Help a Family Prosper

I was at first reluctant to make this funding page, but then I saw what other fundraising campaigns people had placed online and were successfully meeting their targets. So here goes…

My family is in a serious debt situation where we are one step away from having legal action taken against us.

Our Financial Breakdown

I earn a decent salary for the industry that I’m in and my wife is a pre-school teacher. The cost of living is increasing constantly and income does not keep up.

We are currently over R220000 (Rand) in the red (about US$ 16330). This is 70% of our annual net income. 12% of our income goes towards debt (Loans & Credit Cards). Not to mention thousands of Rands my father in law has helped us out with. Paying off at this rate, it will take over 6 years to get in the clear!
We are currently spending 35% of our income on Rent for a small 3 bedroom home in a decent neighbourhood.
Our monthly spend on groceries are around 20% for a family of 4.
Around 20% goes towards household insurance, medical insurance policies. The remaining 12% is used very quickly for petrol and electricity. This does not leave much for any emergencies or savings, or anything else.

What have we done to fix this?

I do not deny this is of any “fault of my own”, but I do not believe this is because of living an extravagant lifestyle or trying to “keep up with the Jones’” (my car is 29 years old!)
In 2014 we moved house because our rent was just getting too much. But this year again we were forced to move because out landlord decided to sell the house after us living there for only 1 year.

My wife and I both have small businesses that bring in some extra cash, but it only helps a little.

We have negotiated that our daughters school fees are free (but that will change in 2017) and our sons school fees are paid for by his stepdad. So that is a massive saving on its own, but it will not last forever.
We are using the services of a debt mediation company to negotiate a lower monthly repayment with the banks. So the 12% mentioned above was actually much more a few months ago!
My wife has also changed jobs as it was just costing too much in petrol working as an au pair.
We’ve change our medical insurance to a lower premium. We will not be able to afford it if something terrible happens and we do not have medical insurance!

Yes, it’s a mess we are responsible for in some way or another, but as mentioned, it is certainly not through reckless spending on fancy TVs, new cars, gaming consoles and other nonessentials etc.

We are asking for a donation to a worthy cause to help a family to get back to square one. We do not want to make a profit from this campaign - we would like to settle all our debts and begin building a better future with the money we were spending on it.
Right now we are merely making it from one month to the next and not prospering.

I believe this is more worthy that some of the other campaigns you’ll find out there. I hope you agree with me.

I do wish to stay anonymous as this is embarrassing. I can assure you it is legit and the funds raised will be put towards our debt. And if I don’t ask for this, the answer will always be “no”.

Kind Regards