Lots of debt and no work...

nzmegs

Ok - maybe it isn't as bad as all that but my hubby and i are in dire straits. We owe £18,000 in cc's. My husband is self employed and usually does ok - but as of the week after next he has no jobs on the horizon. He is an electrician kitchen/bathroom fitter and although he has done loads of quotes he is getting no work. I doubt he will have anything until after xmas now.
I work part time and bring in about £650 a month.
Our mortgage is £950 a month. So you see our problem.

I feel like in the space of a couple of weeks we have gone from being ok- to being really in a bad place financially. We could potentially see ourselves missing cc payments or worse still mortgage payments in the next couple of months.

We do still have money available on our credit cards if absolutely necessary - but I do not want to even touch them. We are having a hard enough time paying off the debt we have.

I have been applying for jobs with better pay and longer hours. But we have children and my husband needs to be able to have the flexibillity to take on a job at a moments notice. So i need to be there for the kids after school.

We are selling stuff on ebay, cutting back on everything. i am applying for work at home jobs. My husband is out there trying to drum up business.

We have at tiny amount of savings - enough for one months mortgage. Then that's it...

The thing is we didn't see ourselves getting into this situation. We thought my husband was so good at his job (he is very well respected locally) that the work would keep coming in. He has hardly ever had to advertise. it has all been word of mouth. perhaps we became lazy.

So my questions are. What do we focus on. Is the mortgage our priority? How do we ensure our credit rating? It is pointless to sell our house - we are only just breaking even right now on what it is worth. Worse still our mortgage is with northern rock......notorious for kicking people out of their homes - yay!

Help...

RAS

Hi

Can you do an SOA, so we understand the full extent of the problem? - http://www.makesenseofcards.co.uk/soacalc.html

and please give one of the debt charities a call, see here

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loa...help-plan#help.

The important thing is to pay the mortgage. And as of yesterday, with the Government telling banks NOTY to reposess peope, htings may be a bit better.

Other immediate actions?

1. Go over to the money saving OLd style forum, and do a store cupboard challenge.
2. Can OH sign up for any agencies, even for related work, just in case?

csa_monitor

RAS wrote: »

Hi
2. Can OH sign up for any agencies, even for related work, just in case?

Hi nzmegs, you must be feeling really crappy but I admire you for taking the first step in recognising that a problem exist. This is the most important step and you have done it.

I agree with Ras, perhaps your OH should look for temporary work elsewhere. Shops are still advertising for staff for Christmas - shopfloor staff, warehouse staff etc

Good luck