Pesto is in a messo...

Pesto

I have had money troubles for many years now. Along with that I have had mental heath issues which I put to the side to 'Just get on with it' attitude. Sadly everything got on top of me and four weeks ago I tried to take my own life. Things should have been on the up but I didn't see that.

Facts.

-My OH and self rang a Small Business that went out of business last June.
-We have been in a joint claim since then and we were able to get housing and council benefit.
-My OH got a job and started on the 29th April.
-I tried to take my life on the 27th April due to the stress of life and feeling a total failure.


Council Other £ 350 Partner only

HMRC Other £ 1,600 Client only

Lloyds TSB Overdraft £ 300 Client only

Lloyds TSB Credit Card £ 4,936 Client only

Past due collections Other £ 1,121 Joint

Vanquis Bank Limited Credit Card £ 459 Partner only

Rent £425


Water £44

Council tax £56 £56 agreed amount towards arrears of £2110

Gas £40

Electricity £40


Telephone/mobile/internet £54

TV licence £13


Fines/CCJs/decrees £3 CCJ:3 x CCJs - 1 is being enforced through High Court




Spares/servicing £10

Road tax £21

Insurance £40

Fuel/parking £40




Food/toiletries/cleaning £185 Reduced from £300.









Medicine/prescriptions Exempt.

Dentist/opticians Exempt.

Hairdressing Reduced to pay priorities.




Personal & Leisure Amount Comments



Clothing/footwear £22



Sundries & Emergencies Amount Comments



Sundries & emergencies Reduced to pay priorities.

Loan from family/friends £12,000 owed to parents.


Rent/board received £325



Jobseekers Allowance £481




Total Income £806

Total Expenditure £970

Surplus (Deficit) (£-164)


Hope you can make it out.

Pesto x

Pesto

In other words we were -£164 being out of work.

OH goes to work.

I stay signed on. In the mean time we have another few debts appear.

These would amount to

HMRC £20 a month
More CT Arrears £20 a month
Eon Gas £1 a month

So another £41 out a month so -£200

Then the OH change in money.

We had £806 in JSA plus benefits.

He now will earn about £1000 a month in wages.

We will get £30 a week in Tax Credits.

We are money wise better off?

Well, I need a prescription every week of anti depressants (£7.65 a week)
I also have to pay for my other bits on prescription (£7.65 a month)
I will get nothing else.

Whats problem? you may say. Well my home life is now worse as he works and im 'sitting on my !!!!' Ive just qualified as a nail technician but I cant get a straight job.

???

Pesto

On top of the £806 we were also getting Council Tax credit. This means now we will have to pay £110 though I am applying for second person reduction.

Overall the Money advice service took all my bits together and got this

Budget summary

Total income£ 1130.45
Total spending£ 1163.98
Total shortfall£ 33.53

Spending breakdown

Household bills £ 710.00 61%
Living costs £ 240.00 21%
Financial products £ 113.00 10%
Family & friends £ 0.00 0%
Travel £ 100.98 9%
Leisure £ 0.00 0%

The financial products being my repayments.

Pesto

So over the past week I know have had two other debts creep forward.

Marston Group (Old Supplier debt) £3998.42
Buccanan and Wells (For Eon Energy) £852.89

The first one is at High court enforcement stage so I am preying they will accept £20 in my situation which I am borrowing for my parents to keep them at bay.
The second has with the information I gave to step change letting me pay £1 a month until my circumstances change.

I know I should be happy about my light bulb moment but it just feel like its bringing more problems and I just seem to be so much more stressed yet I shouldn't be? Does that make sense?

Pesto

So this morning I decided to ring round and find out the EXACT balances on my accounts. I found this important as some of the letters or statements I had were from last year. I mean I could be being charged interest? I could be being charged more? Plus I feel that I need to update Step Change soon (not that it is a merry picture). Below is my findings.

Marston Group £3596,
Buccanan andWells £851.89,
Council CT Arrears £256.73,
HMRC Other £1517.84,
Lloyds TSB Overdraft £ 300,
Lloyds TSB CreditCard £ 4,927,
Past due collections Other £ 1,111.92,
Vanquis Bank LimitedCredit Card £ 459,
Equita £1547.07,
Non Domestic Rates Arrears £281.12


Total Debt £14848.07


The thing is that my OH is possibly (fingers crossed) going to start work. It will be a NMW job but it might put us in stead to be able to get a DRO which was spoken about with step change when we first spoke to them and also with the CAB. The only thing is that I will have to start paying for my prescriptions which is a nightmare as my anti depressants are given to me weekly. However I will see what help I can get if he is lucky enough to return to work.

Mara_uk7

"The only thing is that I will have to start paying for my prescriptions which is a nightmare as my anti depressants are given to me weekly. However I will see what help I can get if he is lucky enough to return to work"

Can you see about getting a "season ticket" for prescriptions, Would work out so much cheaper. Ask your GP please.

Pesto

Thanks Mara_uk7

I had heard about this and also there might be a form I could fill in to get help also. Because of my attempt to take my life the Doctor wont write a prescription for more than a week, but that is my own doing sadly

Pesto

I have found that one good thingabout the light bulb moment and also facing my problems is that I seem to be abit more organised. I mean I rang all those people today where at one time Iwould have buried my head in the sand. I have the doctors and councillor todaybut instead of wanting to curl up in a ball I want to go and sort out thegarage and see what I can sell and get rid of.



The debt I want to clear first isthe Lloyds TSB Overdraft. Its £300 but the account is no longer used. Me and myPartner are now with the Natwest as we were given the advice to not use Lloydsaccount for our benefits as they could be used to pay/offset the debts there.The thing is because Lloyds wont close the account because we are in overdraftthey still charge us £12.95 a month for the account. My Partner does say thatat least we get the benefits which the main ones are AA Roadside and MobileInsurance but I'm sure we could get these cheaper? Make it I thought that webought AA? My partner insures my not I have looked online briefly and Imsure we could get a better deal IF we could pay off the overdraft and shop forthese elsewhere.



So that is the priority with anyextra pennies to get shot of.

Pesto

Ok so just signed up for two challenges on here.

The Grocery Challenge for June. £180 spend only. I have already spent £22.26 since the first of June even though I have only signed up for the Challenge today I have an app on my phone that I decided to start using from the 1st of the month.

Also the 1 debt v 100 days challenge. I choose the Lloyds TSB debt of £300 as that is the one that is the biggest pain as I still have to pay £12.95 a month for it

*Robin*

Hello Pesto, :hello:

Well done - you've made a good start and you sound determined to beat down your debts which is great!

Am a bit confused about your partner's job - if he's on NMW are you entitled to any top-up benefits? Some include free eye tests and prescriptions so that might be worth looking into?

Good luck with the challenges you've taken on!

Pesto

Thank you *Robin*

We have been told we could get WTC of about £30 a week which would be a help. Also I will ask what other benefits we could get too