lot. Flights, hotel, meals, even picnic food, but I stuck to the principles and used voucher codes etc and argued for a refund on car seats that weren't available. But we are maxed out and worse than when we started.
Probate will take til September probably, so I am going to keep plodding along til then. I will have 24k to pay stuff off, and am going to sit on another 16k for either house stuff or debt depending on various real life factors.
That will leave about 26k (10 if I use the extra 16).
And dh has agreed that whatever happens we will go back to paying the mortgage in September.

Puffy - YNAB is just a spreadsheet really, but it the app on my phone which makes it work for me. It does curtail my spending - this week I had nearly £500 in my bank account but it was all spoken for and YNAB said I had just 21p to spend - so the take away I would have liked to make the exam marking easier was not purchased...

Mitsi - if you go back home how quickly can you clear the debts? Might to a good idea to do that, build an emergency fund, then move out again if it won't take too long (assuming you like your parents!)

nerf puffy thanks we've thrown everything we have at it - wiped out our savings, sold stuff on eBay etc. It's good to feel we're finally making some progress.
We're finally doing the car boot on Sunday and I'm hoping for c.£50 + to put off CC2.

Currently deciding whether, once we're debt free of CCs to pay off + sell the car by saving aggressively for 3 months or so for the total amount, then use the money from selling it to buy something cheaper and put extra into savings or just to pay it off and keep it as it is reliable and fairly cheap to run as petrol cars go.
I'm leaning towards keeping it and saving slowly for a greener car, we'd be interested in electric, they are sooo cheap to run and we'd be talking a 5 year plan, so by then they might be cheaper and charging points more reliable etc. In Norway electric cars cost about £150 per YEAR to run, half of our monthly petrol bill, although there they have govt subsidies etc.

Also planning once we're debt free to try and save for a house deposit, we're hoping to save £1000 per month between us, which is roughly what we're putting off debt now, but I also want to pay my student loan off faster (even though MSE says not to!) by paying double what I am at the moment.

Ever since I've moved out I haven't been able to pay my main catuloge or credit card what they want due to money going to other things

I've sat down and done some thinking if the council were to pay my full rent and council tax I'll be a little bit better off and could maybe start saving again and be able to buy stuff for my daughter without worry or I'd be really better off with a house/flat from council will have more money in my pocket

Going to discuss this with money matters on Monday
As for moving home yes I get on with my parents might have a few moans though plus might help my mum out a bit as she's quiting her job after July to became my dad's carer

Took me 6 months to figure out private renting is not for everyone

Thanks for the advice I'll keep you posted on how things go xx

So dh was paid yesterday and I've been paid today We are £400 short of what we need to cover monthly costs and put some aside, as dh hasn't worked a full month this month due to starting new job on the 12th. I'm trying to what best to do. Expensive outgoings are going to be car repairs for dh's car and his car tax (which I paid last night) and paying the plumber for sorting the kitchen leak!

For now I've transferred enough money into the other account to take us out of our overdraft (for the first time in many many years - yay!), but I will have to dip into that money at some point this month. I also would like to make a full mortgage payment this month, but am not sure if we will manage that, it will depend how expensive the car repairs and plumber are I think.

Not sure how to proceed with the mortgage payment now. Our direct debit used to go out on the 28th, but whilst dh was out of work for the past ten months we have been first of all using up the overpayments we had, then had a bit of help through benefits and for the past 4 months have been paying £100 towards the mortgage on the 28th. I think we are about 4 months in arrears and obviously need to start paying that off. I made a payment of £150 two days ago so theoretically they won't expect another payment until 28th June. However, dh gets paid on the 30th and I get paid on the last working day of the month, so I would prefer the mortgage direct debit/standing order (will they allow a standing order rather than direct debit?) to go out on the 1st of the month, but without going into arrears - so far they have not charged us for arrears as we have kept making payments each month and kept them informed. On the other hand our credit rating is very very bad due to other debts that we have defaulted on in the past few years, so it wouldn't make any difference to that, but I can't bear to throw money away on charges!Would it be best to make one more payment that is lower than the actual amount on the 1st June and then set up the correct sum from the 1st July?