My wife lost her job and her monthly bills are killing me

durzoblint

My wife lost her job last April, i have been paying £800 a month to cover her monthly outgoings and its slowly dragging me into debt.

Some context, my wife had a fairly high paying job and we used to split the bills, she was responsible for paying the council tax along with gas and electricity which amounted to a little over £200.

She also had personal monthly outgoings such as car lease, mobile phone contracts and repayments on a loan she collected for debt consolidation and some credit card debt repayment. this all amounts to a little over £800.

I took over the payments when she stopped working assuming the situation was going to be temporary (in the past she had never been out of work for over 2 months) but its been over 9 months now.

my finances are not currently structured to absorb such expenses as £800 is more or less all my disposable income at the end of the month. i find myself almost always dipping into my overdraft and I have had to dip into savings quite a lot.

I am also servicing credit card bills of my own which are increasing due to my lack of a disposable income at the end of the month.

I was wondering if there was any advice you could provide in this situation ? She has already consolidated her debts into a loan, what else can i do ?

lindens

It sounds like you both have problems with over spending if you both have credit card bills and loans

Get yourself over to the debt free wannabee board and read the posts for newbies.
Fill in a statement of affairs and post it on a new post over on that board. There are lots of experienced people over there who can help you cut back and pay off your debts. They will not judge so dont worry!

Is there any reason why your wife has not got another job yet? even a job in Tescos/locally/admin to pay the bills

[Deleted User]

You need to create an SOA which shows all your incomings and outgoings.

It may well be better that she defaults on these debts, but it depends on the wider situation.

It seems she is a natural overspender and your income is unlikely to be able to compensate for that.

durzoblint

My credit card bills started piling up due to my lack of a disposable income at the end of the month.

I have funds in a stocks and shares ISA, P2P Loan and NS&I bonds which can cover my card debts, and i still pay some money into them monthly. I just don't know if its a good idea to do so.

My wife had an operation a month after losing her job and had to take a few weeks off to recover. since then she has been applying for jobs and attending interviews, nothing has clicked just yet.

durzoblint

lindens wrote: »

It sounds like you both have problems with over spending if you both have credit card bills and loans

Get yourself over to the debt free wannabee board and read the posts for newbies.
Fill in a statement of affairs and post it on a new post over on that board. There are lots of experienced people over there who can help you cut back and pay off your debts. They will not judge so dont worry!

Is there any reason why your wife has not got another job yet? even a job in Tescos/locally/admin to pay the bills

can you send me a link to a "statement of affairs" template if theres one or do i just list out the debts ?

[Deleted User]

Hi,


did a search and found this, hope it helps.


Good luck.

lindens

durzoblint wrote: »

can you send me a link to a "statement of affairs" template if theres one or do i just list out the debts ?

its all over on the debt free wannabee section of the forum

onomatopoeia99

durzoblint wrote: »

My credit card bills started piling up due to my lack of a disposable income at the end of the month.

I have funds in a stocks and shares ISA, P2P Loan and NS&I bonds which can cover my card debts, and i still pay some money into them monthly. I just don't know if its a good idea to do so.

Why are you still putting money into savings when you have expensive debt to service (credit cards, overdraft)?

-taff

Go to the debt free wannabe board and post a new thread with your SOA and ask for help. Be prepared for answers...
https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/financecalculators/soa.php
Format for MSE.

DCFC79

What moves is your wife doing to get another job ?


Has she extended the scope with distance to travel ?


Started looking for jobs not paying as much ?

Pollycat

Martin was talking about the change in interest rates on overdrafts yesterday - will come into effect April 2020.

More info here (scroll down to #4):
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/cut-overdraft-costs/

If your income is lower than your outgoings, you need to look at increasing your income or lowering your spending.

If your wife had a high paying job, it's likely you lived a life used to not worrying about what you were spending.
Clearly, this needs to stop so doing a SOA and posting on the Debt Free Wannabe board will highlight where you can save money. I'd guess a big area may be food and entertainment.

Is your wife claiming any benefits?
She should have sufficient NI contributions.

https://www.gov.uk/jobseekers-allowance
Look at 'new style job seekers'.