My Long and Winding Debt Journey

longforthesun

I have been posting recently on the DMP Mutual Support Thread but now wanted to start my own thread to keep track of my debt free journey.

Myself and my OH have a combined Debt of £39999.00:eek: . We are currently starting a DMP with CCCS and first payment going to them 1st September. Intotal we have 10 creditors. At the moment I feel very fortunate that 8 of our creditors have stopped interest and charges and we still have to hear from the other 2.

I am currently going through all our paperwork and I may be able to claim PPI from 2 loans we have had previously.

My other plan is that when our DMP is fully up and running I shall be trying to claim back any late charges on all the credit cards. Some people may not agree with this but the way I look at it I have more than paid back my overall spends on these credit cards unfortunaltey more than half of our debt is interest I only wish I had fully understood interest charges on credit cards years ago and perhaps we wouldn't be in this mess. For this reason I do not feel bad reclaiming charges.

I shall also be using this thread to note my spending.

Sorry for the long post but it feels good to have my plan down in black and white.

beanielou

Good luck wth your long & winding journey.

notenoughcash

Well I for one agree with you on the credit card charges, I am repaying two credit card debts at present (which are now with DCAs) and 90% of the debt is in charges and interest. Yes, it was my stupidity that got me here. If I'd just repaid the minimal £100 or so outstanding balance 2 years ago it would have been over then, but things don't always end up the way you know they should. However, in reality I have already repaid the 'purchase balance' on the cards with the regular payments I have been making and will now be reclaiming the unfair charges.

So good luck with it!!

Lodge

Hi longforthesun!!

Your situation is almost identical to mine so I will be watching with interest!!

Hope it all goes well for you.

Have you thought about posting your SOA for the experts here to have a look over? You may be able to save money on something you've not even thought about!

Regards.

D.

longforthesun

Thanks everyone.

Will post an SOA later on tonight when little ones are asleep.

longforthesun

Okay here is my Budget, this is based on the budget CCCS worked out for us

OH Income £1288
Child Benefit £125
Tax Credit £235

TOTAL £1648

Mortgage £532
Council Tax £137
Gas £45
Elec £45
Building/Cont Ins £28
TV Licence £12
Life Ins £17
Car Payment £123
Spares/servicing £10
Road Tax £10
Car Ins £33
Rac £5
Fuel £90
Food £305
School Meal £15
Clothing £40
Hobbies £20
Emergencies £20
CCCS Payment £150

TOTAL £1637

Food may seem high but it is usually only about £150 a month the rest is used for digital tv, swimming lessons for the kids etc. No hairdressing costs as very good friend does all our hair for nothing. Kids pocket money is paid for by grandparents who are also very good at providing clothes and trips out for dinner or cinema so i usually save as much of clothing allowance and emergency and hobbies amount for Xmas and birthdays. OH salary is usually about £60 more a month but this is overtime and not guranteed so CCCS don't take this into account.
.
Think thats all.

Lodge

Hi again!!

Here's mine, for comparison.

INCOME (Monthly):

Salary: £1800.00


EXPENDITURE (Monthly):

Mortgage: £763.12
Council Tax: £95.00
EDF Energy (Electric): £53.00
EDF Energy (GAS): £50.00
Wessex Water: £36.00
TV Licence: £12.00
Telephone Line Rental £12.00
Petrol £120.00
Buildings & Cont’ Insurance £30.00
Food & Household goods £200.00
Car Tax, Insurance & MOT £60.00

TOTAL £1431.12


DEBTS:

34K Split between about 8 Creditors.

Paying approx £400 between them on my own, self managed DMP.

As you can see this leaves no room for emergencies or any other things that crop up.

Do you think I should try to reduce the amount I pay to my creditors to give me a little breathing space?

Sorry for hi-jacking you thread, but our situations are SO similar it seemed a natural place to post my SOA!! lol!

longforthesun

Lodge Hijack all you want. If i were you I would go onto CCCS website and do the debt remedy not sure if you have done this but they allow certain things based on how many are in your household. I tried to take out the clothing allowance as we don't really need that but it wouldn't allow me too so i left it in. This is the budget all our creditors have a copy of and not one has questioned it. You do not need to enter any personal details on the debt remedy but you could use the budget to send to your creditors to reduce your payments and give you a bit of breathing space. As you are already making reduced payments i take it your credit rating has been affected already so i don't see what harm it can make. Obviously we all want to pay our debts off asap but we have to live. Your mortgage seems high is this on a fixed rate? Ours is fixed till June 2010 so were okay for a while.

Lodge

Yeah, my credit rating is shot to pieces anyway, because all the creditors report my accounts with them are on an arrangement.

You're right, making lower payments for a while cannot do my credit rating any more harm and certainly would give me a bit more breathing space

Lodge

Bump to the top!!

longforthesun

Lodge I see you are getting some good advice on the DMP support thread. I would def try payplan or cccs.

Well today I spent £38 in morrisons only went in for stuff for lunches but bought more than I should. I really need to stick to my list. Oh and £7 on a McDonalds for lunch for me and the kids as could not be bothered to make lunch when we got back form the shops. Still got a really large chicken for dinner tonight and will strip it bare for dinners during the week.