The long and winding road to DFW! My Diary

wotnext

My name is Wotnext and I am a debtor......

By keeping an online diary I thought it would help motivate me and keep me going. To see the debts being gradually chipped at, and a few words of encouragement from others will be enough to get me through it.

The facts are, hubby has got in to a terrible mess with the finances. He's made himself ill as a result and is now seeking help for depression (one hurdle reached as he made a docs appointment for next week). He has taken the day off today and together we have gone through the finances, all the paperwork and he has just popped to the post office to post a number of letters. Hopefully we'll both sleep better tonight knowing that we've actaully taken the bull by the horns and are addressing the situation instead of it just looming over our heads like a big black cloud.

So, how bad is it?

Well, currently we have 14 debts, broken down as follows:

[STRIKE]Council tax bills from 2003-5 (bailiff) = £716.36 Negotiating[/STRIKE]
EDF Electricity = £967.36 Paying £120.00 p/m
Rent = £5772.59 :eek: Awaiting advice
Cooperative loan = £10000 £1 p/m
Natwest previous overdraft = £2000 £1 p/m
Boxclever = £170 £20 p/m
Previous rent arrears = £398 £60 p/m
British Gas = £400 £88.50 p/m
Ace Cards = £515.78 £1 p/m
British Gas = £40 £1 p/m
La Redoute = £243.23 £1 p/m
Next = £430.03 £4 p/m
Council Tax 2006/7 = £1300 Negotiating
Abbey previous overdraft = £627 £1 p/m

Total amount = £23,580.35 :eek:

Not a pretty sight is it?:o It looks terrible to me, but in the grand scheme of things I know we are not the worst. But with repayments in place at least the debts will take care of themselves, the calls will stop and we'll chip away at them as best we can.

Have written a stinking letter today to the council who have failed to process forms etc to assess our housing benefit, and whilst they drag their heels, the arrears of rent increase.:mad:

I am already in the process of reclaiming my charges from Abbey. The OH has just sent letters to Natwest, Smile and Cooperative to reclaim his - hopefully if they come to fruition it'll be a tidy sum to put towards other debts.

We've also just written a letter to Cooperative complaining about their telephone harrassment. (There is a great template letter on the Consumer Action Group website if anyone's interested).

And today we paid off the bailiff for the previous council tax and £300 towards the electricity arrears with the help of a fund who have been incredibly kind to us.

So, as it stands today, our debt total is £22563.99, we've paid off one completely and chipped in to another, and at least it's finally going in the right direction now.;)

LittleL_4

Bet you feel better being more organised and knowing what you owe and who to. Good luck to you both, have a nice weekend and hope those nasty bank charges are refunded to you soon

Little L
x

Gillby1

Well done Wotnext and hubby. You're on the way - good luck!