time to face the music and get this debt dealt with once and for all

jane130

where to start?  At the beginning I guess!  

last January, we had debts that we paid and it was fine but then out of the blue with no warning, my husband lost his job with one week's notice ( a self-employed contractor ) and the !!!!!! hit the fan.   Luckily we had an excellent storecupboard and an emergency fund because as a disabled man with many health issues, this was the final straw and he hasn't been able to find work since.

I suffer from anxiety and depression and I am currently unemployed. I've applied for a few jobs over the year but get so anxious before interviews that I mess up and don't get the job. I've recently been diagnosed with autism (so that makes sense of my social struggles over the years) and ADHD ( so that's the total failure to responsibly budget accounted for) Im not using that as an excuse, far from it, knowing that is what's helping me take action to sort it.

Universal credit has taken the strain and we have both been assessed as having limited capability for work and work-related activity, I am his carer.

the 6 weeks between his last payday and getting our first uc payment wiped out our emergency fund and my store cupboard. we reduced our outgoings as much as possible, but the cost of living has screwed us over. we weren't putting the heating on but then he got pneumonia and spent two weeks in hospital and I have bad circulation and got chilblains on two toes (ouchie).

 2023 arrived and I decided enough was enough and finally took a look at all the debts that we've been paying back at pennies a week we have managed to make arrangements to pay most of them and it leaves us with a debt-free date of January 2040 !!!   hell no !! 

so our income and expenditure
 Income (monthly) 

Universal Credit	1048.81
PIP	247.40

total income                                        1296.21

outgoings (monthly)
Rent -                      Paid direct from universal credit 
Council tax                                        full rebate 

Tv licence	13,37
British gas	200
water bill	67
Groceries	450
laundry	2
animal insurance	131
animal vacs and flea	30
Internet	25.59
mobile	30
gifts	33
car insurance	37.42
road tax	1.7
fuel and parking	100
clothing and footwear	40
toiletries and hair cuts	20
total outgoings	1167.71

Debts                                                   Amount owed      Monthly payment

Lowell (Capital one)			£34.30	£5.00
Lowell (Fluid Credit card)			£160.00	£10.00
Lowell (Eon)			£161.95	£5.00
La Redoute			£182.80	£4.00
Jacamo			£209.06	£5.00
Lowell (freemans)			£285.58	£5.00
British Gas			£375.65
Paypal Credit			£432.67
Lowell (JD Williams)			£453.80	£5.00
Intrum			£473.93	£5.00
Moneybarn			£542.13	£10.00
CCI credit management			£872.58	£10.00
Wessex Water			£2,461.27	£60.72
Overdales			£2,875.66	£14.11
		Total Debt	£9,521.38	£74.83

that leaves us with a grand total of £53.67 disposable income. 

I'm currently going through our bills again to cut out what we can - animal insurance has to be paid as our dog has hip dysplasia and we've claimed £6000 on it over the last year but that is due for renewal in august when I will cancel as we could use the pdsa now.

I've just this evening switched to BT social internet tariff, which will be reduced to £20 in a few weeks.

As hard as I try I can't reduce our groceries we have one son still living at home and hopefully going off to uni in September (he works and is saving for uni so I don't ask him for housekeeping) and his girlfriend comes for dinner twice a week and my husband has a diet coke addiction that we have reduced but just can't quit ( he's given up smoking so I have to make a small allowance for him as he rarely leaves the house)

Im gonna try and switch to octopus but need to have enough funds to pay two direct debits a month as we aren't paying British gas enough and the debt is just going up !

My plan is to try and cut the grocery budget back as much as possible ( a few more veggie meals, much to my meat-eater husband's disgust),  sell a lot of unworn clothes on vinted, and try and reduce how much I use the car ( walk the dog locally and not visit family so often) and try and pay an extra £60 a month off of our debts using the snowball method and roll on the payments - that would change our debt free date to Feb 2027 ( when we can cancel the dog insurance we'll add that to the debt repayments hopefully bring that down more) 

so that's me . just posting here for accountability and hopefully encouragement. please be kind.

CL21

Just popping on to wish you well and offer some encouragement. Sounds like you’ve had a tough time of it! 

As you say, your grocery bill is the obvious candidate to be cut here. You’ll find some great ideas for that on here but start with a meal plan. 

Wishing you all the very best x

jane130

CL21 said:

As you say, your grocery bill is the obvious candidate to be cut here. You’ll find some great ideas for that on here but start with a meal plan. 

I do meal plans but have a bit of a phobia of being short of food. it was an issue when I was a child not that I went hungry but I know my mum did there was a period in the late '90s when I had to feed our family of 5 on £40 a month  ( thanks to a drunk driver writing off my husbands taxi and putting him out of business) and I defiantly went hungry then.

MalMonroe

Hi,

I think if your son works he could pay you some board, even if it's only £40 per week. That'd surely help, especially if his girlfriend regularly comes for meals, too. That's not unreasonable and you and your husband are struggling right now.

But do you think that getting some help and advice from one of the free debt help agencies would help?

You've already prepared a Statement of Account and that's all they need - they can go through it with you and not only advise you on how you can cut your spending - if you feel you can - but also on how to budget and manage your money.

StepChange helped me enormously when I was in financial dire straits - a single parent with nowhere to turn until I saw an ad on television for StepChange (or CCCS as they were called at that time). They helped me so much and it took a while but I am now debt free. 

There's also National Debtline and Citizens Advice. All details in links below -

StepChange - https://www.stepchange.org/
National Debtline - https://nationaldebtline.org/
Citizens Advice - https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/

As I said, they are all free and all offer friendly, non-judgemental (very important) advice. You can either take their advice or not, as you wish. Many of us on this forum have been in similar positions so please don't feel bad, we all do understand. 

I hope you find some of this helpful and wish you all the very best.

jane130

I have gone through the stepchange process and if I did a dmp with them , which is th[er recommendation, it would take longer to clear..

I feel as though we can clear this debt with a little effort . 

Pollie

Do you get the carers element of Universal Credit?

jane130

Pollie said:

Do you get the carers element of Universal Credit?

yes we do 

jane130

I've sorted out my hubby's clothes today and removed anything that is too small. I have a free day tomorrow so I'll be starting to list it on Vinted and hope there's a market for men's 3xl clothes