Facing up to the past and thinking about the future

Debtmonkey94

RAS said:

Are these your share (half?) of the household costs? Do you actually earn half the household income?

And any reason you are considering an IVA for 6 years (it will be extended with no equity to release) rather than bankruptcy over 3 years, which would be funded by 2 months IVA payments?

This is everything I pay on a monthly basis. My partner pays the remainder of the rent and contributes towards days out/holidays.

£1620 is my Approx monthly take home based onlt on my full time job. I do work part time via agency and bring in £80-£100 per shift.

When I reviewed my budget step change wrote to me and advised an IVA as the best step forward. They have sent me further details but I haven’t had chance to fully read it yet.

I agree that bankruptcy is what is 99.9% going to happen I just need to save the fee.

RAS

Did Stepchange write to you? Or was this an automated response to what you input to their web-site? 

We've seen a couple of instances where an IVA has been amongst the remedies suggested but not the best choice, for people who don't own homes.

RAS

Debtmonkey94 said:

RAS said:

Are these your share (half?) of the household costs? Do you actually earn half the household income?

And any reason you are considering an IVA for 6 years (it will be extended with no equity to release) rather than bankruptcy over 3 years, which would be funded by 2 months IVA payments?

This is everything I pay on a monthly basis. My partner pays the remainder of the rent and contributes towards days out/holidays.

You may not get £100 laundry costs, emergency fund is £20 I think, and if you have a deal where you pay all the food costs and your OH pays the days out and holiday, that won't wear. It's half the food costs and half the days out and holidays.

Are you paying the whole Council Tax or just half?

You've nothing in for clothing, contents insurance or medical/dental.

You really do need to use the full lemonfool SOA and format for MSE and post here as you've so many gaps in your existing budget that it's no wonder it failed to support you.

You need to get this right before you submit one for bankruptcy.

fatbelly

I agree with RAS.

Get your duck in a row (or whatever the phrase is) and go for bankruptcy

Debtmonkey94

RAS said:

Debtmonkey94 said:

RAS said:

Are these your share (half?) of the household costs? Do you actually earn half the household income?

And any reason you are considering an IVA for 6 years (it will be extended with no equity to release) rather than bankruptcy over 3 years, which would be funded by 2 months IVA payments?

This is everything I pay on a monthly basis. My partner pays the remainder of the rent and contributes towards days out/holidays.

You may not get £100 laundry costs, emergency fund is £20 I think, and if you have a deal where you pay all the food costs and your OH pays the days out and holiday, that won't wear. It's half the food costs and half the days out and holidays.

Are you paying the whole Council Tax or just half?

You've nothing in for clothing, contents insurance or medical/dental.

You really do need to use the full lemonfool SOA and format for MSE and post here as you've so many gaps in your existing budget that it's no wonder it failed to support you.

You need to get this right before you submit one for bankruptcy.

Hello again Ras, thank you for your informative responses.

As you can tell I’m somewhat a novice and learning as I go along!

I set up a review and had an email (automated) about them recommending an IVA and then a couple of days later a further email.

We pay 50/50 on council tax but to save messing around I pay less rent to my partner as it comes from her account.

Laundry is because we aren’t able to have a washing machine in our property and live above a laundrette. It’s a lot less but over stated to be sure.

The above list is everything I spend money on.

If I was to go bankrupt would I be able to make allowances for dental even though I would register at a dentist at the same time?

What else do I need to include? I will go on Lemmon fool 

GrimTimes

Hi  i was in a very similar situation to you 10 years ago.What i did was token payments to all my creditors  and still to this day i owe 35k over 3 creditors. Every year i renew my plan but thats my approach, imo just pay what you can afford to each creditor  don't struggle, even if takes 30 years it doesn't matter its non priority debt and should never go bankrupt for unsecured debt imo especially if all your debt  is regulated by the FCA.

enthusiasticsaver

You won't get £100 a month for laundry costs.  Does your rented flat not have a washing machine or can you not install one?  I cannot believe a laundrette charges that much.  

As you have little spare money and over £30k of debt and no assets to protect I agree that bankruptcy sounds  like a viable option.  There is a fee though. 

enthusiasticsaver

£280 groceries is a lot for one person. Should those costs be split with your partner paying half? 

sourcrates

Its always better to over estimate your budget, it will be decided based on your circumstances, if anything appears too extravagant, the OR will comment on it, and ask you to review it, the allowances in bankruptcy are more generous than you might think.

You want to be taking advantage of your full allowance for obvious reasons, it also helps reduce the amount of any IPA you may have to pay.

Re-paying your debts with token payments is never recommended as a long term strategy, most people want an end date, so they can move on, you won`t ever get that with token payments, although I appreciate that can work for some people.