Please help, I am so stressed out

curlytop12

can you sell any of the things you bought with the credit cards etc?
think you can usually hand back cars on HP before end of term of loan,then buy cheaper car?
landline+calls,tv license,broadband= £25 per month with talk talk,sure you could get better package?and use free view!
look again at life insurance-£79 seems very high for two of you.
whats the £20 insurance for?
clothing-school uniforms work out WAY cheaper so thats good news.
think you need to re-think how you are going to change your spending habits rather than trying to get lower payments on the money you have borrowed.i know its hard,thats why we are all here after all! good luck,hope things get better for you.

curlytop12

mogsi80 wrote: »

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?

maybe people have misunderstood,as you have put a secured debt in your SOA?

Hannah_10

The thing about trying to hang on to the house is it's costing you more than it's worth.

You have probably already realised that the mortgage is for £3k more than the house is worth, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the £46k you have in negative net assets (including your unsecured debts).

To go bankrupt now would be to wipe that slate clean and avoid any further interest on that, so the debt avoided would be greater than £46k, it could be more like £60k because interest is a terrible thing. You wouldn't get your fresh start at immediately but when you did it you would be in a significantly better position to pick up a new mortgage, paying for what your home is actually worth, perhaps even having managed to do some saving and therefore putting down a large deposit.

It does mean well and truly facing up to how deep a problem there is though. It means living without credit of any kind (you'll still have a debit card, just no credit card or overdraft) and managing your money properly. I think you would likely come out of it all the better for it actually.

Renting a home also has the advantage that someone else pays the maintenance.

You say you can't imagine living without insurances because you have seen what can happen to people, but the bald reality is the storm has already hit. Your finances are in terrible state and i don't think there's a lot left to protect them from. It seems to me the sensible thing is to throw in your hand and start again. Paying your way out of the debt you have with the amount you have spare currently will take you 4 years and 8 months as it is. That isn't accounting for interest still acrruing, which can make that dramaticaly longer, especially at some of the APR rates you have.

Everyones first thought when they hear the B word is to feel like they must do anything possible to avoid it. Largely though this comes from the public not really understanding the consequences of Bankruptcy and therefore imagining terrible exadgerations on what the true impact is. You can find out the facts here. I suggest you do have a read. Reading something isn't the same as committing to it, but if you don't read it you could well be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

skyvicky123

mogsi80 wrote: »

Hello All

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 - Can you put this on Interest only for a short while?
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 179
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 108
Electricity............................. 110 - Seems high - check if you are getting the best deal
Gas..................................... 49
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 45 - High are you on a meter?
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 50
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 70 - Try to reduce as others have said
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 330 - I spend £300 inc. nappies and could trim further
Clothing................................ 45 - This will have to go
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 - Sorry but agree with others you should stop for now
Other insurance......................... 20
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25 - Cut back on this
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 30 - Put towards debts
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 Ideally sell car clear HP and get something cheaper.
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

Hiya - I wouldn't normally post a reply but your salary level and debt level is quite similar to mine so I thought I might be able to help. We too bought at the top of the market which was stupid of us.

First of all well done for posting and facing up to things. The most important thing though is to face up to where all of this money has gone. I don't mean to be funny but did you seriously spend £4500 at Very on clothes for your daughter? She can't possibly wear that much! That's a frightening balance and apr.

You need to think really carefully about how you got here so that you can stop yourself from making the same mistakes. At the end of the day I know this because I am in a similar boat. I now have to really think what we NEED as a family not what we "would like" and stop telling myself that I "deserve" this and that because I have worked hard etc as that's what got us into our mess.

Slowly but surely I am learning lessons on this site which have helped me to curb our family spending and start getting in control of our debts...luckily for us we had our LBM before things got too out of control. It's very early days and it is hard telling yourself you can't have / do something but I guess that's real life and we have been avoiding facing up to this by running up debts.

I can't offer much advice about dmp's as we aren't in that position but would suggest you start a spending diary right away to work out what's going where. Cut up those cards and start thinking about NEED instead of WANT.

I am reading in between the lines so sorry i I am wrong but are you possibly trying to give your daughter the best of everything by putting it on the credit card? Really and truly kids don't care about new toys and clothes etc and you can manage very well with bits bought in the sales, or even freecycle / charity shops / car boots. I am sure she would much rather have a less stressed mummy and daddy who aren't spending every waking moment worrying about the next credit card bill.

I hope the above doesn't sound harsh but want to face up fully now and avoid you having a 2nd LBM in a few months time when things are much worse...(it happened to me and I reckon my debt was £10K higher the 2nd time)

NeverAgain_2

The more I think about this one, the more I think bankruptcy - and getting shot of the house - is the right option.

It will take years and years to repay £40,000 of debt, even if the creditors agree to freeze the interest.

Not only is the house in negative equity, but the mortgage payment is £1,000 a month.

The value is £145,000, which suggests it is not a high property price area, so renting would be cheaper, in addition to the obvious benefit of getting out from under the mortgage millstone.

My only concern about bankruptcy would be the OR might take some of that juicy joint income to repay creditors.

MrsTinks

NeverAgain wrote: »

My only concern about bankruptcy would be the OR might take some of that juicy joint income to repay creditors.

But surely rightly so? BR isn't supposed to be a way to run away from debt without consequences... it IS supposed to be a last resort to give you a clean slate but you will have a comfortable allowance for rent, food, clothes etc... Anything over the ORs limits for living allowances etc will go to the OR - it's how it works And I'm a meanie because I actually still think a lot of the OR set limits are too generous

determined_new_ms

Hi don't want to read an run. Sorry that things are as they are for you & ur oh & you guys are stressed. Pls try not to stress too much things will be ok.

Couple of things I wated to add to the above.

You say you are spending less than the SOA and these are the figures the CCS advised, can you put up an accurate one so ppl can make some suggestions?

right now a lot of the things ppl are suggesting are frightening & you seem to be saying no to suggestions. That's fine you need to decide what is going to work for you. BUT you might find given a little time to think about things that some of the suggestions are possible solutions for you. Do your research and try things. i.e. call sky and barter a better deal, whats the worst that can happen? You stay in the deal you are in, all it has cost you is a bit of time & a call. I have freeview and then phone & broadband costs us £17 a month, and there are cheaper options out there. I have been amazed reading ppl's stories when orginally they could see any of the suggestions made were possiboe and then as time went on they tried a few, got encourage & inspired & found that they could make big changes to their lifestyle & slay the debts

I would suggest spending some time reading through some diaries of ppl who have cleared their debts - you mihgt find some tips & inspiration there. (go to the roll of honour and then there are links to ppl's diaries)

re clothes for your little one - how about buying some stuff on ebay for a while?

I wish you all the luck in the world. Be strong x

mogsi80

Hi thanks for all the advice, no I didn't run up all the debt just for my daughter.. It was through my own stupidity and feeling so rubbish about my situation, that I bought things to make myself feel less **** about myself, which didn't work and just addedto the stress... Thankfully snapped out it now and want to improve things not make it worse.

The "B" word is frankly terrifying to me, but to leave my house is easy to say but this is my home, so not prepared to leave it... Which maybe crazy to you all but I just can't entertain it at the moment

boredofbeingathome

mogsi80 wrote: »

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................................ 1046See if this will go on interest only for a while
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 179
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 108put over 12 months some councils will allow
Electricity............................. 110comaprison sites and get a better deal
Gas..................................... 49
Oil..................................... 0ditto
Water rates............................. 45
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 50You know what i am going to say here, get rid or compare and get better deals. I have a £10 a month unlimited texts and 100 mins from Tesco including the phone.
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 70That will have to go
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 330Shop around and have a look on Oldstyle or Weezl's planner i will post a link
Clothing................................ 45 ebay or anywhere else on not monthly
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................. 20shop around
Buildings insurance..................... 19
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 79better deals out there you could pay a third of this
Other insurance......................... 20
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25 Nope, i would look at surveys or do some mystery shopping to get extra's you can do so much more for so much less
Haircuts................................ 20No- i think you could get a mobile hairdresser once ever 8 weeks for all the family for less than that.
Entertainment........................... 20This can be done in other ways
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

I am sure with prudent budgeting and looking at all of your outgoings you can get this under control. You have a lot of money left over after your mortgage has been paid and you may surprise yourselves with how you can cope.
Have a look at trying to swap cards around, for better interest deals and have a look at whatsthecost snowball. The link is at the top of the forum page.
Look at the HP agreement for the car, see if you can hand it back or get a better deal. Would it be possible to use public transport for a while?

mildredalien

mogsi80 wrote: »

Hi thanks for all the advice, no I didn't run up all the debt just for my daughter.. It was through my own stupidity and feeling so rubbish about my situation, that I bought things to make myself feel less **** about myself, which didn't work and just addedto the stress... Thankfully snapped out it now and want to improve things not make it worse.

The "B" word is frankly terrifying to me, but to leave my house is easy to say but this is my home, so not prepared to leave it... Which maybe crazy to you all but I just can't entertain it at the moment

It must be a horrible situation *hugs* Well done for taking the first steps into dealing with it, even if it is stressful!

It's hard to face up to the reality of everything, but it's worth keeping an open mind and look into ALL options, not only the options that you like the sound of. The amount of debt you have coupled with negative equity isn't just going to go away unfortunately.

*edit* just realised how patronising that sounded, i'm entirely sure you know it isn't going away!! Just wanted to make the point that the option that will work for you isn't necessarily the option that you like the most