Please help, I am so stressed out

mogsi80

Hello All

I am very new to all of this, but I really need some help. My hubby and I have realised that we can no longer cope with the level of outgoings we have. We looked at CCCS to get an idea of our choices, and DMP seems the best thing for us.

We have decided to send out the letters ourself and offer some prorata payments, at the moment we have not let anything fall into arrears but it's becoming such a struggle to keep this up.

Please find attached out SOA - please bear with me as I am not totally down with all the abbrevations!

We are just so worried with the next actions our creditors will take, and I know we can't go on much longer like this, but it would destroy me to have bailiffs showing up and taking our things, especially as I have a young child and don't want her to lose out on things because of our stupidity.

Thanks for listening, and your help x

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1800
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1345
Benefits................................ 121
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3266
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1046
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 179
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 108
Electricity............................. 110
Gas..................................... 49
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 45
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 50
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 70
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 330
Clothing................................ 45
Petrol/diesel........................... 150
Road tax................................ 5
Car Insurance........................... 39
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 20
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 8
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 20
Buildings insurance..................... 19
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 79
Other insurance......................... 20
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 30
Total monthly expenses.................. 2509

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 145000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 13000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 158000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 161000...(1046).....7.9
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 1300.....(179)......7.8
Total secured & HP debts...... 162300....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
MBNA Credit Card...............7555......250.......34.9
Very Catalogue.................4336......175.......39.9
Littlewoods....................1209......30........29.9
Barclays O/D...................300.......10........0
Barclays Loan..................4500......200.......7.9
Barclaycard....................9025......125.......19.9
River Island...................230.......12........21.9
Argos Card.....................1995......79........29.9
Halifax Credit Card............4850......90........17.9
Halifax Loan...................5226......260.......6.6
Halifax O/D....................2000......30........0
Halifax O/D....................350.......30........0
Total unsecured debts..........41576.....1291......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,266
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,509
Available for debt repayments........... 757
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 1,291
Amount short for making debt repayments. -534
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 158,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -162,300
Total Unsecured debt.................... -41,576
Net Assets.............................. -45,876

mogsi80

would love to but on finance - so not techinically mine to sell, and I need to have transport to get to work and get my child to and from child care, school etc..

Sky also includes my landline, broadband and tv etc... got a discount for next 9mths so this does bring it down to about £50 a month but now tied in for 12mths.

The grocery and emergency money is what was advised by CCCS - don't spend this much on food at the moment, probably only £200 this is including dog food too, and have no money for emergencies.

I work for a life insurance company so I don't want to cancel my life and critical illness covers as I have seen the affects of people cancelling their plans and the worst happening, so I think I am pretty qualified to know what I am paying is actually pretty good.

NeverAgain_2

You have a house in negative equity, £42,000 of debt, and it looks as if you are haemorrhaging cash at the rate of more than £500 a month.

On the plus side you have a good income.

Despite that income, you are some way short of meeting your liabilities.

Have you considered bankruptcy?

mogsi80

I dont want to lose my house so I wouldnt look at bankruptcy and only just got my husband on board with the whole DMP situation - frankly we are both feeling pretty embarassed and ashamed about it all - although finally getting are backsides into gear about doing something.

Unfortuantely bought the house at the bloody wrong time - at the peak of the market just before the crash!!! My fixed rate deal ends next Oct, so I am hoping we can look to maybe extend the term on this to help reduce some of the outgoings..

mogsi80

Okay - the extra I pay towards the MBNA credit card and trying to top up the overdrafts, we bought a cheap 2nd hand car that cost us about £1k in the 11mths we owned it to try and keep the thing going - so that maxed out the big OD.

Cards are all maxed out. Clothes really only spent on my little one, who is constantly going through growth spurts and will be starting school so uniforms etc.. Loans both finish next year November and December.

We are in the process of arguing with EDF regarding the electric bill - as previous £18 - received a letter 2 weeks ago saying they were increasing to £110 - never even taken a meter reading (have now found out meter not working so engineer is coming out to fix and get a reading then).

Thermostat only comes on twice a day, when we bought the house didnt realise the clap out old boiler was spewing out all sorts which rocketed the bills - forked out for a new one and slowly clearing the outstanding bills - heating won't be on for much longer as the sun appears to be shining - and I am not prepared for my child to go cold for the sake of an extra £10 to a £40k debt. Might make me seem foolish to you, but she's my priority.

Don't know what the apr is on the O/D - with Halifax so it's £1 per day - which to be honest is most of the month in the red..

Tink_04

Didnt want to read and run!!! well done for posting its a hard first step! i had my LB moment in Feb and found the first few months are awful as i kept finding out how bad things were and constantly wished my head was back in the sand as its sometimes so easy not knowing! but it does get better! with sky i had a month half price discount thing which tied me for 12 months and i was only 2 months into it - they let me reduce the plan right down and just removed the discount it might be worth talking to them about it! Good luck and keep going!!!

Tink

mogsi80

Thanks Tink, really appreciate it - will give it a try

tallyhoh

I work for a life insurance company so I don't want to cancel my life and critical illness covers as I have seen the affects of people cancelling their plans and the worst happening, so I think I am pretty qualified to know what I am paying is actually pretty good.

Not much good paying out a huge amount for insurance when you could lose your home through debt anyway, I can see savings you can make of at least £430 a month looking at your SOA, however you do need to make sacrifices & not just carry on as before.

mogsi80

I can't see how I could lose my home, when nothing is secured on it? Could you shed some light on the £430 savings you can see?

tallyhoh

Life insurance £79.00
Presents £25.00
Emergency £30.00
clothing £45.00
mobiles £50.00
TV etc £70.00
Food £130.00 (at least)

My statement about losing your home seems a bit harsh but a friend of mine had to sell her home to clear her debts, its not just about having secured debts (which I think you say you actually have).

You do need to do something drastically, an overspend of more than £500 a month is an awful lot.

Tink_04

mogsi80 wrote: »

The grocery and emergency money is what was advised by CCCS - don't spend this much on food at the moment, probably only £200 this is including dog food too, and have no money for emergencies.

i think maybe you need to know where this is going? how much do you actually spend on food? where is the rest getting swallowed up? on you SOA the best thing to do is be brutally honest i did an estimate SOA when i first joined and was shocked at how different things actually are - maybe go through a few months bank statement's and add up what you have spent on food - i was so shocked at how the little stops at the shops added up!!! also pop into the OS board they have fab meal plans and a monthly grocery challenge which helps me loads!!!