well, everything seems to be going OK so far. Uniform and shoes are a bit of a worry as we’ve not been able to ‘save up’ the clothing allowances to cover but hubby has done overtime and after we’ve paid over to cleardebt the creditors share, there should be enough and he’s not back at school til 7th Sept so we’ll have end of August pay too so think I’m worrying a bit too much! As we’ve never really thought about the money, I’ve always got 6 changes of uniform so that I can iron once on a Sunday and there’s a spare – I guess I’ll be ironing mid week too and buy half as much!!!

I’ve been looking at the bank balance almost daily and making lists of what we still need to pay for and adjusting the shopping accordingly. We’ve eaten stuff from the freezer – don’t know what we’ll do when that all runs out!! Have also been shopping later in the day and picked up some real bargains.  We made token payments to the value of the IVA so have been living with this budget for two months really although IVA is only two weeks old.

We have both been sleeping alot better – I cannot believe we left it so long to sort things out. I do wonder what would have happened without the forum – we’d have struggled to carry on as we were not meeting minimum payments. It is such a relief it’s almost indescribable, I guess until you’ve been through it, it’s hard to put yourself in that position.

 I’m still intending to keep posting every couple of weeks to get things out of my head.

well it’s a yes to both!!! can’t believe it really. No modifications, amendments or extensions – just a yes. We’d been rehersing what we could say if there were any queries as we’re quite sure the £954 they’re having each month is all we can give but there was nothing!

It’s an enormous weight off our shoulders. We were already living within a strict budget as most of the lines of credit had been exhausted so I’m confident that the loss of stress will make up for the lack of money. Hubby has done some overtime to top things up and we’ve not made token payments this month as we were unsure when the first payment would be needed so we have a little contingency now as cleardebt don’t want the first payment until 1st August after we’ve both been paid.

I’m sure we’d not be in this position without the forum. Reading other people’s stories has given us advice, comfort and most of all hope. We would not have contacted cleardebt without the forum and they have been outstanding. I really feel life is getting to where it should be. OH and I are communicating much more now and about things other than money – or lack of!!

I shall keep the blog updated. It’s almost like having someone to talk to as only hubby knows of the situation!