Financial Stress being attacked head on

As well as lots of other stress in my life, I so can't believe:-

1. how much I have let my financial obligations get out of control.
2. what a mess they are.
3. how quickly they can get out of control
4. how much I've been spending over the past few years.

Well suffice to say its started catching up with me.

Against my better judgement I've tried to push it out of my mind and ignored them. Yes I do know better than that, and I've beaten myself up enough over this. Well last night I decided to do something about it and I'm pleased to say I'm on my way to sorting them out and restructuring my debts. All of my unsecured debts will now be consolidated into one loan and then I have my housing loan. I'm rather pleased to say that I will only have two major payments per fornight now and these will cover all of my debts.

I even spend some time doing a budget tonight and OMG is all I can say. Things are going to be tight for a while but that's the price I pay for being stupid with my money and not facing the problem. Oh well it could be worse, I could have lost my house and faced complete financial ruin. Financially things will be a bit tight for a few years but then all the unsecured debts will be repaid and cleared.

OMG I still can't believe how much I've relied on a credit card to live, well no more. The credit cards have been cut up and will be cancelled once the consolidation loan has repaid them. The only card I now have is a debit mastercard, so basically if I don't have the funds then I don't buy it.

Whilst I do hate to publically admit his mistake and huge problem, it is helping me to move forward. As Dr Phil keeps saying if you don't acknowledge it, you can not fix it. So here I am saying that I suck when it comes to my finances and up until now didn't want to acknowledge them, well that has now changed and things will get easier.

I also hate to write about this here as I'm still a little worried about what people will think about me. The positive thing out of this is by posting this here is showing myself how strong I can be by facing this problem and moving forward and not backward.

Bascially I have to stop trying to keep up with the Jones and showing people what they expect to see. Instead I need to show them who I really am and admit that due to my excess spending and living beyond my means for so long that I can survive.

Carlton
Take One Step at a time.