SOA advice please

tinamic

Thanks, I'll definately check this out and maybe I can get the older boys to pay into that for themselves and me, it would surely be beneficial for them too.
My mum helped me out at Christmas from what she saved in her credit union but she is in wales.
I am so grateful to her as it would have been pretty dismal without it, the last one was awful, both the older one's were out of work and I bought a very cheap net book for the youngest off ebay and it never worked properly at all, he was so dissappointed, this year they were able to buy each other presents and my middle son used his christmas pay to spend on clothes for young one which was lovely.

hp48910

Hi, couldn't read and run.

First things that spring to mind are by taking out tobacco and school dinners, then increasing sons' payments by £10 each you would save £115 instantly.

See your GP/stop smoking clinic. £60 is a lot to pay per month when you can't afford it and there will be health benefits in stopping too.

I'm sure if you pop over to the O/S board you can make decent (16 year old sized) packed lunches for less than £35 a month.

Also, your older boys could increase their contribution slightly to help you out.

Good luck with your journey. I'm quite new to this and only started my diary at the beginning of Jan but I have received loads of good advice from the guys here. I agree with what they say in that you aren't ready for bankruptcy just yet. Give one of the debt charities a call, CCCS is the one I read about most on here

chevalier

Whilst I truely understand how hard this is, you need to adjust your thinking.

At the moment you need to pay the following
rent
council tax
utilities
landline.
food
first

Once you have done those ones you can look at paying anyone else.

I would suggest as a first port of call that you cancel all direct debits for anything else except the above, and then write to each firm stating you are in financial difficulty and enclosing a pound token payment. This will give you some breathing space to try other avenues. eg the credit union.

Also would you be able to get a crisis loan to pay back the rental arrears?

You say your sons have debt, but how much and for how long for will they have them? Are they getting income support? Maybe they need to be writing to their creditors too asking for lower payments....

I know I am ignorant, but I thought accountancy was a lucrative profession? You mention being self employed and I am guessing this was because you had to fit it around the boys when they were older. As this is not now the case, will you be able to get a salaried position with a firm?

good luck with moving forward, you sound very stuck at the moment.

You may WANT to pay all of your debts but at the moment you only NEED to pay the priority ones mentioned above.

chev

KxMx

I appreciate your older boys have debts, but they are not I am assuming in danger of going bankrupt, so they need to reduce their payments to creditors and increase them to you.

barbarawright

Do your older sons know what your financial situation is? And they're prepared to see you bankcrupt so that you can continue subsidising them? :eek: If they don't know, tell them - they're adults. They will want to help.