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 ?

Your kids need to stop saving so much to travel and need to pay rent! It's a real luxury to be able to do what they're doing. Don't they feel guilty watching their mum struggle?

Can you get a job in a supermarket or something to get your hours up while you search for a full time job?

Well that was rude!
Exactly how is it degrading to suggest ways to supplement your current meagre wages?

Suggesting McDonald’s isn’t degrading, it’s a company that regular hires, quite great employers and I was always able to pick up extra hours. You’re looking for extra hours, and in debt, now is not the time to be a job snob.

your adult children need to seriously contribute more to the house hold, also check out MSE forums they’re always brilliant.

I'm sorry about your mum op, but people are making logical suggestions OP.

If you really had such brilliant qualifications and experience in administration:
A) You would have kept on top of the debt and not be in this situation
B) Worked out that you are paying for your adult kids to holiday and not managing your overall home finances and including them
C) Would have found another job by now
D) Would have actually spoken to the debt team at Littlewoods and not just used the chat bot function! 🙄

It's not ok for your adult kids to be working and not contributing (beyond buying some food) when you are struggling so much.

£150pm each wouldn't be unreasonable as a contribution towards rent and bills and would sort you out.

If you have a good credit score, can you get a debt consolidation loan?

@MooseOnTour I have zero experience in hospitality /restaurants
It's like a plumber going for a job as a ballroom dancer
I'm sticking to admin /office as that's what I know and can comfortably do.

@Alargeoneplease89 im not sure
I wasn't sure if I was making things even worse for myself doing that

£2k is not serious debt and they can’t refuse to lower your repayments. Call them, tell them you’re unable to make the repayments and they can do an assessment based on your income. Otherwise just ignore it, they’ll send it to a debt collector who will accept a much lower repayment (however you’ll completely tank your credit score doing that).

Surely you can get a full time admin job? Even at NMW it would pay about £1750 pm, which would be far more than you're on now.

Plus your DC have to contribute towards their housing costs. If you weren't paying heating, water, electricity etc for a family sized house, you wouldn't struggling quite so much.

This.

They need to pay fairly towards their costs. You can't afford to subsidise their travel plans.

If you can't pick up more hours at work, can you get a second job? When I was on a low (full time) income I worked 2 evenings a week in a theatre to make ends meet. Where I live, lots of pubs and restaurants are desperate for evening and weekend staff. If you're only doing 25 hours a week in your main job, you could pick up another 15 hours elsewhere.

@MooseOnTour I'm sorry for my snappy reaction to your first post
I assumed you were being a bit sarcastic.
I can see now you were just trying to help
I'm a bit stressed with everything and clouding my judgement.

If your credit is good up to now, apply for an interest free credit card with option to take out cash. I have 4k on one right now and minimum payment is £40 a month.

Talk to StepChange or one of the free debt charities. Citizens Advice can be hit and miss.

The MoneySavingExpert website has lots of helpful people and information.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/debt-free-wannabe

I believe, unless your items are hire purchase and I don’t think they are from Littlwoods etc then they can’t repossess them if you stop paying. In addition, they can’t really stop you paying what you can afford. However, if you do pay less than minimum payments then they are entitled to record this on your credit records, potentially leading to defaults or CCJ, which can also affect future credit.

I think Stepchange do a statement of affairs with you (like a budget of your realistic outgoings) and they help you work out what you can afford.

https://www.stepchange.org/?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIz9m7xO3fhAMV0plQBh0RtAwTEAAYAiAAEgIZ4vD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Degrading?

Degrading is asking how you can get out of paying things you’ve put on the never, never; not working at McDonald's

@MississippiAF at which point did I actually say I didn't want to pay ?
You can clearly see I wanted to lower my monthly payment and spread the amount outstanding out

Any credit unions near you? Any opportunity to sell items?

Are your children working full time? Whilst you may not want to ask them to help it's worth looking at the total household income. Assuming they are working similar hours to you then they could afford £25 or £50 per week which would give you £200-£400 per month. Your household income must be around 3k per month if all working.

I know my dc would help and wouldn't want me to stress.

That's a disgusting amount of interest! How does a big company like LittleWoods get away with it?

I would also try Citizens advice.

Do your kids work? Can't they chip in?

Next time you need furniture, look on Facebook or Freecycle, there is so much free stuff people are giving away.

They work but are saving to go travelling in summer and I won't dip in to their savings.
They pay for their own food which I think is more than enough of a contribution

They can give you more than food and still save.

So your food budget of £110 is just for you alone if they are paying for food? That’s not so bad.

How long until it’s paid off?

Then they need to either up their working hours and pay you a contribution or cut back on their travel plans.

They are putting you in danger of having a debt burden/ cc judgement hanging over you.

They are cooking their food, using your appliances, sitting on the sofa, using electricity and gas that you are paying for,stopping you getting a single household council tax discount. They are adults, and need to step up, no one gets a free ride. If they don’t like it tell them to move and see if they can find another mug to sponge off.

Ring littlewoods direct not live chat speak to a human they either reduce the amount or they get nothing

Also, I didn’t see you’re subsiding your adult children either. I agree with PPs you need to get them to contribute more. It’s admirable you want to help them but it’s currently to your detriment.