Just having a moan.....

Jones01

I had my LBM in September 2013 when my debts were over £13,000 and I've been working hard to reduce it and try to get some savings going. I have not told anyone about this debt as I was very embarassed and my boyfriend and family would never understand. I got the debt down to just under £3,000 and felt very proud of myself, and then a couple of days ago got a letter from HMRC to be told I owed them an overpayment in Child tax credits (single mum) of £1700! It's made me feel so down and like this journey will never end

Thank you to all the people on here who share their experiences because without you I don't think I would have got this far - but today I feel like giving up and doing all the things I haven't been able to do for the past 8 months - go out, but clothes (actually buy anything!) buy food from M&S instead of Lidl & Aldi and just say TO HELL WITH IT!......I won't, I know I'll just knuckle down quietly and work out how to pay back this extra debt and push my debt free date back a few months. But please someone tell me, does the journey to be debt free ever end, or do other things always creep up on you?

Thank you for the moan

bess1234_2

Wow . You paid a huge amount of debt off quickly. That's amazing. Well done:T:T:T

How much is your blow it budget. Set a limit then you won't feel bad in the morning.

elsien

You've got your debts down from over 13K to 3K in less than a year? That's a massive achievement, you must have worked so hard to get there, not sure I could have managed that.
Finding out about the tax credits must be really disappointing and I can see why it's knocked you for six. Do you think they're right or would it be worth checking in case they've made a mistake? If it is right though and you compare it to the money you've already paid back it's a setback not a disaster.
Everyone needs to treat themselves once in a while to keep motivated. Can you think of something you can do that will cheer you up without breaking the budget completely?

Jones01

Unfortunately it looks like the overpayments are correct , I've been living on a budget of £50 a month for food for me & my daughter and £60 for everything else so it's been so tough, but the worst thing is I've lost quite a few friends along the way because of not going out and not being able to afford to do practicaly anything since last year - but it's been worth it to see that debt go down so quickly. I have a deadline to clear the CC debt because of a remortgage that's looming - but that's another (complicated) story

I don't really have a blow it budget (because I can't afford one!) and I have the grand sum of £2.80 to last until payday (which is luckily only a few days away) so my blow it budget would be the dreaded CC! I might just buy myself a curly wurly, and hope this urge to spend goes away

SeduLOUs

mmm. Curly wurly sounds delicious

You've done so well, and even with the added amounts it shouldn't set you back more than a month or two with your current debt killing.

You'll be out of this before you know it and then I think you should have a couple of 'blow it' months with the spare cash you used to throw at debt before sitting down and having a serious think about what to do with all the extra money you're going to have

Kate_fixing_it

Oh OP, I just want to give you a big hug. I have been there (recently ) and it's such a kick in the gut. I can also empathise with the "s*d it" feelings. You've worked unbelievably hard to get here.

Now, practically, how are they taking the overpayment back? Is it being deducted from the new award? That's how mine is going and I realised (yesterday) that they're getting £167 a month! £37 more than my DMP payment!

There's two ways to look at it: if it's taken from this year's award you'll have a reduced income but it'll be gone in a year OR if that causes you financial difficulties you can call the overpayments team and come to an arrangement to repay over a longer period. All they want is the money back and whilst this is massive to you it's not a big deal to them, there'll be people out there owing tens of thousands and repaying at £20/30 per month (in fact I know of one - it makes my blood boil!)

You need to decide which is better as either way (if it's correct) it needs to be repaid. Have they given you a breakdown of how it was calculated? You can call and ask for that but be prepared - it's renewal season and it took me half an hour to get through to a person on Monday

As for those who didn't stick around to support you s*d them! They clearly aren't worth your time if they only want to be around for the fun stuff. You are better off without them, I could go on in that vein but I'm sure you have reached your own conclusion on them.

Keep your chin up, you have done fantastically well and it won't be long at all until you are debt free.

Kate x

Jones01

Thank you guys so much for the replies, it's so nice knowing other people are out there in a similar position - it feels so lonely being in debt sometimes!

SeduLOUs - I've already thought about a blow it month and the first thing I'm going to do is book myself a massage! Then hopefully all the stress of this journey will go away!

Kate_fixing_it - Thank you for the kind words. With regards to the tax credits, because my wage increased last year compared to the year before my entitlement has gone right down, so even though they will take that out of the debt I will still have to pay back a little every month. But at least it's better than having to pay it back in a lump sum, which was what I orignally thought I'd have to do, eeekkk

elsien

Jones01 wrote: »

SeduLOUs - I've already thought about a blow it month and the first thing I'm going to do is book myself a massage! Then hopefully all the stress of this journey will go away!

Groupon! Then you get to be pampered and feel virtuous all at the same time.

SeduLOUs

elsien wrote: »

Groupon! Then you get to be pampered and feel virtuous all at the same time.

Nice. I always forget Groupon exists because I try to limit 'treat' spending. Thank you for reminding me!

I plan to book a nice massage after the 3 hours university maths exam I have in less than 3 weeks (I feel a bit sick thinking about it)

Jones01

Groupon! Brilliant idea :T

Kate_fixing_it

Jones01 wrote: »

Thank you guys so much for the replies, it's so nice knowing other people are out there in a similar position - it feels so lonely being in debt sometimes!

SeduLOUs - I've already thought about a blow it month and the first thing I'm going to do is book myself a massage! Then hopefully all the stress of this journey will go away!

Kate_fixing_it - Thank you for the kind words. With regards to the tax credits, because my wage increased last year compared to the year before my entitlement has gone right down, so even though they will take that out of the debt I will still have to pay back a little every month. But at least it's better than having to pay it back in a lump sum, which was what I orignally thought I'd have to do, eeekkk

If you have no entitlement I believe that you can ask them to alter your tax code to repay it so essentially with the new tax code changes you could be in a similar position to before the overpayment came to light.

I don't think they can ask for it to be paid back in a lump sum as they don't give it to you in a lump sum. I may be misinformed on that though. On the plus side, there'll be no interest charged so perhaps you can offer them a small amount while you clear the other debts and up it when those are cleared?

I wish I'd been as sensible, level-headed and determined as you when my teens were small, I would have saved myself 1000s and so much stress and heartache!

You should be so proud of what you have done.

Kate x