www.iva.co.uk

We are only 4 mths into our ivas and its going horribly wrong . First the car blew up ,then we moved house (renting from local council) then the fridge broke . Everything is going up and up ,petrol and shopping etc How is everyone else coping ? We are about 1 month behind in payments but Clearstart have been good and asked us to try and make this up before review ,next Jan . Things are beginning to get on top of us both and im not sure which way to turn next . Does anyone have any ideas ?

HI RACHEL

SORRY TO HEAR YOU ARE HAVING PROBLEMS AND THINGS KEEP GOING WRONG!

WE ARE ONLY INTO OUR SECOND MONTH AND UP TO NOW TOUCH WOOD THINGS ARE GOING OK!

I MUST ADMIT I AM REALLY CAREFUL NOW WITH WHAT I SPEND! STARTING CUTTING VOUCHERS OUT AND USING THEM. STARTED WALKING WHERE I CAN AND NOT USING THE CAR. ANOTHER THING I ALWAYS MAKE A LIST BEFORE GOIN SHOPPIN NOW SOMETHING I NEVER USED TO DO! I NEVER BUY DINNER AT WORK NOW EITHER - TAKE MY OWN! LUCKILY NOTHING HAS BROKEN DOWN OR GONE WRONG YET, AM SURE OUR TURN WILL COME!

I HOPE THINGS START LOOKING UP FOR YOU!

BARB X

I'm much the same as Barb at the moment.. dreading the day something goes/.. my car tax is due at the end of june.. got money in the contingency for a years but do you only put on 6 incase something goes wrong!! Or put on 12 incase no money in 6 months.. its all ifs and buts!!

I can totally sympathise with how you're feeling, almost everything that can go wrong has gone wrong for me too, we're also one payment behind now and only started IVA Feb 08. I'm feeling very down today, no money to go anywhere, not even to put diesel in car, only just got enough for a very frugal shop next week before the new month starts. The way I look at it Rachel is ....things can only get better. Chin up, I have to keep telling myself things will work out but not sure if I always believe myself. I think the key here to the IVA is to build up a contingency and then you always have something to fall back on, we're both unlucky aren't we in the fact that it all went wrong before we had the chance to do so.

Hi Barb , i do walk everywhere but its hubby who needs the car for work . He works unsociable hours and 7-8 miles away from home .So we do need a car because on a night shift he could finish at 4 am hence no buses at that time . Petrol price increase is killing us really . Shopping as well ive cut down to cheaper brands ,but with 2 adults and 3 kids it aint easy . My contingency money is being eaten into because of all the increase so i have no back up plan if anything else goes wrong .

Lesley if your behind also how have your iva company dealt with it ?

I am with Melanie Racehell and she is very understanding my first default came when my boiler went kerput and cost £808.10 to fix, I had £500 but had to reduce my IVA payment to find the other £300. Then this week my washing machine has gone bang so had no choice but to buy another and again asked Melanie for permission to pay £300 and keep back the £240 to buy one, which Melanie agreed to. Inbetween so many other things have gone wrong that I can't even think about fixing but they were the two major ones. I did a car boot the other week as we're going to Manchester for a couple of days in June, made £50 put it nicely away for Primark shopping for daughter aged 14 and you guessed it shower blew! The reason we're so hard up this week is, we used the shopping/diesel money to pay the vets bill.

I am paying an extra £60 per month or will be should I say to my IVA from June 08. It is hard Racehll and we'll get all this out the way in the first few months and then hopefully we'll be plain sailing for the remainder of the IVA. Wishing you well x

have to admit i got about 2 months in arrears at one point, a mixture of bad things happening and mw being a bit stupid.

My IP was pretty cool and said as long as paid by the review period it would all be fine. It IS scary when you get into arrears though...

I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN ABOUT PETROL PRICES - ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS!

WE HAVE A 2 LITRE CAR WHICH WE STUPIDLY HAD PRE IVA AND HAVE GOT FINANCE ON, I WOULD BE HAPPY TO SELL IT AND BUY ONE THAT HAS SMALLER ENGINE AND MORE ECONOMICAL, DONT THINK I WOULD BE ALLOWED TO DO THAT THOUGH COS OF THE FINANCE! WE ARE LUCKY I SUPPOSE IN THAT OUR DAUGHTERS ARE 16 AND 18 SO BOTH NOW HAVE PART TIME JOBS TOO SO ARE NOT SO RELIANT ON US!

I WISH I HAD AN ANSWER FOR YOU, I JUST HOPE YOU HAVE HAD YOUR RUN OF BAD LUCK NOW AND THINGS START TO IMPROVE FOR YOU!

BARB X

Thanks everyone , i am trying to be more positive about things i will just have to tighten belt further to get back on track i think, so ill be paying extra over next few months to see if i can get payments back up to date . Hopefully nothing else will break and i can save contingency , which i just have not been able to do .One good thing though hubby is looking into getting a cheap moped off ebay so he can use it for work ,to save on petrol ,mum and dad are buying him it .So glad i have wonderful parents !

i've started to buy Smartprice cookies etc and putting them in the cookie jar.. no one noticed!! if i'd left them in the packet hubby would have said i'm not eating them!! I'll tell him when they've gone[;)]

Aw Barb thanks, I'm sure it will get better, my daughter is 14 and bless her does understand some of the situation, she does a part-time cleaning job, for my sister in law, gives her a bit of pocket money for extras that I just couldn't afford. I'll get this caught up hopefully before the year end, I keep thinking MOT, car tax etc, but then think I can't keep worrying, it'll be ok. It will won't it?

This week Ang, we've shopped on £35.00! All basics apart from some Scampi, it was BOGOF in Morrisons and we're having it today with home made chips!! yum yum yum. Tomorrow is toad in the hole, omlette the next day etc., a real frugal menu but nutritious too, plenty of veggies and fruit. Can't say I want to live like this every week but we had because of vets bill x

I do that with cookies and choc biccys . No one else knows they are the cheap ones , and no one notices !!!asda choc biccys £0.27 p what a bargain

YOU KNOW LESLEY - BOTH MY DAUGHTERS DID CLEANING JOBS FOR MY SISTER FROM WHEN THEY WERE 14, I DONT THINK IT DOES THEM ANY HARM, I THINK IT LEARNS THEM TO VALUE MONEY. I HOPE SO ANYWAY DONT WANT THEM TO GET INTO THE MESS ME AND THEIR DAD HAVE OVER THE YEARS!

HANG ON IN THERE - THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER!

BARB X