Help - in serious trouble.

DreamerV

If you had them before, and now that you're on less money if you've not yet gone back to work, ask tax credits to let you put in a current year income estimate. Make sure your SMP payments haven't been included anywhere. Make sure your new baby is on the claim too.

RAS

Hi

if you are already seriously considering selling the house, then do not tie yourselves into a 5 year insolvency arrangement that will have to be declared for ever and a day. Not least as the fees are very high and you will end up paying them and the debt, instead of just the debt.

You need a debt management plan that tides you over until the house sales comes through.

Try to get on https://www.freegle.org.uk and freecycle and see if you can get things like paint on there.

DS4215

How much is your salary? - It looks like you are spending £600 a month in childcare costs and another chunk to travel to/from work and for the extra car. Is it financially viable for you to continue working or would you be better looking after the kids until they start school?

Triggles

DS4215 wrote: »

How much is your salary? - It looks like you are spending £600 a month in childcare costs and another chunk to travel to/from work and for the extra car. Is it financially viable for you to continue working or would you be better looking after the kids until they start school?

I have to say that I wondered this myself. I also am wondering with a 15 wk old baby, are you still on maternity leave? If not, when did you go back? Did you build up savings at all with the money you might have saved in childcare and petrol over the time you were off for maternity??

ETA - reading back, I see you're not due back until October. So shouldn't you have the extra money for petrol and childcare available for you?? I realise you may need to pay a small fee to hold places open for childcare, but I can't imagine anyone paying £600 per month just to hold childcare places, that's insane!

cashlessmummy

Thanks for the questions.
We are still paying for my little girl to go to nursery two mornings per week as otherwise she would lose her place (that and she needs the stimulation or she'd be climbing the walls!) - the added cost is going to come from 2 children on full days come october.
The grand plan was to put away the money we were saving on petrol and extra nursery in the first few months of mat leave but, as we already had some financial issues (which to be honest we had underestimated) this didn't work out.

We've looked at the house selling option and not sure it is a viable one - we won't have enough equity to pay enough off and still have enough for a deposit to buy somewhere else (looking at cheaper areas) so we could sell our home and actually end up no better off. We looked at renting but are very limited as we have two dogs and not many places will allow them.

I'm waiting for a call back from CCCS to discuss options and we have an appointment arranged with our bank (who also own our loans and credit cards) so hopefully we can get the ball rolling and get things sorted. Am hoping that as we are pre-empting the major issues they might be kind!

On the plus side, I did my weekly shop for £6 under budget today including 4 birthday presents - go me!

Thanks again everyone x

AppleMatt

Just chiming in with a wave of support here :T

The thing to keep in mind is that there is always ways to sort the situation and get to a better place - many people's stories here are testament to that :beer:

Also, whilst there's an obligation to pay back what you've borrowed, remember unsecured debt shouldn't be top of the list, and if it comes to choosing food, leccy, council tax, petrol for work etc. and repayments - then don't feel too bad about missing a month or two, just talk your situation through with the creditors

Good luck with the bank, don't let any of this stop you smiling and enjoying life

dancingfairy

cashlessmummy wrote: »

Thanks for the kind words. SOA below. I tried the CCCS debt tool thingy - it randomly came out reckoning I have over £200 spare per month (whereas I am actually about £700 in the red) and still recommended an IVA - which reading it there is no way we could go for as we would lose cars etc which we need for work. Plus that seems like a really scary option!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,115.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 143.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 can you get these cheaper? I would have thought 12 pounds a month or less each would suffice?
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.13
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.17
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 this is expensive
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 what's this for - are you getting any benefit?
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670.00
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476.67
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700.00 this section is the section that's crippling you - nothing else on the SOA looks too hideous to be honest.
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
. . . . . . . . . 0.00
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600.00 can you use childcare vouchers at all? can you rearrange your work hours to minimise this at all? make use of family/friends? can husband work flexibly at all?
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 what's this for - I missed that?
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,258.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,017.96

I think a dmp or possibly an IVA are looking like your best options at the moment.
Best of Luck
df

downsizer3

A quick thought - would your mortgage lender let you go interest only until you sell?

dancingfairy

How much do you owe? Is it possible to list the debts and the apr's? How long have you got left on the loan?
Please be very careful when going to see the bank - some banks see it as an opportunity to earn their commission and sell you products which earn them money but keep you in debt longer and you end up paying more interest over a longer period of time. You have a maximum of what 150 a month to go towards all debts so that suggests to me that if they do offer you something they will have to stretch it over a significant period of time. I also suspect that they may well offer you a secured loan - which if you default could put your home at risk.
I'm really not convinced the bank will actually help. By all means talk to them but be very careful and I would definitely not agree to anything without having time to go home and talk it over and post it on here so people can see what they think. I think you would be far, far better off talking to a debt charity.
Best of Luck
df

dancingfairy

How much equity have you got in the house? How realistic is selling up and rebuying or moving into rented? Will the new mortgage/rent be significantly cheaper? Normally this is a kneejerk reaction from people and it makes sense for very few people to just sell up.
Given the level of debts I assume you are in from the minimum payments and the amount you will have free for debt repayments it does look like in practical terms an IVA may well be the most sensible option. A dmp may also be possible, depending on whether you can do more hours at work/drop the childcare charges as the children become older and start school and whether your husband is likely to get a payrise in the nearish future.
Best of Luck
df