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Hello BFC! I was posting today in the newbie megathread, and I think a consolidated thread about my immense financial issues would help me be more accountable to my terrible spending habits and my goals moving forward. Thanks in advance to anyone who has 2 cents to throw in here. I have a large credit card debt, as well as a personal loan, and now that I've decided to finally stop living in denial about it, I feel very overwhelmed and honestly depressed about my situation. About 1/3 of this came from being financially taken by an ex. 1/3 of this comes from my lovely drug decisions I've made in the past, and 1/3 simply from living beyond my means for far too long. Accomplishments so far (remembering these keeps me from feeling 100% discouraged): - Kicked the abusive, money stealing ex to the curb! However, did not recover any money. Some lessons are expensive ones. - Kicked the ill advised and expensive drug habit! - Finally acknowledged I have a serious financial problem. Probably need therapy or some poo poo to address why I behave the way I do with money. Coming up next: - Quit smoking - Quit spending too much money on alcohol - Finally track my spending Okay, so lets get into the details. This part is copied from my megathread post: Debts: Credit Card #1: $8,500 something like 19% interest Credit Card #2: $6,085 0% interest until April Loan: $15,800 prime 2.7%+5.25% for 7.95%, monthly automatic payments of $533 on the 15th Total: $30,385 30 years old Income: ~$59,500/year Take home: $1,550, paid the 1st and the 15th so $3,100/month Household situation: cohabitating with my boyfriend. Finances not merged, but much sharing of expenses Assets: Chequing: $380 Savings: $100 RRSP: $14,000, contributed automatically from my paycheque before take home. Set Expenses: Rent (includes internet): $615 Cell phone: $95 Banking: $15 Charity: $15 Loan: $534 Hydro: I haven’t got a reasonable bill in my new house to base this off of. Should be $60. Netflix: $7.99 Credit Card 2 payments: $70. I’m currently doing minimum payments on this, as it’s 0% interest, until Credit Card 1 is paid off. Flexible expenses (edited from megathread post because my entertainment budget was still way too high): Credit Card 1 payment: as much as I can possibly afford each month. $1,000 goal Gas: usually $80 Groceries: $300 (is this too much?? Should I switch to rice and lentils and such?) Smoking: was $200 but instead I will quit! $0. Entertainment (previously Alcohol and Eating Out): $200? Maybe? What's good here? Regarding entertainment, here is a lovely thing I know about myself. If I try to restrict too much, I used to snap and drop an exorbitant amount of money on drugs and alcohol in a small period of time. 1-3 dinners or bar nights out a month goes a long way to mitigating that. I have $2,500 coming in in the next 1-2 months from my boyfriend which will go straight on Credit Card #1, so my personal balance on that one is closer to $6,000. Okay here is my plan as it stands: All funds not needed for bills, food, and my entertainment fund go to Credit Card 1. Should be $1,000 a month. Credit Card 2 at 0% gets minimum payments only right now. In about 7 months if I keep this up, I should have Credit Card 1 paid off. Credit Card 2 will no longer have 0% interest in April, but I can transfer that balance back on to Credit Card 1 using my bank's promotion and get 0% interest on it + balance transfer fees. Loan I've decided to ignore aside from making the monthly payments. Once my CCs have been sorted out, I can make a plan to increase payments on that, or keep making payments and try to get an emergency buffer in my chequing. Other ideas: Bankruptcy? Consumer proposals? Take a 17K severance, pay of my CCs and look for a new job? Voluntary Deposit scheme (a Quebec only option. I can get into the details if you guys think I can't get out of this on my own)? I will consider any and all advice! Goals: - Pay off high interest credit card ~7 months from now - Pay off 0% credit card ~ 13 months from now - Safety net. I work in a volatile industry (entertainment) and it's feasible I could lose my job at any time. - Track every transaction I make in YNAB. Post screenshots for accountability and possibly criticism Thanks again for listening to my ridiculousness, if you made it this far. Any advice, thoughts, feedback is greatly appreciated. I touched on this in the megathread, but being in the entertainment industry means almost all my friends and coworkers are in a similar boat, and regard these kind of problems as something to joke about. I really need to talk to people where it isn't normal or expected to have high debt and make bad decisions!
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Sep 17, 2015 20:06
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The grocery one was tricky. That's what I was spending when I lived alone for just me AND going out a lot to eat. It's expensive cooking for yourself, and I'm not a very good or creative cook. I will also admit my terrible habit of eating out after long hours at work and not finishing my food before it went bad. This is not longer an option for me. I haven't really had a solid month living with my boyfriend to see what groceries are. When we moved, we didn't have a fridge right away so we ate out for almost a month. I think it might be reasonable to budget $300 for both of us, making my share only $150. It's tough eating with him because he has an illness that restricts his food choices. I don't think I can quit drinking. I work long stressful hours, and it help me blow off a lot of steam and keep myself sane. However, I think I can cut back to either a) one bar night out a month or b) a couple purchases of at home beers or wine to enjoy over the month. It would be a serious cut back from before with several bar nights out a week on top of at home purchases. My insurance covers $200 smoking cessation for over the counter drugs, and that's on top of what the government gives for quitting. Any prescriptions would be quite cheap with my insurance. Last time I quit was for 4 months using a vape. It was relatively easy, so that's another option, I would just have to drop about $25/month on juice for it. I actually just spoke with my boyfriend and he's agreed to quit with me as support 
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Sep 17, 2015 21:08
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The "I don't think I can quit drinking" isn't something I think I can tackle right now. Quitting smoking, quitting the lifestyle I'm used to and an obscene amount of work issues popping up right now makes that seem insurmountable to me at the moment. I've not so much quit, but I've gone long periods of time with no desire to drink before. This is not one of those times. While ecig got me off smokes for 4 months, I never lost the addiction to nicotine, so I hopped back on the smoking train way too easily. My doctor told me if I ever wanted to quit to come see him, so I'll book an appointment and see what he suggests. In the meantime, I'm totally finishing off this pack because smoking is awesome, then I will not buy another. My close friend also wants to quit, so now I have 2 people to quit with! With groceries... I know I can cook simple meals, and my boyfriend (I'm gonna call him Bob because he will come up a lot in regards to budgeting and I feel stupid saying "my boyfriend" all the time) is a good cook who loves it. My problem is I need to stop the easy outs. Bag of chips here, a gatorade there. It all adds up.
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Sep 17, 2015 22:58
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r0ck0 posted:Does BFC stand for Bad Financial Choices? It absolutely should in my case! Nights out used to vary widely. One night could be $100 at the bar, another night might be $6 for one drink or $0 to just see my friends. I like the idea of setting an absolute for the month. If I have , say, $80 to spend a month I can go to the bar once, or stay at home on $20 a week. But not both. I could even go lower on drinking. I don't have to go out, but I can't give up having 1-2 beers after work, once a week or so.
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Sep 17, 2015 23:22
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pig slut lisa posted:e: I don't see anything in your spending summary about car insurance. What's the deal there? Can you give a little more detail about your transportation situation and needs? I drive Bob's car to work so I only pay for gas because he works from home. In exchange, I help cover part of his at home studio in my rent payment. It's $150 extra I pay towards that, but a bus pas would also be $150. So it's a wash and I save over an hour each direction to work not taking the bus. If he didn't have the studio, he would rent one about 20 mins away and need the car to commute. I know I sound like a complete addict regarding booze. Maybe I am, maybe I'm not, but for now I'm going to focus on keeping the cost down. I like beer, I don't like being drunk, so a couple in a day occasionally I think is reasonable. Also, Pigslut, thank you for the congrats
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Sep 18, 2015 00:02
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fruition posted:Have you considered going to see a therapist once a week? I think talking to someone who is 100% objective with their advice could be life changing for you and help give you tools to manage your stress, anxiety, and maladaptive thoughts and behaviors. I have thought about going to therapy for general coping tools. I have a tendency to be beat down when life throws too much at me, although until I started this thread I didn't equate poor spending habits to stress and anxiety. It makes sense though, I always feel a little better when I spend money, even if it's on something small and simple. Tricky thing with therapy is it's another expense to add, Sessions run about $80. I have it covered at 80% so out of pocked isn't too bad, but coverage caps out at $500 per year. Still, I might as well use those 7 or 8 sessions I have covered. I hold it together pretty well at work and socially, but I'm a bit of a anxious wreck sometimes. n8r posted:Instead of trying to figure out how much you will spend in each category of your life, you should consider setting aside a set amount of money that goes into paying debt every month, and live off the left over amount. Treat your debt like a bill that you cannot afford to miss, and pay it at the first of the month. This will automatically force you to make spending choices throughout the rest of the month. This is essentially what I'm trying to do. I have CC bill payments at $1080 and divided the rest up. Any additional expenses that come up will have to come from the rest, and not the $1080. Licence renewal pops up once a year? That gets paid and entertainment.gets a bit less that month. My big smoking triggers are actually driving in a car and eating. That said, I absolutely can't drink in any excessive amount and quit. That's how I ended up back on smoking last time, I went out for New Years and while drunk thought I should "totally buy a pack just for tonight."
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Sep 19, 2015 14:23
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McPhock posted:Try poking around on this blog: Thanks! This looks great, he had me hooked at "Your current middle-class life is an Exploding Volcano of Wastefulness" haha. I have doubled my salary since starting my current job, and I didn't even notice that my expenses were creeping up in tandem, since it happened so slow. Some of it is unavoidable - I lived in a house with 4 other people and paid pennies in rent back then.
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Sep 19, 2015 14:36
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n8r posted:Well outline your planned spending on the money you will have left over - that can be your budget. Then track said spending. I'd encourage cash envelopes as that works well for many people. The other thing to look into would be reducing your cell phone bill, of your fixed costs, that seems like the one that is a bit high. Cell phone could come down if I kill data. Cell phone plans in Canada are kind of lovely, plus my family is very far away so I have a long distance plan. One thing I was considering is getting a work phone. I would still need my phone, but I could cut the plan way back if I wasn't using it for data, and instead used my work phone for that. I was previously resisting because who wants to be reachable 24/7 with work. Giraffe posted:You seem to be coming at this with the right attitude. Between that and your track record of doing difficult but necessary poo poo, I think you're a great candidate to be a BFC success story. (There really aren't that many, so it's an elite group.) You put very concisely what I was trying to express. This is me to a T. When I'm too deprived, I get a very "gently caress it" attitude and ruin all my progress in a couple days. And the rationalization of overspending is a big issue for me. In the end, it's never a one time thing and that adds up. I'm a bit obsessed with banking and tracking spending. For some time now (a few months) everything I spent has been entered into my phone. I just need to keep myself focused on big picture and remember the little things add up. I'm pretty terrible with rationalizing purchases right after I get paid, and then I have to go a week and a half without any money for that category. Then I rationalize some more purchases in the category and go over. This thread came about because I came very close to losing my job. My department was killed, and most people were laid off. However, they wanted to keep me and they are instead moving me to a different department. But I had a wake up call that I would have been royally hosed if I lost my job. Rent, loan payments, credit card payment. I can get by fine day to day with a job, so I managed to avoid facing how bad all this is. Without a job, I have 0 safetly net. No family around and I don't speak the right language to get a new job here. Severance and EI wouldn't really help, because while I can live off that amount, I couldn't make my additional loan payments. On the bright side, every time I whip out my wallet I can remember that terror and remind myself that every dollar spent is a dollar that could help get me out of this predicament.
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Sep 19, 2015 17:22
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pig slut lisa posted:When you're starting to feel this way, please come in here so we can talk you off the ledge/yell at you/whatever Thanks I'll probably be in here posting progress long after anyone is still reading it. It's good for me to be accountable somehow, and helps me a lot with my goals.
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Sep 19, 2015 23:35
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Dogfish posted:Why not switch carriers? I'm with Koodo for my cell phone and pay ~$60 for unlimited minutes and 1 GB/month data. That's an expensive plan because I also use my phone for work; my spouse pays ~$40 for I think 500 minutes and 500 MB of data. All Koodo plans have free long distance and unlimited texting, including international texting. The smaller carriers like Koodo and Wind are generally pretty good and much, much cheaper than Rogers or Bell (and also don't have horrible customer service like Rogers does). I'm guessing from that fact that you refer to your power bill as "hydro" that you're in Ontario so you should have lots of options. Quebec, but I'm under contract for another year I think. I'll double check that, the Koodo plans sound great and I hate bell so much. I already have a few people for therapy that I thought seemed like a good fit through their profiles. I'll call this week, but I won't book a session until I've been paid. After all, I still need to cover the deductible and out of pocket expense. Things are tight until the end of the month. I didn't get into it in the OP but I covered some expenses above and beyond my half of the living situation (including rent) this month because my boyfriend's cheque is coming in late. He should get it in the next week and he'll b e sending a lot of money my way, but until then, after all my bills I have just enough money for groceries. My fridge broke over the weekend, and I lost a lot of food 
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Sep 21, 2015 14:32
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Thanks for the recommendation! I've read a bit about CBT and it would be helpful for me from what I can tell. I have a question for you guys. Should I be focused on paying down credit cards as much as possible, with all my un-budgeted money going towards it? Or should I put some of that money aside to a buffer category in case something unexpected comes up? I want to put all possible money on the credit cards, but if something comes up and I have no money aside to pay for it, I'm worried it would have to go on the credit card. And I really want to break the habit of using it for anything. To be clear, by unexpected I mean along the lines of car issues or something needing repair.
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Sep 22, 2015 15:35
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SiGmA_X posted:What's your estimated payoff time? I would say save up a grand ASAP and then attack the CC. I'd go with more than just 'unbudgeted' money. I'd budget more money to toss at the CC, and make those payments at the start of the month or every payday, depending. Estimated payoff time is about 12 or 13 months for my credit cards with my current budget (no emergency/buffer fund). While I'm paying those off, I will have also knocked almost 6K off my loan through the automated payments. I basically made my budget as small as possible to get the most amount possible on credit cards. As it stands, 50% of my income will be going to debt payment of some sort ($1000 to credit card, $535 to loan each month). What I have leftover is bills + $200 groceries + $200 entertainment. drat Bananas posted:I would keep a small chunk readily available for emergencies, e.g. "my car can't get me to work", "I had to go to the ER", "my credit card is getting declined for no reason and customer service is being useless" etc. I've heard conflicting advice on this. Some people think the emergency fund should come first, others say your CC debt *is* the emergency. I could get $1000 emergency fund going pretty quick at the expense of 1 month of paying down my CC debts. Actually, I will have a large sum coming my way in the next month or so (about $2500) and I could put $1K to emergency fund, and the rest on my CC. I originally budgeted for the entire amount to go on CC, so I would still have to add a month to my estimated pay off time frame.
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Sep 22, 2015 16:51
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Adiabatic posted:You've got a great outlook that is incredibly refreshing after reading a lot of BWM stories where people will just not accept that they need to change. I'm not going to lie, I'm loving terrified. Over the last few weeks, I've cried, been depressed, angry at myself, then cried some more. But now that I'm facing this, I can hardly comprehend how I managed to ignore this huge problem for so long. But now I have goals and a plan. While I wouldn't say I feel "good" I feel something positive, and I'm determined. Being out of credit card debt, while not being 100% out of debt, is still such an improvement and goal #1 that it's the life I'm thinking about now as something to work toward. And while 1 year of this sounds scary, I really only need to get through the next month. And then do it again. There are things I want later in life that I've been cheating myself out of, and the life I've been living is not worth it. I feel so after school special right now haha. I haven't spent any money aside from bills since opening the thread, but I look forward to some concrete updates on progress as it happens!
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Sep 22, 2015 18:00
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SiGmA_X posted:If I were you, I'd throw 1k up to 1 month of minimum payments + bills into an online savings account. Online savings is accessible within 3 business days but it's not as accessible as being attached to your checking account. Your call on 1k or 1mo, I'd look at/think about your past year of emergency expenses and make the decision based on that. I have a tangerine account that I can make 1-2 business day transactions into and out of. It's free, and while I have a debit card for it, I'm all set up to open a savings account with them. Good call!
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Sep 22, 2015 18:04
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I don't want to turn this into a "quitting smoking" thread, but I'm down to about 3 smokes a day from 20. Not perfect, but progress. I haven't spent any money on eating out, smokes or alcohol since starting the thread No pay down of debt either though, simply because I haven't got a paycheque.Thanks everyone for the support!!
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Sep 25, 2015 14:25
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I had a good weekend. I got $555 paid back to me on Friday morning. $500 went straight to my credit card (balance now $8100) and of the remaining $55 I spent about $15 on food. I'll be paying another $500 off with my paycheque this week. Yay! I also made a motivation graph where I can track my debt decreasing. Nevvy Z posted:Good food advice Also, crock pot season is here and I have some mean recipes that I never get sick of. Lots of cheap options and lower quality meat still tastes great when you cook it for ages haha. Angry Pie posted:Hello OP, I also am recovering from a financially abusive ex and a drug problem, and a lot of debt. 2 years ago I had $23k in consumer debt with nothing to show for it, but now it's down to below $8k and I am on schedule to be debt free by November of next year. I did this by using a non profit debt counseling program. I think they are Canada-wide, thought I don't see any Quebec offices (you said you were in Quebec right?). I did all my stuff with them over the phone so even if there is no local office to you I bet you could deal with one of the offices in Ontario. Or they could refer you to a similar program in Quebec. OK I always wondered about these organizations and whether or not they are scams. It's great to have a recommendation for one that is non profit! I actually spoke to a friend in the Credit Card industry, and he told me that I can just call and tell them I'm having troubles making my payments, and they will turn off interest for 3 months with no penalty. That's $400 saved that can go back to the debt. I'll give these guys a call first and see if they have any more advice! This might be a silly question but it's something I've been thinking about that your post reminded me of. Really... how important is credit? It was driven into my head to protect my credit at all costs when I was younger, and so my rating is great. Never missed a bill or payment, my only hit is that my debt to available credit ratio is high. There are these options like what Angry Pie outlined above, which is very similar to the Quebec Voluntary Deposit program, consumer proposals, etc etc. I also have friends who ended up in collections but in the end paid way less of their debt after negotiating with the creditors, which kind of makes me jealous. All of these hit your credit rating, but it's not like I'm buying a house or a car anytime soon. Is it worth it to protect my rating? As a side note, it goes to show how used to ignoring this problem I am - I saw your $23K figure and cringed and thought "holy poo poo that's rough" and then remembered mine is much higher... McPhock posted:I mentioned this blog earlier, but this specific post might be of interest to you: Ha, this was the first article I picked out and read on the site! It really spoke to me and my perspective on things. Thanks for the advice! My cell phone bill is killing me, but I'm on contract for another year. But why not call them and see. I actually don't have many bills, just cell, netflix and hydro. Cell I think is the only one with wiggle room.
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Sep 28, 2015 16:36
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Devian666 posted:If they can stop the interest for 3 months that would be a big help in your situation. With your current credit card balance on the interest bearing card you are probably down to $130 per month of interest. While that's not great you are in a good position to start demolishing the balance on that card as a payment of $500 per month should reduce the monthly interest by about $6 per month initially. I'm actually going to pay $1000/month to my credit cards, plus a lump $2000 payment on top of that in the next couple months. So by the end of the year, I'll have paid $5000 to bring me to a $3100 balance on the high interest credit card, plus interest accumulated during those months. $4000 if I do a $1K emergency fund. I'll still have about just under $6000 on the 0% credit card since I'm only making minimum payments for now. Tackling these cards one at a time also allows me to hit some shorter term goals, which I've learned about myself is super helpful to my motivation. Once my credit cards are gone, I just have the rest of my loan (which I'm making $530 payments each month in addition to the above), but I'll also have the extra $1000 a month I won't be using for CC payments that can go toward it. Also regarding changing my habits, I've take my credit card out of my wallet and it lives in a box in a closet with my passport, SIN etc. My debit card stays at home unless I have plans for a budget approved expense that day. I'm making a lunch every day for work and I've ate dinner at home every night except one or 2 times where my boyfriend wanted to get a quick bite out and he paid. I hope it's okay that I blather on about every financial thought that enters my head here, but I'm finding it super helpful. I don't have any real budget related updates because I haven't been paid since starting the thread. edit: I'm looking forward to creating a "what the hell do I do with all this disposable income" thread once I'm out of debt
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Sep 29, 2015 14:38
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Double post, sorry!
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Sep 29, 2015 14:42
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Adiabatic posted:What does the 0% interest card jump up to once you hit April? Also 19.99% I believe. I'll try to move the balance to a different 0% card when that happens. Quitting smoking... I haven't bought a pack, but I'm averaging 2 a day. Much better than the 20 a day before, but not perfect.
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Sep 29, 2015 20:01
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Pay day!! This is for the first half of the month. Paid a bunch of things this morning: - $500 to my Visa - $615 to rent - $90 to cell Remainder budgeted out (in YNAB) - $100 to groceries - $40 to gas - $100 to entertainment - $15 to bank fees $65 left over. I'm going to hold off on budgeting it or putting it toward the CCs because I might buy vape juice to help with quitting. Debt Status - Visa: $7600 owed (it was $9000 right before I started this thread! Not bad!) - MasterCard and Loan remain the same, as they are paid on the 15th. The change in lifestyle is hard mainly because I keep thinking "I have another year of this" but then I remind myself it's not going to be this hard for the whole year. I'm in an adjustment period and soon spending this little will just feel normal. I hope I just realized I was excited for pay day so I could put money on my CC, not so I could spend a bunch of money. Progress! nefarious napkin fucked around with this message at 14:55 on Sep 30, 2015 |
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Sep 30, 2015 14:52
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Dwight Eisenhower posted:GREAT JOB! Thanks!! It's also nice that behind the scenes of all this, my assets are growing too. About $450 is going into my RRSPs each month deducted from my paycheques before I get them. I debated turning it off for more money to go on my CCs, but ultimately decided it's best to keep this up and find other ways to cut back. I had my eye on a $400 dining room set that I actually tried to buy a month or 2 ago but it was declined due to an address mismatch on my CC. Yesterday I found a great set on kijiji for $80 and I'm picking it up after work. My boyfriend is paying since I got the last thing for the house. No more eating off my lap on the couch! This will make cooking more enjoyable.
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Sep 30, 2015 17:46
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Saint Fu posted:I don't think this was mentioned before, but be careful with those 0% interest cards. Sometimes if they aren't paid in full before the introductory rate ends, they'll charge you for all of the interest you would have accumulated during the introductory period. Might not be the case with yours but worth double checking. I don't think this is the case for mine. The legal disclosure says: The Promotional Rate will increase following the Promotional Rate expiry or if you are late making any Minimum Payment, and any remaining balances will become subject to the applicable Standard Rate. So I think only what's left on the card will get charged the standard rate from that point forward. I'm not going to keep the balance on that card regardless - if I don't find another 0% card to put it on, I'll try to put it back on my Visa. It has a similar interest rate, but it's affiliated with my bank and I just trust them more. This card has all sorts of weird loopholes too... cash advances are 25%, rate increases by 5% if you are late on more than one payment, and the fees are crazy (over credit limit, returned payments, etc).
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Sep 30, 2015 17:53
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Oh man, I have no idea how I missed my minimum payment on my 0% card in September (it was right when I opened this thread!) but I did. Ended up paying it today, 10 days late, but according to the promo T&C: "The Promotional Rate will increase following the Promotional Rate expiry or if you are late making any Minimum Payment, and any remaining balances will become subject to the applicable Standard Rate." Hasn't gone up yet, but probably just a matter of time. Is there any point to calling CS to see if they can help, or will that just draw attention to it? It's my understanding with this bank is they will take away the 0% as soon as they have the slightest reason to. I'm so annoyed with myself.
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Oct 17, 2015 16:18
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