cant stop obsessing about SOA's

wharty

izools wrote: »

Salary is relative. £26K isn't a lot if OP and their OH each require their own car, possibly for medical reasons, nor is it a lot if they live in a part of the country where rent / mortgage on a property big enough to house their family is through the roof.

Their child might engage in extra curricular activities which require funding, e.g. learning an instrument and / or sports / hobbies etc; no official receiver would tell parents to stop paying for something like that I'm sure, just ensure they do it the most cost effective way.

Even in Exeter where I live £26K salary for a family of three would require certain compromises or sacrifices.

Yea that's right. We pay nearly 10k a year in rent alone!

debt_doctor

Someone in a DRO with 2 adults and one child could have £630 pm as housekeeping. This is a debt remedy, as the IS describe it " a debt remedy for the poorest in our society".
Hence I see no reason for it not to apply in BR.

DD

TinyToes

we have £115 per week for groceries etc for 2 adults and 2 children

coolcait

Bella_Smythe wrote: »

we have decided to go BR, definately, with our level of debt and the house shortfall dont really think theres any other option. but we cant do it just yet for various reasons, saving BR fees and deposit for a rental house/flat, also whether to let Leeds reposess before or after, voluntary or not, etc, etc.
but i find im obsessing about SOAs. check the forum every day and read ones everyone has posted. and im constantly making 'dummy' ones for ourselves to (a) see if we can not get an IPA/IPO (sorry if this offends the moral majority) and (b) see if we will actually be able to live. aaaarrrggggh. i need to stop doing this till we actually need to do it but its on my mind 24/7 just about/
Bella

You hit the nail on the head when you typed the bit in bold.

I think many of us recognise that kind of obsessing, but it's harder to see how to get out of doing it

One way of breaking the cycle of obsessing is to manage those fears. Here's an extreme example : http://www.naute.com/jokes/worry.phtml

In your case, you're worried that you might not actually be able to live on the amounts 'allowed' in a standard SOA.

So, in order to manage that fear, you can use this time to gather evidence on how much you actually spend, and what you spend it on. You can use that evidence to back up your SOA, so that it is accepted by the OR.

And you can use the knowledge on this site to find ways to spend less than the allowances...

On the other hand, if you have enough surplus that you could pay an IPA over three years, and it would pretty much cover your total debt, then maybe bankruptcy isn't the right option for you.

If you get a three year IPA, which barely makes a dent in the total amount you owe, but you're debt-free at the end of it - why would that be a bad thing?

Bella_Smythe

thanks guys.
and no, three years on any sort of liveable IPA/IPO wouldnt hardly make a dent in the great swirl of debt as it will also include a negative-equity shortfall on our home . so i guess your right it wouldnt be terrible.