What a Right Pickle!

angelnn66

nomoredebt, my husband and I seem to be in a very similar position to you with similar figures, although we have more debt! It is SO scary to start here with a huge debt of £32,000 (not including mortgage) like we have, but now we have done the Stepchange thingy, it looks like we really should be able to afford to pay it off. It's going to take years and it won't be much fun, but there are lots of us here in the same boat and I'm actually finding it quite fun saving money! I never used to even count what I was buying at the supermarket, I just piled the trolley high with whatever I wanted but I was on such a high today after doing a week's worth of food shopping at Asda for £59! It felt lots better than coming home loaded down and guilty from Waitrose after spending £300!

Time_to_face_the_music

angelnn66 wrote: »

nomoredebt, my husband and I seem to be in a very similar position to you with similar figures, although we have more debt!

Hi angelnn66 :hello:

I think the OP has over £81,000 of debt!

I agree about it being fun and a challenge saving money, we keep reminding ourselves how much better off we will be once we are debt free because we have learned to effectively budget :j

nomoredebtplease

Hi everyone. Apologies for not being on here for a few days but we've been doing a lot of soul searching / discussions (arguing!) / crying and calculating.

We've been thinking through how we could possibly manage to juggle all these balls and maintain everything that we want to do. It all came to a head a few days ago when we just couldn't see a way out.

As such, we thought (and I know people aren't going to like this!) we'd try and see if we could borrow more against the property to pay off some debt whilst also securing a longer term mortgage deal (5 year fixed) should we decide a DMP was the only way out (at least out mortgage would be protected for 5 years). We also thought that this would be a way of shifting some debt to a lower interest rate whilst also reducing our monthly outgoings. With a view that we would sell the house in a few years. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we were accepted on the existing mortgage but refused on the additional borrowing. They would only lend us another £20K anyway so that was out of the question.

I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that we had been looking to do some modifications to the house but weren't able to secure the money when we moved in a year ago. Well, one thing I've kept back from everyone is that we are about to be gifted some money to do these modifications. We knew this was coming but I didn't want it to cloud everyone's view as we didn't feel it was appropriate to use this money to correct our financial mistakes. Well, we've decided that this is clearly the only way out of our mess so we're going to scale back the development and use some of the money (£50K) to clear some of the debt. This should put us in a much more stable position.

I'm going to post another SOA calculator to reflect what we think our new position will be (my wife plans to leave her current job which she hates, to manage the build / spend more time with our twins / enjoy life a bit more!) so we will lose that income but gain so much more and hopefully start to enjoy ourselves a bit more.

Newyorkdreams

Hi NMD -I'm glad you have reached a conclusion that you are both happy with. Although, I can't help but feel that a LOT of people have spent their own valuable time trying to respond positively to your situation and give you advice when you were actually hiding some of the facts. I don't mean to be mean, but it must be nice to be 'gifted' 50K and your wife give up work when you are so much in debt! It is only a dream for so many people on here who need to slog their guts out to pay back debt. Anyway, I am not normally mean spirited so I wish you well, I just feel, a little cheated that you withheld something that probably would have changed a lot of people's opinions.

NYD

[Deleted User]

I agree NYD.

A lot of people, have spent a lot of time, giving advice on an imaginary situation. :mad:

racing_blue

What I am thinking...

How on earth are you going to manage on just over half your current income? Two heads are better than one when it comes to income... they each bring personal and basic rate tax allowances for one thing.

In my house, the missus would have to clear that debt, build a savings fund, sweep the floor, cook the tea and then- when we were home and dry- only then might I let her have have an afternoon off!

barbarawright

So you'll be left with maybe £40,000 debt rather than £80,000, a much reduced income and a continued overspend because you don't want to change your lifestyle? I hope it works out for you, I really do but it sounds a bit like one of those Daily Mail articles about the squeezed middle classes who can't give up their housekeepers and second homes

wattapain

The op is taking the proverbial here imo - all the posts/advice given - for what?
This has obviously been a joke at this forum's expense - probably having a good laugh right now.

End of. :mad:

worried48

Well, I will still give the OP the benefit of the doubt. There is another solution. Homeschooling. That way wife gets to stay at home with the twins, twins don't mix with the nasty elements of society, and you save the school fees.

Unfortunately even if you do that, the saving in the school fees is not going to be as much as the loss of income, so even with a reduction of over half your unsecured debts, trouble will still be ahead. But I suppose you can get any arrears paid off and keep afloat for a little longer.

jo91

I can only agree with the recent responses here - a lot of folk put in a lot of thought to try to assist here, not very fair of the OP when this is a place of last resort for many (who do not have substantial gifts to drop in their laps).

Time to walk away from this before I vent...