Considering Bankruptcy as advised by cccs HELP!

sandralovescats

SF did you live without a TV?? I see you removed your licence fee - you do realise it is a criminal offence to watch tv without a licence?

sandralovescats

I tend to think that where £25K is involved it would be better to go bankrupt - sometimes it is just better to wipe the slate clean.

A DMP is all well and good - but it always seems as if it is a never-ending road. Yes, if the debt was much much smaller, I would agree but not for the amount of money involved.

howdumbarewe!

There are 5 of us My husband, myself, and our 3 children (ages 15 months, 4 years and 9 years).
Our house is very cold and we have tried not to use the heating but with an asthmatic baby extremely cold temperatures are not a good thing.
I had to include some school dinners as my son is at times uncontollable and I cannot find time to make lunch occasionally (if you saw my son you would understand).
We live in a village which is quite a way from where my husband works so we cannot cut down on fuel as for the prking it was just under the heading on the budget which CCCS gave us to complete don't really use parking very often.
The public transport is to take my son to the special needs playgroup as untill he is formally diagnosed we have to undertake all costs to do with this. As I said we are in the process of getting him seen by a dr. but it is a very long drawn out process.
We do have a mobile hairdresser and this is for 5 of us so its not that bad.
You say to cut out life ins but there is no way that I would do that as what would happen to our kids without us and without any money?
I feel that it is unfair to stop our daughter going swiming with the school when everyone of her class goes.
I will contact the sky tv to discuss the matter and ask for a reduction.
I need the telephone as we have no mobile signal.
I only spend about £5 on the mobile every 6 months for emergencies.
I need the internet as it is my lifeline when it comes to my sons possible condition.
We buy a big bag of dog food for £6.75 every 3 weeks. The rest is pet insurance. I know that pet insurance may not be seen as essential to some but after having had to pay thousands of £s for ill pets in the past I beleive that it is. There is no question that we would get rid of the 2 dogs.
I had to put in clothing and footwear as kids grow so fast (especially the baby) and my son wrecks everything. I buy from charity shops when possible.
As for the food / cleaning costs. I have to buy nappies in with this cost (I know that I could save money by buying re-usable but have no money to buy them). Also I spend lots on washing powder as I have to do so much washing with my son being like he is the problem is I cannot buy anything other than fairy as my sons are allergic to other brands (except more expensive ones).
We have cut down lots on food but I have to be extremely carefull about what I buy due to allergies.

There is £5000 left on the family loan

Our debts are
£5100 capital one c/c
£5000 MBNA c/c
£8500 The AA loan
Argos £2000 store card
Lloyds TSB £3000 c/c
Mint £1300 c/c
Lloyds TSB £500 overdraft

howdumbarewe!

Forgot to add the following information

I cannot get a part time job neither can my husband as we have our son to deal with. Also as I do not drive and there is next to no public transport I would be unable to get to anywhere.

I have tried selling things on ebay but am usually unsuccessfull and end up paying the fees having not sold anything. (I am realistic on pricing before you say that is probably why things don't sell)

Our car is worth £700 and we haven't any assets

Adrasteia01

Hi,
My suggestion would be to check out the value range at your supermarket or cheaper supermarkets (Aldi, Lidl etc) so you can buy similar products for less. Even if your children are allergic to some items, you could most likely buy them cheaper elsewhere. I've seen many people list a budget of around 150 pounds a month or less to feed a family, so i think there's definitely room to bring that figure down.

My suggestion is also to check out the old style board where there's a thread (or possibly a number of them) about feeding a family cheaply. If you cook batches of food and freeze it, rather than buying convenience foods or finest ranges it can make a huge difference. Also if you have a stock pile of food in your cupboards/fridge/freezer (as I do) you could live off that a while and try not to buy more food than necessary for a while. It will only help in the short term really but it could save you a bit of money in the near future.

Another suggestion is could you claim back bank charges?

Also, I have pets but worked out that the pet insurance would cost me more than i'd be likely to pay in vet fees per year anyway. If your pets don't have any illnesses and are young you may be best to get rid of this for the moment and reinstate it when you have more money again.

Honestly, I don't think you need to go bankrupt but that's a choice that you need to make for yourselves. Only you fully understand your own situation and how it impacts on your lives.

With regard to your credit cards, it may also be helpful if you list your APRs and credit limits, then we can give advice on switching balances if this would help. The likes of CCCS and payplan also work sometimes with your creditors such as C/card companies to freeze your interest so you can pay them off more quickly. Given how much you owe, I'm guessing you're paying a fair amount of interest each month and this can really slow the debt going down!

Good luck,
Tamara

Adrasteia01

Also - you mentioned ebay. I have a bit of an ebay business and sell things to contribute to my earnings.

My suggestion is to wait for the cheap listing days - either 5p (preferably) or 10p. Either you will get an email from ebay advising you of this or it will show up in the announcements section of My Ebay (and likely on the Ebay board of this site too). Then list a lot of stuff - I aim for as much as possible (around 50 items), with as low a starting price as you can bear to part with the item for. That being said on the cheap listing days it works out better to list the more expensive items as your fees will be much cheaper at those times for expensive items.

If you're selling clothes and they're not designer items (or really nice), it is better to sell them at the beginning of the right season and sell them in bulk lots. Now probably isn't the best time to sell clothes given the sales, but it is a handy time to buy things cheap for later resale. People are usually looking for a bargain when they go looking on ebay though so you probably won't get full price.

Another thing many people do is slightly increase the cost of postage charges so that it covers transport to the post office, and some of your ebay/paypal fees. I know that high postage rates can dissuade people from bidding but they're really a necessity now to stop losing out. Also on ebay, when you relist an item the first time (second listing, first relist) if it sells you'll get the listing fees back for the item. It should say at the bottom of the ebay page right before you relist if this is the case.

Tamara

debt23

Hi,

One thing that could come under the microscope if you seek further advice or negotiate with your creditors is the £120 a month repay of loan to family.

From another lenders point of view, thats a loan that should be counted alongside all your others - meaning that you really have about £170 left to divide equally amongst all those you owe.

But I know life is never that simple. :-)

You'll have to think about how you would 'present' this family loan if you try to set up a DMP - but I would imagine that you can easily get one going on £50 - as dubgirl said, many owe far more and even pay less than this!

Get a DMP set up now - then you can look deeper into your options. It will give you time to breathe and at least you are taking action.

And dont worry about others feeling you've conned them out of money!

It happens - thats it. Im sure we all (on this forum) meant to honour our debts and never expected to be posting here, but things go wrong.

Always remember that life is for the living - dont beat yourself up over past mistakes. Learn from them, try not to make them again (!), smile and move on.

All the best

Debt23

lynzpower

given your childs needs have you been assesed for disability benefits for them?

What suport do your social services team offer as Im sure that your child is " a child in need" due to thier behavioural needs.

Social services can and do offer lots of help in terms of the practical, getting places, respite care and so forth. A bit of respite care can mean a bit of time for you off to do thinkgs like make sandwiches for kids lunch then freeze them etc. Ask on the old style board about this.

Additionally, i reckon you should be assesed for carers allowances.

drenton

Hi,

I owe £65k across 9 creditors and have worked out a DMP with the CCCS at £150/month for 38 years (this is after major budget cuts across the board). I have 2 kids and own my own property. There isn't enough equity in my property to pay off my debts, and I have an £8k redemption penalty until 2011.

RBS took the major hump and issued a CCJ within months of my DMP starting, and MBNA (who sold debts to first credit after hassling me daily for 4 months) are currently trying to secure a charging order on my property. Capital one have so far been very accommodating, as have Egg (although I have been warned that they don't stay patient for very long and can be quick with the charging orders).

Should I consider bankruptcy? what will happen to my house? Has anyone else been hit with charging orders?

Thanks,

David

angelavdavis

Hi there, I am not knowledgeable about bankruptcy but can offer some moneysaving suggestions:

1) Join your local freecycle group. Look at www.freecycle.org to find your nearest group. Many members are offering bags of good quality children's clothes/toys, etc that could come in useful, as well as other items. The only cost is the collection.
2) As Lynz says, you can pre-prepare sandwiches or rolls for lunches and freeze. Get them out of the freezer in the morning they are required and they will be defrosted by lunchtime.
3) Spending half an hour a week meal planning will really help you keep costs down. With your responsibilities regarding your son, you could then use supermarket delivery services to deliver the bulk of the items at a convenient time to you and then freeze milk/bread to ensure you have a ready supply. This will help prevent unplanned or pester-power purchases.
4) As suggested, I can't recommend the Old style board enough. Try a storecupboard challenge - this is where people post up their cupboard/freezer contents and members suggest possible meals to use up the contents. This is an easy way of keeping costs down in the short term and allow you to start focusing on filling cupboards and freezer with meal ingredients, rather than being crowded by items that may be redundant most of the time.
5) You mentioned about shopping around for power suppliers, etc, but have you checked whether your pet insurance is competitive?

Above all, you are getting support from the members here, and you will start to feel more positive if you can see that you can make positive changes to your situation. I personally agree with the advice to seek a second opinion.