Help needed!!! A long one!!!!

CLAPTON

my view

income (yours) 800
oh income 816
tot income 1616

spending 1351 including mortgage/secured loan but not unsecured

amount available 265 available for debt repayment
debts min pay 702

shortfall is 437 per month

house value 55,000
mortgage 38,000
secured loan 26,000

equity - 9,000 i.e. negative equity

i think you ought to speak to CCCS or Payplan asap but frankly your best solution to your problems is for you to go bankrupt and start a fresh


thats how i see it.

Toomuchdebt

Not much good at advice but just wanted to give you a hug

stellagypsy

Hi pink girl - for extra cash with flexible hours why not try doing Avon? I make about £70 - £100 per campaign (there are 18 per year) with very little effort. Also they have some good / cheap offers for agents so this could solve your pressy-giving problems. This is a good time to start as Xmas is coming up and they have some lovely things for people to buy. Some of my customers spemd £30 - £40 a time on the stuff. You can do what hours you like, I do mostly at weekends with the odd hour here and there in the week to collect books in before sending the order. If you get books in to your workplace, you will do really well at it.

Just a thought......

Stella xx

Toomuchdebt

Do they do a credit check on you before you sign up?

mystic_trev

I tend to agree with Clapton that your best solution looks like going Bankrupt.

Welcome finance secured loan- outstanding balance around £26000
Mortgage £38,000 i.e. loans secured on house = £64,000 Value of House £55,000 and that's without all your other debts.

full-time-mum

pink_girl wrote:

Glasses for me £120 last year
Crimbo last year £300
We cannot afford to go out but we tend to get a takeaway each week £40 per mth
Thanks

Don't know how practical this is as it would become another monthly outgoing but it might be worth looking into something like HSA. I believe that, if you wear glasses then they break even cost wise, plus you then get help with dental costs too.

For Crimbo, start looking for bargains now - I've just picked up 2 x 100 plastic balls @ £2-50ish in the sales for my baby niece, they have a paddling pool for the summer so now it can double as a ballpit in the winter!!

Think about gifts in kind - look at what skills you have and get creative - babysitting tokens, gardening/car washing duties, foot massages, driving lessons, things you can make eg: Jams/Chutneys, cakes, jewelery or if you are handy with woodwork, look for scraps and make birdhouses, hedgehog houses, plant supports, etc. (I'd really like someone to come and build me some raised veg beds) Cuttings (probably a bit late now) can be presented in cheap terracotta pots that can be tarted up with wooden beads tied around the rim with raffia. Buying plants and potting them yourself is much cheaper than buying ready potted collections and baskets from a garden centre. Buy bottles of wine when they are half-price and wrap in cellophane and tinsel/curling ribbon.
Offer to cook a meal. Photos in frames are always nice if you've a camera.
Maybe you could explain to friends and family that you are having a frugal christmas to save some money, explain that you would like to do personal, thoughtful, gifts in kind and is there anything that they would really like some help with.

Can you find some other Friday night release? Maybe do your normal thing one Friday a month as a treat and then, say go walking on a Saturday the next weekend maybe with a nice picnic and a bottle of wine, take up gardening or biking or rollerblading, take up dancing lessons, car booting. Obviously, it depends where you live and what you like to do but you never know, you might find something that you didn't know you enjoyed - make it a challange and find something different to try each week - its not forever and perhaps the acculmulating savings and reduction in debt will actually give you as much a release from the stress as blotting it out with alcohol etc
Perhaps, if you socialise then, could you take it in turns to cook for each other once a month - explain you are working to a budget and challange each other to produce a meal for under £X - we used to do this sort of thing when we were students - you just need to be careful that you don't then go and buy so much wine that you blow the budget there instead.

Take-aways are a nice treat, but can you justify them at the moment - would supermarket versions work out cheaper but mean you feel that you've still had a bit of a treat - I know that there are some crabby cheap pizzas out there but there are also some really nice ones that work out much cheaper than sending out and you do only have to take off the wrapper and pop them in the oven. Not tried supermarket Chinese or Indian takeaways so can't comment on value/taste.

lynzpower

Im tending to agree with Clapton. Bankrupcy does seem to be the best solutin if OH is unable to bring in regular money.

The other thing here is that you justify spending money on food/drink/takeaways as "your only fun" ( your not alone hun, we did it too ) but this is costing you almost 500 a month, with the takaways and the 25 a week friday. Yes I agree its cheaper than a night out, but you need to weigh up the pros & cons. ie, 100on vodka fridays is equivalent to buying that vodka on your credit card as you are choosing to buy that takeaway/ vodka/ whatever instead of paying off your debts.

I worry that if you do go bankrupt, that you may end up in a mess again unless you guys can a) get enough work in to support yourselves and b) not overspend.

Love
Lynz
xx

lynzpower

Also to say theres LOADS of free conema tickets on the freebies board, and also sites like seefilmsfirst ( do a google)

Also you can get free DVDs and get paid for taking on free trials of blockbuster/lovefilm and other online DVD retailers ( remember to cancel them before you get charged!) but these can be cheap too

Have mates round for a meal ( they can bring the booze ) and you knock up a cheapie chilli or spag bol etc

Stacks of things to do that dont involve spending cash.

bobbadog

Some lovely ideas coming from this thread - but my only thought is your £25 a week Friday release sounds desperately boring! You and the OH could do far more interesting things, like actually leaving the house, with that £25! Even if it's a BOGOF curry buffet at a local indian and a bottle of house wine! Much better than drinking in your smoke filled room at home. I'd get rid of that takeaway, they're not a cheaper option than cooking! I made Toad In The HOle last night in 40 minutes, costing about £1.60 for me and my OH, and we had a beautiful array of roasted vegetables with that!

So yes, my first thought is chin up, don't see Fridays as your only 'living' day, and don't see the alcohol and cigs as the release, get into the habit of making paying debts your satisfaction. It'll work, trust me

chevalier

Regarding retraining. If you are on such low money each week, you probably would find that you could get free courses. Also some courses are free to everyone, have a look at https://www.vision2learn.co.uk, for some ideas. Also if your partners work is so fractured, can you get tax credits?
best of luck
chev