Massive debts

gargrave50

So it would appear my husband has had the proverbial rocket up his @rse;). He now has magic'd up work for Monday (£100), Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (£80 a day). £340 - not his usual wage but only short by around £100. So therein lies my challenge - to claw back that £100:p.

I reckon at least £50 on the shopping can be saved - so will chase up the neighbours who had put their name down for some of our furniture. If we sell the pair of lamps and the BBQ that £135 kerching!

Also he might have a more permanent job to run until we leave for Australia from the following week! His name was down for a start with this company, and someone has just handed their notice in. He has to phone the guy after the Bank Holiday weekend to confirm which date - cross your fingers each and every one of you. WE MIGHT JUST GET AWAY WITH THIS!:o

Hubby was giving me a little run down of the mountain of post awaiting my return - Wescot have mislaid our most recent reply and now DEMAND full payment of almost £6.5k on a credit card they don't hold the CCA for. They have however furnished me with 8 copies of the application form - keeping them to line our Aussie puppies kennel:cool:. Anyway, no problem - if they have mislaid our most recent correspondence, I for one am happy to send them another copy. I'm just that kind of gal:).

gargrave50

Oh and the car boot sale is provisionally for 19th March if not definately for the 20th March. The date is dependent on which date my hubby needs the car if Cole is playing a match that morning .

Also on Friday planning on bagging up the clothing for the cash for clothes shop. It won't net a fortune but every penny counts (don't I know it):o. None of it is ebayable or carbootable (is that even a word?!).

They also take books so will package up some of the less attractive ones and chance my arm with them.

Music Magpie is being hit with a load of DVDs:D.

Hubby is a bit cross with me, we had a long conversation (well he says I shouted a'lot - it was a bad line ) before I came to work re: renting the house out. Now I want to go through a letting agent and have assurances our tenant is referenced and that we can pursue them legally etc if our tenant doesn't pay the rent etc as I don't want to be dealing with problems from the other side of the world!

However, my hubby wants to let it to his friend for £500-550 a month. This barely covers our secured loan and mortgage leaving little left over for necessary repairs etc:eek:. But he insists he only wants someone he knows in the house as he trusts them to look after it. No offence, but the guy is young with his young neddy girlfriend and I know they will have parties etc and probably fall out in 6 months. He will then probably move out as he can't afford to live there, and we will be screwed. Also, he is not the most reliable guy ever:mad:. I couldn't give a !!!!!! if he isn't reliable but when he is servicing my mortgage I get a bit more picky - call me difficult.

Not only that but the letting agent says he would get us £650 a month taking 6% for management. Leaving us over £600 a month. Now, I'm trying to explain to Alan that its actually probably better NOT knowing the tenant personally - if there was a problem with payment etc you wouldn't be suing a mate potentially! Plus financially we are better off (the name of the game - no?!:money:) - I am trying to explain how important it is that we come out of this as financially secure as we can!

Getting nowhere - he thinks I just want it all my own way. I told him - actually what will happen is that if our UK account becomes overdrawn he will be the one giving me grief on the other side of the world about how did that happen?! He has no idea how difficult it would be renting to a friend - this [EMAIL="!!!!"]!!!![/EMAIL] is about money - our money and I've worked damn hard to look after it until now. This is about getting as much as we can - not doing a mate a favour. I'm really mad - and I'm not giving up but hubby has apparently told him its his. I told hubby tonight to tell him that we are going to get a letting agent in and weigh up our options - he hates me. Oh well, I'm the @sshole who managed to get us out of all this debt (almost), and who seems interested in making a decision which is based on OUR best interests.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: (you get the idea).

gargrave50

So anyway - back to mealplanning!

Tuesday night we have already decided we are getting our traditional chinese takeaway cos its the night I arrive home . We half one and Cole can have chicken dippers from the freezer with sweetcorn so should come to less than £10.

Wednesday - Gammon joint (currently half price at Coop) with baby potatoes (half price £1 at Coop) and green veg steamed from the freezer. Total cost £6

Thursday - Meatballs (currently half price at Coop £1.25) with a jar of tomato and chilli pasta sauce (half price in Tesco £1) with spaghetti from the cupboard and garlic bread (3 for £1 on offer at Tesco at the moment - will freeze the other 2 ).

Friday - Cottage pie from Sainsburys eat well for less recipe.

Going to use up my leftover baking ingredients to make some little butterfly cakes for Cole's Communion party on Saturday.

Saturday - we will be eating leftovers of the M&S party food!

Sunday - Use the leftover potatoes from the cottage pie recipe to make roast potatoes, leg of lamb (half price at Tesco just now!) and steam green veggies from the freezer. Also have a little bottle of red wine from Harvey Nichols which was a gift (I drink EVERYTHING apart from red wine - and I mean everything!) which I will use to make a little jus with the juices from the lamb. Cole's not a fan of lamb so he can have some fishfingers or I can rustle up a little tomato and mozzarella pasta from the cupboard.

Et voila! Then will spend Monday rifling through the cupboards sorting out what I can rustle up for next week!:money:

gargrave50

I reckon including the takeaway I can get change out of £25 easily. Whatever I have left over can buy a lottery ticket and the rest can go in my purse! .

I am absolutely shattered at work tonight! Never mind its paid by the hour .

debtfreewannabe321

gargrave50 wrote: »

Hubby was horrified when I suggested that £125 could do me 3 weeks:eek:. I feel an education coming his way.

:rotfl: whenever i try to give my hubby some sort of education about our finances and how far they can stretch he literally throws his dummy out the pram! so good luck with that i hope your hubby is more grown up than mine :rotfl:

gargrave50 wrote: »

However, by doing a couple of afternoons, I can take my son to school every day and my hubby can pick him up every day - something we haven't been able to do for 3 years:j.

The good thing is they are exceptionally keen to have me and pretty much said I can dictate my shifts round about Alan's hours of work and Cole's schooling - isn't that fab?!:T

:j that's great that they will do that for you and you get to spend more time with Cole :T it's what the moves all about after all a better lifestyle :T

gargrave50 wrote: »

However, my hubby wants to let it to his friend for £500-550 a month. This barely covers our secured loan and mortgage leaving little left over for necessary repairs etc:eek:. But he insists he only wants someone he knows in the house as he trusts them to look after it. No offence, but the guy is young with his young neddy girlfriend and I know they will have parties etc and probably fall out in 6 months. He will then probably move out as he can't afford to live there, and we will be screwed. Also, he is not the most reliable guy ever:mad:. I couldn't give a !!!!!! if he isn't reliable but when he is servicing my mortgage I get a bit more picky - call me difficult.

Not only that but the letting agent says he would get us £650 a month taking 6% for management. Leaving us over £600 a month. Now, I'm trying to explain to Alan that its actually probably better NOT knowing the tenant personally - if there was a problem with payment etc you wouldn't be suing a mate potentially! Plus financially we are better off (the name of the game - no?!:money:) - I am trying to explain how important it is that we come out of this as financially secure as we can!

Getting nowhere - he thinks I just want it all my own way. I told him - actually what will happen is that if our UK account becomes overdrawn he will be the one giving me grief on the other side of the world about how did that happen?! He has no idea how difficult it would be renting to a friend - this [EMAIL="!!!!"]!!!![/EMAIL] is about money - our money and I've worked damn hard to look after it until now. This is about getting as much as we can - not doing a mate a favour. I'm really mad - and I'm not giving up but hubby has apparently told him its his. I told hubby tonight to tell him that we are going to get a letting agent in and weigh up our options - he hates me. Oh well, I'm the @sshole who managed to get us out of all this debt (almost), and who seems interested in making a decision which is based on OUR best interests.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: (you get the idea).

how about you meet half way. You use the letting agents and his friend can apply through them for the house ;)

i have a house in Wales and it's only across country really and i have NO END of trouble when i have non paying tenants (it's happened a few times! -esp with youngsters) and then when they trash the house and haven't given a deposit well it's up to me to fix and pay for everything (that was the Polish tenants my father found me -cheers dad) so i think personally you are right wanting to go through the letting agents. We have some down here that will guarantee 52 weeks rent a year........not sure how much they charge! but it has to be better than some of the miscreants i've found along the way!! :rotfl:

Good luck! xx

grannyx2

I have loved reading your posts and seeing your journey from being in debts to being almost debt free and making such fantastic plans to emigrate.

The posts are a mixture of inspiring, funny sad, and real with such honest entries that I will be sad to see your journey come to an end. I honestly believe you could get paid for turning your story into a book, although you would probably have to change the names of the most troublesome creditors - LOL

I have had my own personal LBMs twice in the last 5 years.

The first mini one came in 2007 after my first grandchild was born, my parents separated after 50 years of marriage and my daughter informed me that she was staying in Oz for the foreseeable future.

I had hidden my debt from my husband for so many years, although how he didn't know I don't know as he was benefiting from my living beyond our means too. Although I had known for a number of years that my spending and debt was out of control I had not really sat down and worked out a way out of it.

In 2007 we had over £110k of unsecured debt between us with me trying to make the monthly repayments iro it all. :eek: Clearly with a salary of less than £20k per annum, I wasn't paying anything else and was always robbing Peter to pay Paul.

After coming clean to him, he agreed to securing the debt and thereby reducing our monthly outgoings to an affordable level. The only other option was either a DMP or bankruptcy, which would have ended up in our losing our home. We could only secure £70k so I was left with over £40k unsecured but the repayments were lower. Believing, stupidly, I could go from being a shopaholic to someone who spent nothing day to day, I found myself struggling to make the repayments to the remaining unsecured creditors.

In July 2011, with another LBM, I sat down and wrote to all our creditors. I explained our circumstances, including a reduction in the household income, that didn't really exist and asked them for help. It was a slow process but earlier this year, I finally got all bar one to agree to freeze interest and charges and accept lower payments for at least 12months, at which time it'll be reviewed but assured that this is just to ensure I haven't suddenly won the lottery or had a massive increase in income. :cool:

Probably not surprising to you is the one that has caused me the biggest problem. A HBOS credit card. :mad: They are still charging interest of around £70pm because I'm paying them £92pm. They even confirmed that the less I had to offer them, the lower the interest rate would be, until finally it would be zero. However, as I have tried to be fair and offer everyone a prorata monthly payment and they are owed £14k of my debt, I don't feel I can reduce my offer to them. I even asked them if I stopped payments all together would they pass it to a DCC who would then freeze interest etc but they said this would instigate legal proceedings.

I'd accepted this until I read your awe-inspiring journey and have now decided to join you in some of the steps you have taken.

Wish me luck.

Grannyx2

plans for 2012 - save enough to visit DD in Oz in 2013
save enough to give DS £500 towards his frugal wedding in Oct 12
pay off one of my small debts
Sort out HBOS :T

debtfreewannabe321

hi grannyx2 i'd like to welcome you to mse & gargraves diary (hope thats ok gargrave lol ) you're story sounds so similar to many i hear on here ...are you planning on starting a diary and joining in, i find it so uplifting when i'm having a down day about the debt to come here and chat to like-minded peeps

And i agree gargrave you should write your story into a book i love reading it! xxx

grannyx2

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

hi grannyx2 i'd like to welcome you to mse & gargraves diary (hope thats ok gargrave lol ) you're story sounds so similar to many i hear on here ...are you planning on starting a diary and joining in, i find it so uplifting when i'm having a down day about the debt to come here and chat to like-minded peeps

And i agree gargrave you should write your story into a book i love reading it! xxx

Thanks for the welcome. :j

Thinking about the diary at the moment, wish I'd known about this facility a year ago because I've had some trying times getting my creditors to agree but seem to have at least made that headway now. Not sure of my debt total at the mo, started at £55kish in July last year and some went up before they agreed to my reduced offers so although I'm paying them £350pm, I think its pretty much the same but should be coming down steadily now.

Got no access to credit for the first time in my adult life and its scary but I'm determined to be in a better financial state by my 50th in 2 years time. Anyway, sorry for hogging your diary Gargrave and good luck for your final step of debt busting x :beer:

gargrave50

grannyx2 wrote: »

Thanks for the welcome. :j

Thinking about the diary at the moment, wish I'd known about this facility a year ago because I've had some trying times getting my creditors to agree but seem to have at least made that headway now. Not sure of my debt total at the mo, started at £55kish in July last year and some went up before they agreed to my reduced offers so although I'm paying them £350pm, I think its pretty much the same but should be coming down steadily now.

Got no access to credit for the first time in my adult life and its scary but I'm determined to be in a better financial state by my 50th in 2 years time. Anyway, sorry for hogging your diary Gargrave and good luck for your final step of debt busting x :beer:

Welcome! No apologies needed, quite glad for someone else to contribute or everyone else just gets tired of post after post of my moaning!

Having no access to credit is what spurred me on to attack my debt, I could no longer put off things because I had no card to stick it on and worry later.

It all works out in the end, although you are right it can take a long time to negotiate successfully with creditors - especially when you are doing it on your own!

Good luck:D.

gargrave50

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

And i agree gargrave you should write your story into a book i love reading it! xxx

Gee thanks DFW - that's 2 books to write! My colleagues keep telling me I should write one about some of the scrapes I've encountered as a Midwife!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: