www.iva.co.uk

Has anybody on this Forum who is in an IVA ever not had a Hiccup on there Long Journey.
I mean has anybody Not Missed a Single Payment or had a Car Breakdown an Emergency Situation , Temporary Job Loss etc.
It would be interesting to hear from people who have and what happened when they had to MISS A PAYMENT!!!.
I admit i have had a couple of Hiccups but i am in the last 1/4 of my IVA now but it hasn't always been straight forward.
Also how many Posters are getting the Stir Crazy Frustration Mode setting in as they feel like their lives are on Hold.
I felt like that last year as i find the 3 year Mark is like the Wilderness Years.

Hi Andrew

We never had to miss a payment but did resort to what may seem the ridiculous at times.

Things we did included getting a second hand washer, which set on fire. Sellotaping other half's glasses and repairing them again and again – I bet he is the only person to ever have glasses which were Police, FCUK and another make I can't remember all made into one pair! Holes in our socks were a must, as was colouring in the toes on my black shoes and relying oh charity shops to get some half decent clothes occasionally and the cutting of one’s own/each others hair.

I used to tell my dad that I needed dog blankets and towels for the dogs' beds, little did he know they were for us as ours were literally thread bare. Pretending I didn't like the Florist when my mam died because we had no money for flowers, then going elsewhere and pretending to buy a wreath for an almost stranger and haggling the cost down to £20, then putting my own decorations onto it to make it look expensive.

Buying transfers to sew on clothes and looking like a fanatical fan of Jimmy Hendrix and the Who, it disguised the holes in things. Making leftovers from tea the day before into a starter for the following day or my husband's lunch for work. Then the free codes for e.g. free delivery on food shopping have and still are great. I can now make my own dog treats and am able to budget using Excel - I did not know how to do this before. I also realise that whatever your problems there is always someone with bigger ones although it may not seem possible at the time. I am now used to exercising off my stress and have lost some weight and become a lot fitter in the process. I still get stressed though as although my IVA is over I can't stop worrying still until I physically have the actual end certificate and I think I must be driving my husband mad with my constant worrying but I know I'm so lucky to have been given the chance to do this IVA and luckier that Declan from DFD is on this forum.

We have even resorted to looking in skips if we see one, over the five years things we have collected with permission, include a BHS throw over, a huge wicker work basket to store things in, a double quilt for the dogs, towels and blankets for the dogs, a six foot trelliced fence (which my husband carried on foot for 3.5 miles during a dog walk), a cream beautiful shaggy rug to block drafts in the winter.oh yes and the empty wallet to whom we did not know who to return it and it was eventually sold on ebay 2 years later for £65 after we polished it up with black shoe polish! - the person who bought it was delighted by the way we did not dare spend the money for ages incase they wanted a refund.

We have become almost experts at timing the reduction of food items at the local Co-Op store and at one point we managed to get a second freezer which meant we could make the food supplies go to the end of each month by scooping up offers and reduced items.

The running of the car’s been a constant worry about whether it’s been safe to even use basically and I even started saying prayers to myself at one point that my better half would come home safe especially in bad weather as works about 60 miles round trip.


Having no Dyson when you have 3 Labradors is a bit of a tricky one, you’d never imagine a tiny Henry hoover can be so good if u are prepared to crawl round on your arthritic knees!

We now always buy supermarket own brands on things which we don’t think matters, e.g. who cares if you have Smart Price baby wipes for 39 pence instead off ones for over £2 with a make on it, it means there’s money left to buy the more important things and I’m now a pretty nifty cook. Although I can’t sew other half was in the Territorial Army at one point years ago and he managed to make a winter dog coat out of an old denim jacket. Oscar our 12 year old Lab looked really wicked in this and was nice and warm as it had a fleece lining, we thought it was great, until one day someone at the pub who’ve I have always looked up to and admired said ‘wheeze is that owld coat?’ Mmm…

Now our last payment was made in August so our September pay is ours, yes ours wow! We are treating ourselves to a couple of nights camping. Then a settee with some suspension and a mattress without daggers for springs will be fabulous. The 3 years of toothache are looking able to be resolved over time. Best of all, Christmas is coming and I can buy my dad some food shopping he’s a pensioner on his own with very little and after looking after my mam for years, who eventually was an amputee, she died almost 6 years ago my dad’s just recently been diagnosed with cancer, so to be able to give him a little bit of quality in his life with proper food will make me smile a lot, having kept the IVA a secret from both our families and friends basically. However, to my husband’s horror I did have to briefly mention it to my sister in law on the quiet, that we had it last year when my father in law died and we did not have any money to pay for or towards the funeral etc. My husband’s shirt for the day was courtesy of the local charity shop teamed up with a 20 year old suit and shoes with a dog bite at the back (disguised by too long trousers) still looked good on the day though.

I really really have not made any of this up, but I realise it must sound like I have. Also this lot’s just what I can think of off hand really, good job I have to go now or I’d bore you even more.

Life’s definitely a roller coaster, enjoy and make the most of it that’s all I can say.

I hope your day is a good one and no matter how bad your day is, it could always be worse. Keep smiling, apparently laughter keeps you young! We’ve had a lot of tears but also a lot of laughter over the last 5 years.

Thank goodness for our IVA.

What an incredibly inspiring and humbling post Oscar - I don't doubt for one minute it has been a very dififcult journey but you have made the most of it by the sounds of it and followed the "stay calm and carry on" British rule! I must admit I laughed at some of your recounted memories and also felt moved to tears by others.

Hopefully others will feel inspired by what you have both achieved. Having an attitude like yours together with a good IPA and well structured IVA gives the best possible experience for an IVA.

I wish you both the very best and hope you are now able to give your Dad what he needs right when he needs it most by the sounds of it.

Take care

thank you Tina I have tried to put this into a blog I hope it will make a lot of people smile but I don't think it has worked I'm trying to work our how to do it!

this post just goes to show what a commitment an iva is and not an easy get out of jail card.
we are coming to the end of our 3rd year and like you say in first post its a bit of a black hole as your still 2 years (in theory) from the end and more than over half way through.
up to now we only had a few incidents like boiler failure and car went sick almost at the second payment.
but we got through and have not yet missed a payment.
payplan who im with have been great up to now and apart from sending in wage slips and the yearly review we dont have to contact them at all.
at the end of the day if you go down this route then you have to grin and bear it.its the little things like the interpratation of the proposal that sometimes you see on threads that make me worry as they can be seen so many ways depending on how you read it that makes me still on edge.
well done for getting there and all the best for you and your family[:D]

The thing that Drives you on is that you WANT IT ALL OVER and you are willing to suffer and make the Payment Regardless.
I am 46 months in now but last year i really did feel that i was in a Black Hole as for 3 years you are watching all your friends having nice Holidays and there Lives Moving Forward and you are Stuck within the Confines of an IVA and Financially Impaired with your Life on HOLD.
Am i right as this is the Place to be Honest as nobody can enjoy there IVA Can They.

Hi Andrew, I think sometimes the grass looks greener and when you are out of your IVA the friends you refer to now may well be considering or going into an IVA. For me, just to get it approved and then get to the end was like winning the lottery. Your life does seem to be on hold to a large extent I agree but I was very fortunate and still am to be in a 2 person team versus the world almost. My focus was on the positive side of what I have got although some days are down days these I hope are outnumbered by the good days for you it is a slog at times. Best wishes
oscar

Hi Andrew. Early days for me at 9 months in. But, you are right, I don't think anybody can actually enjoy the experience. We were lucky with some extra work in the earlier months, which gave the creditors more but also gave us a decent emergency fund ( which I am frightened to dip into!), so we aren't in panic mode about cookers and cars going west.

Although cooker did go belly up, and was replaced with a reconditioned one (which is actually better!).

Car also had a turn --- over £200 in parts alone from the main dealers and more than that in labour .... so I shopped around and got pattern parts ( that are actually sold as an upgrade on the original bits) for £30 - ish, re-used bits that were still servicable ( main dealer wouldn't ... basically bit came with a bearing, and it was the bearing only that needed replacing, so that's all I replaced). With the help of a dedicated car forum I did the job myself for nowt (apart from a little spilt blood!).

So, the emergency fund is still intact for the upcoming second year.

I know we are all having to live on Tight Budgets but it is the Scrimping and Scrounger Attitude that i find a bit much.
Everything is Basic and sometimes it feels like your in a Confined World of Budgeting to the Extreme,
I could NEVER!!! resort to going down Rubbish Skips for Clothes or Raiding Bins for Food and eating someone elses Old Sandwich, i think that is taking Budgeting a bit too far[xx(]

My struggles are well documented in my other posts...especially the one entitled 'IVA failure looming'. What a faff my IVA has been so far but i recently made payment 44 so 16 more to go.

However, I still feel like my life is on hold as mentioned above though. My own experience at the moment is time is running extremely slowly...some months I don't get paid for 5 weeks, this being one of those months (pay cycle is last Friday of every month). This is really stressful and causes all sorts of spreadsheet fiddling to scrape by. That extra week every 3 or 4 months is a killer.

I do constantly worry about my job ending, my wife's job ending, my tenancy being ended by our landlord, 2 more Christmases, 3 more birthdays, my Son's finances as he's approaching 16 etc etc.

Oh well.

You are right Komakino, there is a higher perceived threat of anything changing whilst you are in an IVA, as everything financial is so tightly controlled, and BEYOND your control. Without the IVA you would have more latitude to re-adjust to changes (if it weren't for the debt that brought us here in the first place).

Thing is to concentrate on the goal. At the end of the IVA you (we) will be debt free and the world will be our oyster. Ride out the storm now and we will be far better placed to deal with life's financial hiccups afterward. It's just unfortunate ( in the extreme) that the world's financial crisis has happened whilst we are all in our own crises and has compounded our problems.

@Foggy - I agree 100%. I must say though as well as being a bit down at the moment, I'm also very grateful that I took action when I did and that I'm approx 75% the way through. The constant stream of new 'Help! Worried!' type posts that appear every single day on here makes me realise how big the problem is country wide (and world wide!).

Yes, the numbers realising they have a problem and seeking advice certainly seems to be increasing, and, of course we are only seeing those that haven't availed themselves of other debt solutions (DMP, DRP or BR) first, and we have yet to see the Ostriches still stuck in the sand (of which we were all guilty of, to some degree, always hoping "something" would be around the corner to save us).

I was guilty of ostrich syndrome a few years back.

I struggled on juggling loans/visas etc for about 2 years before I eventually crashed. If I'd have sorted myself out sooner my IVA would've been over by now! At the time though, I didn't feel right about giving up at the first signs of struggle...rightly or wrongly. I had to try to sort it myself.

I even won £7k on the lottery at one point but the feeling was bittersweet as it got swallowed up in less than twelve months (as I knew it would deep down even when I was first handed the cheque) as I was effectively making quite a loss every month.

I eventually lost my job and although I found another immediately it was for £6k less a year and that was the last straw...cards maxed out...savings gone...overdraft growing...IVA time.

Well, K, 16 months to go and it will all be behind you