I will write here more often…I will write here more often…

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Oh gosh…when I signed up for this…I was planning on pouring out my financial sorrows to the world at least five times a week…Well , so far it’s been like…three times in two years – yay me! This sums up literally everything…

I’ve recently realised that I should have been debt free like six months ago…well not me but the perfect version of me. Is it just me, or do you also do this? So, I do have this perfect version of me in my mind. She’s been with me since I was a child, Beyonce has Sasha Fierce (I’m already sorry for this metaphor) and I have this perfect Hanna (name changed).

So the perfect Hanna paid off her debt ages ago, she’s got more than 100,000.00 followers on social media (Facebook and Insta combined or separate – I’m not picky). This hipstery but influential publishing house has reached out to her with their offer to turn her blog into a book. She lost three stones and she looks hot. She recently started invisible braces and because of this she got super defined cheek bones – like in a week.

The perfect Hanna is not insecure about anything in the world…she’s killing it at work. She’s travelling the world… she’s in a happy relationship. Hanna quit drinking obnoxious amounts of coffee and doesn’t smoke cigarettes anymore…She is earning extra money from ads on social media and will appear in a segment on some morning TV show…

Well… the real me…now… hmmm…I started watching Will&Grace – somehow I’ve never seen it before and it’s quite hilarious (season 2 onwards). I’ve paid off quite a bit of my debt…I lost a stone and apparently I’m still losing some weight every now and again…

I’m in the process of finally applying for British citizenship, I have been dating – some of the date were hilarious ….some disastrous. But I actually met a nice guy. I’m doing well at work and me from three years ago, would be shocked to see what I’m dealing with now…

I don’t have over 100,000.00 followers on social media..and I am not scheduled to be interviewed on a breakfast show…

Oh who cares…the perfect me doesn’t exist but I am getting close…

oh…it’s been a while

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It’s been a while…but it’s good to be back. I’ve just paid off my second credit card so so far my debts are:

£500 Halifax credit card 

£1000 Santander credit card 

£950 Santander credit card

£1720 Capital One

£2250 Barclaycard

£5450 Barclaycard (yep – I took that one to pay off the above ones :))

£3600 the most stupid one –

So… £13970

Good, bad..scary?

 

My friend called debt

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It’s been quite a while since my last post.

According to my plan I should’ve paid my first credit card by now.  The D (debt) day was
23 October 2016. I got excited about this date, I changed my password at work into I’m going to pay off my Halifax card on 23 October 2016 and I would remind myself of my amazing plan probably 100 times a day.

I was happy and excited and I did all this apart from one thing…paying my damn credit card. I did pay minimum payments and only used it once £20. The balance remained about £450 over these last few months. But that was ok, in my mind I was paying my card off on 23 October.

Then the D day came and I realised that although I could technically put big chunk of my salary into it, I was scared to do so. Apart from planning and “budgeting” in my head, nothing much happened. Pretty much – NOTHING happened.  And then it hit me, I realised that I’m emotionally attached to my debt. It’s been like that toxic friend that each of us probably dealt with once in their life. Although, I didn’t like him/her very much, I could always rely on them. Whenever I was too lazy to go out or start a new venture, I could always blame my “friend” for not doing it. It would go like this:

“I’m too broke to go out”

“I’m too broke to start this course”

“I’m too broke to travel”

“I’m too broke to start dating”

“I’m too broke to change my job”

Sounds familiar? My debt became my safety blanket. I started to use my debtscuses to shield myself from anything that could make me a better person, anything that I could fail in or simplu get hurt. For years now, I would always make plans, and although everything was very doable on paper – it was just safer when nothing ever happened.

Now, instead of  my big plans, I’m actually paying money into my credit card on a regular basis. Every 3-4 days I transfer £5 or £10. I celebrate each payment and I’m getting used to lower balance. It will be gone soon.

21 days of painful truth

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As you may have noticed by now, I’m a girl who woke up one day and realised that she’s in deep s***load of debt.

Three weeks ago, a week after my payday and a morning after a night out, I woke up with a weird moral hungover (let me spare you the details here). Well, let say that it could’ve been a facebook picture of “sort of an ex” standing in front of his new property that him and his new girlfriend (who is gorgeous by the way) had just purchased . I wasn’t only hungover, hungry for food but also HANGRY for change. I sat on my bed, cried for about 20 seconds and started thinking what to do with my life.

I went into my online banking to check how much the last night cost me (apart from my dignity) and I was surprised that it was only £50. My smirk of achievement quickly disappeared as I’ve noticed that in about a week prior to this “frugal” night out, I’ve wasted around £300 and have nothing to show for it. My balance was as low as my self-esteem and there were 27 days till payday.

The survival instinct kicked in, I decided to do something about it….then I cried for another 20 or 30 seconds. In normal circumstances the crying would last longer, maybe because of the dehydration or overall realisation of how pathetic I was, I run out of tears pretty quickly.

The first step was to take control of my finances. I’ve added my debt (you can see what it is in my previous post). I also calculated how much I needed for my bills and other direct debits. With limited budget and 27 days till payday I had literally no room for mistakes. Whatever was left was the money to survive on.

I didn’t want to be too ambitious at the beginning, I needed to survive till payday so as a first step, I decided to use cash only for the next 27 days. My plan was to survive by withdrawing £10 a day. So I did and I was good at it…so good that in the week two I started to withdraw £10 in the morning and then another £10 in the afternoon. But I was still happy – “I’m winning, I’m only using cash – no more credit cards” – I would say to myself going through £20 a day.

Weeks went by and I reached 21 days of cash only fun. With a glass of my “over the budget” cheap wine, old calculator and my mobile banking app, I started adding my £10 withdrawals…what I found was that in 21 days of my £10 a day budget, I’ve spent £390.00.

There were no tears I must assure you, I had a brilliant thought instead. I was curious to find out what was my spending over the same period (21 days) last month…and a month before…and a month before that. It took me more than an hour and a more than a glass of cheap rose to find out that:

  • in July 2016 I wasted £751.28 (£622.00 using my debit card , £36.86 and £92.42 in credit cards)
  • in June 2016 I wasted £712.95 (with my debit card only)
  • in May 2016 I wasted £533.99 (£484.72 using my debit card, £5.45 and £43.82 in credit cards)
  • in April 2016 I wasted £443.67 (£381.32 using my debit card, £3.02 and £59.33 using credit cards)
  • in March 2016 I wasted £735.92 (£687.00 using my debit card and £48.92 using credit cards)

Just to clarify, my monthly spending sample consisted of 21 days only – the same time of the month each month. I also didn’t buy anything special during these months (no shoes, clothes etc.). I didn’t include my bills and other direct debits – just so called “disposable” income.

Although, I went over my budget…significantly, I’ve done so well. Using cash really works. It’s early days but I feel I’m in control – yaaay me!!!

What do you think?

Broke but not broken

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47-days

So as you may know, I have a plan. I may be broke but nor broken. My first goal is to pay off my Halifax credit card by 23 October 2016. It’s slightly less than 47 days now but heyy.

Since 29 August 2016, I’ve been living on a budget and I’ve only been using cash. My daily “allowance” is £10. This is only temporary as I really want to see the results of my budgeting experiment fast.

The aim is to learn how to take control of my spending. I’ve been using credit and debit cards only for years and never really remember how much I’ve spent by the end of the day or week. Well I would always have this dramatic realisation – IM SOOOO BROOKEEE  a week or so before payday or before I had to pay my rent…not great.

I’ve set money aside for all my bills and direct debits. If I carry on with £10 a pay I should have some money left by the end of the month. I’ll be updating you on the progress.

What do you think about this?

 

 

time to confess my financial mess

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So this is a “little” breakdown of my financial mess. All my cards are nearly maxed out so just to make it easier I’ve rounded up what I currently owe on them:

Halifax – £500

Santander 1- £1000

Santander 2 – £1000

Barclaycard 1 – £2500

Barclaycard 2 – £5500

Capital One – £1800

Apart from the credit cards, I’ve got an overdraft which I’m always fully in each month.

Overdraft – £2000

So the Internet says that the best way is to start with paying off the smallest debt first so you can get a boost and stay motivated to pay off other cards. In my case it will be Halifax. I may be overambitious here, but I want to pay off this card by 23 October 2016 – that’s 49 days away…

 

one girl, 16 months and £14,300

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Exactly a week ago I decided to stop debting myself and become free…debt free.

I’m 30, single and apart from a few extra pounds in weight, I’ve been also carrying a heavy balance of £14,300 in credit cards.

It happened over a few years (9 exactly) and it was mostly survival/going out/cheering me up…oh he doesn’t like me kind of debt…

I sat down, added everything up and realised that it’s not £8,000 or £9,000 as I previously conveniently assuemed. £14,300 is my magic number.

I want to be debt free on 1 January 2018.

What’s your magic number?