Getting Debt Off My Back

The past two years have been one of the hardest periods as far as my finances go. For five years I had a job where I was bringing home between $6000 - $8000/per month working in the Alberta oilfields. Then 2015 happened and oil prices plummeted to record lows and hundreds of workers were laid off. Two years later many are still unemployed in their craft, for me it was running heavy equipment, and I am now working for less than quarter than what I was bringing in before. In order for me to even think of getting back into civil construction I would need to upgrade and get certain tickets that have expired and the cost of getting those tickets would be around a thousand dollars - money I just don't have, at this time.

I pretty much ended up losing just about everything except, thank God, my home. I lost my pick-up truck and my good credit rating, which is unfortunate. I finally admitted I needed help a couple of months ago and got in touch with Debt Relief Canada, who helped me come up with a consumer proposal so I wouldn't lose my home. The lady I dealt with was great; she was compassionate to my situation and did not judge me or make me feel incompetent. To my relief, my proposal was accepted by the majority of my debtors, which ultimately cleared me from about 80% of my debt. I paid an initial fee of $600.00 for the program and my proposal payments are $200.00/mth for 60 months - no interest.

I would highly recommend to anyone who may be in a financial bind to at least check into the program to see if it is right for you. I believe the only qualification one must have, is that their debt load is higher than $10,000.

One of the other things I did to save myself a whole lot of money was to quit smoking. It is a very hard thing to do and I am still fighting but overall for the past 2 months I have had less than 5 smokes and all of them have been after the 2 month mark.  I quit on July3/2017 and had no puffs until Sept 4/2017. Yes, I am still kicking myself in the butt for even having those three. But it is just a stumble - not a fall. I enjoyed putting away the money I have saved to blow it by becoming a pack a day smoker again. I will not let that happen as I simply cannot afford it - either health-wise or financially. Besides, as of today I have saved approximately $700.00. A nice chunk of change.

It wasn't easy to admit I needed help but I am very glad I put pride aside and asked for some. My stress level has been reduced by an immeasurable amount and if truth be told I think it takes more strength to get help, than it is to ignore the problem, and the phone calls, hoping it will go all go away - it won't, by the way.


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Cheers, Sue!