please help im in serious debt!!!!

bustiblondilocks

ok this isnt easy to admit but i am seriously in debt!

My ex husband was a total control freak and even though i was earning full time wage he totally controlled the money! he got us into a lot of debt and left me to pay off the loan, which was in joint name! He didnt pay any of it when he left so i had to pay the £200 a month by myself! i took out credit cards to pay the bills and essentials so i could pay to get the loan cleared quicker and free from being bound to him financially as he was ramping up the debts with new partner! Ironic, i got a bad credit rating by trying to protect it from him, but i screwed it up all by myself!
Problem is now in so much in debt its scaring me! have just had the bank half one of my overdrafts and theyve advised that the others are up for review in April and im worried how i will get through this as half my debt is the overdrafts, i never seem to clear them!!

I know i have to change my ways but how?! i desperatly want to get out of this before it gets totally beyond me! I am £5000 in debt!

My details are:

Out goings a month (in chronological order):
Rent £600 (moving not an option as costs of moving are too high with reference fees and physically moving, not to mention admin fees companies charge for changing address details etc)
Water £25
Electric £62
Council tax £69
Tv licence £12.12
Bus fare (to go see family once a month) £10
Gym £16 (i know this should be first to go but its doctors orders due to obesity! my own fault again!!)
Credit card repayments £300
Interest on overdrafts £35
Food/ household shopping £250
childrens extra curricular activities (music lessons, clubs etc) £35
phone and broadband package £25
Mobile phone £15
birthdays/christmas £10
Charity donations £3
home insurance £8
life insurance £9
school dinners £20.50 (on the day the kids with their dad, so they eat a decent meal!)

Total = 1504.62

income per month: now this is where im really ashamed! Even though i work its not quite full time and im having to earn benefits so feel that i owe the whole country the debt not just the banks! I hate it and cant wait till i can get back on the career ladder again and earn my keep!!

Wages £550 (the average amount, it varies which doesnt help)!
Maintenance £110
Benefits £915

Total =£1575

1575-1504.62= £70.38 which is what i have left to try and make a dent in the £2800 overdrafts and to pay for other things like clothies, extra uniform bits etc.
My cards are near to maxed out at the moment and im unable to do any shuffling yet!
my landlords contract means i cant change electric or water provider! which is a pain!
Im panicking with all these benefit changes into universal credits too, i wont know untill it happens how it changes things either! im in tears and so scared! ive let my children down

HELP?! please?

saje

sorry that you are in this position, im not experienced enough to give you advice but there are places to go and speak to people who will sit down with you and work out a solution. please dont borrow from peter to pay paul. im sure this can be sorted

amcg100

Hi - sorry to hear you are so down about what at is at the end of the day quite a small amount of debt. Your two biggest outlays are rent and credit card repayments and I think you will make most impact by reducing these. Assuming your rent is paid by your benefits there is probably no point in attacking , but you can certainly make an impact into your borrowing costs. A £5000 personal loan should cost about £100 per month over 5 years, even less over a longer term. This would give you a fresh start and it's what I would advise. You would however need to address your other spending to be sure that your debts do not spiral out of control. The most important thing is to keep your head up and be confident, do not let the banks bully you. 5K is not lot, - consider it a warning and try to live within your means - good luck.

[Deleted User]

amcg100 wrote: »

Hi - sorry to hear you are so down about what at is at the end of the day quite a small amount of debt. Your two biggest outlays are rent and credit card repayments and I think you will make most impact by reducing these. Assuming your rent is paid by your benefits there is probably no point in attacking , but you can certainly make an impact into your borrowing costs. A £5000 personal loan should cost about £100 per month over 5 years, even less over a longer term. This would give you a fresh start and it's what I would advise. You would however need to address your other spending to be sure that your debts do not spiral out of control. The most important thing is to keep your head up and be confident, do not let the banks bully you. 5K is not lot, - consider it a warning and try to live within your means - good luck.

i`m sorry but borrowing money to repay dent is rarely if ever good advice
op it may help to speak to one of the debt charities who will help you for free,it could be that if you owe less than 15k a DRO maybe the way to go,there are other options have a look at the bankrupcy forum(not that im suggesting BR but advice on DRO DMPs and IVAs are all on there)
eta link;
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=136

Own_My_Own

I'm really sorry you have found yourself in this situation.

Although you have posted your income/outgoings, doing a SOA will make it easier for others to help you make savings, as it is the way they are used to looking at them.

http://www.stoozing.com/msoc/soacalc.php

Robin_TBW

bustiblondilocks wrote: »

Gym £16 (i know this should be first to go but its doctors orders due to obesity! my own fault again!!)

Could you not work out at home? It's what I do. I spent £1 on a workout DVD and have been going with it since January 1st. When I'm bored of that one I've got another £1 DVD to move on to.

Allypops

There's always a way to sort these things out. Try not to be so hard on yourself too. You obviously have had a lot going on.

For now I'd concentrate on talking to one (or more) of the debt charities to see what your options are for dealing with your debts. Once you get a plan together for the debt, I'm sure you'll start to feel more positive about everything else too.

One of the free debt charities, Step Change, has an anonymous on-line debt remedy whereby you input all your income, outgoings, debts etc and it comes up with recommended course of action plus alternatives. It also gives a lot of information about dealing with debt. Because it is anonymous, and you don't have to actually speak to anyone directly, I found it a good starting point when I was facing up to debt. And of course, you don't have to take their advice if you don't want to. If you think it might help, the link is below:

http://www.stepchange.org/Debtremedy.aspx

I hope things look up for you soon. Keep posting. It can be good to let everything out sometimes.

ALIBOBSY

Ignore "peter" he is touting for business. Never use any of these companies that charge to sort out your debts use the free debt charities.

I suppose it depends how desperate you are to keep your credit file clear, although it sounds as though it may already have taken some hits as they may advise making reduced payments.

Looking at it you already have a pretty tight budget, so it may just be a case of sticking to it and using that £70 to target one debt at a time till its cleared.

Good luck

Ali x

Own_My_Own

You can not keep promoting this company. Is it your company by any chance ?

Willing2Learn

Own_My_Own wrote: »

You can not keep promoting this company. Is it your company by any chance ?

Own_My_Own wrote: »

Already have. And on the other thread.

Hi Own My Own!

Any chance you could delete the offending information you have quoted from peterpan in your post? All the original spam posts have been deleted by the forum teams but the quote still remains. Someone might follow the advice given within the text you have quoted, when everyone knows that Stepchange, National Debtline or any other professional free debt counselling service is the best place for quality advice, guidance and support.

Thank you!!!

Own_My_Own

Willing2Learn wrote: »

Hi Own My Own!

Any chance you could delete the offending information you have quoted from peterpan in your post? All the original spam posts have been deleted by the forum teams but the quote still remains. Someone might follow the advice given within the text you have quoted, when everyone knows that Stepchange, National Debtline or any other professional free debt counselling service is the best place for quality advice, guidance and support.

Thank you!!!

Sorry didn't think of that. It's late, and been a bit of a day.

Deleted now.