Climbing Out Of This £45,000 debt

Jophi2b

We have returned from Wales this morning. The good news is that I have managed to keep our food budget costs way down, and have also returned from staying with family with lots of home grown produce which will help to keep next week's shopping bill down too! So I am pretty pleased with that, as August is usually one of the more expensive food months with the kids being off for the Summer holidays.  The bad news is that just before we went to Wales, I was informed by my boss that there will be no work for me to return to, so this month will be my last lot of wages. Hugely gutted and whilst I have done some rough calculations, I haven't looked in detail at the impact of this. I am gong to spend the last few days of my kids being at home focussing on them, and will sit down and have a look at everything on Thursday when they are both back at school.

I have sold a few things I listed earlier in August and this month I have made a profit of £35.67. I still have quite a pile of old stuff ready to be sold. Now we are home again, I have decided to start listing it all at the end of next week when my kids start back at school, as not only will they be out of the way, but they won't be able to see the old toys etc I am listing and take a sudden interest in them, as is always the way! I will keep a record of everything I manage to sell and put my total sales up every month. 

I have continued to complete surveys on the 3 sites that I joined earlier in August and am up to £44.33 as of today, which isn't too shabby! I will continue to do this and tot up how much I have made at the end of every month to keep me going,

August extra money made = £80  
August food spend = £103.11

enthusiasticsaver

Sorry to hear that you have lost your job. On the plus side you are used to eating frugally but the amount of debt you have will be a problem. Remember though that rent, utilities and food take precedence over unsecured debt repayments and whatever you do, do not increase the debt to cover this period of unemployment.  Find out what benefits you are entitled to and carry on selling and living frugally but surviving on debt is a recipe for disaster especially if you are using that debt to make credit card payments.  Better to default and offer token payments for now. 

Jophi2b

Thanks @enthusiasticsaver. I have started to apply for jobs already and I am hoping that it won't take me too long to get something sorted, but who knows in these uncertain times.  I have had a few ideas about self employment knocking round in my head for a while now, so who knows, now may be the time to give them a go whilst I am 'between' jobs.

Jophi2b

Time for my end of the month debt round up!
Sadly, I did have to add my car insurance to my credit card debt. I did also jiggle £500 around between credit cards to save some interest, so where there is an increase in balances, it is not from spending.
           STARTING      END JULY     END AUG
OD       £2,665             £1,210           £0
CC1     £15,015.67      £15,146        £14,243
CC2     £4,000             £3,753           £3,658
CC3     £4,550             £4,496           £4,441
CC4     £5,290             £4,936           £4,899
C Acc   £1,462            £1,430           £1,273
CC5     £12,380           £12,205         £12,632
          £45,362.67         £43,176        £41,146
I am really pleased with my progress so far, especially clearing my overdraft already, I think my repayments will be slowing down now though due to losing my job and will be tightening the belt even more. I am really hoping that I will not have to default on any payments as I don't want my credit report to get any worse, so this might actually motivate me to get selling all of our old stuff (I have a garage full!)

mark55man

go for it - with that attitude (and that garage of ebay fodder) you got this covered

Jophi2b

One of my children returned to school today, and the other returns tomorrow, so I am expecting my food spend for September to be much lower than for August, so will keep a record with interest to see how much difference it makes! I have been engaging in intermittent fasting for a few months now and I am now at the OMAD (One Meal A Day) stage, which is not only helping me to lose weight (1 and a half stone so far), but is also keeping our food bill lower. I plan on continuing with this until at least Christmas.

We have been lucky enough to win 2 Too Good To Go boxes from Morrisons in the last few days. The first was rather random and had mostly yellow sticker food cupboard goods (porridge, ryvitas, packet curry, a tin of ratatouille, etc) with a bag of potatoes thrown in, but all were fine and will get eaten.

Today we collected one from a larger Morrisons and it was the best yet! Nectarines, cherries, grapes, sprouts, spinach, 2 cucumbers, spring onions, peas, sugar snaps, salad bag, fruit scones, chocolate brioche rolls, loaf of bread, 2 packets of bread rolls, chocolate mini rolls. jam doughnuts. pitta breads and warburtons thins. I was very impressed and will definitely try to get another from the larger Morrisons near us again soon.

As I have been having a good sort through stuff around the house and collecting things ready to list on Ebay, I have found a couple of vouchers that I got for Xmas which I had forgotten about (result!) and a nice little amount of foreign cash in coins which I have been meaning to send off to get it exchanged, so I must get that sorted soon.

I am one of those annoying people who buy all of their Christmas presents slowly throughout the year and I think I am just about done already, so once the kids are both back at school, I will get everything out and check what I still need to get (if anything!).

SEPTEMBER GOALS

• Exchange foreign coins.
• Ebay listings - list huge amount of things collected from house and garden (garage next month!)
• Beat last month's survey site earnings (£44.33)
• Check Christmas gifts stash.
• Sit down tomorrow and work out finances going forward.
• Apply for jobs (obviously)
• Write business plan for self employment ideas to see if viable.

September food spend so far = £6.18

Jophi2b

Ok, so having sat down and looked at my current situation (hopefully a very temporary one!), taking everything back to bare bones, I should be able to cover rent and all bills (phew!). I will, however, if I want to cover my minimum credit card payments, have a shortfall of £151 a month. So, my monthly extra earnings goal will be to make at least £151 (£5 a day) to cover this so that my credit rating does not nosedive. Failing that, with the knowledge that this is a temporary situation, I think I would rather go into my overdraft if necessary (rather than default on my payments), though I will be aiming to cover it with my extra money making activities.  In the meantime, I have been applying for quite a few jobs and have lots of people on the look out for me!

September food spend so far = £15.95

mark55man

Sounds like a good plan.  Even if you can't pay back in your current circumstance, working hard to stay level if possibly even more important.  So good luck

Have you looked at all the paid surveys (plenty of threads) - I don't do them  myself but lots on here are making £50 a month with some effort.  But time is on your side.

Finally when you get back to work,  can I suggest a debt free date target - for me it was a key motivator after many years going the scenic route (plenty of detours) with the date - I am now even more determined to get to 0    

IrishSean

Jophi2b said: 

Ok, so having sat down and looked at my current situation (hopefully a very temporary one!), taking everything back to bare bones, I should be able to cover rent and all bills (phew!). I will, however, if I want to cover my minimum credit card payments, have a shortfall of £151 a month. So, my monthly extra earnings goal will be to make at least £151 (£5 a day) to cover this so that my credit rating does not nosedive. Failing that, with the knowledge that this is a temporary situation, I think I would rather go into my overdraft if necessary (rather than default on my payments), though I will be aiming to cover it with my extra money making activities.  In the meantime, I have been applying for quite a few jobs and have lots of people on the look out for me!

September food spend so far = £15.95

Good luck on your journey!
I had been lurking and meaning to ask if you had security in your job but events have overtaken that; it might be best to apply for everything & anything to cover bills; i'm a former employment officer & careers advisor so recruitment agencies & an up to date CV will be key. 

You will need a number of things; a realistic time-frame (from here, 7 years imo),  you should be on 0% OD regardless of who you bank with, as you've lost your job due to covid. Seek forbearance, at least from your most expensive lenders: call them and do 'door in the face technique'.. tell them you're unable to pay and can they freeze payments for the foreseeable until you find employment. If / when they say no, offer a peppercorn amount, maybe less than minimum. This is often much better than default. 

You do need to consider all options such as debt management solutions up to and including bankruptcy should you fail to find employment quickly. It might be better to have these options researched & in the wings rather than tread water and throw money at debts you 'might' default on. 

Those are worst case scenarios of course; but none of them mean losing where you live or not being able to afford to live; they deal with the debt, but do restrict you to new credit for 6 years.
On the hierarchy of needs others are right: pay rent, bills & eat. Mortgage can't be on your radar at the minute, that's a longer term goal.

I think you should talk to one of the free debt charities for tailored advice.

Good luck; with the right plan in place you'll come through it all OK, just keep all options open 
💪😉

Smashingitnow

Hiya
So gutted to hear about your job loss but you sound to be taking it positively! Is there no redundancy payment at all? Raising 150 pounds from selling should be possible if you really go at it as you've said you've got quite a few things...could you call your creditors and tell them you have lost your job due to Covid and ask that they freeze the interest? It's worth a try!