Hypno's reminder that she is doing ok, actually!

A question about : Hypno's reminder that she is doing ok, actually!

And with alarming regularity, she starts yet another chapter of her diary.........

So, briefly, for those who may be new to my life, here is the story so far.....

Bought a house in 1999, and 3 weeks after we moved in we discovered major structural work that needed doing. Like all building work, the costs escalated and by the time we had finished, and furnished, and eaten loads of takeaways because we had no kitchen/water/electricity (funny how we forget about all these additional costs when getting our quotes together!), we had accumulated a significant amount of debt. We had remortgaged as much as we could but the majority of the cost was put on credit cards and loans because that was all that was available to us.

Then started the years of robbing Peter to pay Paul....you know the ones, where you pay the credit cards on 1st July, freeing up Ј100 of the credit balance, and on 2nd July you use that Ј100 to do your grocery shop and put petrol in the car, leaving you both with no money in the current account, and maxed credit cards too.

We sold the house, because we hated it (or hated what it had become, ie a nightmare) and cleared the mortgage, but couldn't clear the other debt, and so we continued.

We rented for a year, before deciding 7 years ago to buy again. Of course, we had no deposit, so had to borrow yet more money to give us the deposit that we needed.

By then, on top of our mortgage of Ј175k, we had over Ј100k of unsecured debt, mainly on very high interest APRs.

Then in 2005, my Dad died suddenly - only 55, too young to die, in my opinion, and it devastated me.

I inherited some money, and paid it off the debt, leaving me with just (!) about Ј75k to pay, but giving me something invaluable, a desire to get on top of it and to hammer it down - I was determined to make sure that Dad's money was not wasted, after all, he had worked hard for it. Also, I was not going to get that sort of lump sum again, so if I didn't get sorted at that point, I would never get sorted.

The following year, I found MSE, and my journey really began. The ideas, the support, and just the relief of knowing that I was not on my own, meant that my own determination kicked in and slowly but surely the debt came down.

At the time of writing this diary, my non-mortgage debt is just over Ј9k, a far cry from just a few years ago.

But it hasn't been easy, and life still throws up curveballs - the biggest being that my husband left about 6 months ago, so since then I have had to manage purely on my own income, which is tighter than a tight thing in lycra which is a couple of sizes too small.

However, I have been reminded today that I am doing ok, I am getting there. Along the way, I am rediscovering other stuff - having stopped running after I did the London Marathon in 2009, I have got back into the habit. I have lost a couple of stones in weight and got down to my goal weight. My children are fit and healthy, and as happy as most teenagers with attitude are, and things could be a whole lot worse.

There is still a lot of stuff going on in the background that I will keep away from this diary, because it really only has anything to do with two people - me and him, and because I know that there have been occasions where members of his family have chosen to judge me based on what I have written here in the past.

So, the need to focus continues, the need to budget, to meal plan, to make 1lb of mince last for as many meals as possible......but also the need to remind myself that really, I am doing ok, and in the circumstances, that is absolutely fine!

Thank you, again, to everyone that has stuck by me so far, you will never know how much this has helped me in getting the debt down as much as I have done.

I hope you will stick around for the next chapter

Best answers:

• doing ok? doing brilliantly more like
• Happy shiney new diary
  Id love to stick around for the next instalment
  To me you are doing way better than just ok
• Thanks beanie and seaxwyn, you guys have been with me since day one, along with taxi and slowlyfading. Thank you very very much x
• You are doing fantastic and are amazing x
• Happy new diary. You are doing amazingly! Every day I read and am inspired, to keep going, by seeing how well you do. Thanks a million.
• And so another was born
  Wishing you debt busting love and laughter for the next installment!
• You're an absolute inspiriation to everyone on here, and for anyone new to these boards make sure you follow this one daily, it moves quickly as does Hypnos existing debt total
• You can name the next one 'wasn't I amazing!'
• Evening - congrats on the new diary Hypno - you are an inspiration to everyone - you should have a newspaper column really !!!!
  I have survived a shopping trip to Cambridge with DD - we both hate shopping with a passion but it was a necessity - couple of things to still get but hey ho!
  Have treated ourselves to a Sainsburys Indian Takeaway - cheaper than going to the local takeaway.
  Just need to do accounts (mmmm) - its really warm here and muggy and the chickens have decided to stop laying so I have had to buy eggs for the first time for ages.
  have a good weekend everyong
• Glad that you survived the shopping trip! Hopefully the last couple of bits will be easy to get.
  Enjoy your "takeaway" - I think the supermarket versions are quite good value, generally. I am having leftover risotto from yesterday and DD is currently peeling potatoes for her and DS to have bangers and mash
• I was just wondering when the next chapter would happen and here you are.
  As I said to you last night - You should be very proud of what you have achieved xxx
• Happy new diary, I'm still hanging on to your coat tails as normal!
  L
• Having followed your last two diaries in lurkdom I have to say I so admire what you have achieved and you have inspired me in so many ways so Thank You
• hi TDQ - do pop out from lurkdom!!
• Oh the next chapter has started .... Brilliant .... Hope I can keep up this time
• Oooooo new diary. me likey!
  And I agree with the others, you are doing brilliantly. end of.
  Love Buffy xx
• I will but at 53 posts in thee years you could hardly call me prolific!