Some advice an help

Willmc2020

Morning Everyone.

Ive a new member and to be honest it’s taken me a couple of weeks to have to courage to post.

Like most people I’m looking advice/support/help on my finances.

At the moment I’m at £16,500 in debt, a loan and 2 credit cards one at just below £5000 and the other at £3200.

I’m making the minimum payments but with my 1st baby due in 3 months and although I’m back working the risk of redundancy is still looming in the work place, and my hours now are my basic contract whereas before it was always above my basic 30 hours.

Im married and my wife has the mortgage in her name. As she bought the house before we ever met and got together. Are my debts putting the house at risk?

I need to get my monthly outgoings for debt cut down, which is nearly £600 a month.
And after petrol in the car and food , there isn’t much left for me to work with.

Am I better to contact my creditors independently to work something out? Or is there a company I can contact to help with these issues.

Im at the end of the road, as I sit and just cry every night in bed due to being unable to have money set aside for my baby or for emergencies. 

I know there are people in worse off positions than me, but I really do not know what to do or where to turn.

Many Thanks to anyone who can reach out and give me some guidance and help.

Best Regards

sourcrates

Hi,

Well done for posting, crying never helped anything, but good debt advice might, unsecured non priority debts will not affect your house, if you are a homeowner, the only debt option open to you is debt management for a 16k debt, maybe better budgeting may help instead, best to post an SOA and we can see your situation better.

Help with debt is always available, its no different to any other problem, remedies exist, all you have  to do is access them.

SOA here -

https://www.stoozing.com/soa.php

Dont forget to format for MSE when it asks you.

The debt advice agencies in my signiture are the places to go for free debt advice.

yksi

This is an amazing place and you made the first step. You can get through this. It's not going to be easy, but there will be a way.

The SOA will seem like it takes forever, but it's really important. People will then be able to spot things that you haven't seen. Fresh eyes are always helpful. You will feel less like crying and more empowered, with every small step that people suggest to you. Don't forget to pat yourself on the back for each step you take (like today, for making the first post).

ceb1995

Start with an SOA and then go from there, don't panic this situation can be salvageable, you've made the first step in realising you need to make a plan. 
Have you arranged the parental leave already, if it's your wife taking the time off then it might be worth looking into marriage allowance which finds you some money? Baby's are only as expensive as you let them be, we're due our first in October and we've got so much good stuff on offer or 2nd hand so we could also afford to save for other expenses and overpay our loan to get our debt amount down before my maternity pay kicks in a few months. 

kimwp

@sourcrates, the mortgage is not in op's name but by their wife's , does that mean there are more options available? 

@Willmc2020, something I learned last year when I was going through a hard time emotionally; tears are totally fine, but be aware that they might be the result of bottling up your emotions. If so, try this - identify your emotion when it occurs, sit or stand up tall, hold your hands up to the sky  (I don't do this bit esp in public but apparently it helps), breathe deeply (important) and let yourself feel the emotion - as deeply and as long as it takes. I try to push into rhe emotion to make sure I'm not holding back/bottling it up - if I'm feeling angry, I try to feel really angry - not by thinking of things that make me angry, but just by trying to feel it more, if that makes sense . It is surprisingly hard to do the first couple of times but it really helps because it allows the emotion to pass and then you can think more clearly. Plus bottling emotion is super bad for health - both mental and physical! 
You can get through this - post your SOA to get the best advice - what your actual spends are rather than what you think they should be (go through your statements). It should be either your income and the outgoings that you are responsible for or a combined household one.
And ... congratulations on your upcoming arrival, lucky baby to have a parent that cares so much about him/her.

sourcrates

kimwp said:

@sourcrates, the mortgage is not in op's name but by their wife's , does that mean there are more options available? 

Hi,

Yes, good pickup, they may meet the criteria for a debt relief order (DRO) you can rule out IVA (not enough debt) and bankrupcy (again, not enough debt, plus beneficial interest in house).

All the debt charities have info on DRO`s.