Introduction....how I got into debt....

Well I guess it all started when I was old enough to start shopping and drinking, not both at the same time of course, I'd basically end up blowing all my wages on going out and clothes to go out in within a week of being paid.

When I was 18 I got offered my first credit card when I signed up to some stupid bank scheme that was *supposed* to save me money (ha! how naive was i?) anyway within a few months I was getting pretty close to my limit.

When I turned nineteen I took on a second job at a 'trendy' (I hate that word) bar, the uniform was pretty much 'wear what you want', except each night there was a colour scheme, so practically every week I'd buy something new to fit in with that nights colour (of course I didn't want to wear the same outfit twice) and all the money I earnt would be spent going out after I'd finished work and on my nights off with all my cool new friends.

I then moved in with my ex boyfriend who was even worse with money than me and my debt increased, by the time I'd moved back home after we split up (which caused a few major shopping sprees and many many drinking sessions) I was in a fair bit of trouble, but I didn't let that bother me and carried on racking up the credit card bills and even took out a loan to re-pay the credit cards, but then just ran them back up again.

Anyway fast forward to early this year and I was about £10,000 in debt then in early March disaster struck, I lost my job, meaning I was unable to keep up with the ridiculously high re-payments on my credit cards, utility bills and pretty much everything else (even library fees!!). So having nearly been cut off, taken to court and threatened with bankrupcy i'm now removing my head from the sand and taking action.

I've recently found a temporary secretarial job and I also work in a chinese restaurant for extra pennies (and free chinese food), so I'm now going to tell you all about my journey to debt freedom, in the hope that it will inspire me and maybe others that read this. x