Can we have a support thread for people who are massively in debt?

[Nerfmother]

Because you can't talk about it in real life? We owe 44k, reduced from 60k in a year. Not including mortgage.
It's so depressing.
Dh is determined to pay it off and so bankruptcy or plans isn't an option. I do think its doable, just hard hard hard.

Badvoc
appliances - go for graded stock. My local supplier is Southern Domestic in Woolston - they will know who yours is
or freecycle

Kitchen : make friends with your nearest IKEA and offer to take an ex display off their hands - ditto any other kitchen showroom

Debt / savings : pay 3/4 off the debt and put 1/4 into the savings
as the sooner you can clean up your credit rating, the sooner the credit card becomes the buffer but with your mental tools to clear it

have you locked your repayment amount to rattle through the balance (see my other thread / spreadsheets .... may ask MNHQ for a sticky actually)

Thanks talk
What I would really love is a 10930s/50s retro kitchen - not bothered at all about a matching fitted job. Ikea have some lovely stainless steel basic stuff.
Have been trawling e bay this evening :)
I think we should/could do without a dishwasher but dh (strongly:)) disagrees.
So....you would pay £3k off the cc and leave £1k in savings?

badvoc
build one : at our last house DH and I (being utterly, utterly broke) built our kitchen out of battens and ply and spur shelves ... if I remember it was around £400 for a three sided kitchen ... lots of skip scavenging went on too
BUT
dishwasher was a must ... three reasons

• in the last house my old cat managed to tip a spaghetti jar through the washing up ... cost us nearly as much in glassware and crockery as the darned DW did
• in this house, while we were having the building work done, the DW was the only dust free place to store crockery
• a DW cleans at 60 degrees, heating only that 11 litres of water very efficiently .... it uses less energy than hand washing

debt / saving : the long term aim is to jetwash your credit rating
fwiw, before the house / person rules came in, our old house had been used by all sorts of odd people so it took us 6 years of hard work to clear the rating on it and thus us, and I'm forrin so could not use the electoral roll to help
so paying down debt, with a small buffer would, I suspect, be the safest

just to say of you have reduced your debt that much WELL BLOODY DONE, seriously, hang on in there

Can I join please?

$10,000 on credit card a
11,000 on credit card b
40,000 personal loan
34,000 car loan a
43000 car loan b

Huge mortgage.

Fuck me.

Evening,

I am very tired this evening and can't remember who exactly posted what so please bear with me.

Re the dishwasher, ours gave up the ghost last year, we survived without one for about five months but then found an all singing all dancing one , bid on eBay and won it for £50 . I was over the moon so it's worth looking.

Re the council tax demand. Have been in similar situation more times than I care to mention. Give them a call, they will negotiate the full balance demand even after they threaten you with court action!

Re debt in general . Everyone's situations, circumstances are different and unique . I am sure some have been daft with credit, others in impossible circumstances leading to them robbing Peter to pay Paul and being too scared and worried to seek help. I posted yesterday we had £98k of debt two years ago and I can assure you I don't have a cupboard full of a Jimmy Choos or Mulberry handbags .....far from it. Business difficulties and not knowing which way to turn were the main reasons behind ours. Not receiving payment for months and months of work having no income and using the cards to make ends meet . Debt can be absolutely terrifying ......but with support there is light at the end of tunnel. What we shouldn't do is judge as there is rarely a simple reason why people get into debt , what everyone needs is support and understanding whatever their circumstances.

Hope everyone has a lovely evening x

Talk...ooh my dh would love that :) he is building a new shed his summer! Interesting about the dishwasher but of course it's the same principle as baths vs showers isn't it?
I think some nice Lino, a quick re skim, job lot of white paint and some new units would really work wonders.
We shall see...

rumtouch
first thing : try to stop spending
become pathologically tight fisted like me
and then prioritise the debts
you'll do it
and others here know how you feel

NB
I've been debt free for 15 years after selling my old house
before that I actually got a friend to take out a student loan he did not need so we could borrow it from him
and my credit card was on maxed out stop for a year

it can be done

I would like to tentively join if I may?
Tentative because I'm rubbish at keeping up with threads usually and also because I'm a little worried about a flaming - no one knows, not even my DP :(
I've read the whole thread from start to finish and am feeling inspired at the moment.
I have 3 debts + mortgage.
I have a small (£60) of arrears on my mortgage which will be cleared early Feb.
CC1 £1,400
CC2 £5,000
Littlewoods catalogue £1,400
The two CC refused to take any less than the minimum payment when I was made redundant and consequently have defaulted, gone to debt collection agencies who are not charging interest or adding charges. They are both taking £5 a month.
The catalogue on the other hand are insisting on £105 every 4 weeks otherwise they will add interest - their rate it something like 42% ;(
I have been paying the £105 with tax credit I receive but that will be stopped shortly.
I only work 15 hours a week and receive minimum wage so there is no way I could afford that when my tax credits are stopped.
I spend nothing on myself, unless I run out of shampoo or suchlike and then buy as cheaply as I can.
I've sold lots on eBay (expensive skincare I had) but almost nothing left to sell.
I really want to pay this off but can't see how if Littlewoods put the interest on.

Oops sorry for that being so long!

Oh my, we've moved apace tonight! Welcome to all the new names...I hope you feel you can open up here and take whatever support you need.

On phone so not easy to link back to individual comments/stories...but I have read them all and every one of them strikes a chord.

jemima
Littlewoods are being well out of order
go see the CAB, get a plan put together and shove them back under their rock

CC's can you up them to £14 and £50 a month respectively
put Littlewoods onto £14 a month as well : dare them to take you to court ...

the collection agencies will be keeping £4 of that £5
be careful

God jemima, anyone can join! Only started reading your post and wanted to say that. It's so crappy having to justify yourself and re explain how it happened and have comments like you earn enough etc.
safe haven here

I have some toys of dd's that I could sell on eBay, but due to low mood and lack of motivation don't seem to get round to doing it. Is it worthwhile? They are mostly Buildabears and Barbies.

Welcome to all newbies

I've stopped using Ebay...fees/people not paying,claiming things not received...blah blah blah. Now use local Facebook selling page...had loads of success with that

Hello again all, and newbies. Loads of posts so really sorry not to name check people.
Talkin though - bloody good tip to deregister from emails. Almost booked half price bowling today thanks to one.
For future reference, I'm not going to respond to any critical or 'stating the obvious' posts. It's not the right place and not why I started the thread.
In a kind of whatever mood - had to pay for dentist, load of additional costs for granddad (hospital stuff is expensive - parking, food, bits for inpatients- and still waiting for payday. Need to get back to skinflint mode.
Thank you so much to everyone for posting. Even if I can't recall who posted what I have read everything and I hep I can begin to offer support as well as receiving it.

Thanks Mum, I'll see if there's a local FB group.

Well said Nerf x

I stuck to my meal planned shopping list today,hoping to have about 20pnd left of this weeks budget come Monday (which is when new week budget will start from)...so extra will go to CC1 again

Just as an aside...where are we all from?! I'm in Jockland,wee village just outside Edinburgh

Yes, good point re local selling pages. There's loads where I am and much easier than eBay.
I think the secret is really simple- do t add to the debt! So any money I spend now is really the banks - credit card, over draft, etc. do I really want the bank buying my shoes? And me then paying x plus 15% for the shoes?

Thanks mum x

Mum, I'm in North Yorkshire, near York.

I live on the edge of Southampton : in one of the crappest school catchments in the country ( as per BBC table, my local school is on the bad list )so spend time and money every morning driving the DCs to school
so be it
I don't do "coffee out"
but regularly invite people round - still works out cheaper

Thanks Nerf, it feels good to have somewhere to talk.
Thank you Talk it'd be a lot more realistic to use the figures you've given. Wouldn't Littlewoods add their interest before they then took me to court? I'm worried about that debt effectively doubling.
Also, both debt collection agencies have assured me the £5 is going off my debt & no further charges or interest. Should I call them to double check?
As there is (I hope) no interest would I be better paying £50 to the smaller card to get it cleared quicker? Or stick with what you said and pay any extra I manage to save towards the smaller debt?
Thanks again, this is a huge help.

Paying a smaller card off quicker can make you feel like you've achieved something. Maybe email the agency to check all the payment is off the debt? It's in writing then if/when they reply?