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

I’m loving @GreenTulips and@Orangesandlemons77 updates .well done and definitely inspiring me today 😀

Thank you!

I want to recommend Payplan if anyone needs free debt management, they have been really helpful.

It felt very good to cancel my monthly direct debit.

Amazing to hear about successes! It makes me help feel that maybe one day I will get there!

It's a great feeling. I have had that DMP for over 20 years! In the end they took some partial settlements so that was helpful.

It's good to not have monthly payments going out

Sorry for repeating myself!

Morning!

Sorry, I've been AWOL for a bit...I did some rescheduling of debt, then had a very expensive Jan / Feb (emergency vet with a puppy we'd only had a day, which PetPlan decided was pre-existing, so didn't pay back; and MRI scan / x-ray) which set me right back.

Congratulations to all the success stories!

My totals are now:

Barclaycard £6,876.83 (I've paid over £1.7k off it this month to get it back under control!).

MCB £8,690.61

I am making progress, but it feels very slow, it has to be said. It's still much better than it was this time last year, mind!

Update today 2358
cc1 1734
cc2 624
ive been doing some overtime so I’m trying to build up some savings as well . I feel like I set myself back when I put my glasses on the credit card and I’m trying to get back to where I was before then.
does anyone one follow any good bloggers ? I was following frugal queen for a long time but I’ve lost interest lately .

Well @Greyingmumto3 - you’ll soon see the back of cc2.
We had to put 4 new tyres on our runaround car and then DPs car needed £220 spent on it last week. We can cover it but there won’t be much left to overpay on the mortgage.

March Update!

Managed to pay £700 off one of my CCs due to a small windfall. So I’m now back in the 0% for both CCs! 😀

Virgin CC £1574.71
Lloyds CC £2843.76

Total = £4418.47

Small payment made so another update
2319

April update:

Barclaycard £6,497.00

MCB £8,576.83

Chipping away at it!

So great to read all of your success stories, we're sitting around the £32k mark now most of which actually had to be put onto a DMP early last year due to a major reduction in DH overtime post covid and FT childcare fees really pushing us over the edge, i find it so embarrassing but starting to see the way thorough @Orangesandlemons77 your post really helps to see the end.

DS2 nursery fees will reduce from £980 a month to £200 a month in September. some of that saving will be offset by our fixed gas and Elec rate ending and our mortgage rate coming up to renewal in Jan 2025 but otherwise I want to save enough to make some offers on the DMP payments.

Hi

Please can I join? I have been in debt in some shape or form since I was 18 and took out a credit card whilst at uni. I’m now 39 and have approx 30K debt to my name. I’ve been a shopaholic fuelled by mental health issues but I’m determined to sort myself out. My aim is to be debt free by Christmas 2024.

I am still under a lot of stress about my debt, a lot of it is shame. My DP doesn’t know and I’m terrified he’ll find out. Telling him isn’t an option. We’ve been together 11 years and with hopefully just 18 months to go I’m not saying anything now. I also feel guilt about that but I’m not taking the risk.

For many years I’ve tried to pay my debt off but never been successful - I’ve reconsolidated many times but then just spent again on the now clear credit cards. But now, I seem to have addressed the shopping habit. I’m now working full time again (was part time before DD started school) so don’t have time to shop. DP also installed security cameras at our home (not to spy on me but it makes my shopping habit much harder to hide).

I’m throwing everything I can at this and for the first time it feels achievable. I have a loan which will be finished in September. Im
over paying my credit card. When my loan finishes I’ll put that money onto the store card I have. By January I should be in a position where everything goes on the credit card.

I feel like this is my last chance.

Hi @voxnihili and welcome
mines gone up back over £3000
I bought some new things to redo my daughters room thinking I could clear it quickly and then our dog became Ill so that’s all gone on there too .
I’ll see what I can afford to pay before I update properly

Well I’ve made a payment and added it up I’ve just scraped in under 3000 !
totals 2939
cc1 1698
cc2 1341

Well @Greyingmumto3 on knocking out the 3k hurdle! Hello @voxnihili

Now the credit cards are paid off I’m still here to hold myself to account on mortgage overpayments.

We have £81210 remaining. Staying on an SVR to enable overpayments.

Mortgage is due to be paid off in July ‘27 but trying to pay off a bit sooner.

It’s been a very expensive April, so I don’t think there’ll be much spare to throw at it but we’ll see in a few days.

April:

Virgin cc 1655.05
Lloyds cc 2900.61

= 4555.65

2 steps forward, 1 step back 🙄

Thanks for the welcome.

Since my post I’ve actually been able to take out a consolidation loan for my credit card and store card. I only took out enough to cover the balances but the interest is a third of what I was paying. There’s also no fee for early repayment and I also save on interest if I make overpayments.

I’ve done this (several times) in the past but failed miserably as the repayments were too high to be affordable and I then used the cards again for the shortfall (when I was in the throes of shopping addiction). I’m hoping it will work this time as my income has gone up enough to still have money left over for living, plus I’m much more controlled in my spending.

Sounds like a good move @voxnihili and you’re in a much better place for it to work.

May update
for me:

Virgin CC: 1455.05
Lloyds CC: 2920.81

I’m paying £200 a month off on the Virgin to snowball as I’m paying interest on the card purchases. Only £80 left and I’ll be back in the 0% 😀…. Might try to pay that as an additional this month. 0% ends in Oct 2023.

I’m paying minimum on the Lloyds as ours 0% until Oct 2024

£4375.86

Evening!

I think I somehow managed to miss last month. I've been busy at work!

Barclaycard 5,746.00
MCF 8,366.00

Feels like I'm getting somewhere now. Kind of!

I'm a long way from the £30k debt at the start of last year, so that's good.

Well done @BecomingDebtFree - getting closer all of the time.

Mortgage is now £78,512.

DS starts his first job in a few months so in the autumn we should have some of the rent we’ve paying for him while at uni to chuck at the mortgage instead.

Haven’t managed any overpayments yet since moving onto the svr but I’d love to see it start with a 6 instead of a 7. I think we need to discipline ourselves to make the overpayments at the start of the month rather than wait to see what we’ve saved just before payday. This was a successful strategy when we were paying off the credit cards.

I've started paying off £300 a month instead of £200 on Virgin CC now, to try to get it down after having to use it to pay for car repairs!

Virgin CC 1910.45
Lloyds CC 2797.40

Total 4707.85