Terrible debts..need advice please....

MissEyre

Have you tried charity shops/Primark/ebay/freecyle for kids clothes, if your little one is growing very fast? It's expensive keeping them in new clothes when they are small like that, but you could start a local clothes swap with other parents-I'm sure you're not the only ones in the area with the same problem?

OVERSPENDING_IDIOT

I'm really grateful for all the tips & I'll definitely take it on board but I've £70,000 in debts.... I'm thinking D.M.P./I.V.A./Bankruptcy????

MissEyre

Are all possibilities, but I would recommend doing the snowball calculator and seeing what kind of debt free date it gives you before you start looking at anything else.

Your level of debt is pretty high, although we've certainly seen worse on this board, and people are clearing those debts, so it can be done.

I think it would be a good idea to call one of the free debt charities like CCCS (check the sticky at the top of the board-some debt consolidation company pays to advertise themselves as this on Google, so please be careful-read the sticky and that will make a bit more sense!) to set up a meeting with them-they are completely free, and act in your best interest, unlike the companies on the telly or in the yellow pages which advertise-they charge huge fees, and are in it to make money from you, not to help you.

I don't think CCCS will be open over Easter, but we do have some CCCS bods who post on here with Martin's permission, so hopefully one of them will see your post and give some advice-otherwise, give them a call and get an appointment booked in

And last of all, before I head off-DON'T PANIC! You're in the right place x

In the meantime, keep posting and ask any questions you like-you'll get lots of advice and support!

rosiedee

Please don't rush in to anything. Take on board all the advice you'll get from this website. It may well be that a DMP or similar is the road to go down but give yourself time to explore the options. I know it may sound profound but you've taken quite a time to get to this place so a little longer probably won't hurt and you may find a better option.

In the meantime you can definitely cut down on household expenditure. It's quite easy to cut down on food shopping. Forget ready meals, cook from scratch, Old Style board will give you plenty of help.
Re your little one, I know people find going in Charity Shops demeaning, but you can get some lovely stuff, probably far better quality in a lot of cases than if you bought new.

Good luck and God bless, you're on the right road.
XX Rosiedee

OVERSPENDING_IDIOT

Thank you both very much for your help.

chevalier

OVERSPENDING_IDIOT wrote: »

I'm really grateful for all the tips & I'll definitely take it on board but I've £70,000 in debts.... I'm thinking D.M.P./I.V.A./Bankruptcy????

Thats the panic talking. First off you have £265 spare a month WHICH YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE IS IS GOING! If you can find this and either a) use it to pay for food say so that that doesn't go on credit or b) use it to increase your payments, it will help you pay off your debts quicker. THEN I reckon you could EASILY shave £100 off the food budget and £100 off the clothes budget, so that would be £465 extra off your debts, on top of your minimum payments. Sorry if this is a bit harsh but you need discipline here! Otherwise you could do one of the above and get into trouble again later.

I would strongly suggest you look at your local freecycle group on www.freecycle.org. Just this week on my local group someone was offering a bin liner of 4 year old clothes. Even if you only liked half of them and gave the rest to a charity shop this would save you loads. Also time for a reality check. If you little one is going through clothes so fast where do you buy his clothes. If say from Next/Gap etc, then you really won't be getting value for money. There is no waywould buy clothes for my two their. I either buy them second hand online (ebay is my friend!), for pennies and usually nearly new still, or else buy clothes in the sale in the next size up, so that I have a ready store of clothes for my older one to go into. Currently I only have to buy him underwear for age 8, 9 and 10 already!

Secondly any of the above ideas will trash your credit rating. What if you want to get a mortgage in the future? You would be charged a higher rate of interest if you go down this route.

Ref the income. Are you entitled to working tax credit, what about child benefit? Does your little one go to nursery for their 5 free days. Could you ask about vouchers from your employers to up their hours at nursery, so that you OH could get some work if they aren't at the moment?

chev

rosiedee

My post crossed with Miss Eyre, sound advice, DON'T PANIC, excuse capitals, just give yourself time to think and look at all your options.

OVERSPENDING_IDIOT

When I say £295 'spare' this is before I start to pay my 9 credit cards & my loan, the loan is £372, so I am already at a loss before I pay my credit cards. I pay up to £1000 to my credit cards. My outgoings are not neccessarily from my wage - I often have to withdraw cash from a credit card to pay others. I have also spent £10,000 from savings over the last two years as outgoings & credit card/loan repayments outweigh my income by a large amount.

By the way, I am weighing up al my options - that's why I'm on here!

OVERSPENDING_IDIOT

Nope all gone!

donny-gal

Is your partner with you on this, is she prepared to do the necessary on the housekeeping/cooking from scratch front? Maybe a look at the Old Style board would help.
DG