Newbie drowning in debt circa £330K

HeadAboveWater

Hi

Just wanted to say hi and welcome. You've taken the first (and brave!) step of posting on here!!

Looking at your SOA I agree with heartbreak_star and slowlyfading.

Groceries bill is huge! We're £150-£200 max a month for 2 adults and 3 teenagers. Meal plans, shopping lists, bargains, packed lunches, and shopping around are a good place to start.

Clothing as before. Can you hold off for a couple months and put that money towards the debt?

Haircuts. OH bought a pair of Wahl clippers in TK Maxx for under £12. He was only paying maybe £5 a month at the barber but we've already made back his £12 plus saved more with me doing his hair - and practise makes perfect! I'm a dab hand at it now!! :rotfl:

Holiday fund I'd also put on hold. Your debt is more important right now.

Small changes can make a big difference.

Wishing you luck and keep us posted!

SpagBol

I just wanted to wish you the best of luck, we are in similar levels of debt, we have a mortgage of £270k and our CC & OD debts were £58k this time last year. The way it happened seems very similar to you too, we went from a high income to much lower through redundancies, the recession etc. and DH was withdrawing money from a CC to pay his CC bill! I'm not the best person to give advice and you've had brilliant advice from the others too but just wanted to say you are not alone, well done for making the decision to beat the debt and good luck for the future

naomi123

Can you husband get a job?

Joanne123

Wow thanks - so many replies - hope I managed to thank you all!
Life insurance is very high - £65 for husband £100K 10 year policy from 2007. He has diabetes angina and thyroid problems
£57 for me - I have lupus but have previously had pulmonary embolisms and cardiac arrest. I think my death pays out £270K if I die at some point in the next 15 years.
Groceries - I agree too high
Council tax - it is over 10 months not 12
Gas/electric - over 11 months with Atlantic via dd - it came up cheapest on comparison sites and we get a months payments back in December.
Parking - it is low because I averaged out a year parking over 12 months, I only pay for parking for hospital appointments.
Public transport - again we only use this for when we go to Gt Ormond St so I averaged a years appointments.
Clothing - mainly school uniform - the school insist on shirts and sweatshirts and PE shirts with logos and only 1 supplier. We but 2nd hand from the school where possible.
Holidays - mainly school trips. Already this school year ( this is week 4) I've had to pay £40 "voluntary donations" for trips for the twins.
I also have to buy 2 lots of waterproof trousers by Friday for "outdoor learning" - cheapest I have seen is £15 per pair!
BTW groceries - includes school dinners.
I'll start a new post - this one is looking dodgy when I scroll back
Joanne

jamesd

Joanne123 wrote: »

We want to pay off our debts, we don't want them written off or written down - we ran up the debts so we have to pay them.

That is not a viable option unless you're willing to sell the house and have many tens of thousands in equity available after selling it and moving into rented accommodation.

Even with interest on all unsecured debts frozen it would take you almost seven years to pay off those debts. And that's including the benefits income.

Joanne123 wrote: »

As you say, mortgage is no 1 priority - it is £90K repayment and £160K interest only.

But seven years is not likely to be right because of the £160,000 interest only mortgage portion, which has to be dealt with somehow. Though downsizing is a possible way to do that. Unless you have some other plan to repay it?

You'll probably be advised to use IVAs for both you and your husband, which will mean writing off some of the unsecured debts so you'll have some realistic chance of clearing the mortgage before retiring. You might instead be advised to use bankruptcy.

A desire to repay is good but in this situation it's time to consider the family and that means using the tools that are in place specifically to help people with your problem. Insolvency is there to give you a fresh start and you should be willing to use at least the IVA form to avoid harming your family by keeping an unaffordable level of debt.

Joanne123

Grocery spening also includes the £21 I spend on weightwatchers each month - a luxury I know but I have lost over 2 stone in the last few months.......That is also adding to the clothing bill as I have dropped from a size 18 to a size 14 but I'm still wearing size 18 clothes and look a bit of a mess. I am taking out £20 per month for charity shop clothing - I do need to dress reasonably well for work.
Ditto haircuts - I have a hairdresser come to the house every other month and she does all 5 of us for £80. I will try to move it to every 10-11 weeks. Again, because of my job I have to have a certain level of grooming (I have stopped the acrilyic nails though so please cut me some slack)
Yes I did mix up the APS and monthly repayments to John Lewis - my apologies, I'm not sure if I can go back and edit the SOA but it will make even more depressing reading!
What else - oh yes, other assets £800 - these are our wedding rings - we don't really want to sell these.
Husbands main job is the kids and I think if I didn't have him childcare would cost around £500 per month as I generally have to attend at least 1 eveing meeting a week on top of working 09:15 - 18:00.
He does do some casual work for the council related to elections and brings home around £1,500 per year. He also wants to claim Attendance Allowance, I don't think he will be entitled but he has hopes so we will investigate that route.
Selling stuff - I don't think I can face E bay but would happily do bootsales or any selling with face to face contact, does anyone know of any other options? Also, how do I locate local boot sales and is there anywhere I can find boot sale advice - we have tons of stuff to sell and I would happily give up Sat or Sun mornings to get some cash in pocket.
I'll just go back over all your e mails and see if there are any queries I missed.
Many thanks for help so far
Joanne

Joanne123

Not sure if I was clear on this. We have a 20 year mortgage currently fixed until Jan 2014 £90K repayment the remainder interest only.
In Jan 2014 there will be 15 years remaining on the term.

I agree about the debts but husband is really unhappy about not paying everything back that we owe (including interest).
I'll have a look at the link from National Debtline and see what their recommendation is.
We can continue as we are but re negotiate longer repayment periods and our credit rating is shot to pieces OR we can go down DMP route and our credit rating is shot to pieces.
I'm not sure what an IVA is so can't comment on that.
My priority is our home if we can hang onto that then we have a stable and secure start for our children - the rest is optional.

Joanne

Joanne123

Joanne123 wrote: »

Thank you. I'll have a bash at that tomorrow during my lunch break.

Jo

Just as well I bit the bullet and did it last night as I didn't get a lunchbreak today!
I'm going to have a look at National Debtlines link now to assess my options and then if I get a lunchbreak tomorrow I'll look at the rest of the links you kind people have posted. If not, I'll be back tomorrow night

Someone has sent me a personal message but I'm not sure how I access that so my apologies, I'm not ignoring you and I will open it as soon as I work out how.

BTW bankruptcy is not an option for professional reasons

Joanne

perfecta1

Joanne123 wrote: »

Ditto haircuts - I have a hairdresser come to the house every other month and she does all 5 of us for £80. I will try to move it to every 10-11 weeks. Again, because of my job I have to have a certain level of grooming (I have stopped the acrilyic nails though so please cut me some slack)

Joanne

still very expensive! Try to find a Polish hairdresser. She will do this for 40 pounds for 5 people!

perfecta1

perfecta1 wrote: »

still very expensive! Try to find a Polish hairdresser. She will do this for 40 pounds for 5 people!

And I am not mean by saying this. They are good and cheaper than english one's!


ALso do you have any family so someone could take care of your childern? maybe your husband could work 4 h per day as school bus driver? (if haven't got the licence company can help with that)