Debt Depressed Mum No More!

makingdo

Right well, i have been on a dmp for nearly a year, but this is really my light bulb moment. Where I am actually going to take some action myself rather than just keep expecting my DMP people to sort things out!

At the moment my total debt stands at: £17504.

Little bit of background, I am a work at home mum to 3 children all under 4 years of age. Married to hubby whom is a landscaping foreman. A lot of our debt was incurred when he attempted to start up a business that failed. The rest has been before that when work was thin on the ground for him and we had our now eldest to support.

Debt Busting Action Plan So Far

The first thing I am going to get the ball rolling with is reclaiming bank charges...from the dreaded lloyds tsb. Has to be about 3-4 grand there.

I am going to challenge lloyds tsb over my husbands loan protection. He was self employed when he took out the loan. He was told he had to take it out to get the loan, and also they failed to point out to him that the unemployment policy is useless to himself. Worth a go. Would be around 4 grand.

Today I have just been through my budget with payplan and managed to work out an extra surplus of £20, on top of my regular payment of £148 a month. Every little helps.

I havent officially joined but i started the payment a day challenge today, aiming to pay off our biggest credit card debt by the end of 2009.

I have been working through the introductory bingo offers using cash back sites like quidco and we promise to, all of which have been tracked and verified, just waiting for the first payments. When they go through that will be £140 as an extra payment to my dmp.

I have been doing reviews on dooyoo, currently up to £30 worth of dooyoo points. When i reach the £50 mark that again will go to the dmp.

I will be listing items on ebay, ebid, amazon and also doing some carboots in the warmer weather.

I have downloaded open office and will be keeping spread sheets of spending and debt totals. Helps to be organized, something i sadly lack!

I have been reading into matched betting, now i know the idea is to save money, not lose it, but i am pretty certain i know what i am doing! Will be posting my first few bet/lay's up for scrutiny before hand!

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Thats it for the time being, I am going to try to use this thread to help me keep track and to also read when I feel the debt depression upon me, to remind myself how i AM trying to clear it off! If anyone has any further suggestions on what i can be doing, feel free to let me know!

I am considering a switch of energy supplier, but i have about a £200 outstanding debt with my current company. Am i able to switch anyways, and what would happen then?

Thanks for reading!

RAS

Hi

You have much much more chance of getting a quick resolution to the loan protection, as the OFT lambasted companies last autumn, particulalry those that have single premium PPI in place, as this seems to be. Theey have bene told to cough up and promptly.

beanielou

Wow you have been busy.
You wont be able to change fuel suppliers while you owe money AFAIK.
Good luck with your reclaiming.

Damita

Good luck with your plans

fascinated

Juat wanted to say well done makingdo for such a fantastic start. You certainly have plenty of energy and are very positive which is excellent.

I would definitely get off the letter to reclaim the PPI. I have only had two products with PPI and I have managed to reclaim both with one simple letter to each lender. The first one took the maximum time allowed and I had just sent off a claim to the FSA (or whoever they are) when they settled. All very easy - just filling in forms. No costs involved. Always do it yourself and don't pay a company to do it for you.

The second one was with the Halifax. I sent one letter and we had the cheque reimbursing us together with interest etc within six weeks. Easy peasy.

Best of luck with everything.

Fasci xx

TotallyBroke

Sorry but I'm a bit confused. If you are on a dmp with payplan how do you have cash to be putting on bingo sites and to be able to do matched betting. I understand that with quidco you get money back but don't you have to initially put money onto these sites to activate the account. The same with the matched betting. Where in your dmp budget is the initial outlay for that? Have you over estimated another area in your dmp that you can use.

Any spare cash you make I would personally use it to pay off the utilities debt. I know it's not mse in the sense that you are still paying interest on the credit card. But once it has gone you can then switch provider and make savings that way to over pay on the credit card.

Good luck you sound very determined to solve your debts