The January 2009 BR Club

DON79

Hi SA, I had a better day today but still feeling a bit :sad: so I have just been on youtube to cheer myself up and played this http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ldoc9tRtlOs. It cheers me up. And I like Mark Owen! He was always my Take That favourite! Hope you are ok today.

Donna

startagain_2

Hi Donna,
I am fine - at work (as usual) for another hour and then off until Boxing Day... hurrah! :j

Driving home last night I realised that a bulb had gone at the front of the car and so I will have to get that done pronto before pc plod catches me. Really annoyed - it means a trip to the main dealers where they charge me £30 just to fit a bulb!!!!! Trouble is that it's really fiddly and I can't do it myself and everywhere else is closed for xmas so I am stuck. So I will be there at 8.30am tomorrow shelling out money I could have done with saving - such is life. :mad:

Take That fan eh? Did you watch the special they did on TV a couple of weeks back. I really enjoyed it.
I feel quite geared up for the BR now, I don't know about you, but I have been reassured so much by peoples accounts on here - it doesn't seem to be half as scary as I thought. It is the OR thing that could be a bit wobbly......but they can't take what you haven't got! :rolleyes:

Glad you are feeling a bit better... are you all ready for Christmas?
SA

DON79

Hi

Sorry to hear about the car light. Hope it doesn't cost too much for you. Just typical timing really isn't it!

I am really quite lucky as my OH used to be a mechanic so he does all the fiddly car bits, and it only goes into the garage when it is a really big job and we haven't had lots of those thankfully.

Funnily enough, I like Take That more now than I did when I was a teenager! I followed Mark Owens career after they broke up and he released a couple of songs on his own which I liked. I look back at some of their old videos and cringe a little at some of the stuff in them as I am sure Take That do themselves! I saw the special show on TV, it is on again over xmas so might watch it again as I think I missed the start last time it was on.

I am all ready for the court bit, it is the OR bit that is going to worry me too! I don't think I am going to be a simple straightforward interview but will have to wait and see. Depends how the OR views it I guess.

Am feeling better as watched the Shine video about three times! and watched the Rule the World one. I have set up an account on youtube to save all my favourites so I can play them when I need cheering up!

All sorted for the holidays really. What about you?

clanbailey

Hiya everyone - it is like living on a parallel universe on here LOL I got really excited a few days ago cos decided to go br - phoned the court - set a date - got my forms - applied for a coop account and was feeling really positive BUT then for the last two days been really low and weepy for no reason what so ever BUT today I am fine again - my god this is like life on a rollercoaster just hoping that when we go to court can put some closure on this whole situation as it is truely doing my nut in !!!! Looking forward to xmas though kids are all excited (not for santa cos they are 11 and 14) but for their pressies and food LOL and I am excited for some (a lot) of drink!

I really really am hoping I dont have an IPA put on me or OH does anyone know if this is a normal thing they do or if only over a certain amount of surplus??

ta

DON79

Hi Clanbailey, will probably snap and give the same advice but an IPA only gets applied above a £99 surplus and then they can only take 50% of the surplus upto a maximum of 70% of the surplus the larger the surplus is.

Found the table from skylights post.

Surplus - % to be paid

0-99 - Nil
100-249 - 50
250-349 - 60
350-499 - 66
500+ - 70

I am sorry that you are feeling down too! It is probably the normal thing, you get it all done and then it is the waiting game that gets you all worried and stressed again! I am looking forward to the closure as well!

My kids are really young so don't really know much about the whole xmas thing yet!

startagain_2

Hey,
What needles me is that the car had its winter check about 3 weeks ago for lights, levels and had 4 new tyres and boom, now this.
It has made me realise that I am going to have to up the amount for car repairs and MOT on my SOA. £20 a month is nowhere near enough. I will have spent £180 in the last month even without servicing or an MOT, which was done in the summer, and that was another £225. You forget how much it all adds up which is why the debts add up I suppose.
Not really too much to do for Christmas - we all gave up buying presents about 3 years ago when the kids grew up and it has really taken the pressure off. Now its just cards to the nearest and dearest and food and drink on Christmas Dayand I will be at my step-mums with my sisters and their kids. My Mum died 10 years ago and Dad nearly 3 years ago, so it's just us now.
It should be a good day. I have decided that I am not going to tell any of the family members about the BR. They are all financially solvent (I think) and we aren't the sort of family that is particularly close in sharing things like that. I think it is something best kept to myself and a couple of close friends.
How about you? Do your family all know?
SA

DON79

Hi,

I have not told anyone at all in my family or my OH's family. My family I have not told because I don't want to upset them and have not told my OH's family for same reason but also because I don't want them to know and discuss it between themselves. I know some of them would be ok but others would not be!

If you have to increase your car maintenance then do it to the maximum you can and then if the OR cuts it down, you will end up with the right amount if you overestimate it.

Hope that you have a lovely time with your family, we can't visit any family this year because they are too far away.

startagain_2

At home now,

One of the most valuable things about this board is the tips and info that you pick up before you actually submit your forms.

Just today I have found out that I can put at least £45 a month for the car repairs and MOT.
I also completely forgot about my gluten free diet and the expensive items that I can't avoid. Bread is £2 a loaf. I only buy one a week but it adds up. When the supermarkets hiked their prices up a few weeks back it went up 40p overnight! So that will justify the £180+ a month that I am going to be putting for food etc.

I agree about the family thing - I don't want them talking about me either and I don't think it will be at all constructive or helpful for them to know.

Isn't it strange that we are all getting low days. After clanbaileys post I realised that the three of us and lensman have all had a bit of a downer over the last few days. Whoever said it is a rollercoaster ride was so right. that is exactly what it feels like.

Poured myself a glass of red wine, cooking lamb for my tea (reduced in Morrisons tonight) and about to chill!!! Two days off..... yippee:T

SA

DON79

I think that I would still be stuck struggling to pay my dmp without this fab place and at least now I have a light at the end of the tunnel, a tiny speck which will get brighter and brighter. We need to be happy and cheer each other up so!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eONhto0x_nI

like this one too!

startagain_2

A Very Merry Christmas to my fellow Jan clan members...... :santa2:

At the risk of being thought as a bit sad for logging onto the board on Dec 25th, I have decided to post something anyway for the following reasons:-

I couldn't sleep again so have been reading loads on t'internet .....
I wanted to bump the thread up a bit so I don't lose it .....
and I want to put a reminder to myself in black and white on here...

So, yesterday I take my little car to the main dealers to get a dipped beam bulb replaced..... there were two bulbs blown....aargh! But the guy was really sweet when he saw my face frozen with fear as to the potential cost of replacing them and they did it for £40 all in. Still expensive but another branch of the same dealers charged me £34 in the past for one bulb.
Sometimes, I do wish I had a man around the place who could do these little bits and bobs :eek: and then I wake up and get sensible again!

I have been reading Martin's budget planner article and decided to fill one out from Jan 1st which seems a really good starting date. My lower salary will start from then and of course the month of the BR.

I have also decided to get a copy of my credit file from Experian just to make sure that I have all the proper info for the OR when the time comes.
I have mentioned in other posts that in 1998/99 I got divorced and the house was sold to pay off debts basically. We had tried to go down the IVA route but it was a disaster and we finished it. I didn't have enough to pay my creditors in full so on the advice of the CAB I offered them 50p in the £ as full and final settlement. I had been offered the chance to go and work abroad and so I gave them 28 days to reply explaining that I was leavng the country, again on CAB advice.
Because by now it had been some years since the original debts had been run up the CAB said a couple may have already been written off and only to pay those that responded, then I would have it in writing that they were settled. So I did, giving them my parents address if they needed to contact me and off I went to the job abroad.This was in Nov 2002.
Then out of the blue a couple of weeks ago I get a letter from Ruthbridge Ltd, a ruthless Debt Collection Agency demanding £3900 within 7 days!!! They do not say who the original creditor is - it has been passed from another DCA. They have sent 5 letters so far and a telephone call every day. Taking advice from here and the Consumer Advice forum I have sent them the "prove it" letter and also the telephone harrassment letter all by Recorded Delivery and have received nothing back. The only thing I can think of is that it is one of those creditors from 1999 who didn't reply to my offer. So of course the debt is now Statute Barred anyway but I would like to know what it is. If they aren't going to tell me then there might be something on my credit file. I am not bothered because it can go on the BR forms anyway I would have thought.
There has always been an address for people to send any post to (parents) so I am sure that there is no CCJ - I just think these people are chancers who buy up old debts that are Statute Barred for peanuts and then try and terrorise peple into paying. I have seen from other threads that they do actually get quite a lot out of people that don't know or realise that they don't have to pay. I shall be so pleased to see the back of these debts that seem to have plagued my life over the last 15 years.

New Years Resolution - NO MORE DEBTS AND NO MORE CREDIT.... ever

Enough of my ramblings.... Have a great day everyone and don't overdo the festivities!

:rudolf: SA