Almost maxxed out

desperado1973

Do you really think that that conversation has not taken place every week of every year?

Employers do not want 40 year old degree qualified brits for cleaning jobs. they want 20 year old polish people. As would I if I were the employer. My partner has worked in bars, hotels as both cleaner and front of house and even delivered takeaways in the past. This work seems to have dried up. Who knows why?

Takeaways won't take them on officially but, want to pay £4 per hour, £1 per delivery and you have to buy your own fuel!

It seems to me that people here don't know what the employment market is like. I have a degree and 2 masters, extensive experience in many technical roles as well has management. I have applied for between 200 and 250 jobs in 4 years, am still applying at least once a month, and have had 3 replies.

I now spend my working day wiping backsides and being attacked by disturbed children with challenging behaviour, for little more than minimum wage.

If you have work paying more than 20K be thankful, if more than 40K you are very lucky indeed, count you belessings.

hojkoff

Amy look at it like this.

If your partner was to match your income it'd look like this:

Total income = £2800
Total outgoing ~ £1500

Balance = £1300

So you could say have £300 per month to enjoy yourself, that's not to bad, out every weekend for dinner, or a few more cloth every month, maybe a few drinks after work.
AND £1000 towards the dept.

making you dept free in about 35 months or, ONLY 3 YEARS!

How does that sound?

hojkoff

desperado1973 wrote: »

Employers do not want 40 year old degree qualified brits for cleaning jobs. they want 20 year old polish people. As would I if I were the employer.

My situation is different from yours I know BUT, I have a postgrad masters degree, and for the last 2 months, I've worked in a bar. It paid the bills......

My partner has worked in bars, hotels as both cleaner and front of house and even delivered takeaways in the past. This work seems to have dried up. Who knows why?

That's quite a bit of experience, which will look very good on a CV to work in one of these places.

Takeaways won't take them on officially but, want to pay £4 per hour, £1 per delivery and you have to buy your own fuel!

I used to work for a pizza delivery company (the other big one that isn't Dominos), take it from me, the tips pay the petrol, and you can do 4 deliveries per hour if you work hard, thus £8 per hour.......

It seems to me that people here don't know what the employment market is like. I have a degree and 2 masters, extensive experience in many technical roles as well has management. I have applied for between 200 and 250 jobs in 4 years, am still applying at least once a month, and have had 3 replies.

Why can't your other half do the same job?

Looks like people are taking people with all that academic achievement then......

sheba

Hi Amy, I couldn't possibly advise as to going bankrupt (or not as the case may be) as I don't have that knowledge. But you do, somehow, have to address the fact that even without your debt payments, you spend more than you earn. This has to be addressed as until that is remedied, you will always find yourself accruing debt. Also I think I am right in saying that you are not allowed credit facilities while bankrupt, so what will you do? You (or partner-whomever) must make the food budget a challenge and see what wonderful delights you can cook up out of a virtually non-existent budget. If you do this, and reduce your grocery bill down to £100 then at least you'll be breaking even in living costs- others will advise re: the debt. Best of luck on your journey x x x

Saving_the_family_silver

desperado1973 wrote: »

Do you really think that that conversation has not taken place every week of every year?

Employers do not want 40 year old degree qualified brits for cleaning jobs. they want 20 year old polish people.

Sorry but I have read with interest that is the exact job I do ok I am a few years young than you OH but in the exact same situation and I found a cleaning job within 2 months of redundancy the wages are rubbish, and the hours are long but hey ho it's money

FireWyrm

Desperado, please, o one is being self righteous and we do understand, believe me, most of us have been where you are and understand all too well.

I'm guessing you're over 50 right, which is what is causing your issue. First, leave your age off the CV, they have no right to ask and you don't have to disclose it. Second, use the modern methods if yu havnt already, you need to get onto the big sites like Monster and JobSearch. Carpet bomb anything that looks likely with a CV and don't stop. Call every agency in the phone book or who you can get numbers for on Google and send the CV. Re-read your CV and redesign it if necessary, 10 years ago, your CV would have been rejected for being less than 3 pages, now it mustn't be more than two and preferably a single page of bullet points...trust me on this.

Walk the local industrial estate and bang on doors. Ask for an interview. I've had two quality jobs this way the few times I was pushed to it so I know it works. Don't be proud, you need a job and you'll do anything. I've worked back to back day and night shifts split between offices and factories before now. It's hard work and soul destroying, but you need a job and this is what it has come to. Your OH must be persuaded to do the same or your family will fail, I guarantee it. Nothing kills a marriage faster than one half taking liberties and the other killing themselves trying to make ends meet.

You can reduce your outgoings I'm certain and others have made suggestions as to how to achieve this. When I was hard up against it, I didn't eat 2 days out of three. It does wonders for your waistline and I promise that after the first week, you won't notice the discomfort all that much, we eat too much anyway and most of us are carrying around a few more stones than is necessary.

Can you bike to a place of work? This will take care of petrol costs. Do you own anything of value you can sell? Gold spot prices are nicely in the high bracket, so much as it might pain you, granddads' gold watch might come in handy finally. Do you have anything else? One mans rubbish is anothers treasure...until you are sitting on deck chairs playing cards for entertainment, don't tell me you're at rock bottom because I've been there...you will survive, you just need to want it enough.

You are in a lifeboat and unfortunately, you have a serious leak, either one of you rows harder, or you both bail for all you're worth because you will sink eventually if you don't do something right now. This has nothing to do with divorce and shame on you for thinking such a thing was even suggested. Bankruptcy will destroy you and any chance you might have had. You will never again have credit and that means a rental agreement too. Are you really dead set on making yourself homeless because if the LL evicts you, you'll have the devils own job getting another contract for rent. Think about it. So much depends on your credit file...you can't work in a bank (or it used to be the case), you can't ever have credit, for any purpose unt you've served your six years. You most likely will not be able to secure another private rental, you will still incur defaults as well as nasty phone calls, letters, visits and depending on who you owe money to, bailiffs too.

Bankruptcy is not an option to be taken lightly. Please, don't. There are other ways and as bad as it feels now, you'll kick yourself later.

Murtle

If you live 50 miles from your work place and OH can't get work, is there any possibility of moving somewhere either closer to work to save on petrol, or where there might be other opportunities for OH to work?

Can OH start their own business doing something?

desperado1973

I have not made up my mind what to do, I do not think BR is a magic solution but paying £20 per month against a 35K debt would seem a futile gesture, that's 145 years to pay off.

I am in a debt crisis, I owe double my annual income.

With lots more cutting back I could possibly raise £100 per month towards repaying this debt. If I made an arrangement, either IVA or DMP, that would £7200 over 6 years and could last longer or be reajusted if my circumstances change giving me little stability and little incentive to improve my circumstances.

If BR after 1 year it should be finished and I can get on with trying to improve my circumstances and would have an incentive as I would see some of the results.

I was hopeing someone here could tell me why I should choose the former as I can't see it?

FireWyrm

Unfortunately, it's not one year, it's the best part of a decade this bankruptcy will haunt you as I have said.

So, tell me...what full and final offers have you attempted and was every single one rejected? What debt charities have you contacted and have they turned you away? Until the answer to this is YES and every single one, you are not out of options just yet. There's still mileage in begging your creditors and slogging it out with the job Market.

Yes, it will take 145 years to pay off at that rate, but don't you think your creditors can do the maths too? They will want some of their money and it's obvious you cannot pay it all, so half a loaf it better than none. Some credits will surprise you. I once got HMRC to agree to 1/10th of what we owed simply because it was impossible to pay it all. HMRC for heavens sake, they're famous for taking the clothes off your back if they could, but the sums were unequivocal and they knew it.

tallyhoh

I dont object to bankruptcy at all & for some people it is the only option but I do think you should take on board some of the suggestions made Re: SOA.
Even if you go bankrupt you are still spending more than you earn so what happens then?