Can't afford minimum payment -advice please?

[daysmustgetbetter]

I know I'm a idiot
When I moved into my house I had nothing
I got my appliances /sofa from littlewoods
I put them on buy now pay later but now I'm struggling.
I get £1,000 a month
£460 is rent £100 is gas /electric £90 council tax and I pay them £240
I'm left with £110 for food
It's killing me
I've asked if I can set up a payment plan they said no
I honestly don't know what to do
If I don't pay the full amount will they pass me to a debt collection agency ?

It’s lovely if you can afford to subsidise your adult children but unfortunately, you cannot. They need to contribute and cover their share of the bills including council tax. That still means they get to live rent free and can save.
To be honest, saving for travelling is nice but it’s a luxury. It’s not even as if they’re saving for their own home. They need to pay their way in the world, like we all do.
Their contribution will make a dent in the bills and make a difference to you.

To answer the question why haven't you found an extra job when your mum died 3 months ago?
Believe it or not my head hasn't exactly been in the right place -it's took all of my energy and strength to go to the job I have.
I'm an only child so it was down to me to sort out the funeral and everything that comes with it.
Clear out my mums house after years of hoarding and most of all try to come to terms with loosing her and how empty my life now is without her.
My children both work part time hours in river island -not a full time job or wage
One 20 hours the other 12 hours
They only finished college last year
And the reason I can't do care work is because I seen a lot of things with my mum ,she had a illness and at the end it was bad and I can't look after any other sick or elderly people
I walk into Greggs and see an elderly lad eating a cake my mum loved and burst out crying -I couldn't do it.

*elderly lady

If they finished college last year ie June them they need to find full time employment even if that means taking on extra jobs. That's what you need to do as an adult and they are adults. They want to save to travel? Fine but they need to do that whilst paying you appropriately for accommodation etc. You really aren't helping them in the long run by being so soft plus you need the money!

12 and 20 hours a week? Seriously - bloody lazy. And they want to go travelling? Spare me.

@Ghentsummer

Thanks for clarifying. It makes sense now. How disgusting for Littlewoods to even offer this kind of promotion. A BNPL that charges interest for the delayed payment period…I might make a complaint….do all BNPLs work this way? I know Argos, Currys have these offers too…

your children finished college last year
they work 12 hours and 24 hours
presumably bumming around the rest of the time
their mother is on the bones of her ass
They are “saving” to go travelling

OP… your children don’t seem to have much of a grasp of the reality of their situations. “Travelling” in their positions really isn’t realistic. A week’s holiday in magaluf would be ambitious

Why are they working such low hours if they are saving? Are they studying part-time as well? You all need full-time hours and for them to be paying their fair share of living expenses, clear the debt before they leave home, and then you would be okay.

What are your children doing with the rest of their time if they are only working 20/12 hours per week?
There is so much opportunity for extra income in the household, it's no wonder you are struggling.

for so much of the week

The 3 adults in this home must sit down doing bugger all

Jesus Christ. So your fairly part time, minimum wage income is the highest in the household?

You and your children need to get some work!

An 18-21 year old working 12 hours a week is not "savings to go travelling". It's a pipe dream.

It's a two pronged thing. One, contact step change as many PPs have advised ( hopefully you are on the phone to them today.) Secondly between the three of you, you (plural)need to increase your collective working hours to get more funds into running your household. Unless your youngsters have serious MH issues or additional needs, working 12 and 20 hours a week without eg studying alongside is doing them no favours. They'd be better set up for life, travelling, whatever if they worked more hours and paid you some board money. A lot of 16/17 year olds probably average more than 12 hours' paid work a week, if you include half terms and holidays, alongside studying 3 A Levels or equivalent. Mine's on a zero hours contract but does 6 hours on a Sunday and all the shifts she can get in half terms and holidays. It wouldn't suit everyone, but that is alongside "full time" study. You've had a lot to deal with but take it from where you are today. It sounds to me that you've all ended up in a bit of a rut. Maybe this debt is the impetus you need to shake things up for all of your sakes.

As far as I know it's always been like that, I'm sure it was when I was buying appliances as a new home owner in the 1990s. The headline is '12 months 0% credit' but it's in the small print that if you don't pay it off in time then it's more like 4 years at 30% APR.

@grownupandbrave have you actually read any of my posts ?
Or just being a judgemental idiot for no reason
I'm assuming the last option

@DreadPirateRobots another one who clearly hasn't read why I actually had to drop to part time and why I haven't returned to full time
I've worked 40 plus hours all my life till my mum was dying -so I don't need any judgement about "need some work"

OK so OP is looking for f/t after caring for her mother.

@daysmustgetbetter start making phone calls today.

But that doesn't explain why your adult children aren't working full time and contributing a fair share to the household bills

I read them. But you can't pay your bills. And you can't support three adults off one PT minimum wage job. Doing nothing is a luxury you don't have. And working FT is normal, not something you only have to do for a few years and then are excused from for life.

If you are genuinely struggling to function because of grief, please do seek support for that. But as hard as bereavement is, people have to go on and return to work, because they have bills to pay. And adults who aren't in education or caring need to work FT so they can contribute to bills and have luxuries like travelling.

I think what moose is saying js thinking about taking a second temporary job, somewhere like McDonald's. That's what I would do rather than totally screw my credit rating over for the sake of £250 a month. You don't need experience and you can ditch it when you get a better job.

I know many people in your boat who would do this, supermarket nights or evenings and the like. That's what I'd do.

OP, you’ve come here to ask for help, calling people idiots is not the right way to go about it. It’s not judgemental to suggest your adult children work full time hours, ESPECIALLY as they are wanting to do such a privileged activity as travelling abroad.
You knew what was going to happen at the end of the BNPL period, waiting til the last moment to deal with the fact you couldn’t pay it off was the first mistake (well, using it at all was the real first)
Your children should be working FT, and paying an appropriate share of the household costs.
The fundamentals are, you can’t afford to live on part time hours, so need to go FT.

You asked for advice OP and people have given it. Yet seem hell bent on not taking it, why is that?

Fundamentally you have 3 choices.

1. up your income personally with part time work, selling off unneeded belongings etc etc to bridge the short term gap while looking for a job with better pay/longer hours
2. ask for some sort of contribution from your kids. They have enormous flexibility to increase their income with a second job so they wouldn’t be worse off than they are now
3. default on your loan,trashing your credit rating long term and causing huge potential issues for years going forwards

the option you want I’m assuming us to renegotiate and pay over a longer term? That would be way more expensive, keeping you in poverty for longer and imo a far worse solution than numbers 1 and 2. But regardless, that requires agreement from Littlewoods and so far that’s a no.

There really isn’t any other advice people can give. Those are your options, you have to pick your poison I’m afraid

Ignore the judgemental arseholes OP - I've read all your posts. Also can't believe some posters are whinging that you bought appliances and a sofa on credit when you had nothing. Because people should live without washing their clothes and cooking shouldn't they! How dare you sit on a sofa and not on the floor! People need to go back to reading their Daily Mail.

Honestly - citizens advice will help. Littlewoods will probably arrange a plan with you with pressure. They would rather have the money back than go through the courts.

Try not to panic, give them a ring. It's always easier to sort out these situations if you give the company a call as they would rather you speak to them to resolve it. They only get nasty when they think that you are refusing to pay rather than finding out that you can't pay.

If you speak to the company you owe money to they might be able to help. The other option would be to take out an interest free credit card or low interest loan and pay it off that way. Should be easy to get if your credit score is good. I know it's taking on another form of credit but interest alone would be much better.

Do your kids know how much your struggling? Can they not help by trying to increase their hours or finding a full time job. I know they are saving etc to go travelling but they may hate knowing if they could help out? They are adults now so should be contributing more, especially if not in full time education. A full time job would still allow them to save but also contribute to a household.

This is what is sis earlier

Use savings

Pay the amount off

Not have the pay the extra

And then start repaying back into their account

Equally if the adults and they are adults paid their mum something she could pay back their savings quicker