Drowning in debt? Don't know how to get out? You are not alone. Come and share and find a way through ....

[Talkinpeece]

This thread is loosely linked to several previous ones on the same topic.

We live in a society that makes it horribly easy to get into debt but makes it incredibly hard to admit you have a problem and even harder to get out of debt.
Everybody is welcome to share problems, ideas, solutions, but not be judgemental please

I am not in debt, any more.
Here is a link to some spreadsheets that might help explain how
SPREADSHEETS-for-Debt-Control-Budgeting-Mortgages-etc

and lots of people use this
YouNeedABudget

The important things to remember are

• 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 and we are here day and night )

• 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, including getting those closest to you to recognise the changes needed )

Join in, bare your soul and come out the other end.
Its worth it.
You are worth it
The long term results for you, your partner, your children, and your friends and family are worth it.

I need to clear my credit card by June. It’s not much at present. £700. But another £2k will go on it next week (house spend - we need wardrobes and made the decision to have fixed built in ones- forever home so the spend will equal out over the 40+ years we’re planning on being here).

But being pregnant (again) and will be on Mat leave from early/mid July on less money coming in means I need to clear it. Can be done I hope.

Today’s mission, sort things for eBay selling and list them.

Onescared
I'm in my mid 50's and am in no hurry to feel grown up

emenem
Well done on combining tidying with debt control with planning forwards

We were trucking along quite nicely then my overtime was cut, DH (self employed) became ill, DS1 needed our help, 12 year old car failed its MOT and we had committed to a holiday. Instead of sitting down and working out a plan we borrowed a fairly substantial amount of money, and carried on. This is now coming back to bite us.

We are making slightly over minimum payments on the debts, have cut everything back to the bone and are just managing. It's hard not to worry but I know that if we can have a very frugal year - and DHs health stays ok we will turn it around. Time for some reality.

Lovebeing
As I said to somebody else up thread
everybody has the bumps in the road
but they hurt a lot more if you do not have a cushion

you'll be OK, it just takes focus ...

talk why thank you! Its a necessity the wardrobe as currently we have two collapsible rails in our room and they’re giving me the heebeejeebees the longer they stay there. I do not like seeing all my clothes! And we said we’d get wardrobes this year.

Said nothing about dc2 though....that was a bit of a mishap. But hey ho. Cracking on with it.

I'm so annoyed with myself this month.

I had a very slow December and (unusually) January, so haven't paid off as much of my credit card as I would have liked.

I wanted to reduce my CC utilization down to 50% by the end of Feb but that means I would still need to make £280 worth of payments in the next 4 weeks, which I do not think is doable.

Due to slow month, I have been avoiding checking my bank balance regularly and spending terribly on stupid bits- coffee, takeaway, chocolate. My bills will come out, but unfortunately, I will sit in my overdraft for a few weeks.

I took 2 exams this month, costing £170 in total, my mum is reimbursing me the cost of 1 as it was my Christmas present from her and I usually pay for them on my credit card but did so through my current account, so I suppose the good news is i'm due in £85 and I didn't increase my credit card debt this month.

February will be better. NO, it gets better starting today.

Bishalisha
spending terribly on stupid bits- coffee, takeaway, chocolate
ask yourself why?
You need to get that sort of wasted spending under control
its about mindfulness and self control

The month ends soon. You'll be OK, but try to get out of the sod it mindset
as that way regret lies

IVA and mortgage renewal advice or experiences appreciated. My mortgage is up for renewal shortly and I went into an IVA a while ago.

Will they automatically move me onto a standard variable rate? Will I be clobbered with extra charges?

I'm afraid to ring the bank in case I say the wrong thing. I'm also afraid that ringing will trigger off anything that further wrecks my credit rating?

From an internet search it seems like I am going to pay heavily.

I don't suppose there's any point trying to move the mortgage?

I would very much appreciate any comments or advice. Thank you

Bumping for advice

Hiya,
Sorry I saw your message but am doing the last tax returns ...

Your best bet is going to be a specialist broker
mortgages are all about affordability criteria now
and SVR should be too horrible as base rates are going nowhere fast !

Ta1king thank you so much for replying. I'm sorry to interrupt your tax returns.

That's great advice, thanks. I worried myself into a complete state today over my finances. I just need to calm down!!

I hope you're keeping well. I love this thread, it really makes me feel less scared.

Tax returns cannot be filed till tonight (HMRC servers are nadgered at this time of year) - hence why I saw your post

I had to look up the word nadgered, I thought it was a financial term!!! Any wonder I'm having problems.

Tee Hee !
I used to post on the Ebay Business board for years and years - swearing is banned there so creative use of the English language became an art form

Hi All, just saw this thread, hope it's ok to post.
Well, myself and dh have a significant amount of debt. We live pay cheque to pay cheque, once bills etc are paid, we have no clue where the rest goes...we have 3 kids ( expensive, I kniw) and a substantial mortgage .
On top of that we have :
€29,000 home improvement loan
€14,000 car loan
€1200 visa ( for holiday flights this coming June)
€ 260 left on personal loan.
The personal loan will be paid off end of Feb ... we cleared it 3 years early.
The visa ( flights) will be paid for by April.
We will the , from May, pay € 150 extra off car loan/ month and attempt to out €300 into an account to have emergency fund for bigger bills like oil/ car insurance etc.

Doe that sound like a good enough plan ? Oh, and no unnecessary spending for at least 6 months !
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Dh works full time in a good enough paying job, I work part time in an average paying job.
No child care costs cos we manage to work opposite each other.
We should have savings .....we shouldn't have debt but we do ! So mad at myself, but I've never been good with money .
Thanks for reading !

Hi there Designer
Home improvement - fine.
Car - hope the car is worth it
Other costs - you have a plan.
I guess the main thing is to download the budget sheet and work out EXACTLY where your money is going and see where the easy economies can be made,

Thanks piece, the car died about 6 months ago....it was 15 years old, so dh upgraded to a 4 year old Toyota. I kinda felt he deserved it cos he works hard and was driving a heap of junk for the past few years, but Definitely feeling the pinch with that extra loan!
Yes, I'm beginning to look at our expenses and downloaded an app to help track every penny.... hoping itll help highlighy where we are losing/ wasting money.
Thanks again

Designer
If you get into the habit of tracking EVERYTHING - pay for nothing in cash - then you'll soon start to see where the frittering has happened
Make sure you both do it though

Thanks Peace, I've started that and it's definitely making me stop and think before i spend . Dh is on board also but to be honest, I'm the spender but he's telling me anything he does spend so we can keep track.

Monday my cc took the hit of £840 for deposit for wardrobe. Today I’ve paid it off with savings. And have taken the executive decision to transfer the same amount to my savings from our “house savings”.

Maternity leave policy has been agreed. 6 weeks at full pay. 6 weeks at 90% 14 weeks unpaid from work. Stat is a one off payment of £680 and then £218 per week for 18 weeks. There will be a 6 week period of no money. Which will annoyingly be mid December/January 2020. But if I start saving now. I can work through this. And if needs be use credit card during that time.

emenem
Sounds like you are really keeping the focus on how to spend what you need and not let debt balloon
GOOD STUFF

Somehow have managed to get through the bills without going into my overdraft.

I've spoken to the nursery manager and she's happy for me to pay on the 5th (when our tax credits come in) which is fab (I usually pay as soon as tax credits come in but they came in ridiculously early this month).

My mum is still due to transfer the £85 for my exam as my Christmas present over but she'll do it when she remembers im sure

A client paid me in cash this month (all declared all declared!) and I'm going to take it to the bank to transfer straight onto my credit card taking CC1 to £120. Alongside the SO payments that came out today, this will take my total CC utilization for both cards to 54%.

February is going to be tight as I didn't invoice much out for January and 1 client has already paid (so bank balance already takes the biggest invoice for the month into account). I've learned my lesson. Stop the coffess, takeaways and snacks!

Bishalisha
this will take my total CC utilization for both cards to 54%.
That is a HUGE leap in the right direction.
Headroom on cards is really useful to have
its the start of the cushion that smooths out the bumps in the road
well done

Zero balance on cc. Wahooo (for now...)