A support thread for people paying off debt #2

[moneyworries9]

Hi all... hope you manage to find the thread?

The last one seemed to be such a success 😃 I will be honest and say that I haven't cleared as much as I would have liked but I know if I hadn't been on here, the debts would most likely have increased rather than decreased. I currently owe

£3,355 - loan
£1,600 - credit card

We do have some cash in our bank accounts. I'm in the process of paying for driving lessons so have about £1,000 in our current account, most of which is to cover that.

On the plus side, when I started the other thread, I had around £2,500 on my credit card and £3900 loan so I'm taking baby steps in the right direction.

The other thread was a huge source of support and motivation for me and I hope that this one will be for many others.

Feel free to give a quick summary to introduce yourself

Hi, I haven’t posted since last year but have kept chipping away and my previous credit card debt mountain is gradually reducing. I’m aiming to be debt free by this time next year. I’ve become a bit addicted to spreadsheets and seeing the figures reducing, but I can’t wait for the very last payment. I’m close to paying off one of my cards (the highest APR) - there’s about £500 left that I’m hoping to get rid of in March. Then onto the next highest APR. I have 4 cards with interest accruing balances and 2 on 0% - obviously the 0% ones balances are maxed out and I’m focused on the others for now. I’m hoping by clearing the one I’ve nearly cleared, and significantly reducing other balances it might help nudge the providers into offering me an existing customer 0% deal which would take some pressure off - I hate when they add the interest payment on to the balance and you feel all deflated... I also had a £2000 overdraft that I was living in, but the new charges scared me so I managed to get that cleared last month by prioritising that debt over the cards for a bit. I’ve cancelled it so I can’t slip back into using it.

well done @Dontrainonmyparade that is brilliant progress!

Hello All,

Can I join too? I have £17500 in debt across four cards and a loan. It is partially made up of money for home improvements (about £5k) and furniture when we moved house (about £2k) but the rest is simply living beyond my means e g. planning to save money to pay off a holiday and then just putting it on the Cc instead.

I had a big moment of realisation over Christmas (I've had them before but it does feel different this time) and I have not used the credit cards since then and have set up fixed payments above the minimum on all apart from the loan (which has 13 payments left).

Aiming to pay off 6k over the next 12 months, and just as (if not more as) importantly aim to change my mindset towards money and spending habits. This will involve honest budgeting - which I am still finding quite hard.

I earn £42k so quite a decent salary. My husband earns the same and has some of his own debt which he is managing separately. We're both on the same page.

Checking in again for the end of feb/start of March 2020

Debt start of Jan 2019
Credit cards (various): £4650
Furniture 0%: £1575.86
Savings: £0

Jan 2020
Credit card (0%): £2320 (£1380 Christmas, £940 misc blush)
Furniture 0%: £1036.75
Savings: £4720

Mar 2020 (start)
Credit card 0%: £2765 (£660 Xmas, £1140 crap, £965 phone)
Furniture 0% £953.81
Savings £4250

Plan this month is to pay 660 off for Christmas, add 1265 to savings and pay around 65 off “crap” and 85 off phone.

Fingers crossed!

I managed to pay off a debt of £670. I feel so much better now it is out of the way. Still a long way to go but that debt was a huge amount of stress for me and the others now seem more manageable.

Well done AskG! - my smallest debt is £840. It will feel like such an achievement to pay it off.

I definitely feel more in control than I did a month ago, but I've got such a long way to go it can feel daunting. Realistically it's going to take over three years I think.

I've been very good at taking my own lunch to work since Christmas which is a big change for me. That feels like a proper habit now.

My next focus is on mid week top up shops. I'm terrible for them. We spend so much money on food.

Any one else making any specific changes or have any tips?

We've done really well this month, Feb council tax free month helps! Have paid all our standing orders for debts and somehow finished the month with £500 still in the bank! I've stashed it in the savings account, to go on car brakes, MOT in July, and the balance on our summer holiday. It would have been nice to put it towards our worst offending debt, but seems to sensible to have a bit of a safety buffer and a way of paying for things that we know are coming.

Feb payday check-in!

• CC1 now £10,555, 0% interest until 2021, paying 250/month
• CC2 now £1107, 0% until summer so payment of £200/month should just about cover it before 0% ends
• Last 100 to furniture in March yay!

Didn't stick to budget in Feb again so we have tried again to make a more realistic one for March. I hear you UrsulaBirkin it is really hard to set an honest budget!

End Feb/Start March check in -

Think I am on track. Will have to be careful around the approach to payday for the next few months because I have set up a Standing Order to take the exact amount needed to get debt to zero by August - and the danger is that could just land me in overdraft hell if I am not careful! But fingers crossed...

Have now paid off the penultimate Credit Card and put a Full Balance DD onto that so I can't run up any more debt on it. Only one more CC to go. Balance on Monday will be £3931.57.

End is in sight. Thanks to all for the support on this thread, and good luck to everyone who is still in the thick of trying to get on top of everything.

Ursula this seems daft and basic but food shopping to get the cheapest or most reduced things and making a meal around those, and taking breakfast and lunch into work every day religiously. Has saved more than we thought!

Checking in as the March payments have been made!

Credit card £1950 0%, £880 phone and rest crap!
Furniture ticks along on 0%
Savings £4665

Chipping away at the credit card while trying to build a reserve so we can TTC

Checking in for the start of March!
Currently -
Loan £1080
Credit card £830
Electricity £962
Overdraft £700

Total £3572.

Just checked, it's exactly the same as last month but it's because they added my quarterly electric bill onto the debt I already owe. I actually paid £95 off it yesterday.

Also I've nearly got the loan down to 3 figures rather than 4 thank goodness!

Hope everyone else is staying motivated this month.

Well done daernis!

I have over £23k of debt and I only earn £23k. This is the first month I've not been able to pay the minimum payments and it's a wake up call that this is out of hand now. I've just registered for a debt management plan with StepChange. I feel pretty fucked and quite worried about the coming years but realistically I've been failing to sort out my debt problem for about 8 years so it feels like I am taking a step here at least. I've reached the point where I am struggling to afford food, whereas this will hopefully reduce my monthly payments so I can at least cover my costs from my bank account.

Gin well done for taking the first step

Question for the hive mind - I have been paying off £150 per fortnight (each pay day) on my cc.
We have no savings. Well, £200. If my workplace closes due to Corona virus as has happened in other countries I will have no money coming in, I'm employed on a contract basis. So should I for the next while reduce my cc payments to the minimum £40ish) and save the rest? Til we see what lies ahead?

Checking in..

CC1 balance $4933 (was $9400)

CC2 balance $13,870 (was $15,000)

Pickup loan paid off! $0.

Jeep loan $18,890 ($22,000 beginning balance).

Washer and dryer $190 (will be paid off April)

We do have to pay state taxes, but that will come out of our federal tax return $650.

We've figured out we need to have more taken out of our paychecks for taxes, just have to calculate how much for sure. I was able to pay a big chunk today on CC1 ($4843), bringing it to its current balance. It feels so good to pay that down a lot.

@pinker what I've done is prioritise getting £1000 in savings so that if anything happens I've got a buffer. That could be lost earnings from corona virus or equally repairs to the car or a broken washing machine.

Thanks lurcher I think I'd feel better with money in savings right now rather than seeing the cc go down

Update from Jan 31 - still on it but finding odd splurges are creeping in so will have to try to stop spending!
Golf club membership 11,350 (down from 13,106)
Cc zero (down from 7,600) yay ...
Line of credit 24,190 (down from 25,000)
Student loan 22,500 (down from 23,000)
So total reduction of 10,666 - pretty good but to be honest could’ve cleared an extra 700 if I hadn’t made that trip to ikea...
Next target is to clear golf club by end of may which will then allow to me attack line of credit to clear by end of September.
Difficult with student loan as she has another 1.5 years to go - am currently paying 2,500 every 4 weeks but she withdraws 1,700 each month for rent and living so with interest only really overpaying by 700 a month whichwill be used to cover tuition fees. Goal is to get it under 20,000 and then maintain at that level until she graduates).
Anyhow hope everybody is still making progress - I really try to take it day by day e.g. although it’s friday and DH would love a takeaway, he’s getting leftover stir fry and I’m gonna us the 35 he would’ve spent to pay a little extra on cc....

Checking in:
I haven’t been able to lay off my debt as quickly as I would like but slowly slowly getting there.
When I started on this thread at the beginning of last year I think I had around £6000 debt in total spread across various sources. I had £0 in savings.
I have managed to clear 2 of my debts last month -a store card account which had £170 and another store card which had £90.
I’m also slowly chipping away at my credit cards.

Current debts outstanding are:
Credit card 1 £2150
Credit card 2 £180

I also have £1600 in savings now, this is the first time in my adult life I have had any kind of proper savings.
I’m aiming to pay off £500 from my debt this month which will mean I hit my target of having less than £2000 total debt by the end of the tax year.

Well done totally !!

Thanks pinkerpellosa I know my debts are not as big as some and it has taken me longer to reduce it but slowly slowly getting there