My SOA - Gulp! Lightbulb moment!!

St0lli

Bumping for suggestions on what to do with the 'saving' of not paying mortgage from one months salary... Thank you

St0lli

Thanks for the advice Elsie... I'm now thinking of using £600 to pay off my overdraft and then to save the rest. I'm still not sure if thats the best option tho. Now I know why I've managed to get in such a state with my money! LOL

St0lli

Not much to report this week apart from selling £100 worth of bits and bobs on eBay and I've got more things listed this week.

I also managed to keep my grocery bill this week to £27 - yippee!

I'm looking around for a template letter to send to my creditors asking them to take a token payment whilst I'm waiting for my appointment with CCCS. I've been trying to get thro to CCCS on the phone to see if they have a template I can use but the lines are constantly busy. I'm really dreading sending the letters after hearing the horror stories on here about how the CC companies start hounding you on the phone for payment so I'll probably just take the home phone out of the socket and not answer any numbers I don't recognise on my mobile... Or is that just burying my head in the sand? Hey ho....

Thats all for now folks!

St0lli

So where am I so far... Well today I send letters to all my creditors asking them to hold action on my accounts (template from National Debtline) so no doubt the phone calls will start soon. Think I'll take the home phone out of the socket and set my mobile to silent!

At the moment I've got very mixed emotions about it all... sometimes I feel really happy and positive because I'm starting to deal with it and sometimes (ie the past few nights) I get very anxious about it and I'm wide awake at 3am thinking about the consequences of my past spending behaviour.:o

On the plus side I've sold around £280 worth of 'things' on ebay which were just hanging around the house and I'm still listing. I'm putting it all away in a savings account in the hope it may come in handy if I can ever offer a F&F settlement to any of my creditors. Oh and I've also managed to keep my grocery shopping to an average of £30 per week over the last month. This has been a revelation to me and I really don't know how I used to spend so much previously. Myself and my son haven't gone hungry and the quality of food has been very good - just cutting out convenience foods and going back to basics! :T

I'll probably be back for some moral support when my creditors receive my letter and start putting the presuure on!

Thanks for listening/reading x

kimdegsidash

Well done stolli
I am about to send the template letters to my unsecured creditors too this week. Will keep you updated as to how many phone calls I get! Had my counselling call with CCCS yesterday and they drew up a detailed SOA with me over the phone and are sending me a template letter (which sounds very similar if not identical to the ones on National Debtline).

Hope all goes well for you and do report back.

Great news on the groceries front! :T

St0lli

Thanks kimdegsidash! All scary stuff isn't it? Let me know how your creditors react when they get your letters - I'll be here to offer support if you need it! We CAN do this!! :T

Paulgonnabedebtfree

St0lli wrote: »

So where am I so far... Well today I send letters to all my creditors asking them to hold action on my accounts (template from National Debtline) so no doubt the phone calls will start soon. Think I'll take the home phone out of the socket and set my mobile to silent!

At the moment I've got very mixed emotions about it all... sometimes I feel really happy and positive because I'm starting to deal with it and sometimes (ie the past few nights) I get very anxious about it and I'm wide awake at 3am thinking about the consequences of my past spending behaviour.:o

On the plus side I've sold around £280 worth of 'things' on ebay which were just hanging around the house and I'm still listing. I'm putting it all away in a savings account in the hope it may come in handy if I can ever offer a F&F settlement to any of my creditors. Oh and I've also managed to keep my grocery shopping to an average of £30 per week over the last month. This has been a revelation to me and I really don't know how I used to spend so much previously. Myself and my son haven't gone hungry and the quality of food has been very good - just cutting out convenience foods and going back to basics! :T

I'll probably be back for some moral support when my creditors receive my letter and start putting the presuure on!

Thanks for listening/reading x

Glad to see that you are wading through this stuff bit by bit.
I believe that you can write to the creditors insisting that they only communicate in writing. Once you have done this, to phone you asking for paymernt is classed as harassment and I believe it becomes illegal. In practice, it takes a while for them to get the message and for the calls to subside. Initially, it might be better to send your letters by registered post and keep a copy of their contents. There is a template letter somewhere around (I'm sure someone else will post a link) regarding "no phone calls".

As for the shopping - yes, I was amazed too. I was truely astonished that I could go to Sainsbury's and just for the sake of bending my back a bit, I could buy a box of Cornflakes for 46p instead of £2+. With many goods, the trick is to scan the bottom shelves where the less profitable goods are stored. If I go there at the right time of the evening, I can often get bread at half price or less when they are marking down the stuff getting near its best before date. There are sometimes special offers going for milk. Some while ago, I picked up Wiseman's semi skimmed milk at 50p per 2 litre container. I bought 15 and I live on my own. Even more recently, I have been picking up 2 litres of milk in Asda for 97p. Eggs are not so simple for me. If I were to buy eggs from caged hens I could get some great deals. However, there are some things on which I will not compromise. Even so, I managed to pick up 15 free range eggs (mixed sizes) for £1 a while ago. The key to the bread and milk is having a freezer. I got mine free on freecycle (I have a van I managed to collect it in).
I have not paid full normal price for bread or milk since early November and I've still got loads left.
Although I was reasonably clued up about card switching etc., I was a shopping dunce. I may sell my dunce cap on ebay soon.
Any long shelf life or freezeable product that is on a good deal, I get a bit greedy and just grab as much as I can store it. As long as I bought some fresh fruit, I could live for weeks on the food I have stored. Mind you, it would start getting a bit bland near the end as the choices reduced.
Whatever it takes, eh !!

St0lli

Yes, you are right... It just takes a bit of thought and preparation. Like you I'm beginning to stock pile things when I see them on offer. My son is still getting his weekly treat of a pizza (I just don't let on that I've got them on offer for £1!) so he is happy. Its bizzare as I was thinking of getting an additional freezer for the garage as I'm running out of space in my kitchen freezer but I'm spending much less and not running out of things.

Just goes to show how bad my previous shopping habits were!

Great to see someone who is almost up there with my amount of debt as well (I mean that in the nicest possible way of course)

Paulgonnabedebtfree

St0lli wrote: »

Yes, you are right... It just takes a bit of thought and preparation. Like you I'm beginning to stock pile things when I see them on offer. My son is still getting his weekly treat of a pizza (I just don't let on that I've got them on offer for £1!) so he is happy. Its bizzare as I was thinking of getting an additional freezer for the garage as I'm running out of space in my kitchen freezer but I'm spending much less and not running out of things.

Just goes to show how bad my previous shopping habits were!

Great to see someone who is almost up there with my amount of debt as well (I mean that in the nicest possible way of course)

When I update my sig later, I may even catch you up in the debt stakes. There were some things that I didn't count as debt on 1/1/09 that I should have counted (tax bill and accountancy fee). These debts were already there but weren't in my sig as the exact amounts hadn't been calculated. I need to take a spreadsheet to them.
Remember, don't let these companies hassle you into promising more than you can afford and if you don't want them to phone you, you have the power to stop them. Bear in mind that you have (had) their money. That puts you in charge - not them.

St0lli

Oh gosh! I wouldn't want to inflict my level of debt upon anyone! :eek:

Apart from the credit card companies who hiked up my percentage rates to such an astronomic level of course