Please help feel like I am drowning in debt

Jon_B_2

Are you receiving any money from the children's father?

devils_vixen

can you not tell friends family about situation? It might relieve the pressure a bit and they may be able to help you out possibly in short term?

little_gem_3

No i'm not. Payments stopped about 8 months ago and csa are well Csa!!
I am too ashamed to admit to anyone what a mess I am in. I have only just admitted ti myself and if it wasn't for my amigo loan, i'd be looking at going bankrupt and starting afresh(well as fresh as one can be after bankruptcy!).

I don't know what to do - keep going over and over finances to see if i can cut a bit here and there but it's not much. I've thought about ignoring it - they'll soon go away but the stress, letters and phonecalls won't so thats why I want to get it sorted the right way.

I cant sleep as my brain just wont let me forget about it all - I see £signs in my sleep and they are not the ones I want to see!!

mum2one

by looking at the figures if you had less than £50 available for debt repayment you could be eligable for a debt relief order, less formal than bankruptcy..

CSA - no comment I know where your coming from x

Bobarella

Not a massive help Little Gem but having looked through your SOA your council tax at £130 looks high especially for single occupancy. We pay £136 for a 3 bed house but that is 10 payments so we could go lower if we paid over 12 months and I think you should be getting a discount. Are you?

Tixy

Given your SoA figures its no wonder you feel so stressed and down.

If you feel you cannot approach your guarantor and explain that you cannot keep up with the amigo loan then I understand but based on your figures I cannot see a way you can keep up with the amigo repayments.

On your figures even if you only offer £1 a month to the 4 other creditors you still cannot afford to keep up payments on the amigo loan. You would still have nearly a £200 shortfall and I cannot see where in your outgoings you could save £200. The groceries could definitely be reduced, perhaps by say £100 a month, but there would still be a further £100 to find.

I would definitely seek some advice from one of the debt advice charities. They'll be able to discuss all the options with you, and the implications.

I do think it would be helpful to you if you could discuss with someone you know, I know you say you feel ashamed but I am sure your family or friends would be supportive emotionally even if they cannot help financially. They will surely understand the pressures of being a single parent, the costs of moving house and the difficulties when you are getting no financial support from the children's father.

esbm

Try Christians against poverty - I know they are very good at dealing with creditors on your behalf and will certainly stop your relative being harrassed

faithcecilia

If you are really and truly committed to finding the money to keep paying the Amigo loan so that your guarantor doesn't have to, it is possible but will need real commitment and, initially at least, an awful lot of work making changes. My situation was different, but when I was getting myself out of debt I made it my absolute priority and cut my spending to the absolute minimum. It is hard, but it is possible. My notes and figures below will probably horrify you, but might give you something to think about as to whether you think you could live like that until this loan is payed off.

little_gem wrote: »

font=courier new]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned....................
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 782
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 1085
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1867
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 378
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 130
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 20
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 20There are a lot of offers at the moment, a few with line rental at £12
Mobile phone............................ 50 PAYG £10 max
TV Licence.............................. 13 Stop watching live tv and you don't need this, watch catch up/iplayer etc
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 48 Cancel completely, get Netflix at £5 a month
Internet Services....................... 25 You can currently get this free with £12 line rental
Groceries etc. ......................... 380 Cut to £200, check out 'Feed your Family for £20 a week' on Facebook, google £1 a day meal plans, etc. Stop buying branded products etc. Its not only food either - a 10p value toothbrush still gets your teeth clean, only use babywipes when out and about, use washable cloths and water at home etc
Clothing................................ 25 Apart from underwear only buy 2nd hand and only if essential, try freecycle for childrens clothes. Max £10 a month
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 45
Childcare/nursery....................... 433
Other child related expenses............ 25
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 20
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 15Only buy for the children, explain to family and friends that you are on an extremely tight budget and can't buy for adults, or make a cake/cookies. Get children one main £10 present and a few little bits for both birthday and Christmas £5 month
Haircuts................................ 25 Long hair can be left a long time between cuts, snip any split ends yourself. Go as a model for students £10
Entertainment........................... 10
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 10 Increase this as you are cutting back hard everywhere else and need to be able to deal with emergencies £30
Housing Benefit overpayment............. 30
Council Tax arrears..................... 65
Total monthly expenses.................. 1807

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Vanquis........................3300......160.......39.9
Aqua...........................1500......110.......39.9
Amigo..........................5000......246.......49.9
Next...........................1300......110.......27.9
Studio.........................800.......60........27.9
Total unsecured debts..........11900.....686.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,867
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,807
Available for debt repayments........... 60
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 686
Amount short for making debt repayments. -626
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -11,900
Net Assets.............................. -11,900

Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.[/font]

If you were to make all these changes you would have an extra £329 to put towards your debts. I realise some changes cannot be made immediately due to contracts for phone, internet and the like, but even while in a contract they will often allow you to reduce the level of service you have, or even reduce the price without changing what you get - I managed to get my Virgin broadband cost halved last week just by asking! Once contracts are up you can cancel and increase your debt repayments.

The shopping budget will probably seem shocking, but you will soon find different ways of shopping and cooking, and may well find you can cut this even further.

As I said at the start, this is a very tough budget and you may well decide that not all of it is for you, but it is livable - I have become seriously ill in the past few years and even though I am no longer in debt I am living on a similar budget now as I am on benefits and have additional unavoidable costs due to my health.

Most of all, good luck with finding a debt solution that works for you:)

dancingfairy

You have several choices:
1) go for absolute cutbacks as described in the post above me
2) go for a dro and ask the guarantor to cover the loan for a year and then repay them.
3) go for a dro and use your 'spare' money how you like. Now obviously you couldn't pay the amigo loan yourself but obviously if you wanted to pay , I don't know £246 a month to your 'friend' (the guarantor) there would be nothing to stop you as an informal agreement. You would need to find out how things like housing benefit and council tax benefit would be treated in a dro though.
Obviously on a dro you would want to make sure you had a reasonable budget, clearly the clothing,haircuts, entertainment, and emergency budgets look a bit too low to be sustainable (you need to have less than £50 a month surplus for a dro and I don't know how the council tax and housing benefit will be looked at, so that may be removed from your monthly outgoings if it is covered in the dro).
df

little_gem_3

Thanks all for replies. I'll look to cutting my weekly shopping as much as possible. Tv is out of contract soon and phone/internet in a few months. I am not sure about cancelling tv licence though - thought it wasn't allowed? My council tax has been reduced and I could probably reduce it further if I split it over 12 months instead of 10. Going to make an appointment at the CAB for more help and go see the dr for my stress/sleeplessness. I know I need to face up to it and it's my mess but I am trying to take it one step at a time.