It has been a long time – particularly in blogland – since my last post. To the small but dedicated readership I had built up in the couple of months I was posting in the beginning, I offer my humble apologies for my abrupt disappearance. In mitigation, I had a lot going on in my life, and there just wasn’t enough mental powe left to blog as well.

But now things are coming back to a sense of normality, and I am extremely pleased to be able to share this with you all.

My job is safe

At least, as safe as it can be in the current economic climate. I am not ashamed to have made the preparations I did, as I think they provided an amazing insight into how a financial disaster can be handled, even when it seems hopeless to even try. I’ve even had a small pay rise since my last post, courtesy of a 3 year pay deal agreed before the credit crunch hit.

I am debt free*

On the 19th November 2009, I sent in the last debt payments to my remaining two creditors. £7,858.63 to Barclays Bank for the consolidation loan I had taken out to combine the debts left to me by my ex-wife, and a whopping 11p to my credit card provider BarclayCard.

This settled the loan 2 years early, and cost me £80 to pay it off, than if I had just let it run. But it was worth it.

*I am now using the credit card again, but sensibly. It is paid off in full every month, and as it is a cashback credit card, I now put all my spending on it. That way I technically get a 1% discount on everything I buy! I have no debt that I cannot repay instantly if required with cash savings.

I am divorced*

The judge stamped my Decree Nisi and the Financial Consent Order I applied for at the beginning of January 2010. This means that I’m all but divorced now. The Decree Absolute (the final part of the divorce procedure in the UK) was due to be signed by the judge last week. This will hopefully bring to a close a very bitter and expensive part of my life.

*I am waiting for my solicitor to forward the Absolute to me. Until I have it in my hand, I won’t actually believe it is over! I still need to pay my solicitor for his work, and the bill should be arriving some time this month. I can’t say I’m particularly looking forward to it.

I have found new love

It’s funny how life works. I was on a residential training course for 16 alternate weekends as part of my profession. After 3 or 4 weekends, I was finding myself drawn to a particular girl who was also on the course. We got on so well, liked the same things, laughed at the same things and loved spending time together when we had finished for the day.

Towards the end of the course we acknowledged that we were ‘in a relationship’ (thank you Facebook for making the lines so clear cut!), and we’ve been spending a lot of time with each other ever since. Each of us has done the ‘meet the parents and family’, We’re going on holiday together in July, and we are looking for places to move into together eventually. Although she still lives at home with her mother, her mother is happy for me to stay, and so I have done just that countless times since January.

Some people were concerned the age gap would be our undoing (I’m 26, she’s 19), but there is no sign of it being an issue, and long may that continue.

I have savings

Being single is considerably cheaper. Being in a new relationship has put pressure on my preset targets for 2010/11, but can you put a price on happiness? I don’t think you can. I am saving at a minimum 50% of my income each month still, and sometimes way in excess of that, but doing things as a couple (dinners out, clothes shopping etc) isn’t something I’d budgeted for when I originally wrote my plan!

All said though, I’d rather be happy than rich. I am debt free, I am all but divorced, my life plan will happen (just a few months delayed thanks to extra expenditure), I am blogging again, and I am 110% in love with someone very, very special.

Life doesn’t get much better than that. I love you Catherine.

• My Final Credit Card Payment Coming Due
• The Credit Crunch Has Positives
• Patience is a Virtue
• MBNA Launch Best Credit Card Balance Transfer Deal Ever
• A Fundamental Question

Folks. I apologise for the lack of posts lately. Suffice to say I have been having a war with TalkTalk (my ISP) the last few weeks. They refused to believe I didn’t have access, and only finally resolved the situation this morning.

Dreadful dreadful service… but you get what you pay for. *ahem*.

Normal service will resume shortly.

• 7 Reasons My Friend is Poor
• American Banking v. English Banking
• My Financial Meltdown: Part 4
• Notice of Disassociation
• Catching A Perception Shift

One of the more common themes among personal finance bloggers, is most of us have been or currently are, working our way out of debt. Some of us are nearly there (like myself), some are a little further away but doing equally as well, and some are still dreaming about the Debt Free Day.

The commonality between us all, regardless of race, colour, country or method, is the desire to do it, and the desire to blog about it. And if we’re honest, the running cost of a blog done properly, isn’t all that cheap. Especially for those on a real tight budget.

So I was thinking the other night what I could do about it. I rent a whole server, technology is one of my weaknesses and I love not having to trust any other monkey to do what I can do myself. But this also gives me flexibility, and more CPU cycles than I need for just my few  sites and blogs.

So what’s the deal?

I am offering to provide the web space to host a personal finance blogger with a negative net worth. When you escape from your debt, then we shall rejoice – but you are still welcome to remain. The only real ask is that it’s used to host WordPress and your Personal Finance blog. The technical nitty gritty: Up to 1gb of disk space, 1 MySQL database, ssh/scp access (sorry, no ftp), DNS if you can’t find it for free elsewhere, and I’ll set up Google Apps for you if you need email.

Selection Criteria

Leave a comment with your blog URL, and I’ll come have a read. The story and background and current needs that touch me the most, shall be declared the winner. I’ll leave the contest open for a while, so if you know of bloggers who might benefit from this, get them to drop in and say Hi.

Why Am I Doing This?

Sure, I know you can get hosting for like a dollar a month, but is it good hosting? Sometimes, that dollar might be important and better spent elsewhere. You cannot beat free, after all. I believe in helping others, and that is sometimes done in unusual ways.

I might get no responses to this – or I might be surprisingly overwhelmed – but if I didn’t offer it out there, then I might never know how much proper hosting for a hobby they can’t really afford, really means.

• A Fundamental Question
• 7 Reasons My Friend is Poor
• Dig Yourself Out of Debt: Avalanches and Snowflakes
• My Financial Meltdown: Part 4
• Dig Yourself Out of Debt: Spend Less Than You Earn

The first Sunday of every new month I’ll round up 6 of the best posts from the previous month here at Five Pence Piece. My little world only launched on August 22, 2009 so for this particular post I’m going to include August as well. Come the next time, I’ll concentrate strictly on the month before, promise!

My choices will always be based on whether they tell an interesting story, are timelessly useful, generated a lot of comments or retweets, or just because I had fun writing them. It’s a grab bag of what I (and hopefully others) think was good time spent reading.

1. My Financial Meltdown

This is a mini-series, spread over 4 posts, detailing in rather painful (for me) detail of how I ended up on my debt freedom crusade, and why Five Pence Piece even exists. I walk through step by step how it was my marriage fell apart, my realisation of my debt situation, and how I got the internal energy to go and fight it rather than just give up all hope.

2. The SCRAM Plan

This plan could be the most important document you ever write. If you are serious about increasing your financial stability, make no mistake, you need a SCRAM plan. It takes 30 minutes to put together, and 60 seconds each month to make sure it is still accurate.

3. Dig Yourself Out of Debt

This was actually a 5 part series detailing the route I am taking to getting out of debt. It combines the very best practices from all kinds of tried and true methods and pools resources to get you there as quickly as possible, as cheaply as possible, and to keep you out once you get out. The link above takes you to Part 1.

4. Frugal Friday! Batch Cooking

It surprised me that the one article I didn’t think would get much interest, is actually the one that caused the most comments on other blogs and links from other bloggers! It just goes to show that sometimes the best ideas you have or share, are not the ones you think even matter.

5. Giving to Charity

Even in a recession, it is important to keep giving. The one thing you may have to change is how you give. But the important thing to take away is that you do not have to give money. Check out the article for some of the meaningful ways you can still give but not open your wallet.

6. Credit Card Analysis: From Hell to Heaven

Another little look into my own financial situation here, with some pretty graphs to go with it. This article aims to show you how not managing you credit cards properly can be very expensive.

Do you have a favourite I haven’t listed? Come share in the comments.

• Community Networking
• American Banking v. English Banking
• The Importance of Redundancy Planning
• My Financial Meltdown: Part 3
• My Final Credit Card Payment Coming Due

Wow.

Yesterday afternoon I received a telephone call from the Producer of BBC Southern Counties Radio. We chatted a little bit about this blog, my journey so far and the reasons why I’m publicly writing about what most people consider a very personal topic.

This conversation culminated in an invite to discuss my story and debt fighting in general live on air at 7:40am this morning. A very scary prime time ’Breakfast’ slot that reaches a huge range of folk from those traveling to work, right along to stay-at-home parents just getting their mornings together.

If you have arrived here having heard that broadcast or some soundbites: Welcome!

As hopefully became evident in the interview, I am running a series of posts at the moment about getting yourself out of debt. This mini series of posts is put together from advice and guides all over the Internet and traditional media, and then condensed down into my own free, simple 5-step guide.

The first three parts are available right now and have been linked below. The remaining two parts will be published tomorrow (September 24) and next Thursday (October 1) respectively. The first three are all you need to begin improving your financial situation today.

Step 1: Know What You Owe

Step 2: Spend Less Than You Earn

Step 3: Avalanches and Snowflakes

Step 4: Debt Psychology 101

Step 5: Cleaning Up The Mess

Once you have begun your journey to debt freedom, be sure to come back and learn how to protect yourself in the future and clean up your credit reports afterwards in steps 4 and 5.

If the debt-freedom and personal finance bugs catch you as much as they have me, I’d be very pleased to see you again to catch all the other personal finance articles that are posted here daily.

Good luck and remember: You are not alone. You can do this. You will succeed.

Embarrassingly, UK visitors who missed the interview can listen to it again on BBC iPlayer by clicking here.

• Free PF Blog Hosting Competition
• Personal Recessions
• 10 Economic Predictions for 2010
• The Credit Crunch Has Positives
• Personal Finance: Pessimist or Frugalist?