Beginning to struggle with DMP

scotlad1980

Hello

I need some advice. I am on a DMP paying £100.00pm to my creditors. I earnt £15201pa but due to increasing costs I am beginning to struggle to make payments to this and manage to pay rent, c/tax electric etc..

Any advice on what I should do.

Thanks.

deedee_3

Who is your DMP with?

longforthesun

Hi i am no expert but perhaps if you posted your SOA the experts among us may be able to help you save some money.

doodledo_2

Is it possible to ring your DMP providers and go over your budget again with your increased costs?

rayday2

If you are struggling with the rising cost of things then contact your DMP provider and tell them your new revised figures. It is essential that a DMP is manageable and is the whole point of a DMP giving you some breathing space again.

You should ideally be saving for things like CHristmas, emergencies, car maintenace etc as well as paying your every day bills so it does sound like a budget review is in order.

You are not the first quite a few in the DMP support thread have contacted their companies to ask for payments to be reviewed.

scotlad1980

Thanks for the reply guys, ok here is a breakdown of my current outgoings:

Rent £255.58pm
CTAX (inc water) £66.61pm
Food £160pm
Electricity £130pm
Broadband £19.99pm
Landline £13.70pm
Insurance £10.00pm
TV License £11.61pm
Transport £40.00pm
Clothes £20.00pm
Denistry/Eye care £10pm
Mobile £10.00pm
Funeral costs £30.00pm
Lunch for work: £40.00pm
Debt Plan (with local authority) £100pm
Total: £917.49pm
Salary: £1024.46pm (tax changes included)

£106.09pm

Christmas, birthdays and emergency's have to be taken into out of the above and it also means no sociallising, ever.

Naomim

Hi,

Your lunch costs look quite high. You should look for the lunch log thread (on DFW board). I now average about £15 a month on lunches just by making sure I buy bits for sandwiches with my weekly shop.

HTH

Naomi x

~Beanie~

scotlad1980 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply guys, ok here is a breakdown of my current outgoings:

Rent £255.58pm
CTAX (inc water) £66.61pm
Food £160pm - If it is just yourself, you can definately cut this!
Electricity £130pm - HOW MUCH????
Broadband £19.99pm
Landline £13.70pm
Insurance £10.00pm
TV License £11.61pm
Transport £40.00pm
Clothes £20.00pm
Denistry/Eye care £10pm
Mobile £10.00pm
Funeral costs £30.00pm - What is this?
Lunch for work: £40.00pm - Make sandwiches (out of the groceries budget!)
Debt Plan (with local authority) £100pm
Total: £917.49pm
Salary: £1024.46pm (tax changes included)

£106.09pm

Christmas, birthdays and emergency's have to be taken into out of the above and it also means no sociallising, ever.

Just a couple of ideas above. What is the funeral costs for? Can you cancel it until you get back on your feet? Your groceries plus luch at work totals £200 per month and is way to high for one person, you can halve this at least - take a packed lunch!

coolcait

scotlad1980 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply guys, ok here is a breakdown of my current outgoings:

Rent £255.58pm
CTAX (inc water) £66.61pm
Food £160pm
Electricity £130pm
Broadband £19.99pm
Landline £13.70pm
Insurance £10.00pm
TV License £11.61pm
Transport £40.00pm
Clothes £20.00pm
Denistry/Eye care £10pm
Mobile £10.00pm
Funeral costs £30.00pm
Lunch for work: £40.00pm
Debt Plan (with local authority) £100pm
Total: £917.49pm
Salary: £1024.46pm (tax changes included)

£106.09pm

Christmas, birthdays and emergency's have to be taken into out of the above and it also means no sociallising, ever.

Hiya

I'm not sure if I've understood right or not. Are you paying your DMP through your local authority, at a rate of £100 per month? And you've got £106.09 left over at the end of the month for Christmas, birthdays and emergencies? Or have I read it wrongly?

If you're in Scotland (sorry, making assumptions from the name ) could you get onto the Debt Arrangement Scheme? Your creditors would HAVE to freeze interest, which might help get things paid off more quickly.

HTH

scotlad1980

Ok, firstly I should have said that £160 is not just food, it is also toiletries, cleaning products ect....

My local supermarket is very expensive and buying for a single person is not easy considering everything is in family sizes and products from my local supermarket don't seem to have a long shelf life, buy a loaf of bread and you have 2 days to eat it. Get my drift.

I have a prepayment meter with a very crap heating system in my rented accomodation which means it is costing a lot of money, and no I can't go DD as my credit rating is pi** poor.

Yes my DMP is run through my local authority, I think this is something the Scottish Government asked all councils to do and they are very helpful, alot more helpful than payplan and I can go see them face to face.

I don't want to go onto a Trust Deed as my payments would increase by approx £50pm to be on a trust deed and I refuse to declare myself insolvent.

I am just worried with the ever increasing cost of living that by early next year I will not be able to afford to manage everything again.

The funeral costs are for my mum's funeral and no I am not delaying getting this paid.

My debt is £7500, started payments in July and I don't think I will make it to 2015 when it should be clear unless something dramatically reduced the cost of living.

coolcait

scotlad1980 wrote: »

Ok, firstly I should have said that £160 is not just food, it is also toiletries, cleaning products ect....

My local supermarket is very expensive and buying for a single person is not easy considering everything is in family sizes and products from my local supermarket don't seem to have a long shelf life, buy a loaf of bread and you have 2 days to eat it. Get my drift.

I have a prepayment meter with a very crap heating system in my rented accomodation which means it is costing a lot of money, and no I can't go DD as my credit rating is pi** poor.

Yes my DMP is run through my local authority, I think this is something the Scottish Government asked all councils to do and they are very helpful, alot more helpful than payplan and I can go see them face to face.

I don't want to go onto a Trust Deed as my payments would increase by approx £50pm to be on a trust deed and I refuse to declare myself insolvent.

I am just worried with the ever increasing cost of living that by early next year I will not be able to afford to manage everything again.

The funeral costs are for my mum's funeral and no I am not delaying getting this paid.

My debt is £7500, started payments in July and I don't think I will make it to 2015 when it should be clear unless something dramatically reduced the cost of living.

Hiya scotlad

I'm so sorry to hear about your mum .

And - although I'm long past the single stage - I do think that it CAN be harder to feed one person more cheaply than two, or even four [blushes again]. Even if you're more inventive - for example, split your loaf into daily amounts, and freeze them - you can still miss out on the savings you get when bulk buying for a family.

I know what it's like when you've only got a small, expensive, shop near you. Do you have any scope for using internet or phone shopping from a bigger supermarket? That saves time as well as money in my experience.

And (sorry for banging on about it) can you tell us a bit more about the DMP you have through the council? I think it's important to know if it's just a DMP (which relies on creditors' good will to freeze interest) or a Debt
Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme (which means that they HAVE to freeze interest, by law).

If you're on a normal DMP, then DAS would give you more protection and guarantees.

If you're on a payment programme under DAS, then you have the right (by law) to ask your money adviser to apply for a change to the amount you're paying each month, because your circumstances have changed (increases in fuel costs, for example).

The change might not be accepted, but it's worth a try, especially if it wouldn't take your plan over ten years for repayment.

HTH