I can't afford to go bankrupt - so what now?

Biffa

Hi All,

Hubby and I are looking into going bankrupt, however we can't afford the fees! Our current expenditure exceeds our income by £145 a month, and that's only on eseentials. It doesn't include any payments towards our £15K+ debt. The chap I spoke to at National Debtline this morning could only suggest that we don't pay the bills until we've saved up enough money for the fees. Has anybody else got any other ideas? We have no valuable antiques to flog on ebay, so am running out of options.

exessexmum

If you could post a list of exactly what your incomings and outgoings are you might be surprised what you can shave off. we were exceeding our income by about £200 a month, then we lost £400 a month in income but by cutting down we have managed to shave £700 off our monthly expenditure. And I thought we were only spending on essentials too!

ms_london

Perhaps you could post your SOA, as there may be ways you could cut your expenditure without realising it..

£15,000 isnt the largest amount of debt, although I can appreciate how it is a worry. Obviously I do not know what your circumstances are, but it might be in your best interest to repay the debt rather than going bankcrupt?

Do you have any assets? A house etc? If you were to go bankcrupt you could say goodbye to having a mortgage for 6 (?) years. There are other options out there.

ms_london

exessexmum wrote:

If you could post a list of exactly what your incomings and outgoings are you might be surprised what you can shave off. we were exceeding our income by about £200 a month, then we lost £400 a month in income but by cutting down we have managed to shave £700 off our monthly expenditure. And I thought we were only spending on essentials too!

It goes to show that everyone has a different idea of "essentials" - you could save as much as essexmum without realising it. Its worth a try.....

xx

Mentalminis_2

Hi Biffa.... the obvious place to start is with a run down of your monthly expenditures and monthly income, from there we can see if theres anything you may have over looked.

i am in the same position as you, not enough money to pay the essentials let alone the debts, i am currently talking to all my creditors and trying to get a 6 month nil payment plan set up, i have managed to get on 4 month hardship account with one of my accounts which means that all further action is being suspended until that time, and basically if i can't come to some sort of arrangement within those 4 months then they are going to sell my debt on.

Biffa

Income: My wages £1260 per month, £72 CTC and £118 Child Benefit. Hubby stays at home to look after the kids (childcare was costing £550 per month). Total income £1450.

Outgoings
Rent £380
Council Tax £69
Gas £55
Elec £60
Water £26
TV Licence £10
Phones £40
Car tax/MOT £36
Petrol £350
Repairs bill £60
Insurance £57
Food £360
Clothing £50
Prescriptions £20
Cat £20
Hairdressing £20

Total outgoings £1613.00

We're hoping to move closer to work within the next 6 weeks, which will save us around £150 per month on the rent and £250 on my fuel bill. There's not much else I can cut back on - the food bilsl cover a family of 4 (2 small growing children eating us our of house and home!).

The debts at the moment are:

Halifax Credit card £4,200
Natwest card £3800
Barclaycard £650
Kwik Fit £950
Mutual £1450
Open Uni fees £800
Overdraft £1300


On top of this, there's also £328 for an old gas bill, £307 on an old electric bill, and £400 on current utility bills. A grand total of £12885.

We were on a payment plan with payplan, but have had to stop our payments at the moment as we can't afford anything.

Sorry for being so despondant, some !!!!!! keeps turning off the light at the end of the tunnel and my torch battery is dead.

Biffa

And no, I'm not getting rid of the cat just to save £20 a month before any one suggests it!

Magentasue

Try CCCS or CAB (links at top) or try National Debtline. Did you just ask about bankruptcy? If you did, it would be worth contacting again with anopen mind and asking for help negotiating with creditors. Would also recommend the websites for these organisations - lots of advice and self-help packs to download.

Do post your income/outgoings/debt details - nobody will judge you and your are sure to get suggestions for ways to improve things.

Magentasue

Ooops, cross posted.

I'd think you could cut your food bill (check out Old Style), stop buying clothes for a while and do home hairdressing. If you don't move, maybe a smaller car for less petrol? Repairs look high - what are they?

But it would seem the obvious answer is for your husband to get a job, how old are the children? How about evening/weekend work if they are under school age?

wigginsmum

Could you cut back/cut out the spending on clothing and hairdressing? Do you have more mobile phones than you truly need? If you get a prepaid annual prescription ticket (£93.20) it will cover one person for a year - might be worth doing if your prescription costs are mainly for one person. I know it's tough with kids but could you consider giving up the car, even as a temporary measure? It's currently costing you over £500/month - that's more than a third of your income. Could you switch to public transport?

Jules

Biffa

At the moment, there's no way I could get a smaller car - I do a lot of motorway miles, anything up to £100 per day and a small car just wouldn't cope with it. The repairs covers things like tyres (£25 a go), and any running repairs, like a service, new catatytic converter, brakes etc. I manage to do most of the work myself, but still have to buy the parts. It's only a P reg mondeo 2.0 that's had it's bits thrashed off (by me!). We also do a lot of cross country mileage visiting family.

The hairdressing bill isn't every month, probably every 3 months when the kids need theirs cutting.

The problem with Hubby getting a job is that it's better for us as a family for him to saty at home with the kids, get the cooking and cleaning done etc etc. It's a bummer financially, but from a lifestyle point of view it's easier, better for the kids and gives us more time as a family together because we don't now spend each weekend getting the shopping and cleaning done. It sounds selfish I know.