2020, the year i will turn 30 years old and yet, i still spend and manage my finances like a teenager!
2019 has been a real eye opener for me. I had spent many, MANY years ignoring all my debts that i had built up from a redundancy and then while i was on maternity leave meaning i had a reduced income. Catalogues, credit cards, hire purchase... i could no longer keep up with the payments.
My maternity leave in 2016, despite trying my hardest to make some form of payment and communicating with the companies, explaining to them i didn't know when i would next receive a payment, my first maternity allowance payment didn't hit my bank account for almost 8 weeks after i had finished work and being the financial mess i am, i obviously didn't have any savings to cover this period of time and my partner at the time wasn't in a position to help pay for things after all the household expenses had been covered. July 2016, i received my first CCJ against me. I had tried so hard to communicate with the companies, explaining my situation (i vividly remember arguing with the gentleman on the phone as he insisted i MUST know when i was going to receive a payment, i asked him if he would like to phone the government MA department and find out for me!) at that point i gave up.
I tried so hard and for what? Nothing. This quickly followed by two more CCJ's in 2016. It seemed like once one company had got a CCJ approved, the rest followed.
I then needed to find a way to pay towards the CCJ's every month, i wasn't clued up at this point and thought the £50 a month they stated i had to pay was set in stone and there was nothing i could do about it. We were a low income family, i was still on maternity leave, the only way i could manage to live and pay these court fees was to take more credit. It's a vicious circle and i don't recommend it to anyone.
Roll forward to early 2019, again everything spiralled out of control, after a change in circumstances. I could no longer pay towards my CCJ (of which, at this point there was 2 more - making a total of 5), i was getting bailiff letters, more debt letters and, where i didn't really care in the past, this time it was different. It affected my mental health, my anxiety was through the roof with every knock on the door, every phone call, every time the post man came to the door. i couldn't cope with it no more.
I finally decided to tackle my debt once and for all! Having spoke to Stepchange about all my options, i was recommended a Debt Relief Order or DRO. I spent weeks debating whether to go through with it, it's not something to take lightly and in many ways is similar to being made bankrupt. But, considering i'm unable to even get finance for car insurance at this point, it's not something that will affect my credit rating, in fact, it will probably be better than it's been in many years.
All of this has made me finally realise that i need to grow up and start to take control of my finances, this blog is going to be all about my journey as i learn how to budget, manage my money and stop spending money just for the sake of it.
It's strange to think that in a little over a years time (i'm still waiting for my DRO application to be approved) i will be debt free and able to start to slowly rebuild my credit rating as the long term goal would be able to buy a home. I don't think i will ever touch catalogues or credit cards again, but it would be nice to be able to insure my own car again or have my own phone contract.
This is obviously a very cut down version of my story, but I'm looking forward to sharing this journey with you all. In my next post i will discuss my goals for this year and what i hope to learn and achieve.
