Life as a discharged bankrupt
Sunday, August 24th, 2008Well I thought it was about time I updated my blog, although to be honest not a lot has been happening! I still haven’t finished sorting out my credit files, but I will write to the rest of them soon and let you all know how I get on.
I have now been discharged from bankruptcy for nearly 5 months. I have made 14 payments into my IPA, so I’ve only got 22 more payments there. To be honest, time is flying past, although I will be pleased when I’ve made the last payment! Like everyone else we are finding it tight with the ‘credit crunch’, but at the moment we are managing. I know that if things get too tight I can contact the Official Receiver and have my IPA reassessed. I’m hoping not to have to do that though – I want the satisfaction of knowing that I did the full 36 months.
Yesterday when we went shopping I bought a lot own brand things instead of my normal brands. I only saved about £3 yesterday, but I worked out that if I bought the same quantities of each product (i.e. 18 Andrex toilet rolls instead of 18 Sainsburys toilet rolls) I have saved over £30! To be honest it gave me a buzz knowing how much I’ve saved. I will always buy my usual brands of some things, but I’ll give most other things a go!
My main worry about the credit crunch is that the fixed rate on the mortgage finishes next month. For obvious reasons it’s in Dave’s name, and it’s a self cert interest only mortgage. I worry that Abbey won’t offer us another mortgage, or that they’ll insist on us having a repayment mortgage – I’m just one of life’s worriers really! There’s nothing I can do about it, so as Dave says we’ll just have to wait and see.
One thing I’m glad about is that I sorted out my debts before the crunch hit. Whatever happens I know that I won’t have creditors chasing me (unless my mum gets nasty as I owe her a little bit!). I would say to anyone who is having problems with debts that sorting it out isn’t as scary as you might think, and the relief of knowing that you are back in control is tremendous.
