New member...long post

mojo-jojo_2

I just spent ages typing my story and SOA etc and tried sending the post only to discover that I wasn't logged in and my 'long' post has disappeared into cyber-space!!!!!

here I go again

We are currently on a DMP with CCCS (since april last year) we are only paying a £5 P/M to each of our 19 creditors whom we owe £48,000 to in total. We will be debt free in approx 42years!!!!
Although that is a small light at the end of the tunnel, it is too far away and I need some encouragement to keep positive. None of our family or friends know about our financial situation, only that money is 'tight'. My husband is a proud man and has made me promise not to discuss it with them. I already suffered anxiety and clinical depression before last years 'lightbulb' moment when everything fell apart, but I think having to keep it inside has made me feel worse.

Anyway, here is the SOA

income p/m

hubbys wages take home - £1174
my wages - varies between £50 -£200
tax credits - £151
child benefit - £116

total £1591

outgoings

mortgage £355 (never missed a payment)
secured loan £220 (was a bad idea)
endowment £35
service charge/ground rent £35
water £32
council tax £80
electricity £70
contents insurance £17
phone/internet/cable/ PAYG mobile £50
tv licence £11
car loan £98
car insurance £57
AA £12
road tax/servicing £42
petrol £80
housekeeping £280 (2 adults, 2 kids 10&19)
contact lenses £20 (not for me, I would love them, for 10 year old to try sorting eye problems)
CCCS £95

total £1589

No money for luxuries then!

There are no excuses for our situation, overspending on unnecessary things, burying our heads in the sand when it got to a point about 3 years ago where it was getting out of hand. I even used to take cash out of the credit cards to pay into the bank to cover the direct debits. The final straw was when we were at our limit on all the cards, and thats when it fell apart. We were bombarded with letters and phonecalls, the Halifax were particularly nasty, phoning at all hours and at weekends and being very intimidating. They used to phone my hubbys EX employer leaving messages for him to contact them urgently, but wouldn't say who they were. I eventually phoned CCCS, the first call I cried down the phone because we had joint debt and they couldnt help me because hubby was at work. The second call I cried down the phone because someone understood our situation.
Many of the companies accepted CCCS'S recommendations, many were very unhelpful and some even kept phoning offering consolidation loans!!!!
Anyway, a bit about me, I work on a sessional basis for a creche so my income is very up and down, some weeks I earn nothing, but because of my mental health difficulties I can't change my job. I am okay working with people and kids that I know, but put me in new surroundings and I go to pieces. I am studying for an OU Psychology degree and the plan is to get counselling (which I am waiting for) get my degree and get a better job....in theory!
In the meantime, the thought of my debts taking 42 years to pay off is so awful I sometimes need a bit of a kick up the backside to stay positive about it all. Not being able to share it with anyone close is hard, now that I have shared it here I am distressed but also relieved. Even if no-one reads this or replies it has helped to write it down, and I am thankful for that.

Jo

anniestar

Good luck with your studies and all your efforts to get sorted. You will get loads of help advice and support on here. Well done on the huge steps you have taken and don't forget KEEP POSTING!

specs_3

When you say 2 children 10 & 19 do you mean 19 months?

Idiophreak

the best places I could see to save are:

car insurance £57 (have you made sure this is the best quote?)
phone/internet/cable/ PAYG mobile £50 (can you get cheaper phone/internet? do you need cable? can you make less payg calls?)

housekeeping £280 (2 adults, 2 kids 10&19)

what's the 19y/o doing? couldn't they pay rent?

tryhard_2

Hi Jo
welcome to MSE; well done on taking the first step in posting your SOA.
few points from me

1. elec is high - have a look at uswitch.com to see if you can get a better deal
2. contents and car insurance is high - check if you can get it cheaper
3. housekeeping £280 pm - you can cut this down - look at the old style board on this website for tips

your car related costs - are they for 2 cars?

plumduff-2

This may not be what you want to hear - but have you considered selling up and renting instead...

You could then look at the BR option for the pair of you and get rid of ALL of the debt and make a nice fresh start...

Other than that - you need to stay with CCCS - yes, it will take forever, but you are doing everything you can to sort things out and you cant be expected to do more than this...

Dont be bullied by the creditors... focus on the positives... your education, your husband, your kids, the health and well being of the family is more important than all the debts combined..

Chin up... positive thinking and do not be bullied... stay strong.. xxx

medman

Hey Mj

sounds like you're pretty much on track and have got organised which is an important first step. As long as the light at the end of the tunnel is a low power bulb don't worry about how long the time looks from here, things change.

The one thought I did have was to cash in your endowment, they are pretty useless anyway, you would save the monthly payment and receive a sum of money to throw at your debt. You would then have an interest only mortgage. You would eventually need to clear the capital but that can wait until you're in better shape.

Hang in there a lot more tips will be coming just wait 'til CLAPTON appears

Good luck and best wishes.

MM

mojo-jojo_2

Hi there, thank you so much for quick and encouraging replies. 19 year old is at college, and gets £20 p/w EMA. He has no other income, he paid rent when he had a part-time job, but doesn't now. We still get child benefit for him while he is at college.
£57 car insurance is for 2 cars, we had 2 on finance, but CCCS suggested getting rid of the most expensive one and getting an old banger which we have done. I need the use of a car (albeit on its last legs) as my job involves driving to various setiings that I work at. We kept the cheaper financed car as my hubby does casual work, sometimes having to travel 50 or more miles each way so needs a reliable car.
The £50 phone etc, includes approx £5 PAYG for my mobile, the rest is NTL. We did approach them about losing the cable channels as we have freeview built in to our TV, but because our calls/internet/channels are in one package with a discount, by losing the channels alone, we wouldn't save anything. ......although.....I pay £14.50 with NTL for a call package which gives 'free' landline calls, we still have to pay for special rate or mobile calls (which is not often as they cost too much!), so may be worth losing the package and just not using the phone! Having the internet is my hubby's domain....his hobby if you like, however my OU course needs internet access, I could go to a library or something, but my panic attacks prevent this unfortunatley.
Any other ideas?

Jo

lynzpower

I think you should dump NTL, especially as you dont need a freeview box to get the channels

I have
bt landline 11 pcm
primus 2 ( free evening & weekend calls to landlines, you pay in the day obv) this package is free and you get 15 for going throu uswitch on quidco.
Ive got tesco internet at 17.99 but they do a cheaper one at 13.97

so per month if you did the same it would cost 13.97 int, 11 landline, evening calls free = 24.97

lynzpower

asdas contact lenses are said to be cheap - around9-11 amonth from what Ive read from other users on here.

mojo-jojo_2

ref the endowment...... I had fleetingly thought of this but disregarded it because I thought the Halifax would not convert our mortgage because of our 'now crap' credit rating, plus the fact that it would cost us more monthly, and we don't have money to spare! lol. We only had 9 years left on our mortgage, but a 'FRIENDLY' young girl in our local Halifax branch did a mortgage review 3 years ago and 'helped' us gain a £25,000 secured loan (even though hubby was only working part-time....how does that work??!), and 'helping' us lower our monthly mortgage payments by extending our mortgage and the secured loan for a further 5 years. I feel like such an idiot, we could have approached CCCS 3 years ago, not taken out a secured loan, still only have 9 years left on the mortgage and be in a better position. Hindsight eh? As it stands at the moment, the endowment matures in 2015, but has a projected shortfall (we have received compensation from standard life for this, but it went on catching up with 2 missed payments to halifax credit card and all the charges that came with it...what a waste), but our mortgage and secured loan don't end until 2020. I still have the shortfall business to sort out somehow too. The light at the other end seems to be getting dimmer!

Jo