Seven children and getting life in order

Mummyofmany

Hi,

I am pregnant with my fifth child but my partner's children live with us, we have custody of them.

In a nutshell we have been together for almost 6 years and have one daugter together our second is on his/her way (I'm due in May) I have three sons and he has a son and a daughter from previous relationships.

We have been up and down for the last 2 years which culminated in me moving out, i would say that my debts were at their worst at this point as i had a mortgage that was behind in payments and close to repo (but we managed to keep paying and sold it) i also had a lot of debts that i was struggling to pay and had been for quite some time due to not telling my partner about them - basically buried my head in the sand.

The sale of my house went through, a few days later we split up, i left and rented a house but with four young children couldn't work so had to use the equity from my house sale to furnish the house (it was a house i owned before we met, so essentially was my money) I had planned for this money to be used to pay my debts but that never happened!! I could kick myself!!

Anyway i got myself on a dmp and have been paying my debts for almost a year (which i am really proud of!) Thing is me and partner are about to move back in together and am worried about the implications of the dmp, he is aware of my debts now and how much i pay, it's just i am worried about how much as a family we can afford to pay (i know this will be all down to out personal budget but still very worrying that after all this progress i'll be going back to the start)

He is not that good with budgeting and although not in debts as such (he has a few cards which he pays conractual payments for and car loan etc but i think he is living beyond his means and want to deal with the debta and live within our means like i have been doing for over a year now.

I have recently sent cca requests to all of my creditors and received a few replies - where should i post about these? is there an advice board or should i just use this same thread?

I'm sure there so much more i need to say but my head is like a whirlwind atm and have so much to sort out - including move house whilt very pregnant!

Mummyofmany

Tixy

Hi and welcome

Well done on starting to repay your debts. A couple of things I would suggest - do not get any joint financial products (loans, overdrafts etc) as this will cause you to become financially associated. As you are on a dmp you will have a bad credit rating which could bring down his.

I am concerned when you say he is not in debt as such. If he owes money then he is in debt. If he is only paying the minimums off a 'few' cards then he is likely to be in debt for the next 20years or more. In fact he could be in a worse position than you, as at least as part of your dmp you are not taking on any more debt.

Regarding the CCA responses - i would ask any questions about these in never-in-doubts thread - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2060575

You need to sit down and work out a sensible income & expenditure (probably you need to do a joint one first then individual ones so you can see whether you can continue your dmp at the current rate.

Good luck.