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.

It's not in papers on screen - it's in questions. I have 30% of 2 still to do and 70% of another. If I was on paper, it would take hours. On screen, it takes days. I used to do about 600 papers in less than 3 weeks. It takes me 4 weeks to do my full quota of 260 on screen. I wish I was on paper again - the rate of the return was so much better and I didn't struggle with headache/eye strain as much.

I've done 10 hours today and it's been hard going. Will do the same tomorrow and finish off on an evening. I might keep going next weekend when threshold lifts to try and get some more money. It feels like such a lot of work for little money atm.

OK
you need to get into the 50:10 routine
50 minutes on - full bore
10 minutes off up and about and moving around
(yoga or housework are good as they move your spine and need no eye focus)
you'll be OK
and next year will be able to do less

Oh, one of mine was on screen this year and I hated it. Although no annotation is a bonus! 50/10 sounds like a good idea. I did a bit extra when the caps came off too and it was more enjoyable without the pressure of a quota, and you can pick the questions you liked best! Good luck x

Talkin. I will get through it!

ishe I still have to annotate every one - drag and drop. Such fun!

Just got my student loan statement It's lucky MSE advise not paying it off because I can't anyway! The interest is ridiculously low though, £253 for a year on a loan of over £18,000.

My plan is, once I've cleared all my consumer debt and have a fully-funded emergency fund, and am able to overpay mortgage to the max allowed, to set aside e.g. £100 per month, and ring up after my annual SLC statement each year to clear a lump sum off it. That should clear it twice as fast as just letting the PAYE sum go off each month.

Whoop whoop! Just had a load of free paving delivered after answering a post on local FB selling page!! More than enough for a fab patio space at far end of garden (which gets sun til abou 9.30 in the summer months) ..just need to buy some sand/cement and my Dad will help me with any cutting needed

wow mum4 that sounds fab!!! we got a load of paving from the tip for £1 per slab, we didn't bother with sand etc just dug it in (it's just for a bench to sit on, not a full scale patio!)

Discovered a delicious asian noodle soup that uses up all vegetables and makes loooads and costs practically nothing may have considered eating it for breakfast

share recipe Miss!

First marking money in this morning and straight out again onto CC balance.

Such a long way to go still, but steps are being made.

Morning all. It's lookrightnow bearing good news.

Stoopid car has gone. Everything now on 0% ccs. Down to about £23k from 45k. Eek!

We own 2 cars out of that. Nothing on loan or finance now.

We also have out 1k emergency fund in place.

Debt should be paid in 24m. (All balances can be paid before 0% expires)

That car was the Bain of my life. It included an expensive service plan, tax and insurance. I can breath again!

Great news Didyoueva! Huge sigh if relief for you!!

Sat reviewing my spreadsheet now...will need to dip into emergency fund this month due to an unexpected business trip. Can top fund back up once expenses paid though...that aside, everything looks to be on track happy Friday people!!

woop, didyouevah great news!

Asian Soup recipe is basically this one [[http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rcp/RecipePage.aspx?recipeId=317891 Here]] but

I use normal chinese egg noodles, not stinky rice ones.

I just use any old veg to hand, sliced into thin strips on the mandoline, the one I made this week was courgette, red and green peppers, red onions, carrots, sweetcorn (not sliced!), celery and also we got pak choi in the veg box so that got roughly chopped and went in towards the end.

I used a lot more garlic than it says, probably 4-5 cloves, and double the ginger.

I added a chopped green chilli to the garlic/ginger mix in the frying pan.

I also added 2tbsp sesame seeds and the end of an old bag of unsalted peanuts to the pan when frying off the ginger and garlic. YUM!

And again Yummy Soup This Way

Well done did you! I'm so pleased, must be really nice feeling.
I have had a good idea, I think. Any thoughts?

Currently interest only mortgage (220k o/s) and dh is 53.

We pay interest 420 and extra 200 so 620 per month.

When we pay off some debt with the inheritance we need to pay the mortgage properly. The total would be 1700 per month.

I was going to suggest increasing the 200 by 880 to make interest of 420 and extra of 1080 rather than switching to a repayment mortgage.

This is so we can stop the extra if we hit a crisis rather than miss a paymebt.

Nerf
Definitely - stay on IO with blocks of capital because then you are in control - my mortgage finishes this autumn and that is how I've played it for the last 25 years.

Didyouevah Love the new name and LOVE that you and DH have turned such a corner in your relationship with debt and "stuff" - it is setting you up on the right track for ever

Kinky
grit your teeth and think of the money and give my DD an A*

MissA
Love it, recipes on the debt threads too .... we have them all the time on the fasting threads !

Thanks it seemed sensible, and such a good plan I thought there must be a catch

Hello all! I dropped off for a while, as we took a bit of a break over my 40th birthday and had some treats, and then I lost the thread! Back on it now.

Total debt now down from over 9k to just under 4k, we have a little bit lurking on our overdraft due to lack of meal planning and a few unexpected bills, but am expecting that to be paid off by the end of the month.

I feel like our debt now beginning with a 3, means the end is in sight and I feel like we can breathe again. Plus my earnings have been fairly solid, so fingers crossed if that continues we can start planning our summer holiday next year, whoop whoop!!
Little bit of debt money this month to do well overdue work to the house too.

Sounds like everyone else is doing really well too which is fab to catch up with, and omg that recipe sounds delish - can't wait to try it!!

Nerd that sounds like a cracking idea :)
One of the big things I've taken away from this whole
Process is the organisation of bills from dh weekly pay check, and it's so great that we haven't missed a mortgage payment this year!!!! Last year we missed two (paid late due to direct debit bouncing)

Will that have affected our chances of a remortgage? Not that we need to remortgage, but if we move house?

Sadly I mark foundation tier Talkin - keeping everything crossed for her though!

Puffy that is really incredible debt reduction. Well done.

Hang on in there Kinky.

I have dropped the ball rather this month. We aren't on to credit cards yet but we have £100 cash to last the next two weeks. Damage limitation from hereon in.

We had some bad news today- the company dh has worked for for 2.5 months folded. Prior to that he was out of work for 10 months, some of you may recall.

We'd just started paying off the mortgage arrears, albeit very slowly, as his salary was low.

Thank goodness I didn't cancel the overdraft yet. I don't want to use it, but we may have to

And we worked out this is the 7th company he's worked for that has folded! How unlucky are we? !!

Puffy
Mortgages look at credit in the last three years so the improvements you are making will help.

Oh Kazza my sympathies - what industry is your DH in as it sounds like a phoenix one .... might be worth seeking out a different route

TiP he works in IT and can't do anything else.

Ah, OK, IT is notorious for phoenix. Hang on in there.

I'm just so gutted. I wanted to make a start at paying off some of our 28k debt but all we've managed is a lot of the overdraft.

We have our house on the market as our back up plan, but I'm trying to avoid that, as our credit rating means we won't be able to get another mortgage. I don't mind renting, but we have 2 cats and a dog.