Having an IVA can be a difficult situation to be in You will be committed to making a certain amount of repayments each month and you will have to find the money to pay your other bills as well. You may find that there is nothing left at the end of each month and you have no money to treat yourself to anything.

This may come as quite a shock to start with, but you need to just adjust the way you think about things. If you consider an expensive outfit to be a treat then you will need to change how you think and find treats which cost a lot less or hardly any money at all. Maybe a nice walk in the park, a visit with a friend or an ice cream. It can be very difficult changing the way of thinking and especially difficult when it comes to birthdays and Christmas and there is no money to buy gifts for anyone. It can be solved by explaining to people that there is no money but that can be quite embarrassing. So a solution could be to suggest that with the economic situation making things hard that gifts are not exchanged.

Another thing to do is to make gifts. Having to explain this to children though, can be extremely tricky and may be more of  a challenge.  However, as long as children get something, when they are younger they are happy and when they are older, they should be able to understand about the money situation. Also if there is any money left over at the end of the month, then save it and use that. It will take a lot of self-discipline and it will be a learning experience but it is a valuable lesson and some of the things learned will stick around for life.