Come with me, through Respryn woods, along the River Fowey and share what I thought of today.

In 1997, after five abusive years, I picked up my two kids and left. I left a man with in excess of 2 million pounds worth of assets who then took me to court for custody of our daughter and kept me in and out of court for the next four years. Each time, he would turn up with a barrister and as I was not entitled to legal aid, turned up and defended myself, until, in desperation I too hired a barrister. Each ’bout’ cost us about £7,000 for a few hours or so in front of a judge. Every time we did this, with no money, all we could do was remortgage the house. Anyone with children would have done the same. In the end, we spent almost £25,000 just to stop him taking my daughter away from me with no reason but spite. So we got into the spiral of debt.
We initially bought the only house we could afford in a district of Plymouth called Keyham (btw - I left my ex with nothing but scars and our clothes), nice enough but not a safe area. We worked hard, renovated our home and moved to the only house we could afford in a good area of Stoke, another district in Plymouth. We replaced every downstairs floor joist, all the render and plaster, we built and extension, installed a kitchen and bathroom and carpeted the place. At the same time, I had two jobs and went to Exeter university to get my English degree. Like many modern students, my education also added to my debts.
I reflected on my life, my walk as I walked the dogs today. There are people who read this, who have known me for years, who will vouch for what I say. I haven’t run up debts on designer handbags, but clothes for work, shoes for my kids and keeping a roof over our head………..especially when we found dry rot and had to have a new one built! I don’t drive a Mercedes, I drive a Fiat. I bought a four bedroomed house as five adults moved into it in 2007 when we bought it! I renovated the entire of the house I now live in for five thousand pounds and as it had cat piss stained pink shag pile carpet and groovy wall paper and smelt like and old people’s home……..I had little choice but to do the place up.
We did holiday for four years in France and my exam marking money paid for it. I haven’t run up debts being extravagant; I just used to kid myself that I could afford to have the heating and lights on at the same time! Both my kids went to ‘good schools’ and every school trip, choir tour, £100 blazers!!! were bought with credit cards if I couldn’t afford them and the kids had to have them.
We then moved house, when I got a new job in Cornwall in the property boom of 2007, when house prices were at their peak and we ended up with a huge mortgage. Cornwall is one of the most expensive places to live in the UK and I had no option but to take out a 200K mortgage! Then prices of: food, fuel, utilities etc went sky high and suddenly we were financially worse off. After having a mortgage application for a smaller house refused, we decided to pay off what we owed and drastically change our life style. We have halved our debts since doing that but the privations are extreme. We could have taken a softer longer journey but I prefer the short term pain. My family and friends have supported me every step of this rocky journey as have people who read this blog, and for that am I extremely grateful.
Even my work place have embraced my lifestyle, allowing me to teach the kids ‘real’ cooking on a budget as a school activity. Colleagues who read my blog have taken up tutoring and a more frugal lifestyle to pay off their debts and people openly talk about the money they owe and how they want to get off the ‘commercial’ money go round and live differently. People I work with proudly show me their charity shop finds and how they made a few quid on Amazon and Ebay.
As I turned the corner in Respryn woods today and saw this sign, I looked into the distance and saw the castle and even though it looked so close, it was still up hill. My castle is now in sight, but it’s still up hill. I still have further to go than the distance I have travelled and the terrain gets rougher as I push myself harder. We are getting better at doing more with even less, better at earning more money and better at living ethically and with less impact on the planet. I genuinely appreciate the words of support that came with me on my walk today; I don’t do it alone.

About a year ago, when we were refurbishing the house, ready to sell it. I maxed out my credit card! I then realised I would have to take a much reduced price on my house if I wanted to sell it and we calculated that we had lost 40K in equity in 2 years! We soldiered on and sold the house and were then informed by Santander Bank, that our mortgage application was refused as we had too much personal borrowing. The mortgage refusal came in December and we approached Christmas knowing that our sale and purchase could not happen and we were in a very bad place financially. We sent off for a credit report and all told we owed almost 45K in personal loans, credit cards, car finance, home loans etc. We were always careful and were ambitious with our homes and climbed the property ladder to a four bedroomed detached…………that we could afford but only at a squeak.
My new year resolution was to pay off my debts! Today we owe 25K approx and have almost halved our debts since last Christmas. I looked every where for advice and took the advice of Suzy Orman and Dave Ramsay, who were giving American far more radical advice than the softly softly approach of Martin Lewis, who advises a budget first and then pay the max of your debts after that! Oh no! Oh boy! I decided to pay off the max of my debts and live off what ever was left. We’ve bought nothing! The lights have stayed off. The tumble drier has gone, the dishwasher has been retired and we’ve bought no new clothes and we don’t go out! Anywhere really!
I worked in the summer break, cleaning caravans. Dearly Beloved does any overtime available. I’ve worked as a one to one tutor, I’ve marked exams and we’ve sold anything and everything on e-bay and Amazon. Today I realised that I had been paid by AQA and paid off the last £1300 that I owed to Santander Bank, every penny and didn’t leave myself the price of a lipstick! I also paid off the £36 we owed to MBNA and that card has gone. Now all of Dearly Beloved’s credit cards are on 0% and now my snowball of £500 a month goes to paying off £5000 which I transferred to Virgin on 0% and that will be paid off by May 2011, in fact by May 2011, we will only owe money towards the car and ban loan and we will be able to snowball all of our money towards them. My estimation is that we will be debt free by midnight of 2011 and will start 2012 as new people!
I always feel totally elated when I clear another debt! Today I am on top of the world! even though I’ve got only £133 to see me to pay day (which I’ve learnt is more than ample!) and my big treat today was to visit friends and their little children! (who were so entertaining) I’ve also had confirmed some ‘home boarding’ work for the summer and my first dogs arrive next Saturday! All is very good here!

Some people look for investments; I spend my time judiciously looking for opportunities to repay debts. I will have cleared my credit card debts by July and then will take up Dearly Beloved’s credit cards and loans. I’m quite open about the money I owe and the lengths I will go to save money and pay back as much as I can as quickly as I can. I will be paid for exam marking in the beginning of August and I shall pay off two thirds of a small loan that DB has and then his payments will not simply be swallowed up by interest. I’m totally exhausted at the moment but I’m adrenalin driven. My next big frugal mission is to get rid of the dishwasher. I’m amazed by the amount of electricity it uses. I might hate washing up but I hate paying utility bills even more! Think of me on Monday when my 450 exam scripts arrive and I will do my own job and then hours of marking until the early hours to get it done! Every little helps.

We’ve had an extremely productive weekend. Firstly I procured a bed really cheaply and will now clear out my junk room and advertise for another lodger. I’m finding the extra £30 a week in cash to be really useful and means I can fill the car up with diesel or put some money aside. I managed to get all the bedding in a charity shop, including the duvet, which the lady in the Salvation Army shop said that she’d washed herself. Secondly we managed to transfer high interest credit card balances to 0% cards!
We set off today on our favourite ‘wild walk’. I inspect how the wild plums, crab apples, overhanging pears from people’s gardens are doing. I know where the best blackberries will be found and I keep an eye on all of this.
We went down through the woods and I filled my pockets with wild garlic. I wonder if it has garlic bulbs like cultivated garlic?
This wood is in the middle of Liskeard and it masks the sewerage works and pumping station for the entire town. It’s a wonderful piece of public space and provides some much needed shade and cool for my poor dogs who suffer in the heat.

Here’s Dearly Beloved looking all wistful and romantic……which he is!
Above is the pumping station. I love the effort the water board has gone to. I’m glad the highest water bills in the country is reaping some rewards for us.
I have to stop and stare on a regular basis. I love the blossom. I’ll wait a couple of days for the rest of the elder flower to blossom and go and gather some to make elder flower fritters.

I have digressed somewhat. We must have improved our credit ratings. We have both managed to secure sizable 0% balance transfers for our credit cards. I will pay off one over the next two months and then start hammering away at one of DB’s credit cards. Due to the 0% cards, we’ll pay off debts even sooner. I have even managed to secure a meeting with my mortgage provider, Santander to investigate a renegotiation of our mortgage deal and hopefully be able to sell and downsize. A smaller house would mean a shorter mortgage (in time) and I’ll be able to simplify my life altogether.

Just checked my bank balance. My payment has been made to Halifax. I now owe Halifax NOTHING! That’s my first debt gone! I have lots of others, but the feeling that one has gone is amazing! I then checked the standing order section of my online banking, cancelled the standing order and then doubled the payment to my other credit card! Enjoy the music xxxxx

I keep reading about people who have ‘No Spend days’. I have one spend day a month and then I have nothing left to spend. Today I bought two tops, for £2.50 each from BHF shop, six grow bags and two chilli plants. I almost bought a dress in one of the charity shops but they wanted £5 for it, which is really too much. My total spend came to £10.48 and I don’t have any money to buy anything else for the month! Today I have emptied my freezer, everything is defrosting and I will create meals for 7 days. It’s going to be a tough old month and I’m keeping some determination in reserve. I’m having to put a lot of money by this month because I have car tax, a water bill and new work clothes for the Autumn term to save for.

It may well only be a glimmer and a faint spot in the distance but I can see it. This month’s payment to one of my two credit cards is the last payment! I then snowball that debt else where. That now means I double the payment on my other credit card.

Since June of last year I have paid back £11,589 in debt repayments to Halifax, Abbey, Fiat finance, Lloyds personal loan and that does not include the £11,330 I paid towards my mortgage! After equating those scary figures, I worked out that the two of us: fed ourselves, clothed ourselves and ran the car on £130 a week, which is less than a retired couple who just live on a state pension! BUT WE DID IT AND CONTINUE TO DO IT!!!!!!!!!!

Since June last year I haven’t run up any more debts and every credit card we own was shredded. We have no spare cash but the fact that one credit card will go makes this all worth while and my other credit card will have a zero balance in two months time. Dave Ramsay, the American financial expert says “When you start knocking off the easier debts, you will start to see results and you will start to win in debt reduction.” It’s very true. I feel so good that I think I will frame the next zero balance credit card statement and remember the enjoyment I get when I look at it.

As I said, it is a long tunnel but I can now see the light in the distance.

I’m going to be candid as you never know who reads this. On my route to a simpler life; there comes a time (2012 to be precise) when I will move to a smaller house. I also want to simplify and de-stress my life work wise. I’m always on the look out for alternatives and today….I applied for a different kind of job. Today is a ‘blue sky thinking day’ where I imagine living in a two up, two down tiny cottage, with a wood burner, hardly any bills, a little garden full of veg and trips away camping instead of just struggling to keep a roof over my head. So…sshh! and this message will disappear in a day or so………