DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

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Comments

  • This will be our 3rd Christmas without credit and I have been buying Christmas presents over the last few weeks and have a few still to buy but all have been budgeted for. I find it a triumph each time now that there are no huge credit card bills as part of the aftermath of Christmas.

    I have been buying saving stamps all year for my groceries so all our food is covered as well.


    We enjoy a quite Christmas with family and it's now something to look forward to rather than something to fear.


    For all you folks out there who are just setting out on the DMP journey, stay strong and enjoy Christmas for what it is without all the commercialism that surrounds it.


    Take care


    Ellie xx

    Sounds just like our Christmas this year and I can't wait.

    I hope you and your family have a wonderful time Ellie
    LBM 10/1/12 ~ DFW Start 6/2/12: £82,344 ~ Now Zero
    :staradmin:starmod::staradmin Debt free 17th April 2015 :staradmin:starmod::staradmin
    Eternal thanks to the DMP & Mutual Support (no.439) and Payment a Day Threads
    Mortgage free 3rd July 2014 - Grateful thanks to the 2013/14 MFW threads
    "Debt is normal. Be weird!" Dave Ramsey
    Proud to have dealt with our debt :)
  • 2spicy
    2spicy Posts: 338
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud!
    Forumite
    Well, December just keeps getting better and better ... Car insurance was £50 less than last year, MOT was passed with flying colours too.
    Mr Spicy's new job has meant he is now traveling a lot more, and has a corporate credit card for business spending (so far he has enough loyalty points for 2x bottles of champagne for Christmas, and we hope to have enough for a posh food hamper in the new year) :)

    As he is now flying a lot more, the car isn't needing so much fuel, so thats a saving and thanks to We Buy Any Car (Mr Spicy sold his car to them 2 years ago) as a satisfied customer, we have just received £40 of M&S vouchers.

    So this Christmas we hope will be a little easier that years gone by
    LBM - Oct - 08 DMP Started - Feb -09
    Total Debt - £77,688 .00
    DMP Support Member - 259

  • stupid-fool
    stupid-fool Posts: 71 Forumite
    edited 3 December 2012 at 1:21PM
    Hi All,

    Sorry I've been quiet over the last week or so. I feel the need to post an update.

    Today is the first business day of December, and also the day of our first payment to StepChange for the DMP. It was actually nice to see the payment go from our bank as it means our Debt Free journey really has started :j

    We survived November - just - without using any credit and left the old bank account with exactly the same balance as we started the month. We are now fully up and running with our safe account so the old one can stay dormant in future chipping away at the OD. I realise now that I was probably wrong to make my payments to my debts from my end of October pay packet, but we survived the month and I feel good for it.

    Amazingly we have worked out our monthly budget and, due to a number of good coincidental things such as our final Child Allowance payments, car insurance finishing its 10 month payment cycle etc but also allocating money to save each month towards regular bills, I think we can just about manage Christmas and to pay our Buildings & Contents insurance up-front reducing our monthly outgoings even further and increasing what we save for bills each month. Christmas and the house insurance will come from our first month's savings pot, but this is what it is budgetted for and by next year we will have it waiting to be spent.

    It's going to be close for the next 3 months as my car urgently needs a service and MOT but these will wait until January, the car insurance is due on both cars and my car needs tyres too. But if we can survive until the break in council tax and water bills in March we can build a small emergency fund at that time.

    The reason I have not been around in the last week is that my wife's car has had a few faults which needed urgent attention. I decided to get my hands oily for the firt time in years and I've fixed 2 of 4 faults so far. I'm nervous about the last 2 but I think its worth a try before getting the garage involved as even having spent some money on extra tools, I must still have saved money compare to sending it straight to the garage.

    Even though we are watching every penny we spend, I feel much better than I did a before starting the whole process. I know we still have our debts - but they are now a seperate isolated problem which we can pay a single affordable payment to StepChange at the start of the month and then not worry about it. As long as we manage our monthly budget and get to the end of the month without any hiccup life is good again.

    To anyone reading this thread who is considering a DMP, or just starting along the road, it has been one of the best things we have done in years - probably nearly 15 years of constantly living with loans, credit cards and overdraft which, whilst manageable, were a slippery slope that brought us here.
    LBM 25/10/12
    DMP start date - 02/11/12 - £68,236 - DFD 13/12/2018
    Milestone date - 31/08/14 - £49,297 - DFD 17/02/2019 :(
    DEBT FREE April 2015 :j

    Eating the elephant one bite at a time
  • Time_to_face_the_music
    Time_to_face_the_music Posts: 5,454
    Debt-free and Proud! Mortgage-free Glee!
    Forumite
    edited 3 December 2012 at 2:24PM
    2spicy wrote: »
    Well, December just keeps getting better and better ... Car insurance was £50 less than last year, MOT was passed with flying colours too.
    Mr Spicy's new job has meant he is now traveling a lot more, and has a corporate credit card for business spending (so far he has enough loyalty points for 2x bottles of champagne for Christmas, and we hope to have enough for a posh food hamper in the new year) :)

    As he is now flying a lot more, the car isn't needing so much fuel, so thats a saving and thanks to We Buy Any Car (Mr Spicy sold his car to them 2 years ago) as a satisfied customer, we have just received £40 of M&S vouchers.

    So this Christmas we hope will be a little easier that years gone by

    Fantastic news 2spicy :j

    Am really happy things are going so well for you :D

    All around to your house for the champagne! :beer:
    LBM 10/1/12 ~ DFW Start 6/2/12: £82,344 ~ Now Zero
    :staradmin:starmod::staradmin Debt free 17th April 2015 :staradmin:starmod::staradmin
    Eternal thanks to the DMP & Mutual Support (no.439) and Payment a Day Threads
    Mortgage free 3rd July 2014 - Grateful thanks to the 2013/14 MFW threads
    "Debt is normal. Be weird!" Dave Ramsey
    Proud to have dealt with our debt :)
  • Hi All,

    Sorry I've been quiet over the last week or so. I feel the need to post an update.

    Today is the first business day of December, and also the day of our first payment to StepChange for the DMP. It was actually nice to see the payment go from our bank as it means our Debt Free journey really has started :j

    We survived November - just - without using any credit and left the old bank account with exactly the same balance as we started the month. We are now fully up and running with our safe account so the old one can stay dormant in future chipping away at the OD. I realise now that I was probably wrong to make my payments to my debts from my end of October pay packet, but we survived the month and I feel good for it.

    Amazingly we have worked out our monthly budget and, due to a number of good coincidental things such as our final Child Allowance payments, car insurance finishing its 10 month payment cycle etc but also allocating money to save each month towards regular bills, I think we can just about manage Christmas and to pay our Buildings & Contents insurance up-front reducing our monthly outgoings even further and increasing what we save for bills each month. Christmas and the house insurance will come from our first month's savings pot, but this is what it is budgetted for and by next year we will have it waiting to be spent.

    It's going to be close for the next 3 months as my car urgently needs a service and MOT but these will wait until January, the car insurance is due on both cars and my car needs tyres too. But if we can survive until the break in council tax and water bills in March we can build a small emergency fund at that time.

    The reason I have not been around in the last week is that my wife's car has had a few faults which needed urgent attention. I decided to get my hands oily for the firt time in years and I've fixed 2 of 4 faults so far. I'm nervous about the last 2 but I think its worth a try before getting the garage involved as even having spent some money on extra tools, I must still have saved money compare to sending it straight to the garage.

    Even though we are watching every penny we spend, I feel much better than I did a before starting the whole process. I know we still have our debts - but they are now a seperate isolated problem which we can pay a single affordable payment to StepChange at the start of the month and then not worry about it. As long as we manage our monthly budget and get to the end of the month without any hiccup life is good again.

    To anyone reading this thread who is considering a DMP, or just starting along the road, it has been one of the best things we have done in years - probably nearly 15 years of constantly living with loans, credit cards and overdraft which, whilst manageable, were a slippery slope that brought us here.

    Excellent news SF :T

    On the subject of fixing your own car, since starting the DMP we have done several jobs on the car, replaced a fan in our oven and repaired the tumble drier. It is truly amazing how cheap this can be compared to the old way and we have yet to struggle to find instructions on the internet for anything we have needed to do :j
    LBM 10/1/12 ~ DFW Start 6/2/12: £82,344 ~ Now Zero
    :staradmin:starmod::staradmin Debt free 17th April 2015 :staradmin:starmod::staradmin
    Eternal thanks to the DMP & Mutual Support (no.439) and Payment a Day Threads
    Mortgage free 3rd July 2014 - Grateful thanks to the 2013/14 MFW threads
    "Debt is normal. Be weird!" Dave Ramsey
    Proud to have dealt with our debt :)
  • 2spicy
    2spicy Posts: 338
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud!
    Forumite
    All around to your house for the champagne! :beer:
    If your Close to Salisbury, you would be more than welcome
    LBM - Oct - 08 DMP Started - Feb -09
    Total Debt - £77,688 .00
    DMP Support Member - 259

  • 2spicy wrote: »
    If your Close to Salisbury, you would be more than welcome

    Sadly not, I'm up North and we get a pint of bitter and bag of ready salted instead of champagne and canap!s :D
    LBM 10/1/12 ~ DFW Start 6/2/12: £82,344 ~ Now Zero
    :staradmin:starmod::staradmin Debt free 17th April 2015 :staradmin:starmod::staradmin
    Eternal thanks to the DMP & Mutual Support (no.439) and Payment a Day Threads
    Mortgage free 3rd July 2014 - Grateful thanks to the 2013/14 MFW threads
    "Debt is normal. Be weird!" Dave Ramsey
    Proud to have dealt with our debt :)
  • Sadly not, I'm up North and we get a pint of bitter and bag of ready salted instead of champagne and canap!s :D


    Throw in pork scratchings and I'll join ya!

    HHx
  • Throw in pork scratchings and I'll join ya!

    HHx

    It's a deal but leave the whippet and ferrets outside the pub this time :p
    LBM 10/1/12 ~ DFW Start 6/2/12: £82,344 ~ Now Zero
    :staradmin:starmod::staradmin Debt free 17th April 2015 :staradmin:starmod::staradmin
    Eternal thanks to the DMP & Mutual Support (no.439) and Payment a Day Threads
    Mortgage free 3rd July 2014 - Grateful thanks to the 2013/14 MFW threads
    "Debt is normal. Be weird!" Dave Ramsey
    Proud to have dealt with our debt :)
  • It's a deal but leave the whippet and ferrets outside the pub this time :p

    I don't care what 'the authorities' say - you drive a hard bargain Ma'am!

    HHx
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