New to this and desperate for help

christine7517

Hi Everyone
I am a single Mum (kids now 18 and 20). I have never had help/support from their Dad. I run a fairly successful training business, which on paper looks like I earn well.
The sad fact is that for years I have been trying to do the best for us and have borrowed, and kept on borrowing, mainly to repay the debt. i haven't splashed out on myself. But I have put (struggled to put) the kids through private education, and tried to provide a pleasant home for the three of us.
Eventually all the borrowing has caught up with me and I cannot borrow any more (just as well). My total debt, not counting the mortgage, is almost 100K. It sound seven more scary when I write it down. This is made up of credit cards, loans, overdraft and tax and VAT. The most pressing is the tax and VAT, combined approx 20K and overdue.
I have to keep afloat with my business, so I cannot succumb to stress. I know the scale of my debt is massive, but i nonetheless would appreciate tips to cut costs, get help, make some small steps that will really help.
One thing I am good at is de-cluttering. I have just done a run to the tip and to the charity shop. I have books and CDs I could try to sell on eBay etc.
Any tips please about anything?

Poosmate

Hi Christine and welcome to DFWland. Sorry to hear you're in such a financial mess but it's nothing we all on here haven't been in so you're in the right place to recieve nonjugemental help and support.

It would help if you could post your full SOA. Please use this link:

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Fill it in, format it for the MSE forums and post it up here and the help and support will come crashing in.

Are your children aware of the situation you are in? Can they contribute to getting you out of it?

You may also want to try this little gadget:

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

Just enter all your debts and their APR's and the minimum payments and it will tell you how long they will take to pay off.

WARNING! This is really scary! Initially my DFD (Debt Free Date) was so far in the future mankind had no conceivable idea of the date! But it works on what you are paying now and doesn't account for one off overpayments, so don't believe what you see just use it as a rough guide and play around with the figures i.e. minimum payments plus £10. The Snowball calculator will show which debt to pay that extra £10 off first to reduce the interest you pay and the length of time you will be in debt.

As an example, I recently paid off an extra £20 off one of my debts and it saved £75 in interest over the life of the debt and bought my DFD forward by 2 months! Yay!

Once again congratulations on posting and good luck with your new DFW life which starts now.

Poo

christine7517

Hi Poo
Just getting your reply has helped. Thanks for the advice. I shall do both of those.
Christine

banwa

Hello Christine, don't feel despair, you've come to the right place. I'm sure there will be more people along like poosmate giving great practical advice, but in the meantime, please be reassued that there are others out there who have or have had similar debts, and they can be dealt with. Tolip's thread springs to mind.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=451786&highlight=tolip

Inspiring stuff

Take care

savingmummy

Hi and welcome.
Posting a accurate SOA will help us see whats coming in and going out.
Are you managing to pay your repayments for these debts?
There are a lot of people here who have debts and have either successfully beat it or are going through the `debt free` phase so you should gets lots of advise and support here.
It may be worth you seeking professional financial support/help due to the size of your debt, hopefully others can point you in the right direction with this.

christine7517

Banwa
Thanks I have read through Tolip's thread, and see lots of similarities. That was a couple of years ago. Do you know how hw ended up?

Poosmate and Savingmummy
Am working on the SOA (now I know what it stands for!!) It is fairly scary at the moment. I am also going to do the snowball thing.
Many thanks for the advice, Christine

pure_dead_dopey

Hi Christine

Can't do much to help, many more experienced people will come along to help, but I can say that we are in a very similar boat, and are now in the first month of a DMP with CCCS. Might not be a bad idea to look at their debt remedy on their website, it will let you write it all down (ours was 30000 more than I thought it was!!!!), and will start to give you options, and honestly, there are options. It is scary but oh how I wish we had done it 10 or 20 years ago!!

banwa

Christine, he came back on line about 2 weeks ago, to say after 2½ years of budgeting they were debt free!

It's do-able. Keep posting

Horace

Hi and welcome to the forum. Once you post your SOA we will be able to advise further, however the tax and VAT are a priority debt and really you should have kept at least a third of your business takings aside to pay the VAT and tax. It may be beneficial for you to contact one of the debt charities - National Debtline have a business section who will be able to advise on the tax and VAT debt. I dont want to scare you but I have heard that the HMRC dont take too kindly to being owed money and have forced businesses to close because they have been unable to pay what is owed to them.:eek: