Aeshna - Scared but determined!

Thank you so much everyone! Shaking in my boots but I think I've made a good start:

Nearly 3 weeks ago, in my lightbulb flickering stage, I contacted Greenwoods (I know, I know, but I was was desperate, please don't shout!) by email to let them know I was struggling and unlikely to be able to meet my weekly repayments. I also asked for my CCA, I'm not really disputing the debt, but nothing ventured nothing gained. When the agent arrived I explained, and gave him a token payment, telling him I was taking advise from CCCS (small porky, but I had the intention!) and he was really nice, saying that he'd mention it to the local office and that they should come to some sort of agreement with me. Anyhow, since then, I've had an email reply from the main office saying that they've passed it to the local office to deal with, but the agent has not been up for his usual weekly collection for the last 2 weeks..... I'm assuming this is a purposeful move on their part rather than the guy being off sick, so I'm rather pleased.

Rather than avoiding the phone like the plague on Saturday morning, I answered all the chasing calls and I have to say that so far I've been pleasantly surprised by the attitude. We'll see if it continues, but it made me feel so good to be totally honest with them and it was slightly less scary than I thought it would be.

Sorry, rambling again, it's nice to be able to let it out, since I haven't shared my situation with ANYONE!

As promised, before I blether anymore, here's my SOA (please please please, I know you won't yell, but I'm so embarrassed and totally disgusted with myself over the payday loans that I kept rearranging on the basis it was just temporary till I got myself sorted out, I hate myself for that):

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1293
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 272
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1565

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 440
Secured loan repayments................. 237
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 96
Electricity............................. 59
Gas..................................... 26
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 25
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Clothing................................ 40
Petrol/diesel........................... 60
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 60
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 39
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 60
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 1489

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 120000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 120000

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 76000....(440)......6.3
Secured Debt.................. 16000....(237)......16.8
Total secured debts........... 92000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Halifax Credit Card............495.......10........21.95
Halifax Credit Card............2590......56........21.95
Egg............................837.......17........21.9
Uncle Buck.....................530.......0.........0
Quickquid......................562.......0.........0
PTP............................569.......0.........0
RBoS overdraft.................1100......55........0
Shoe Tailor....................264.......25........0
Simply Be......................155.......38........0
Littlewoods....................451.......25........0
Welcome Finance................940.......54........0
Iqor...........................3800......60........0
Greenwoods ....................1100......128.......0
Vanquis........................619.......25........0
Total unsecured debts..........14012.....493.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,565
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,489
Available for debt repayments........... 76
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 493
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -417

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 120,000
Total Secured debt...................... -92,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -14,012
Net Assets.............................. 13,988

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

======== Enter any other useful information below ========

I have 2 kids, aged 16 and 11, and my girls (2 kitties). My bf lives most of the year abroad at the moment until we get visa's etc sorted out and he pays for the car tax and maintenance (it's his car). The car insurance is higher than I'd like, but I shopped around - as bf is non UK citizen, we pay the price. I don't receive maintenance as the kids spend 3 nights a week with their father (overnight) plus usually most of Sunday and this arrangement was agreed at seperation. Mobile phones all PAYG, for the 3 of us, so that I keep in touch with kids mainly.
Can't think of anything else right now, although there's bound to be something....


Jeez, this is actually the first time I've really seen the incoming versus outgoings detailed like that. There's no way I'll get accepted for a DMP, my surplus just isn't enough! Oh hell, what am I going to do?!

Aeshna

chevalier wrote: »

Welcome Aeshna
One thing I would do right now, is only pay your priority debts, ie mortgage and arrears, the secured loan, and council tax. Then food and heating. After that send everyone else a letter saying you are in financial difficulties and enclose a £1 token payment. The chasing calls I answered on Saturday, I told them all I was consulting with CCCS and that they would receive token payments until such time as I had some kind of positive plan in place, I have to take the bull by the horns and contact those I haven't spoken to.

I am hoping that this might give you a breathing space to sort out the arrears, before moving on to tackle your debts. then you can go to CCCS or Payplan to start a DMP. The current SOA doesn't allow for the fact that I have an agreement to pay £200 extra per month to my mortgage arrears. I called them on Saturday to ask if they'd capitalise the arrears, but they're not willing to do so. She said they MIGHT consider reducing the arrangement, but as it is it will take 5 months to repay the arrears at the rate of £200pm so I don't really want to extend that. But there's no way everyone will accept token payments for that long, surely?

But there are things you can do now, that will still help you. Make sure you don't overdo xmas presents this year. Ie your children only and your parents. Yes, I've already mentioned to family that I'm very tight with finances (slight understatement!) and have pretty much sorted out the gifts on a very tight budget already, for parents, kids and bf only. Sorry if this is a bit blunt, but it is part of the process for changing how we use money, and what we value. Please don't apologise, I'm an utterly grateful for any advice.

Up your Income - great source of survey sites etc where you can earn money to put towards debts, or treats etc In my flickering light bulbs weeks trawling the forum, I took every survey site, cash back, payperclick etc etc I could find from there, have already made a start to try to save/earn as much money as possible, thanks for pointing this out though, I should keep popping in there to see if there's anything new.

Money saving Oldstyle forum - a veritable mine of information for shaving shed loads off your grocery and household bills. I don't spend much as it is on these things and STILL managed to save some money. I haven't ventured to this forum yet, but I will, if I'm perfectly honest, I've absolutely no idea how much I've been spending on groceries etc. I'll head over there and get some ideas, as the end of this month with be my first payday of budgeting properly.

Freebies board - source of great little gifts etc, to start a present box off for NEXT xmas. Another great idea, I hadn't thought about next christmas but if things are going to be so tight, then I'll definitely make a start on storing up any freebies I can get, especially with a soon-to-be teenager in the house!

Special Occasions board - loads of ideas for cheap but pretty presents. Didn't even realise it existed, thank you again!

Can I also reccommend (sp can never spell that word) www.freecycle.org for anything you might need around the home. You have to join, but I got all sorts of things from there, for nothing, you just have to go and pick up. I also gave away loads when we moved, feels great that is didn't go into the landfill. I'm a member of the local freecycle and have actually passed a lot things on via the site. I'll keep using it to try to get things I need/want, but I have started gutting out my wardrobe to find anythingn I think is worth putting on eBay to generate some extra cash to throw at my debts.

best of luck and we look forward to your SOA.

ps how old are your children, and are they old enough to explain about things being tight etc? If so then they can be electric monitors, ie no leaving lights on, tv on standby etc. The kids are damn good actually, bless them, the youngest pulls out plugs all over the place, whereas the eldest tends to forget - although when I came home tonight, he had all the lights off and just the tv on! I've explained to them that things are very very tight and that they need to help where they can, and they're doing so! :T
chev

I was feeling so positive, but I've taken a little dent with that SOA being worse than I expected

Aeshna

Thank you for your kind words Jes, I had to take a deep breath to keep from bubbling:o

The two Halifax cards are long since gone, Egg declined to send me a new card at renewal (despite the fact that I was, at that time, paying more than minium payment per month) and my Vanquis is overlimit, so I'm afraid I have no options there.

I have been in email contact with PTP, explaining my situation to them and basically telling them that I can't pay them back and I don't know when I will be able to. I asked them to remove a couple of telephone numbers from their records (my work and mum) and they've done so and acknowledged my email, however have said that they absolutely must have a telephone conversation with me..... Quickquid have already defaulted me and advised that they will go straight to CCJ if I don't 'see sense and repay immediately' :rolleyes:

The thing is, looking at my SOA, I can't even afford to pay my agreed extra to my mortgage arrears! Aaarrrghhh! How did I get this so wrong??

I'm going to take myself off to bed now and get some sleep, then reassess this in the morning!

Thank you again everyone, I really feel I have friends here.

Aeshna