determined to be debtfree!

debtfreewannabe321 · 27 January 2011 at 4:50PM

Hi I'm pretty new to this site but have seen this thread for diaries and think this may be a way to keep me on track

I am approx 13,000 in debt (mine & hubbies combined) this is without the mortgage included I have. A little background on the debt...I was managing to pay it ok paying more than minimun payments on everything, and things like my loan, mortgage etc were never late on DD, then my tenants ( i dont live in the house i own) decided not to pay for 3 months and the little extra i was making on it to pay off debts obviously disappeared....and we were also left with the mortgage to pay on top of that. This put us straight in to the red -well we were already there, but were just managing to keep our heads above the water- and we have fallen behind with most payments now

My husband contacted a company who sort out debts, and signed up but i was suspicious as they charged a set up fee and charged 17% every month which could have been going towards our debt so when my husband went back to work (he is working away until april) i cancelled and went to the CCCS as recommended my a friend....they are still in the process of setting it all up i just recieved an email today telling me to print off letters to send to creditors etc, and i also need to make a new bank account but am unsure if my husband's work will pay his wages into it whilst he is away and is not here to sign anything.

It's all very stressful and i'm hoping it will get easier and sorted out. Can anyone tell me how long it usually takes from first phone call to cccs to being set up? I now need to go and cancel all direct debits for next month, am really not looking forward to all the phone calls i will get demanding money in the mean time .... !

Oh i didn't say how we had been so stupid accruing all this debt, most of it is from living costs whilst i was at uni and hubby on his initial training in his job, my house being empty/ non paying tenants for periods of time & my car ( p.s can i just say as a piece of advice...NEVER buy a renault!) it has cost more to fix than i originally paid grrrr :mad:

anyway that is enough for now please feel free to drop by and say hi and also feel free to offer advice :T
DFW321

debtfreewannabe321 · 27 January 2011 at 5:27PM

p.s can anyone recommend a good basic bank account? between us we have debts with santander, barclays, hsbc so none of those...?!

shy2011 · 27 January 2011 at 5:42PM

Hi There DFW thought i would say Hi and well done on having your LBM im quite new to this myself and its a struggle at times but the people on these boared are so helpful. They keep me going. Ive heard the co-op cashminder is a good basic bank account. No credit check involved so no chance of it being declined. Theres no overdraft facility on it but hey i doubt you want one. Give them a go they are supposed to be really quite good and also helps that you dont have any debts with them.
Good Luck
Shy x

debtfreewannabe321 · 27 January 2011 at 5:53PM

Thanks shy

I will have a look at the co-op tomorrow and see if they have a branch in town. Sorry what is an LBM? (tried to work it out and i can't lol) thank you for replying and good luck with your debts too x

debtfreewannabe321 · 27 January 2011 at 10:19PM

Have spent all evening printing off letters to send to creditors, and filling out forms to send back to CCCS.

feeling positive that i have finally done something! Need to go into town tomorrow to try and open a bank account. Now to find a budget template sheet i can copy to make a budget for the household for next month does anyone know of any good ones to use?

DFW321

Deeperblue · 28 January 2011 at 1:10AM

Hi DFW321,

LBM is 'light bulb moment' - when you suddenly realise what situation your in with debt a that you need to get it sorted.

I agree with Shy about hearing the co-op account is a good one, so try that maybe, plus I don't think co-op are linked to any of the banks you mentioned.

Afraid I can't recommend a budget template as I like to just make my own, but I'm sure there is one around somewhere on the site created by Martin. I'll let you know if I find it.

Take care!

~ D.B. ~

debtfreewannabe321 · 28 January 2011 at 10:28AM

Thanks for popping by Deeper Blue

....of course (LBM)!! Yes my light bulb moment was only recently but now at least i will stop spending and mounting the debt even more

after credit cards turned me down i turned to catalogues (bad move) and added another grand to my debt over christmas.

I had some good news this morning i am owed at least a thousand pound and it is being paid up this month wohoo! thought we had lost that money (hubby's work were messing around giving it to him) so that will be going on the debt as a lump sum - maybe minus a few quid

as it is my birthday this month and hubby won't be here to buy me a pressie so may have to do it myself now lol

off to playgroup this morning wear the two little ones out and then go and find myself a bank!

Deeperblue · 28 January 2011 at 11:55AM

Thats great news! I bet those store cards are high APR so prob want to pay them off soon. Took my little girl to the park to wear her out... god it was freezing lol!

debtfreewannabe321 · 28 January 2011 at 6:01PM

Well i am now the proud owner of a shiny new bank account....let's see how long this one lasts before i start getting hate mail from them too lol, I also spent £20 in town whilst I was there....and to be honest i probably only needed about £4 worth of stuff

think i need to work on my impulse buying! (even if the other £16 worth of bits and bobs were bargains!) I bought myself a little jar though and am going to use that to collect spare change, money left over from budget (I am determined I can do this -at least once lol) and any other money i find!

I have a HSBC account which is £105 overdrawn- this is my smallest debt, and i am now wondering whether to clear the balance off of that and transfer all DD, SO etc to this as it does have a small overdraft on it, and my new co-op one is no overdraft, no debit card etc...but then maybe I should stick to no extras because that is how i slowly got myself into this mess. If I do use my HSBC account i was going to use the Co-op as a rainy day account, i.e if there are any extra pennies left at the end of the month on our new payment plan then it will go in there so i can save for yearly car insurance, pay for car tax for a whole yr instead of 6 months etc...do you think this is a good plan or should i just be throwing all extra money at the debt owed :eek:

DepperBlue, I took my children to playgroup to wear them out....we left i was pulling my hair out with stress of 30 odd kids screaming for two hours and by the time i got to town i was wanting a nap....and the kids, well they were hyper as anything! need to re-think my plans haha. I will probably be back on here later, this seems to be my new fix aside from facebook lol and keeps me wandering off to online catalogues and ebay!!

debtfreewannabe321 · 28 January 2011 at 8:15PM

Second bit of good news today which i very nearly missed due to me constantly ignoring 'with held' numbers on my phone

-luckily i was rung on the house phone the last time and i don't have caller i.d lol- My tenants that have not paid me rent for three months are moving out on Monday

and now i don't need to take them to court either for non payment as they paid up in full

...this will take about a week to go through to my bank account from the management company that let it for me, but i intend to use all that on my debt once it has cleared and my payment plan with CCCS finally set up. Although i am worried about making such a big payment straight away as i feel like they will think i have lied about income etc (which obviously i haven't but just happened to have 2 lucky breaks at once?!) maybe i will do it a month or so in , might be nice to have money in my bank for once!

I am making my monthly budget on Sunday, i was going to do it tonight but a friend also wants to make one so we are going to sit down together and do it, and i already know all my debts, and incomings & most out goings thanks to the cccs being thorough on the phone lol so just need to make a manageable and realistic budget. Have also been inspired to slash food budget after seeing how little some people on here spend on a whole months shop :T although i think i may take baby steps and firstly cut it from 400 a month to say 320 :rotfl:

Must have been fate but i left all my paperwork around a friends house this afternoon so no filling out forms for me tonight, just a little mooch on here & fb, speak to my son on the phone and then a film and bed

The paperwork & barclays can wait until tomorrow (the phone calls have already started!)

LittleBoots · 28 January 2011 at 8:40PM

Hiya welcome to diary land

. Happy to hear your 2 bits of good news, enough to give you a bit of a breather I hope

LB

determined to be debtfree!

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