Debt help needed

Yorkshire-Lady_3

Sanmarco - Have you considered going back to childminding. I appreciate you obviously gave it up for a reason, but you have the potential to earn much more money. Does the job you do now allow you to maybe do before and after school care?

Y-L

windswept

If you were to pay £500 per month on a dmp, then it would take 60 months, so just 5 years to pay it all off, if your creditors would freeze interest.
You would then have £300 extra a month to live on, plenty of emergency money - cccs are quite generous when working out essential spending - you would probably be advised to have at least £500 - 600 a month for food/petrol/clothes etc. You haven't allowed anything for car tax/mot etc. either.
Once you had saved a large "cushion" for emergencies, you could throw an extra £100 a month at your debts and shave at least another year off.
It's not as bleak as it seems when you look at things - you have a decent income. Plug your spending into a cccs calculator and it gives average amounts on which to base your figures.

dancingfairy

Sanmarco - hi - can you break down the cards into separate entities for me? list who eg Tesco/Lloyds/Barclays etc (or just a,b,c,d etc) the amount you owe, limit on card , min repayments and apr.
I think you need to do a spending diary or finish off your SOA - you need to estimate how much you spend on groceries,clothes, petrol, etc - so we can see how much you are overspending by a month.
You may be able to make up that shortfall or you may need to do a dmp but we really need to know everything you spend money on. It's also worth keeping a diary for yourself so that if you do decide to go on a dmp you know what you are spending.

P.S With a dmp - you give yourself a generous allowance for each thing eg food £350 for 4 (I don't know - this is a guess) - this then allows you to save money away in case food prices go up, or for things not allowed in your budget or emergencys. You need to plan for everything to go wrong and save,save for it and then pay what you have left to your creditors. I have not explained this very well but hopefully we will get to that if a dmp is something you need to consider.

rayday2

I tend to which Martin would disagree on lol take out insurance on my appliances as I know I can't afford new ones. Only the expensive ones like a cooker and central heating.

I feel much more comfortable with a damaged credit history but the knowledge that I am no longer risking my home. The way I was going more would have gone on a mortgage or another secured loan and with interest rates going up and equitys coming down I could have been in a right mess!

sanmarco5

Yorkshire-Lady wrote: »

Sanmarco - Have you considered going back to childminding. I appreciate you obviously gave it up for a reason, but you have the potential to earn much more money. Does the job you do now allow you to maybe do before and after school care?

Y-L

Really was sticking with the child minding that got me into more debt, was so difficlut finding children to mind, not a lot of demand for childminders here, If I had 3 full timers yes I would earn quite a bit, but all i got in the 5 years we have lived here was a few hours here & few there. I was up until this week still minding 2 children for an hour after school, but they dont need me now, in the 5 years I have never taken myself off the lists but rarely get an enquiry, in fact probably nothing in about 18 months! that was why I decided I had to find a job with a guaranteed income. I work 7.30 - 2.30 now, but once I feel confident that my children youngest can bring himself home from school & stay for a little while with his older sister (she is almost 13, he is almost 11) I can increase my hours till about 4 or 4.30.

sanmarco5

Its so nice to even just be able to talk about this with people who understand!
I spoke with DH last night & he isnt convinced the DMP is the right thing to do, to be honest he is probably the main culprit, he likes his gadgets, just 6 months ago bought a £1k plasma TV on credit card against my wishes. And keeps on now about a PS3, which I have said to way.
He said if we 'start something like that' they will make us sel the house, make him get rid of the car (which is on credit & would free up over £100 amonth in repayments without the insurance & everything else so probably a saving over over £200) which he says he cant live without.
He opened a new 0% credit card yesterday to move the virgin one (with the high interest) over onto, but we dont as yet know if they will give a high enough limit to be able to move the balance of the virgin card onto it.
We have a holiday booked for September, which has cost a fortune, £1k (on a card) then of course as its our first holidays abroad (since I was 17 & dh's first ever) we all needed passports (very kindly paid for by Mother in law) and then spending money which I havent even started to think about yet!
I think I need to try and persuade DH at least to give one of these companies a call to see what they suggest! but he is very stubborn, he just ignores it all, I asked him last night how much in debt he thought we were & he said £15k! when I told him it was double that he just said 'oh really'!

sanmarco5

dancingfairy wrote: »

Sanmarco - hi - can you break down the cards into separate entities for me? list who eg Tesco/Lloyds/Barclays etc (or just a,b,c,d etc) the amount you owe, limit on card , min repayments and apr.
.

Ok well what i put yesterday was a very very rough calculation, its is 4 credit cards & 2 loans, this is all the info I can find at moment

Credit cards

Lloyds TSB - balance £1715 , monthly payment £46, credit limit £15000, apr ?

Virgin – Balance £2813, Monthly payment £5 (not sure why only £5!) credit limit £3900, apr o% till august 09

Virgin (DH’s) – Balance £7296, Monthly payment £135, Limit £16000, apr ? Just gone from being interest free for a year to full apr whatever that is, not sure how to find out?

Lloyds TSB (DH) not certain but he says about £1k balance

Then we have a loan each

Egg loan (me), balance £7302.95, monthly payment £125.72, apr 7.66 pa

Egg Loan (DH) again not certain but it was more than mine, probably about £11k, he pays around £170 a month.

sanmarco5

dancingfairy wrote: »

I think you need to do a spending diary or finish off your SOA - you need to estimate how much you spend on groceries,clothes, petrol, etc - so we can see how much you are overspending by a month.

I try to keep groceries to £60 a week at most (not easy!) dont buy many clothes, but of course sometimes have to especially for the kids, so say £40 a month, days out etc. we save Tesco deals & try to make as much use of those as possible! LOL. Usually about £40 a month on petrol. I reallly dont overspend, dont buy loads of clothes or anything unnecessary.

rayday2

sanmarco5 your hubby sounds like my ex and he never learnt! He is still living hand to mouth but has a fantastic flat screen TV and a sound system that got 3k - and hes as miserable as sin!

If it was me I would start opening a new bank account not related to your creditors and do all the bits you should do before a DMP because with a parnter with that attitude as good as you are you will end up needing to take drastic action at some point. But please if talk of a consolidation loan takes place don't do it! You cannot get any help when its secured on your property.

strumpet

Hi SanMarco,

I know that DFW is about help and support and not judgement so please don't take this the wrong way but I'm not sure you should be taking expensive holidays and buying plasma TVs if you are really desparate to get rid of your debts. When I had my credit card debt (albeit only £4k) I thought the same way in that I'd allow myself "treats" for sticking to a repayment plan. I soon realised that I was kidding myself that I was doing OK when really I was just treading water and prolonging the misery. I'd tell myself that it was only another £100 on top of the total debt and it wouldn't make much difference. Trouble is, when you keep doing that, it does make a difference. It wasn't until I seriously confronted the debt that I was able to finally eradicate it. Even now I have slipped a bit (see my signature) and I'm having to rein myself back in. It's a constant fight. Even when you eventually get debt free, it's still a fight not to return to the "old ways".

Martin sums it up well - instead of asking "How can I afford the lifestyle I want on the money I have?" you need to be asking yourself "What lifestyle can I afford with the money I have?"

I fear you are really going to struggle if your OH does not acknowledge the situation you are in. Maybe he's not yet ready to do that - it takes buckets of courage and he just might not be there yet - simple as that! However, until you are both on board with the idea of getting rid of your debts, on your own, you are going to find it really hard to make any headway.

Have you shown him the emails on this board? Maybe they will enable him to come to terms with the problem and help you to move forward. Sorry if this post sounds headmasterly - not intended at all!

Good luck
Strumpet
xxx