Hi again Lisa
In my personal opinion, and of course there are other forum experts who may advise you differently, I think that you really need to sit down and work out your own income and expenditure summary based upon your actual earnings and what you actually spend. If you get your bank statements out, recent shopping and petrol bills, just to see where your money is going to - that would be a good start.
Given that you are a little worried about the situation, and your creditors, I feel that you are better being professionally represented rather than going it alone. Sometimes there is peace of mind in knowing that someone is dealing with this for you, and taking the worry away. But of course there is a cost to that, which will come out of your payments leaving less to return to creditors and therefore a longer repayment period.
Given your very low disposable income, have you also considered bankruptcy proceedings as an alternative?
Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.
For further details contact me at
http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at:
http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk