25 Feb 2015

A question about : Hypno's kick up the backside debt diary....

Ok, so I know we have had debates about whether there are too many debt diaries or not, and I know that it is self indulgent to start my own but.....I am reasonably good at giving others support and the benefit of my amazing advice :rolleyes: but I am not so good at giving myself the same kick up the backside.

So, by putting it in my diary I will hopefully take some of it in and act on it!

So, the reason for starting today is because this week I feel as though I have hit a bloody great wall. We are snowballing and still have a long long way to go before we are free of this debt. We are doing everything right, rent out our spare room, don't have sky, don't smoke, have a shopping budget etc. I even buy stardrops for goodness sake - I really AM trying here.

Anyway, in the last month OH applied for an M&S LOB card and got rejected and I applied for a citibank current account and got rejected and it just seems that we are stuck with what we have got - high interest rates and no way of doing anything about it.

Our credit rating is officially poor although we are on top of all the payments and have never had a default or CCJ, so I assume it is the high level of debt that we have that is the problem. I spoke to a very nice lady at Experian who basically said try again in 6 months time. GREAT!

So, I need the motivation to keep snowballing - I have come this far and I need to keep going but it is SO HARD!

And to top it all, and to make me feel really bad, I got some extra money from my Dad's estate this week that I really wasn't expecting to get. I have bunged almost all my inheritance at my debts so far which has gone a long way towards getting things sorted but instead of bunging this extra at the debt, I have booked a week away in a fortnight's time. I had tried to convince myself that I could manage without a break but then........

So now I feel guilty about it - part of me says spend it and enjoy it and part says think of the snowball and what a difference it would have made.

So, humour me while I do this diary, and please feel free to lighten things up with your wit and wisdom. I promise that I will not always be this gloomy title=Big

Best answers:

  • Hi Hypno
    consider yourself humoured. I've always appreciated your wise and generous posts.
    Enjoy your weekend away and don't think any more about it. For those of us with BIG debts, the debt-free journey is going to be a long one, and we need to live along the way. (she says, drinking a glass of wine).
    You have shown yourself to be more than determined to get out of debt, so if the break sets your debtfree date back a month or two so what? By refreshing you it might actually bring it forward.
    I'll read your diary with interest. I don't think diaries take up space, I think they reduce space, by keeping so much discussion in one place.
  • Good luck with the diary Hypno
    I have found your daily small DFW achievements thread so helpful and inspiring, so hopefully we can offer the same support back to you.
    In terms of the holiday, I'd be of the thought that a good holiday could help add energy, and it could help to have a break, and then get back into snowballing again - so you have the good memories of the holiday to help motivate you on the tricky days.
    Good luck
  • Hi Hypno
    enjoy your weekend away, it's important to treat yourself occasionally well done with all that you have achieved so far
    SC XX
  • Don't feel guilty about having a weeks holiday, life shouldnt be all about scrimping and saving. You can still keep your DFW attitude while away and spend carefully or you can let it all hang out and reward yourself with a few indulgences for working so hard.
    Diarys are fabulous insperation to read, so keep the entries coming.
    If people don't like them, the answer is simple, don't read them.
    Look forward to reading more.
    X X X
  • I agree with everyone here. Becoming debt free does not mean to stop living to achieve this goal. If you did that you would have surrendered under the pressure long ago. The holiday didn't cost you anything as you paid for it from money you weren't expecting so it's not really affected your debt-free date and you haven't put yourself in further debt to go on holiday.
    Go away, enjoy yourself and when you return you will feel re-charged and re-freshed and ready to plough away at getting debt-free.
  • You've only been doing this a few months and already have brought your DFD forward by 9 months. It's natural to hit a lull a few months in, once the initial excitement and flurry of activity has passed.
    Don't waste your money on a holiday and then not enjoy it - enjoy a well earned break then come back refreshed and ready to fight the good fight.
  • enjoy your break hypno ... x
  • Hi hypno!
    Well now, all I can say is, I hope you booked the holiday in some sort of MSE way and if not well, naughty naughty however I am sure the world is not going to implode because of it.
    ENJOY THE BREAK it may be that you don't get another one for a while and if you didn't live a little along this debt free road (which is littered with tractors and caravans at times to slow us all up but that's life) then you'd go doolally.
    You do something every day on top of the big things you've already done (like take in a lodger for instance) so, the beating up of one's self must stop now.
    Big old hug and the chink of wine glasses to you!
    LA xx
  • Yup, enjoy the break, Hypno! We all have to recharge the batteries - as has been said further up, you'll come back with renewed vigour. And as for diaries..... I love diaries! I don't care what space they take up, I like 'em. You go for it!
  • Hey hypno!
    Nice to have a diary from you - I'll be reading with interest!
    You are one super MSE-er so no more being hard on yourself! Enjoy your break and come back refreshed and with renewed energy to tackle those debts
    Be proud of what you have achieved already
  • Thanks for all the replies so far you fabbie lovely people
    I am feeling a little better today - the holiday is def on a budget - the biggest money saving thing I can think of is to leave hubby and kids behind - so I am going on my own
    Plus, a friend has said that she can do with an escape from reality too so she is joining me and that means that the cost of the apartment is split between us, saving me Ј150 already. She is really on a budget too, so we won't be tempted to spend unnecessarily while we are there.
    I did a bit of matched betting today and added Ј44.95 to my profits so that was good - I have worked out that if I make Ј50 a week from matched betting, then in a year I will have paid off my Egg card. I am on track so far, so just have to keep the momentum going.
    Also, this week, I sold another book on Amazon making me Ј2.03 after postage etc and some bits on ebay totalling Ј120.37 after fees and postage so that was pretty good. Trouble is that we have nothing on ebay at the moment so next week's total is looking pretty small!
    Because the MSE site is SO huge, it is taking me some time to work my way round it - I have obviously become familiar with the brilliant DFW board, have spent a bit of time on OS and now buy stardrops and soda crystals and am becoming a nuisance on the gambling intro board for my matched betting, but have only recently discovered the freebies site.
    I am yet to work out how to get so much from Boots without spending more than 50p but I have now started to get freebies through the post.
    This week I have got three things sent through - some washing powder, some shampoo but best of all I got a 100g bar of Heaven Chocolate
    Oh, how I love this site!!!!!
  • Hi Hypno...nothing wrong with adding a diary as it really does help see where you're at...I use mine all the time and would go insane without it....and my dear..please enjoy your break you need it and as the other poster said you weren't expecting the money so it hasn't altered your DF date.....I look forward to reading your diary
  • Hi hypno - the kicks up the backside you've given me over the last few months have helped me leaps and bounds, so if there is anything I can do to help let me know
    My OH also applied for an M&S LOB card and got rejected unexpectedly - first time she's been rejected from anything, so it maybe M&S are being extra picky.
    Keep going with the diary, I think there are a few of us on here who would be avid readers...
  • Well the sun is shining and it is a beautiful day here. I really should be out gardening or something but I simply don't have the energy! This dratted cold I have had all week has sapped me which is probably why I have been feeling so down moneywise this week, and why I really am looking forward to my holiday
    Today the car insurance became due so went via quidco and not only saved Ј30 on the (already cheap) renewal quote, but have Ј130 lovely cashback tracked already.
    Then seeing something on another DFW thread, I have applied for a savings account through quidco - deposited a whole shiny pound and will hopefully see another Ј25 tracked there. Of course it is always a while before it comes through to the bank, but it will be a bonus when it arrives.
    DD who is 12 is having one of those practice days for when she is a teenager. Mooching around demanding that a laptop of her own is becoming a desperate necessity. When I suggested to her that she asks people for money for her birthday which she can then put towards getting a recon laptop from somewhere cheap, she complained that it is 3 months and 7 days until her birthday, so can't possibly wait that long.
    I think I will change her name to Kevin......
  • I love the diaries on here, for me it is where I get inspiration from so keep going!! I saw your signature on another thread earlier and was amazed ... how long have you ben doing this and how have you managed to reduce it so much? I'm guessing a large chunk of it was your inheritance but that is superb, well done you
  • Well, we have been in this situation for a while but really started to get flickers of lightbulb moments about 4 or 5 years ago. Unfortunately the debt was so huge that it really didn't make much difference at that point - sort of one step forward, several larger steps back type thing. The result was that we continued robbing peter to pay paul and ended up in even more debt, despite our best efforts.
    We have been renting out our spare room for the last 2 and a half years which has made a big difference, although we miss our privacy loads. The inheritance made a very big difference and is what inspires me to continue really - if I fail now, then it is not just everything that I have worked for that will have been for nothing, but will be everything that my Dad worked for will also have been for nothing. I therefore cannot fail. It simply is not an option.
    We have always had more than one job each - at times doing 2 full time jobs EACH plus college, and still trying to be good parents to young children!
    We have pasta weeks, jacket potato weeks and beans on toast weeks! Basically, you can have anything you like for dinner this week as long as it is.....!!
    Since joining this site in December, I have discovered the delights of ebay, of matched betting and of quidco, not to mention more amazing meals for less than the cost of a postage stamp and 101 uses for stardrops! I look forward to my piggy clicks each week and got really excited when I reached enough for my first voucher!
    The biggest thing so far that I have done so far, which I have to attribute to one poster on this site, although brought to my attention on a totally different, and non money related, site is the reclaiming bank charges.
    I have claimed Ј3000 successfully from Halifax, Ј265 from Mint and Ј90 from Barclays on a small account. Barclays, however, are defending my claim for over Ј3000 so just waiting for the court papers now.....
    But, even with the impending court date, it is still over Ј3000 that I have received back so far which I had previously just written off!
    So, with the help of the lovely DFWers on here, I will get there. I will, I WILL!!
  • If I was your dad, I would be proud that you are getting things sorted, but really pleased that the money was able to give you a break for a few days.
    Enjoy it. You've achieved so much already, you deserve it.
  • Well, I am pleased to say that I did get out into the garden and gave my lawn its first haircut of the year. Had a bit of a tidy around too and got the pruning thingies out. I hacked back a fair bit of stuff - perhaps it is too early to be pruning but I know next to nothing about gardening so I work on a sort of "survival of the fittest" basis!
    Then I messed up my laptop so discovered the "techie" board on MSE - very helpful people and I would recommend them to anyone! As you can see, I am fully operational again
    So, another week starting again tomorrow - my personal challenge is to tidy the house from top to bottom. No mean feat I can assure you.
    So if you haven't heard from me by about Wednesday, send in the recovery team. I may be drowing in a sea of ironing.....
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