Help!

sarahowen

I've !!!!ed up quite badly and spent the money that was in our joint account to pay the bills. I'm behind a mortgage payment and a council tax payment amongst others, including the utilities and I can't see how I am going to make it up in time, plus pay all the charges that bank are whacking on.

I'm going to sit down and make a list of what I need to pay back in there, but there's no way I'll be able to pay it all back this month.

Has anyone found utilities companies receptive to debt problems at all?

Thanks:eek:

sam89

What have you spent it on?

Could you return purchases? Or sell them on ebay to get some of the money back?

sarahowen

Perhaps some of them and that would probably be the sensible thing to do but a lot of it has gone on food, some on clothes for my daughter and a bag for myself...

poppyg_2

Bag for yourself, tut tut, but seriously sure we've all done daft things like that (I know I have). I definitely recommend taking that back if you can

Post up an SOA (statement of affairs) it's a list of your incomings and outgoings and lots of people on here will give some helpful suggestions I'm sure

waddy_2

hi, utility companies are usually quite receptive as long as this is not a long running prob with them or the debt is massive. phone and ask to at least give you sum breathing space but remember no more treats! good luck

poppyg_2

waddy wrote: »

remember no more treats! good luck

Well maybe just tiny treats in future like a chocolate bar, that's what I reward myself with these days as opposed to clothes and hanbags! :beer:

chocolatechipcookies

I've had a £500 debt with NPower and I told them I just couldn't afford to pay until February. They said as long as I started paying £75 per month, it would be fine. I've been paying £100 off and I have one more payment to make. They are understanding, just be honest. Even if you pay a small amount for a certain amount of time, then pay a bit more when you can.

southernscouser

You've got no choice but to return all the items that you can. Put simply, you can't afford to have them. What would you rather, a bag or your home?

Your mortgage arrears are your number one priority. The risk of losing your home is real. Have you spoken to the bank about repaying it?

sarahowen

It never even occurred to me to take the bag back to be honest, so thank you for suggesting it.

As far as my mortgage goes, I've just missed this month's payment, whixh was due yesterday. The mortgage company usually re-apply for it or I pay them by card, but this is the problem. this will now be the 4th/5th time this has happened.

After reading another post, I realise that I have quite a few of my daughter's old clothes that I could sell on eBay which might help.

Thank you for all your POSITIVE suggestions. You guys are lovely...

sarahowen

And yes, you're right re the treats!

Does anytbody else find it difficult to justify how much can be spent on treats? I mean, do people have a separate treat budget? How much is it?

Thanks

Deep_In_Debt

I'm sure if you contacted your utilities companies as soon as possible and offer some sort of repayment plan, then I would think that they would accept it.

Regarding treats - I've changed the way I food shop now, I use Lidl instead of Waitrose or Sainsburys and as my weekly shop has halved I can afford to treat myself to a bar of chocolate and a bottle of wine from Lidl every week. I couldn't do it before and I'm still spending less than I was!