Our IVA journey starts way back in August 2004.  Our debt problems however started to build up when my husband and I first got together in 1998.  My husband had previously owned a house and this was sold as part of a divorce settlement.  What money he had left over was used to buy our first house together.  Looking back on it now, we bought the first house that we really liked but then again being 5 months pregnant with twins, we didnt have time to search properly.  We both had our own debts before we got together and this coupled with the high mortgage, me leaving my job and down to one income, things started to get tight.

We struggled from day one in our new house but we were determined to make it work.  I went into the hospital to be induced for the twins at the beginning of February 1999 and the day I was being induced, my husband (a serving member of the Armed Forces) received notificationt that he was to attend a 12 month course nearly 250 miles away in Portsmouth.  We had been waiting for this course for nearly a year as it would mean promotion, until we read the start date.  Less than 9 weeks away!   As we were not married at the time, I could not accompany him unless we sold up and bought a house there.  However, it was 99% certain that we would then have to move back again once the course had ended so we took the very hard decision for me to stay where I was with the twins while Harry commuted at the weekends. 

Also because we werent married, we wouldnt be entitled to travelling costs and we had to pay for all his food and accommodation charges whilst he stayed in Portsmouth.   This extra cost we covered by using credit cards and getting out a secured loan.

The course finished 3 days before the twins first birthday in February 2000.  We got married 2 months later (paid for by our secured loan) and 6 weeks later I found out I was pregnant again!  We had also heard that my husband had been offered promotion yet again in a more technical role but this would mean another course, this time 3 years.  We looked at renting out our house and moving into married quarters in Portsmouth for the 3 years as there was absolutely no way I was going through the hell of living on my own and only seeing him every weekend.  Unfortunately the rent would not have covered mortgage so we made the decision to sell.  It was a hard decision but we thought at the time that the money we would make on selling, we could use to clear our debts and basically start again. 

How we were so so wrong!   It too forever to sell and we had already moved to Portsmouth.   Yes, we eventually sold the house, but no we didnt make any money!  We just about had enough to pay off the legal and estate agent fees but that was it.  We managed to get rid of the secured loan by getting an unsecured one for the same amount but we still had that plus credit cards and catalogue bills to pay.

Moving into married quarters we thought would solve all our problems (nothing like putting your head in the sand!).  Rent was obviously cheaper than our old mortgage but for a couple of months we were paying this plus our mortgage and having 3 children our outgoings had increased.  We slipped into that deathly trap of using credit cards to supplement our living and on occasions to pay for essential bills.  This went on for another 4 years, not forgetting the loans that we had taken out in the meantime.

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