I want to stop drowning

Moneywhizz

Looking at your SOA it is clear that you are budgeting as best you can and don't have anything that you could cut back on that would make any significant difference. Your rent/council tax are very high in proportion to your income but I know you have tried to find cheaper property and it is not possible where you live. With your basic income you have quite a serious shortfall and that isn't taking into account the other things you have mentioned like car maintenance, dentist, etc which really are essentials and should be in your budget. As many people have said in the past a DMP seems the only way to get on top of this situation. I know you are reluctant to do this but for your peace of mind it really is something that you should consider seriously. This should not be seen as failure on your part. You have done your best but the income is just not enough to meet the expenditure. The only thing I would think about in the meantime is to check if you can cancel the holiday you have booked without losing too much money. I can't see how you are going to manage to pay anything more towards it or to save any spending money. Everyone here is giving you the same advice, only with your best interests at heart, knowing that you are finding this increasingly difficult to deal with and your health will suffer with the stress that you are under. Please consider a DMP as the way forward to a more peaceful and healthy life.

debtaghh

Thanks.

I would lose over £1000 if I cancelled the holiday. I have the money for the holiday.

I have been considering a dmp

motivated

debtaghh wrote: »

Thanks.

I would lose over £1000 if I cancelled the holiday. I have the money for the holiday.

I have been considering a dmp

Hi debtaghh

Just wanted to pop in and say our DMP saved us from ourselves. Honestly. Our credit rating is trashed yes. BUT it would've happened anyway as we were in waaay over our heads and it wasn't long before we came tumbling down.

It's been 2 years since we started our DMP and I'm still here to tell the tale. Yes it's a scary business, yes you will worry that people will come to your door, yes you will worry about facing creditors. Etc

We've had no one at our door. The phone calls were more or less non existent, our creditors do everything in writing after I explained to them that's the only way I will deal with them. All has been very easy and painless.

I'm not saying it's what you should do I'm just giving you an idea of what it's like.

I'm self managing our DMP using the NEDCAB site. Our creditors couldn't have been more supportive to be honest.

Once ours was up and running the relief was amazing.

Good luck
M

enthusiasticsaver

debtaghh wrote: »

Rent- £1300
Council tax £215
Gas/elec. £80
Water £50
Sky/landline/internet £35
Mobiles £63
Car insurance x 2. £54
Alarm. £27
Fuel. £180
Food. £400
All cc minimums. £985
Mum. £70
Very. £50
Gen spending. £150

Total £3659

DH Basic pay £2500
My pay. £725- ( this maybe reduced by £320 come sep as part is temp position )
Child benefit. £197

Total £3422

I think I've included everything.
I also pay my dad back £100 per month but he has let me off for a year so haven't included. The very is interest free and with me paying £50 per month will clear it. The mobile bill is for 3 phones. The higher one I can change to sim only in May. Alarm is on a contract for another year.

All credit cards apart from 3 are on low rates for the life of a balance and the three that will incur interest will go to 26.9%+

General spending covers everything else, sch trips , shoes, clothing , odd treat

Basically it's a mess as we also have annual Pre payment cards x 2 , we need to save for Xmas, bdays, holidays, car , emergencies, dentist and everything . I forgot we do pay a bit of childcare ( one more instalment needed in April of £350 and then no more childcare costs as it stands)

My dh's overtime can range from £0-£350/£400

Your budget is incredibly tight and presumably the other things you need to save for annually come up to around £200 per month as well. On a good overtime month if your DH gets £400 extra you can cover your bills and have around £180 spare to save but on a basic only month you are £240 short.

Are any of those debts or very close to being repaid which will reduce minimums? When do the three cards which are on 0% go to full interest? Are you able to put the figures up for the cards for balances and when deals expire?

debtaghh

No none are no where near cleared.

Nuba £5400 ends at the end of May
Tesco £10400 ( between two cards) ends in Nov

enthusiasticsaver

Unless there is some massive change in circumstances then I think a DMP might need to be considered if you cannot get them on to low rates. The Nuba going to 30% interest will be more than £120 per month in interest and that assumes a minimum monthly repayment of £135 (2.5% of balance) per month between now and then. Do you pay that much to it?

debtaghh

No we pay £55 as the minimum and what ever else we can afford.

MrsSave

Well done for posting. I know how difficult it can be. I would really look at the dmp now. I don't think you can include family debt, but I'm sure there would be a way around that. Have you spoken with one of the debt free charities before? Have you started the dmp application?

Sorry for throwing all these questions at you, but I'm worried for you. I can see how much you are trying and how much you want things to work out but things are so tight for you at the moment.

You can do this though. It won't be an overnight fix, it will take hard work but you can seriously do it.

motivated

Hi debtaghh me again

If you go onto the NEDCAB site and do the budget tool thingy it will give you an idea of how much you will be paying via DMP. Up your budget to everything such as pet insurance (even if you are pet free) add a sum for each section whether you have it or not. Play around with the figures and see how much you will have left for repayments to creditors. It saves all of your details but you are under no obligation to go any further with it.
M

debtaghh

I've done a step change calculator but will try the one motivated suggested.