Can't sleep at night, any advice??

dapast

I'm not saying to change banks then just ignore them all!! That's not mentioned in any of my posts!!

Your 2 choices as far as I can see,

1, if you can afford the repayments before and after the maternity then save the £350+ a month, pay the overdraft off to stop the interest, contact the loan companies, inform them of the baby situation and ask for a reduction in payment to get through maternity.

2, if the payments are going to be unaffordable after you go back to work because of extra costs then you need to look at a repayment plan, to payback ALL you own, but at a lower monthly rate, over longer, with frozen interest!
And the first thing and debt advice line will tell you to do, especially if you have overdraft and own money to the bank is to get a NEW account with a different bank then include the overdraft in you repayment plan!

dapast

Also try Googleing mum2mum market in lancs, think they are similar

BrussellSprout

You told me not to pay my overdraft off before I leave my current account...

You know what I signed up to this website looking for help. But people are very judgmental. I'm just going to continue on my own and remove my account. This thread has stressed me out more than the debt itself.

BigAunty

BrussellSprout wrote: »

Current income - £1,080.00
Contribution from Partner - £240.00
Total income £1,320.00

Rent - £300.00
C. Tax - £89.00
Loan Repayment 1 (Bank) - £192.00 (I have 82 months left to pay off)
Loan Repayment 2 (118 money) - £60.00 (I have 12 months left to pay off)
Credit Card Payment - £25.00 min. (£1,000 to pay off)
Contents insurance - £12.50
Washing machine insurance - £5.00
Gas - £30.00
Electric - £30.00
Food - £80.00
Bus Pass for work - £60.00
Dentist - £35.00
Sky TV - £28.00
Phone - £32.00 (contract - contacted them to ask to reduce, not option)

Total outgoings - £948.50

That's not a proper budget, just a high level one, and a reason why seemingly it incorrectly makes you appear that you have spare income after expenses.

You need to submit a proper statement of affairs to post on this forum and also download the MSE budget planner. Without accurate information, you cannot make the right decisions. Forum members will provide the link to providing a proper SOA.

I find it difficult to believe that you have no social or clothing expenses whatsoever, no TV licence, water bill or broadband, you never buy gifts or newspapers, magazines, or cleaning materials, no household items ever break and you never buy household goods other than food, never ever have a takeaway,never go to the hairdressers for a cut, and so forth.

Good on you for apparently only spending less than £20 a week on food which some people will blow on takeaway coffees but is this a genuine figure? .

dapast

Yes I said to not pay the overdraft before moving banks, I also stated to look at repayment plan or debt management, which would include your overdraft!
How can you ask for advice then moan when you get it, if you don't want to hear the answers don't ask the question!!!

BrussellSprout

I've deleted all the posts. Da past - I'm not responding to you anymore and your increasingly aggressive posts no need for the exclamation marks and nasty reply.

BigAunty - Just FYI

TV license - partner pays out of his own cash as I don't watch TV (the sky bill comes out of my account but he pays it)

Broadband - no, none, can't afford it and it's a luxury.

Newspapers and Magazines - why would that have to be on my list? No... I don't buy any..??

Water bill - genuinelly forgot about - £15.00

Clothing - last time I bought any was last Xmas, 2013. and I buy the odd £2.50 pair of black pants or skirt from barnados for work. (my shirts are provided)

Takeaway - no! I don't eat out at all.

Hairdressers - again not since 2012 - I cut my own fringe and the rest just grows as it likes. (and prior to that I went once a year, and prior to that I cut it myself as I had a shaved head!)

cleaning materials I included as part of shopping. it's very minimal.

people really are judgmental on here... If I was spending money on all the above I would obviously stop that before asking for debt help.

ViolaLass

OP, you're clearly not getting the advice you wanted. If you do choose to leave this thread, perhaps you might spend some time thinking about why you're not getting the advice you wanted.

For what it's worth, I was not seeking to criticise your partner, I was trying to point out that I think you (you alone and you both) need to adopt a different strategy.

ladymarmalade222

BrussellSprout wrote: »

You told me not to pay my overdraft off before I leave my current account...

You know what I signed up to this website looking for help. But people are very judgmental. I'm just going to continue on my own and remove my account. This thread has stressed me out more than the debt itself.

Please don't get stressed out and cancel your account. The people here are really trying to help you even if some replies do come across blunt and to the point. Sometimes in text replies are read a different way to what they are meant.

I joined this site many years ago, I was in a much worse situation than yourself. I was in well over 40k worth of debt on cards, loans etc. I had split with my son's father who changed the locks on our home and had been living at the hospital with my son for the past 5 months. He was due to have a bone marrow transplant but was too poorly to get through it so they decided to train me on his medications through a drip for 6 months to get him in a better condition for the transplant.

The only issue I had was I no had no home, my sister borrowed me the deposit for a rental house and I moved in and decided to get my head out of my bum for my son's sake. I hadn't spent on luxuries to accrue my debt, my life just changed overnight when my son took poorly and everything spiralled.

I joined this site and it was the best thing I did. Nobody is suggesting you run away from your debts, they are offering different ways of managing it - whether that is reduced payments which will affect your credit for a few years or reducing outgoings to snowball your debt. I chose the snowball method and it changed everything. I could see my debt reducing and it became addictive.

I know you are stressed at the moment, money is the biggest cause of stress and it is the last thing you need whilst pregnant.

Please listen to the advice and don't take things to heart (easier said than done I know). If you can get over the first hurdle and get a plan together it WILL change your life for the better.

I now have no debt and my mortgage is paid off in one month. My son is doing well and things are finally going to plan.

Stick with it, you won't regret it.

Take Care

xxx

Shovel_Lad

BrussellSprout wrote: »

Current income - £1,080.00
Contribution from Partner - £240.00
Total income £1,320.00

Rent - £300.00
C. Tax - £89.00
Loan Repayment 1 (Bank) - £192.00 (I have 82 months left to pay off)
Loan Repayment 2 (118 money) - £60.00 (I have 12 months left to pay off)
Credit Card Payment - £25.00 min. (£1,000 to pay off)
Contents insurance - £12.50
Washing machine insurance - £5.00
Gas - £30.00
Electric - £30.00
Food - £80.00
Bus Pass for work - £60.00
Dentist - £35.00
Sky TV - £28.00
Phone - £32.00 (contract - contacted them to ask to reduce, not option)

Total outgoings - £948.50

I do not run a car and I do not own my own home (and I have sold everything of value that is mine! All I have is clothes, cheap hair straightener, I don't have any beauty treatments or luxuries, yes I guess the TV is a luxury but that is my partner's need)

I haven't included my partners income, he earns about £500 a month and pays me the £240 then also pays the same as me for gas/electric (we are on pay as you go)

(note : my dentist may seem high, I have a lot of dental issues which need intensive treatment, this was the cheapest denplan option for my care, NHS is not an option due to them creating the problems I am currently having to pay for )

At the moment this seems do-able on paper - BUT I am also overdrawn by about £700 - this means my income disappears into a hole before my outgoings are even taken from my bank. I filled out all the Stepchange info and they just suggested I carry on as I am (but reduce my dental costs)

Now I know the answer would be I'm just going to have to struggle through it, I'm 27, I think I could have it all paid off by the time I am 36.

BUT I now have another issue... getting to the things that is keeping me up at night. I am having my first child in January.

When I am on maternity my income will halve. That terrifies me.. obviously the numbers will not add up.

I'm not sure what to do! is bankruptcy really an option? Or will they look at my current income and reject it?

I made some terrible mistakes with the loans and I have nothing to show for it (years of a past terrible relationship, gambling, loaning to other people... honestly every bad money decision that could be made I have made!)

Sorry for the rambling but I really wanted to make sure my whole situation was out there!!

Have you had a look at the Turn2us website?
You can do a benefit checker to see what money you will get when your baby is born.
http://www.turn2us.org.uk/

Once you have done that you will be able to do a revised budget/statement of affairs. Then talk to StepChange again or one of the other free debt advice charities again.

Good luck

BigAunty

BrussellSprout wrote: »

people really are judgmental on here... If I was spending money on all the above I would obviously stop that before asking for debt help.

I don't see that people are criticising your spending but wanting a true picture on your income and expenses. The type of prompting to see if there are any missing expenses or income are fairly standard. The type of suggestions for extra thrifty ways of dealing with it are common on this forum.

A big flag is that you appear to have significant disposable income after your expenses so that is probably why forum members are critiquing your spending, trying to guage the accuracy of your info. We are used to seeing people on this forum who miss out large chunks of their spending and cannot account for why they seemingly spend more than they earn.

This is actually quite a supportive forum.

You could contact an expert debt management charity (see the Direct Gov website for information on debt management). This still requires you to divulge a much more detailed list of expenses and may not necessarily result in a strategy which will dismiss you from being responsible for paying back your debts, though it is those experts who will be able to advise you if you can get them written off in the way you suggested on your opening post.