Hello, i think i just need to get this off my chest.
We are £45k in debt. All unsecured, and no access to anymore credit and all in husband's name.
I don't work. I used to do well on-line and at craft fairs but that has taken a huge hit and I don't do fairs anymore as they are not worth it now where we live. I am learning to drive so I can get a job within school hours (we live in the middle of nowhere, 5 buses a day, if they bother to show up and times don't suit to get back for DS).
DH has a good job, but we live in Scotland and I think the rate has changed or the pension contributions have because DH is less £70 a month now. I cried when I saw this this morning.
We can make the payments but any spending above our food/petrol/school lunches etc and we end up in our overdraft so by christmas, we are £2k down. My craft sales at xmas pay this off thankfully, and pays for presents but the rest of the year is rubbish. I sell on Etsy so I dont have a website to upkeep, just the cost of listing each item and a small % in commission.
DS has a good job, but with less than £3k a month coming in, and £900 of to go purely on CC and Loans repayments, excluding mortgage and car (which DH needs because of where we live) we are struggling. Our food bill is approx £100 per month. That includes 1 bottle of wine. No smokes. I have coeliac disease so my bread is a bit dearer, but that's only one loaf a week. One pack of GF biscuits, no other biscuits and very little crap.
I'm not a good cook, we eat basic meals that I do cook from scratch. We eat meat once a week (either chicken or mince beef), we eat mostly salads with tuna/roasted veg and rice/baked pots/soups. We don't eat takeways (we live too far our for delivery). I get the shopping delivered from Asda as that works out at about 40p per week with the mid week saver. We go through about 20 eggs a week (DS and DH love them). Sliced Egg on toast is a favourite weekend lunch.
We eat a lot of fruit, which we do buy from M&S as that is so nice. I have found the delivered fruit to be poor quaility.
If I really try, I am sure we could shave about £10 of the shopping. But really, I cant see anywhere else to make the saving.
The issue somes to this: because we are making the payments, we've not missed one, the Debt website Step Change, are recommending a cut in spending accross the board but no debt advice as such because we can repay.
Also, DH has a job which he would lose if he was made bankrupt. We'd love the debt to be paid off, but we have no extra income, and we'd be out on the streets if were chose a debt soloution as we have no savings to get us through DS losing his job.
I'm prepared to accept the advice that we simply have to accept the situation, we can pay the debt, we have a house and food, but we have nothing else. Any clothes, hair cuts, days out takes us further in debt. It's getting us down and we are snipping at each other too. I'm probably about 6mth away from passing my driving test, and will be reliant on getting a part time job to help out. Until then, I'll keep doing surveys. Being a lurker on here, I have recently changed the CC repayments to a set amount, so that should reduce the balance so much quicker. Thank you t the poster who mentioned this trick.
Sorry for the moan. I know we are to a certain extent luckier than so many people but for 2 very unflashy, unshowy people, we sure have wracked up too much debt through poor choices years ago.