My situation - Am I doing stuff right?

docKes

Hi,
I am a single mum of 29 (children 8 & 10).
Last year after 5 years of studying I passed my degree in Criminology. To do this, I have now suffered serious debt problems, which have resulted in two CCJ's against me and approximately £20K of debt (although £11.5K is my student loan).
My situation is as follows;
- I am employed Full time (40hrs per week Sun-Thu from 1100 to 2000)
- I rent a council house and have put in for a Right to Buy (have 10years of discounts)
- Have storecards which have been sold to debt agaencies (Lowell, etc)
- I have negotiated with all my debtors, including Gas & Electric people monthly payments now via DD.
- Two cards (Adams & Barclaycard) are the only ones which are charging me interest (at half the rate)
- Incoming including tax credits, family allowance, working tax credit, etc is £1200 per month
- Outgoings are approx. £800 per month (not including food, clothes, etc). Or student loan as do not earn over £15K.

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Monthly--Outstanding Feb 2006
Gas (old debt)

---

£21.00---£351.71
Gas - Now

---

£50.00---£434.00
Electric

---

£49.50---£414.99
Insurance

---

£9.16
Rent & Water

---

£249.77
Home phone & TV-£53.50
TV Licence

---

£8.51
Mobile Phone

---

£17.50
Littlewoods

---

£25.00---£1,019.27
JJB Sports

---

£25.00---£390.85
Dorothy Perkins----£50.00---£2,399.11
Council Tax

---

£70.00
Adams

---

£20.00---£287.76
Barclaycard

---

£40.00---£1,673.51
River Island

---

£50.00--- £562.42

Have you any advice on what else I could now?

i just received a letter from Lowell about my JJB Sports debt and they are offering me a 24% discount if I pay it all off by end April. Do I, or could i negotiate further?

I want to get back on an even keel now, but it's very depressing each month and any spare money I do have goes off a bill.

PS. I dont smoke or drink either
PPS. I get no money off the childrens dad (CSA have tried & failed)
PPPS. My only vice is the cinema (once a month) and meals out (once a month - approx £25)

newmoneysaver_2

Hi DocKes, and welcome to MSE.

Please post a full statement of affairs (SOA) which includes all your income, outgoining, balances, apr's etc.

Have a look at this thread:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280
which sould give you a good place to start.

I'm sure someone will be along very shortly to give you lots of advice.

duncans-mum_2

docKes wrote:

i just received a letter from Lowell about my JJB Sports debt and they are offering me a 24% discount if I pay it all off by end April. Do I, or could i negotiate further?

Hi & welcome to MSE.

Regards the above, it is always worth asking for extra discount. If you can afford it and they know you are serious about it, try starting on a really high % discount and then maybe they will haggle. Won't cost you anything to try.
And one debt crossed off the list would be a great start, one less worry and a good motivator.
Hope the support you will get on here will turn things around for you.
Good Luck.

lynzpower

A full SOA would be good really to see whats going where exactly.

I would say your phone & TV look high:eek: whats that for exactly?

Lynz
x

sammy115

Do you have the money to pay that to JJB sports or will it leave you short for your other creditors. If you have the money and can negotiate even more discount, I would say go for it. Psychologically (sp?) it would be good for you. Don't do it if it will cause problems elsewhere though. I am fairly sure that if they are offering this deal to you now, they will still offer it to you in another couple of months. As you can see by my signature I am no expert, but I am sure it will still stand, and I am assuming they are not charging you interest at the moment.

Sam