The Plan

Ok. So I'm in a pickle what do I do about it?

Here is my plan.

1) Continue to follow the payment plan established for me by the Citizen's Advice Bureau debt team.

2) Stick to a tight budget for once but ensure that I have some funds remaining for repayment.

3) Buy only what is extremely necessary for one month and review the situation at the end of the period.

4) Collect spare change, after buying a necessary object and use to pay off debt. This is the looking after the pennies part of the plan.

5) Blog my financial journey for a month initially.


6) Sell unwanted items on Ebay to make a bit of money.

7) Use the facility on Blogger to make money from my blog.

Realisation

Realisation hit me. I am 14 thousand pounds in debt and I am living off the near minimum income for a single person in their late thirties.

I did a calculation on a money programme that even if i was to increase my payments to 11 times more than I pay at the minute to my debtors I would only be free of debt by 2107. This simply isn't good enough. I feel a sense of resposnsibility to pay back what I owe and start living in the red again.

How I got to this position is relatively unimportant but I will outline it briefly to you. Under the direction of my then husband I remortgage my house, took out a large loan and ran up an overdraft all in my name. Technically the debt should be halved but the chances of me getting money from my ex are negligible. I have learned from this huge and costly mistake. In addition I lost my job in 2008 due to illhealth and my house was repossessed, costing me an additional 7,000 which I didn't have. I am one of those statistics you read about in the paper. I'm not bitter I just want to do something to improve my situation so I don't have the cloud of debt over my head. Why don't you follow me on my journey?