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

Well done mum4fergus. It’s an amazing achievement.

Well done @mum4fergus, very inspiring.

I'm so excited! We just paid off CC1! It's now at zero! As a rewards card we will still use it, but be more mindful about what we spend (stick to every day stuff) and pay it off every payday. Our washer and dryer are paid off now too. We are going to start focusing on CC2, to get that paid down. We still owe about $14,000 on it, so it'll take a while. But any extra we earn or get in will go on it, just like with CC1. My car has $14,000 on it as well, if I remember correctly so our debt is going down.

Well done everyone. Just looked back. This time last year was 7400. Now 3150. But on reduced pay now👎

As far as possible do not let the debt climb back up
but the progress made over the past years
stands you in good stead for the future

Lockdown has to end sooner rather than later

Hi everyone.

Checking in for this month...

Started off the year with CC £6800 and CC £7600, so £14,400 total.

I had a lump sum come in so with that and monthly payments I'm down to £12005 total. My income should be roughly the same as it was as my 80% pay will mean a bit more universal credit coming in so should balance out... I just wish I had more to throw at it as it feels like it's going to take forever to pay it off.

Well done Flummingbird, it's going in the right direction!

Morning all. Hope everyone is managing OK re finances and coronavirus.

Check in for the start of May -
Loan £950 - managed to get down into triple figures finally!
Credit card £807
Electricity £887
Overdraft £700

Total £3344, down £107 from last month.

I'm supposed to be moving house soon - I hope! My outgoings will reduce when I move so I can pay off more of the debt quicker.

My loan is actually 2 different loans. One is with my bank and the other one is with a money lending website - that one is down to £250 and I'm due to finish paying it off in September. Once that one is paid off I'm going to use the £50 a month I was paying on that to pay off my credit card - CC has a ridiculously high interest rate and I'm paying off £35 a month currently but the interest is about £27 a month so I'm barely making a dent! That's the one I want rid of most of all.

Checking in as I keep losing the thread

Checking in as we are now in May.
I’m down to:
£1068 credit card
£90 BNPL catalogue account

And my savings are at £1900.
Never in my dreams did I imagine I would have more savings than debt by this stage. I’m hoping to have the credit card paid off within the next 3 months.

Checking in for may:

Credit card: £0, was over £4K in January
Savings: £5800 (hoping for mat leave)
Furniture on 0%: £912.34 paying £41.47 pcm on 0% 22 months to go

Emergency covid fund as DH work is precarious: £1600

It’s better than it was and we are lucky but I don’t think DH will have a job for long

Would love to join this thread!

£3340 on 0% Halifax credit card with £105 DD set up
£1300 left on HP finance for our car paying £341 per month.

When I got in April I managed to pay an extra £295 to credit card and am hoping to pay around £500 when I get paid in May - will be less if I end up back at work.

We must only have until August/September to pay on car so if that’s paid off before credit card we will put that payment straight to the card.

Would love to have this debt paid off by the end of the year!

Looks like we could manage it!

Just checking in still following Dave Ramsey and currently Baby Step 3. Have repaid all debt except mortgage and have managed to save 3 months worth of our expenses. Dave suggests 3-6 months as a cushion so I'm going to keep going for the full 6.

Hope everyone is safe and well

Morning everyone. Hope you're all coping OK and not feeling too stressed.

1st of the month check in for the debts:

Loan £870
Credit card £774
Electricity £849.50
Overdraft £700

Total £3193.50, down £150.50 from last month.

Such a slow process for me as I'm on such a low wage. I move into my new house at the end of this month with lower bills, looking forward to making a bit more progress then.

I'm slightly concerned as my job is at risk due to Covid so I'm putting aside some savings just in case, so I can carry on paying off the debt in case the worst happens.

Checking in for the start of the month. Last month I had £12005 spread over 2 cards, both due to come off 0% deals soon. My other card which was empty gave me 0% until December 2021 so have moved it all over there!

It's up to £12128 now with charges, but no interest at all for 18 months is great, at the end of that I'm hoping to have it under £7k which would be amazing for me!! I've also closed one of the cards I have paid off with the transfer, so I have 1 card in use and one empty, hoping to use for a balance transfer again in 18 months...

Sorry need to place mark. Partner moved in so cancelled tax credit. A month later he moved out (who knew a lockdown would finish us) got a letter saying I'd been over paid tax credit approx £1500. He'd help my daughter buy a car so owe him £2000 of which I have £1000 saved so will 0%the other £1000. Bills leave me with approx £300 per month for petrol and food and fun. Guessing there won't be much fun. daughter will be paying for her debt so no worries there just a bit daunting to go from shared finance and being comfortable to debt and living to my means again. There are others way worse off than me so no meltdown allowed. Will return for the spreadsheets 2Moro. Fab thread and greatly appreciated 💕

It wasn’t as good a month as I had hoped here. We needed to get some emergency and unexpected work down around the house so I wasn’t able to save anything or pay as much as planned off the debt and I have a small amount on my ‘emergency credit card’.
Credit card £758
0% BNPL £90
emergency credit card £120.

Savings still at £1900.
So slightly less debt than last month but not as much progress as I had hoped.

Hi all. Tentatively joining in. My numbers are massive compared to all yours and make me feel a bit sick. Only really looked at ongoing outgoings last month and I've been overspending by about £600 a month for god knows how long, digging deeper and deeper. I took out a loan last year when we bought our first house, for furnishings. That was £10,000. Then added to it at Christmas. Now I'm another £5000 in overdraft and credit card. Last week I paid that off with an extension of the loan. It's now £18000 over 5 years and I'm OD and CC free. £18000 just feels huge though. And five years is such a huge amount of time. But feel more organised now. I've set up a joint account with my husband - that way I'm accountable for my spending (online shopping is where my money goes). And now I'm paying off my loan and putting £100 in savings every month. It's OK in lockdown but once things are normal I'm worried it will all spiral again. Anyway! Love this thread and support. Thanks

I'm tempted to speak to our broker when we remortgage in the new year

There have been some posters with debts as big or bigger than yours so you are in good company here. You have a plan and that’s a good start.

Don't let it overwhelm you...I've cleared approx £26k in the last few years. I follow the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps method...it works! Have a look...happy to answer any questions you have

Updating. These were my credit card balances in April 19 and April 20:

36,745.70 24,225.16
4 April 2019. 8 April 2020.

Paid off: 12,520.54 in 12 months. It’s reduced more now and I’ve shifted about 10K onto 0% cards. I feel in control for the first time in a long time! Unfortunately like lots of people my income has taken a hit recently but it would have been a lot worse if I hadn’t got on top of the card debt.

I'm a lurker but thought I'd join to say we've paid off £4K over the last year so CCs are now at £8K. Both on 0%, aiming to pay another £3.5K this year.
It feels like it takes forever but we are getting there.

Another lurker here.
I have just come through a gambling addiction, and have racked up mountains of debt!

Brain wave moment...and spent the weekend analysing my debts...
Now 4 months of no gambling. So i hope to make progress going forward.

In total, outstanding is:
6 credit cards - £14
4 loans - £47k
and adhoc (friends, overdrafts etc) - £4k

I knew my situation was bad. But didn't realise it was so bad.

(Its not all gambling, about £20k relates to that). The rest is due to new house 18 months ago. and monies to do it up etc. But enough is enough!

Unfortunately due to high debt to income ratio. Credit score is shot to pieces so cant switch to 0% cards. But i have belief it can be done!

Its good to see the progress many are making on here.