I've got myself into debt

[fruitstick]

I'm self-employed.

A family emergency meant I had to take a year off, then came out into a pandemic and have been struggling with my mental health for the last two years, meaning work has been difficult.

That has taken up all of my savings, and I've racked up a lot of credit card debts and spent my bounce back loan which I still need to pay back.

I owe about £20,000 in total.

At the moment I have little work coming in, and not enough to cover the increasing costs.

I know that I need to do a big push to get more work, and it's possible. If I work really hard I could get myself out of it, but I feel so exhausted and panic stricken.

I don't know where to start and feel the need to tell someone, so I'm telling you!

My husband is supportive but he doesn't earn huge amounts either so I just feel guilty I've got myself into this mess.

Hi op

to be blunt you either need to make that big push and get the work in or your debt will grow further
does dh know about the debt what has he said about managing it down?

can you move to payed employment would it pay more even if just shorter term to guarantee income and chip off some debts?

Failed name change op ?

Yep

What’s your plan going forwards then? More cc more debt?

again to be blunt the only way to stop this being overwhelming is to avoid adding to the debt and start paying it down

speak to step change
commit to earning so much per month and start to tackle the debt

I've worked out how much more I need to earn every month, to cover my costs and pay down the debt.

My panic is in what happens if I can't do that.

Find temp employment to help you start tackling the debt. You might find that as you start earning and paying a little of it off, your MH improves and you feel able to start giving your work the push it needs.

I'm referring to supermarket work, temping in an office as an example. Things which are not hopefully too mentally draining for you. Is this something you've considered?

Also agree with PP about speaking to Stepchange. Get your loans/debts/etc consolidated so you have one manageable monthly payment. I think interest also gets frozen.

Good luck

That's really helpful. I'll look them up. Hopefully that will give me some breathing space.

You’ve done the first thing in realising you need to do something. You can write to the credit card companies sending a detailed income and expenditure account and see if they can come up with an arrangement to pay off the debt.

A debt management charity can do this for you ^

I recommend Payplan, they have helped me a lot.

Also, have you done a benefits calculator to see if you are gettting all you are entitled to...if your partner is also on a low income you may qualify for some universal credit for example.

Possibly extra if you have health conditions.