Hello everyone.
So about a year ago I made a post basically whining and saying woe is me and not taking responsibility for a lot of my debt.
For my context, my family has stolen a lot of money from me in the past and ran bills up in my name that went into collections and I was paying way too much money to live basically, I got a lot of tough love from you guys and since I'm in a much better place now I wanted to give an update to maybe help others see that even if you're in a bad situation and you have no idea how to fix it, I promise you there is a way.
So this time last year I had a car I couldn't afford, was paying 500 bucks a month for 1 bedroom in a 4 bedroom apartment plus utilities, 21,000 in student loans, 15,000 in credit card debt, I was paying 160 bucks a month for mine and my mother's phones, and I was absolutely miserable. I thought there was no way out, i was going to have to take out more loans to help me get out of the situation and then try and pay it off later.
Well thank goodness I didn't take out any more loans. I kept talking to my boss and proving myself, earned a few raises along the way and am now a manager as well as serving once or twice a week. I initially planned on selling my car, but instead I was able to get a lower interest rate and now that car is almost completely paid off. I was able to finally cut my mother off the phone bill(after the company gave me the run around for weeks) and dropped the bill to 40. I have paid off 3 of my 4 credit cards as of right now, and as soon as the last one is paid off (only 300 bucks left) I will be tackling my student loans. And now I'm in a great house with my boyfriend and we pay much less for rent and don't have to worry about utilities.
The first thing I have to say is what works for others, may not work for you, and that's 100% okay. I was so overwhelmed when I saw all the different ways people budget and the plans that people use to payoff debt. I was so overwhelmed that I didn't know where to start. And I was super confused on how to handle it and was getting frustrated because I thought I was doing it wrong.
The first step that you have to do is put everything on paper. Your bills, your variable expenses, your debt, everything. Then figure out what budget process works for you, if that takes a couple tries, don't get discouraged.
What finally worked for me was a paycheck by paycheck budget. Specifically I use the workbook and process that kumiko love from TheBudgetMom created.
If you're in the situation I was in first step is to figure out where you could cut expenses. Next is get a little bit of a savings fund, and then throw every extra penny you have towards getting your debt paid down.
Basically the point I want to get across is you can do it. I never expected to be in this much better of a situation just a year later but as long as you put the effort in, you can do it.
And thank you for all those who kicked me in the butt a year ago. I wasn't really ready to hear it at that point but it started me in the right direction. Then once I saw everything written out on paper, it really pushed me and motivated me. So thank you all again and hopefully this helps those of you who are struggling.
Submitted October 14, 2019 at 10:32PM by NinjaCoffee https://ift.tt/32jLSGI
