endlesspatience

Thank you so much to those people who replied to my previous post regarding my anxiety over bills. As I explained, they had been piling up unopened in the hall while I was still drinking and I couldn't face opening them. I have now done so and realise that there are some serious problems. One relates to an unpaid credit card debt of about £2000 and the other to unpaid rent to my landlord of about £5000. My water, gas and electricity bills are paid, so is my council tax and so is my mortgage.

I am in a position to pay about £2000 now to the landlord. I could set up a regular repayment with the credit card company. But I am just covered with anxiety about this issue and I want to go and get drunk and hide my head in the sand about it.

There is real progress, though. The bills are open and I am now aware of what I owe and what I can pay. I have also remained sober for the past eight days and have been to a meeting each for the past four days.

Time is really running out as the landlord has sent a court order demanding repayment in full by Wednesday. I think the best thing I can do is call them first thing on Monday morning and offer to pay a few thousand straight away with a view to paying more later.

If you feel you could help me look at this situation logically and not through highly charged emotion, that would be great.

Fortunately I am still earning a regular salary and am due quite a large overtime payment (about £1200) on December 15th.

BruceJ

Well, it sounds like you have a plan. Just be honest with yourself about what you can pay and don't promise things you can't do.....then go through with the plan. It'll bring you some much needed peace and start the new year off right.

All the best.

zanzibar

IMO the main thing you need to remember is that drinking will only misdirect more badly needed funds, and will not make the bills go away. When I first woke up and realized the world hadn't stopped turning while I was buried in my self pity one of the first things I did was to see a financial councellor. This enabled payment plans which didn't make everything go away but allowed me to relax a bit knowing things were starting to move forward. And things slowly got better from there. It's amazing how many will help you when they see you are helping yourself.

regeneration

endlesspatience, I think speaking to your landlord sounds great.

If you need some advice there are some UK debt agencies on this page here:

Debt Problems: What to do & where to get help...

they are free, non-profit making so if you get stuck/want to know the legal picture they can help you before or after you speak to your landlord. I gave the details of one of them to my mum years ago when she was having issues.

They will tell you what the legal position is and help you do a plan to pay everything back. Sounds to me that if you've got your council tax covered and mortgage/bills you are doing well. From personal experience, council tax people are never great to deal with.

But I've found all the others generally are e.g. credit cards etc. If you show willing to pay it goes a long way. Maybe contact one of the agencies though for a chat. As sometimes the card companies will freeze interest.

And well done on being sober. I sobered up and saved a fair bit of money. It's scary initially dealing with things I used to drink over but each time I dealt with it then it got better.

You can do this.

Justfor1

endless, I no longer open any of my mail. My unpaid hospital bills alone are over $100,000. A few credit cards as well that I defaulted on. I will be happily filing bankruptcy. If I won the lottery I would probably pay them off but until then I won't pay them.

endlesspatience

Thanks for all that feedback. I have been turning the situation over in my mind all day. There's nothing I can do until Monday morning. I am about to go to bed sober tonight (day 7) and I've set my alarm for 8 on Sunday. I will do church and a meeting tomorrow and I will pray about it at church and try and share it with someone in the meeting in the afternoon. I will also read through the advice given on the website that regneration sent me - thanks for that, my friend.