We're in a mess and I feel like I am drowning

[Miren]

Due to unforseen -and very unfortunate- circumstances we find ourselves in an absolute mess WRT our finances.

We got to the point where we stupidly have relied on Wonga loans for the past couple of weeks to tide us over and now seem to be stuck in a vicious circle.

Our outgoings are stacking up and our income has been dramatically slashed.

We have 3 Dc who have just gone back to school and already subs for various things are stacking up.

I don't know what to do -I'm not coping very with it all

Also - we rent our home on a monthly rolling contract and if we fall behind with rent they will evict us.

Head up, let's get positive and see if there's anything that can be done.

Could you post us your incoming and outgoings? We can try and see if there's any room for changing/cutting back on things.

Are you claiming everything your entitled to?

Could you transfer the wonga loans onto an interest free credit card?

Anyways to boost your incomes, extra jobs? Things to sell?

I'm so sorry to hear this. Have you sat down and made a list of everything owing, everything due to go out, etc?

You need to know, concretely where you stand.

Stop panicking and start making lists.
See if there are any benefits you are entitled too. Cut back on any unnecessary expenses immediately.
If your credit rating is pretty good see if you can get a 0% credit card to transfer the high interest loans to. Ask your bank if they will extend your overdraft for a few months to give you breathing space.
If there are school costs, ask if they can help you out or if not, out everything on account for you to pay off as soon as you are reasonable able.
Then rationalise everything in the house, if you can sell anything and earn some extra cash then great.
You can cope with this, you just have to be super organised and practical.

Have you tried any of the reputable debt advice agencies such as StepChange? Free to use. Some will contact creditors and could therefore contact Wonga?

Be strategic - don't burden yourself with this.

Phone Wonga and tell them that you can't afford the repayments - they will work out a repayment schedule with you over a number of months. I had to do this with them for my sil and they were surprisingly understanding. They allowed her to spread the amount she owes over 10 months to repay. Just make sure you can afford the amount you agree to repay to them each month because if you default the whole amount becomes repayable

Please get debt advice from one of the free services such as CAB, Stepchange, CCCS etc. urgently. There are many options open to you. Good luck

Thank you.... calling Wonga now

Our monthly outgoings are:

Rent 1050
Council Tax (inc arrears) 296
Car insurance (×2) 105
Diesel 260
Sky (in contract - but able to cancel in 2 months!) 45
Bt 45
Mobiles 95
Water 28
Gas 125
Electric 45
House insurance 30
Pet insurance 30
Credit payment 80

All other debt payments I'm afraid I've had head in the sand (credit cards x 2, very x2, h&m x2, next, overdrafts x 3). + a family debt of £5000 that we should be making regukar payments against. Total: cica 17,000)

Other payments due ASAP 175 shoppong bill (card got declined but shopping delivered)
Personal debt 60 - urgent
Account is 150 over overdraft so will be swallowed as soon as money goes in.

God it's all so overwhelming

We've been utterly reckless and our very much guilty of counting our chickens. We spent the money we thought we would be getting before we got it which is idiocy (oh hindsight!). But I really feel commited to not allowing this to happen again. I need to get it all in check and get organised. I've just opened another account to use solely for bills to try and get on top of it all.

Various DD's have bounced this week

It will only get worse if its not tackled, so making a start bit by bit will help.

Get in contact with StepChange etc ASAP. You should be able to consolidate all of the debts and make one payment instead of all the varies ones for the 17K.

Also try calling sky and saying that your simply cannot afford it. I pretty sure we've managed to cancel before when in contract.

Any way you could get away with using just one car for the time being?

Can you lower you mobile and BT bills?

Mobiles are very high can you can cancel and swap to giff gaff. Also bt £45 could you switch to cable or talk talk and get a new customer discount for six/ twelve months.

We are rural so two cars are a must. Have tried to get out if Sky before but they wouldn't have it - our contract expires in November so I have set a reminder to call in October to cancel.

We are on contract with phones too ( they said we are not allowed to decrease, but can increase )

BT is a cracking deal including unlimited broadband and calls to any number inc mobiles. We have no mobile signal here so it is crucial to have a line and being all in means we aren't hit with a surprise bill.

What's your income? Have you checked you're getting all the benefits/allowances you're entitled to? Have you done price comparisons for utilities and insurance?

I also put in a claim for housing benefit today

We are on a key for the electric and have LPG for gas and are stuck with ripoff calor

Car insurance seems very high, as does BT ( we have unlimited calls and bb and it isn't as high) and mobiles. How old are dc , do they get fsm , cancel any extra clubs. Do you/could you work ?

Try admiral multi car to reduce your cat insurance (if you haven't already)

Do you have anything you could car boot or eBay? Any skills you could utilise? Sewing, cleaning etc....

Thank you for pointing me in the direction of stepchange - I have just called them and feel that I can now see a glimer of light!

Do we have to wait until a renewal is due to change insurance provider? Car insurance is high - we were away and hadn't realised it auto renewed

LIZ - does your package include anytime calls to mobiles?

They may charge you an admin fee to cancel. But if you get insurance that's a lot cheaper it would be worth it.

DH works (he's a builder). Self employed. Minimal wages at the moment - £300 a week tops.

School is a 15 minute drive away. Fast country roads.

DC3 is at nursery mornings only - could look at a cleaning job maybe...

Double check with reducing your mobile contract. Mine said I could reduce once halfway through contract, so 12 months in to a 24 month. But could only reduce by one tariff at a time. So you could drop to the tariff below one month then the next tariff below the month after