301k in debt and morbidly obese - things aren't great!

Rainbow_Bridge

You'll be missed x. Best wishes as you fight these fires.

The_Dragon

Good luck Mr B and I hope to see you back soon.

MrBloater

OK, no point throwing the baby out with the bath water, etc - there are some wise heads on here and wisdom is needed. To my credit - when the walls came tumbling down on Wednesday I didn't revert to the previous default behaviour of drinking / overeating / overspending my way to the bliss of temporary oblivion - whilst this morning was the first time I've been running since Tuesday I managed to keep on the righteous path of weightloss and am now down to 21st 9 which has been unchartered terrority for many a moon.

Without going into specifics, the gun has been loaded, the final nail is likely to be hammered, etc, etc and worst case scenario is that I could lose my job any day now - and, because of the changing nature of the beast that is my profession, it could well come with no payout and precious little prospect of getting something similar at my age. Now I've done my bit for the ensuing battle ahead - have everything logged and timelined, am attempting to consult my union etc - but I know how these stories usually end. So what I'm attempting to do is create a to-do list for the moment when the rescuers give up hope of saving the beached whale.

First and foremost it's going to be about trying to replace as much of the missing income as is humanly possible every month and so this is my list so far - any more advice, ideas will be much appreciated.

- Remain calm, try and continue as normal as possible for the sake of the kids, get up and dressed every morning and make sure that looking for a new job is a fulltime job in itself.
- Contact benefits agency in unlikely event I'm entitled to anything, but to at least get my NI contributions paid and have access to their jobsearch facilities.
- Upload my CV to the big online jobsites
- Put the word out among former colleagues / friends etc to keep an eye out for anything
- Contact all my creditors explaining the situation and see if payments can be reduced
- eBay the entire contents of the flipping shed
- Keep fingers crossed the PPI claim gets a positive outcome
- Go through all Mrs B's previous loans to see if any of them are eligible for PPI repayment
- Contact my bank (thankfully Mrs B has a seperate account with a different bank where her salary gets paid into)
- Prioritize our payments (mortgage, council tax, services, anything else gets paid if it can when it can)
- Spend a lot more time and effort refining existing books on Kindle and marketing them more effectively
- See if my ways with words can be used to make some money some other way
- Not give up hope, realise these setbacks are just part of the deal of this life
- Keep an open mind - thankfully I'm no snob and will readily turn my hand to anything offered
- Remember that being a good dad and husband has always been top of my list.
- Listen to all the advice and experience available on this site

OK, over and out for now.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi Mr B, I have no idea what you do, but LinkedIn and the relationship networks on there are very helpful. If you are already on then work on your profile, exploit all relationships possible for networking.

I know it is worrying but your planning will be a help. Your writing style could be changed to write for kids perhaps?

Good luck, Tilly

Dollypop_2

Regarding benefits, I believe you would be entitled to contribution based JSA for the first 6 months, after that it would be dependent on your household income, not sure of the amounts but every little helps. There may also be an entitlement to CTC and/or WTC depending on your household income.

HTH

Heffi1

MrBloater wrote: »

- Remain calm, try and continue as normal as possible for the sake of the kids, get up and dressed every morning and make sure that looking for a new job is a fulltime job in itself.

- Prioritize our payments (mortgage, council tax, services, anything else gets paid if it can when it can)

- Remember that being a good dad and husband has always been top of my list.
- Listen to all the advice and experience available on this site

OK, over and out for now.

Very wise words indeed.

Allypops

Good plan Mr B.... and well done on keeping up with the weightloss despite all the stress.

fozmcfc

Well done for keeping your humour and head MR B.

I too have done the weight loss from a severely obese level and the debt clearance thing and know how difficult it is to deal with one let alone both.

I ended up doing them one at a time, cleared the debt, but sadly the weight has gone back up a bit, mainly because of losing all willpower.

I wish you all the best.

Rainbow_Bridge

Hi Mr Bloater,

The redundancy and redundancy planning thread, on MSE, is worth checking out, also ACAS can be very helpful.

Do you have legal assistance on your Home and Contents insurance? I have used it a couple of times and it doesn't affect your premiums.

It's great that you are keeping your head, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, your list looks very well thought out.

Igamogam

Jeepers............. isn't there a 3 month consultation period when it comes to redundancy? Or has David and his merry men taken that with our pension too? Hope your union rep is a good one. Get yourself on the supply list. Never done it myself but it gets your face and name out and about and an early heads up on jobs. Or maybe you want to leave the profession altogether......in which case I guess you have already started your plan. You will definitely get the JSA for 6 months but I doubt very much that you will get WTC or CTC cos of Mrs B income but there is no harm in trying. You seem to be quite upbeat about it all. Maybe in the long run it will be a blessing in disguise