£17,705.22 Debt, Help Needed.

enthusiasticsaver

Council tax and HMRC are the critical debts. You need to sort those first before any of the others. Contact them with your soa. Unless you can get a second job you may be looking at bankruptcy or a DRO.

buythedip

Your tone is rather defensive. You’ll get nothing but good advice and support here. Even at £0 debt your budget is tight. You’ve told us what you can’t and/or won’t do: what ideas have you got? HMRC and council tax is no joke.

anna_1977

I have to agree with buythedip - your initial post was on the defensive from the start.

You say about having virgin and not getting anything else - why don't you just have internet. You don't need the TV. Do BT not have a service near you - £29 a month at the moment and prob got some great cashback deals.

SIM card - yes you're SIM only but £20 is the price of a phone contract, why don't you jack o2 in and get a virgin sim card, I'm sure it would be a fraction of the cost or giffgaff at £5 a month

You clearly have been living way beyond means to accumulate this sort of debt. I think you need to talk to Stepchange as soon as possible.

Have you thought about moving to a cheaper area? Maybe even back in with your mother for a bit, may not be ideal but I don't think you can afford to live on your own

Are yuo really not paying a penny back to any debts at the moment? If not then as already suggest why not go bankrupt

Jox

Live as cheaply as you can, buy the cheapest food, cheap toiletries, don't buy any clothes or luxuries, sell what you can, pay as much as you can towards the debts, get a supplementary job, be focused and pay as much as you can, good luck!

Jane_B

You are simply not earning enough to live alone if the rent is normal for your area. Can you move back in with your parents/mother at all? not ideal but really even without the debts your lifestyle isn't sustainable. Or maybe look into renting a room instead of a whole place to yourself?

I know you have mooted getting a better paid job but its not a skilled area you work in, so its at no cost to try something else. Even getting on some companies trainee schemes would pay more than you are on currently.

Your food bill is quite high for a single person, I currently pay £130 a month for 2 of us and a pet! and we shop at Ocado so I can't see how you are needing to spend £120 a month. I know you need food delivered, but maybe condense your shops into every 2 weeks (To save the delivery cost and the minimum order fee) batch cook and freeze?

Willing2Learn

Hi smallandcute,

I am assuming you are not currently paying anything toward repayments of your debts.
I am also hoping that this is because you have communicated with your creditors and asked for all the debts to be frozen whilst you seek professional debt counselling advice.

Have you approached anyone like StepChange for free debt counselling advice and support?

smallandcute

First of all, thanks for all the replies. I will certainly reply to those that have given constructive feedback, if I havent replied it is because the question/information has already been provided. please note I have also addressed these questions/ information in my origianl post by notes and conotation.s

@buythetip and @anna_1977- my posts are not defensive, they are factual.

@anna_1977- will look at the SIM only options, thanks. I cannot move back in with my mum, she has a house full already so no room for me. I am currently not paying anything towards my debts so that I have as many options as possible.

@jox- I have already cut back on everything already but thank you for your support. One way or another I am determined to get this matter sorted once and for all.

@Jane_B- I cannot move back in with my mum, she has a house full already so no room for me and i cannot go down the houseshare route for personal reasons which would have an affect on my health and wellbeing. If you know of any trainee schemes please can you PM me them? I am looking to go into the healthcare profession in the next couple of years and will need to go back to uni for 3 yrs to retrain for this. help welcome in improving both my salary and career. Food bill includes household cleaning and toiletries and cost of home delivery for the food. Pet section includes the pet food Also i do tend to buy in bulk for my food and order every couple of weeks.

@Willing2Learn- hi, yes you are correct that nothing is yet being paid towards my debts. I have asked all my creditors to freeze the debts but I completely understand that the council tax and HRMC debt is a major priority. I am yet to approach a debt solution charity or company as I would like as much input as possible to make amends first.

stripeyfox

@smallandcute - fair play to you for posting everything and taking on board the advice. It takes a lot of guts to post on here, and many who do just post and run and are never seen or heard of again - probably be cause they are not ready or willing to face the truth, so well done for coming back to see what people have to say, good or bad.

At the end of the day your are trying your best to to work and pay for yourself and that is not easy at all. So kudos for that.

mad_rich

As others have said, it's going to be very difficult to live on that salary, particularly with half of it going on rent, let alone pay down your debts.

If you're unable to increase your income or reduce your main outgoing, changing the other things in your budget isn't going to have a huge effect.

I echo the comments above. In saying (multiple times!) "I can't / won't do X and I'm not willing to discuss it" you don't leave you (or people on here who might be able to offer helpful suggestions) much to play with. If you have personal or private reasons why you can't do X, that is of course your business and nobody is going to pry, or force you to change your mind, but I think you will need to be realistic accept that there's very little that you can do.

I would check you are receiving any benefits you might be entitled to and, as others have suggested, concentrate on your Council Tax and HMRC debts. Keep in touch with all your creditors.

Good luck. Things probably seem bleak at the moment, but you've taken a step in the right direction.

buythedip

Are you planning to work full time whilst studying for 3 years?