DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 5)

sunshine38_2

Morning Everyone

It's great to see how the "newbies" are all helping the "newbie-newbies" already :rotfl:

For everyone just starting out, one of the best pieces of advice I received was not to worry about your actual debt free date at this stage. I was mortified at just how long it felt it was going to take but the idea is just get the ball rolling and regain control. Circumstances change so I've learned to just deal with each step as it comes along and now, 8 months into our DMP, I can honestly say that I only fret about two of the 14 creditors we have. I remember when all 14 accounts were whirling around in my head morning, noon and mostly at night! Of the two still causing "fretting episodes" I know that something will get sorted, it's just a matter of finding the solution. They still cant have, what I still havent got!

For my experience, once things started to settle (and they will - I would say about 3 months into it really) you will find that you start wandering off to look at other threads on the forum. For instance, I looked at the overall debt and, knowing that they were now being regularly paid with CCCS, I wanted to go and look for ways of getting that debt total down - hence, reclaiming bank charges/account charges etc - so that's what I have been doing mostly, researching, setting out on the next plan to reduce the debt. There are other threads about upping your income, freebie stuff, competitions etc. Unfortunately, time seems to run away whilst "researching" and at one point I barely saw my hubby & kids because you become engrossed on MSE!!! So, I have to limit my time (apart from having to share the computer with my 11yo DD with a love of MSN!).

Actually, I feel guilty at the mo - I spent money yesterday that I shouldnt have and, okay, I know you are supposed to just put it down to a "blip" and carry on, but I realised something about my old shopping habits - because I did exactly the same yesterday as what I used to do in the "not so good old spending days".

Has/does anyone else shop with the same mentality as me?? ... DD has own money and is buying clothes ... we are in the shop browsing ... DS (5y) picks up the same jacket he liked a couple of weeks ago and comes running to me to tell me about his wonderful jacket ... DD still browsing ... Me browsing and spotted a lovely top wondering "its only £6 for this lovely lovely top and I never buy myself anything like this" - "flippin £6, crikey, I work all month, surely I deserve this, it's only £6" ... DS "mum, mum can I please, please" - Mum staring at top and at DS jacket - hmmmm £6 & £8 for his jacket, can I do this?, I can do this, we can eat less this week surely? - "give it here son" (son delighted running around the shop) - goes to find DD and see what she's picked out (some lovely stuff, but it's all her money, so that's fine) ... Mum looks at her top, looks at sons jacket and then thinks "well, if I buy son's jacket then I have to buy one of daughter's items to make it "fair" [oh, forgot to say, that money for DD came from ex-hub for her pocket money] so it wouldnt be fair to buy DS something and not buy DD something myself - anyway ... [nearly there folks!] lines up at till £6 (my top, I will not put it back, I will not put it back, I never buy anything for me, I will not put it back and get kids stuff instead) so £6, £8 and another £6 for DD top = my £6 want (not need!) has turned into a £20 handover at till ... sigh ... oh well ... oh no ... oh, oh, I have something, DS has something, DD has something - got nothing for hubby ... ermmmmm - ooooh, look at that ... "kids, do you think daddy would like this top?" *** you can see where this is going, cant you? ***[hubby is DD's step-dad by the way if I've got you confused!] "oh yes mum, he would" ... £12 (ouch, oooh, ouch, oooh - oh god, I've got to get something for him, we've all got something) and yes, another £12 handed over at the till. So, my £6 WANT turned into a £32 not needed shop for the family ... and the joy of beans of toast awaiting us for the rest of the week :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

When I think of the number of times I've sat and wondered "how did we ever get into this mess" .... well, you can see (and I can more clearly than ever see) just how easily it's done. Mind you, that used to be done by credit cards or if they were already maxed out - robbing Peter to pay Paul - until I couldnt rob Peter anymore

And no ... I'm not taking my £6 top back either (although I've debated on it all night long:o ) [notice how I dont even consider taking everyone else's stuff back instead?!]

Anyway, thanks for letting me ramble (as if you had any choice!) and if you made it to the end - tell me what you think about your spending habits - please tell me that I am not the only person here who does stupid things like this [although, thankfully, not quite as often as I used to ]

Have a good day everyone!

Sunshine x

dlb

Morning!
Thats great news toffee penny..well done!
Hiya to penny39 and hopeTRMD, great to see you joining us!

I was lucky with payplan and didnt have to wait for the telephone interview as they knew i had done the income expenditure thing with my previous dmp company so they emailed me all the paperwork over, which i filled in and emailed back, then they set out details of my dmp with papers for me to sign and return.
This is propably why its only taken 2-3 weeks from first contacting them to getting it all up and running, i already have my log in for the online payplan site and all details of my creditors ect showing..i like this as i can see whats going on and my case worker can contcat me via this site to.
Iv set up the standing order and first payment due out 1st March..i didnt want to delay as obviously my creditors already had agreed to lower payments with the old dmp company and so couldnt risk upsetting them after 3 yrs. But i do think any of you just starting out should consider if it is best to carry on with token payments for a month or 2 and get an emergency fund started.

Catch you all later
Donna
xxx

sunshine38_2

Hey TP - I see you are bright and breezy this morning:D

I'm not surprised given your news - :T :T :T WELL DONE!!!! :T :T :T - I'm following you, you see, getting into the reclaiming and reducing overall debt route. Your post has given me more hope that, despite the hard work "researching" and effort that you need to put in to get these things sorted, there is every chance of getting a good result at the end - and that will keep me going!

Keep going sweetie, you're doing grand (or should that be you will be getting grands :rotfl: :rotfl: )

Now see, I said I was going earlier - I'm far too easily distracted

Sx

p.s. what did you do with the other 9?!!

Toffee_Penny

Sunshine :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

You are officially a NORMAL mum; can never buy herself stuff from the shops without adding something for others in the basket too 'to make it fair'.

I needed a pair of shoes for work the other week as my old ones had holes in the sole :eek: I waited and waitied debating whether I should buy a pair and when I did I sort of added a nice cardigan from Tesco for £15 on top as an added treat for stopping smoking.

I felt so rich buying the cardy with my own cash but did feel guilty when I only wanted work shoes but I think you need that little clothing boost otherwise all mums on a DMP would go round naked. :rotfl:

Toffee_Penny

I bought a pack of ten on Wednesday smoked 2, had 1 on Friday and 2 yesterday.

So a total of 5 smoked!

Starting from today I am giving up..........again :rolleyes:


On that Wednesday I was so stressed out with a few things not just debt like you know you have really crappy days at work? Well I was having one of those but starting from now I'm going to try again Oh you know whats it's like Sunshine......:rolleyes:

tinkerbell12

Well done TP with the reclaiming, that is great news!

Sunshine - I completely know where you are coming from. I stay away from shops unless I really have to because of exactly the same problem. Only now, internet shopping is another temptation!! Keep seeing fabulous offers on the grabbit board and have to try not to follow the links!

marfan_not_martian

Well Done Toffeepenny - I am going to give my DMP a few months to run then I am going to try and reclaim charges from my bank and credit card your news is an inspiration to us all :j


Sunhine38 I was laughing when I read your post about going shopping as I can fully relate to it - I used to be exactly the same in the bad old days of using the plastic. Now I go out shopping and know what I want and I dont deviate from it. I am trying to save about £5 a week out of shopping budget so that in 10 Weeks I will have £50 and out of that I am going to have £25 and my hubbie have £25 but the way I am feeling at the mo I wont be spending it as I seem to be addicted to stashing bits of money away:rotfl:

A few weeks ago I made a savings box I used an old shoe box divided the inside into 6 sections with cardboard and a lot of sticky tape and then put the lid on the box taped the box secure then wrapped it in xmas paper then made 6 slots on the top. The in excel I designed a table which is basically a box with 50 little box in it 5 across and 10 boxes down with a childs name just above each one and copied and pasted it so that I had 6 on one A4 sheet each with a different name of my nieces and nephews. Then I printed the page out cut out the little tables of boxes and stuck one under each of the slots. So now I have a savings box which accounts for each of the children in the family for whom I have to buy christmas pressies for and each week I am putting in 50p into each slot - I had been saving 50p for them all since January so i didnt have to make up any money to get me upto date. Last night after seeing in my purse if I had any change for the box - I realised that I am acutally about 3 weeks ahead in each of them so I am really chuffed with myself for sticking with it. By christmas I will have £25 for each of them and wont be getting myself all stressed worrying about how I am going to afford their christmas pressies.

May start one for the rest of the family but this year they are all getting box of chocs and bottle of wine per couple as I am not going overboard.

Thanks for getting this far if you have read what I have been up to

Have a great day

MNM xxxx

Toffee_Penny

That sounds a great idea MFM trouble is I am really rubbish at saving, I don't know what it is but previously whenever we have had tubs to save a few pounds for christmas or holidays I have always end up breaking in to them.

I'm not that good at saving money but then you already knew that by me being on here!


Good luck with it though, a few 50p's a week doesn't sound a lot either but it is surprising how those little amounts build up. I used to do the vouchers from Park for Christmas, a woman from the school does them but ever since what happened to people who used Farepack I have been really wary doing it again.

Toffee_Penny

Hey just wanted to ask did anybody do anything nice for Valentines day yesterday?

Am I the only one on here who isn't really into all that?

thenightporter

massivedebts & TRMD we were also offered DMP or IVA & picked DMP - I DFD is 9 year s3 months or something like that, but I'm hopeful of increasing our income. Regardless we'll be around for a while too!