My SOA - Oh dear!

rachaelfleur

I think I've made a total mess of things this month. When I get home tonight I'll have to go through all my payments for this month cause I seem to have majorly spent somewhere or underestimated something. One of my direct debits have came back unpaid but I don't know where the money for it has actually gone. I'm feeling a bit sick at the moment.

Cyril

You are doing really well and on a roll, part of the battle is being aware of your situation and taking control of it as that runaway train feeling is awful. Try not to see your situation as a huge problem and break each bit into bite size chunks.

It helped me write down everything income and expenditure for each month so I know what I am aiming for rather than get to the end of the month and not know where my money went.

Good luck

rachaelfleur

I think the main cause is this damn payday loan. My repayment for Feb was £525 and as I've said before I have no option but to reapply each month, so I decided to take less, £380 and thought I had budgeted for this but I think I've made a mistake. I'm going to sit down tonight and go through everything with a fine tooth comb.

rachaelfleur

Got some good news today. My work are in the process of changing our pension scheme and as of the 1st April I will see an increase in my take home wage due to the new setup. Not sure how much more but anything's good at this stage.

rachaelfleur

Once I recieved all bills and statements this month I'm going to post another SOA, which I will do once a month to help me stay motivated. I'm feeling a bit !!!! at the moment because I know I've messed up somewhere this month so I'm just away to sit down and go through all my stuff.

I have one question, is it ok to communicate with my creditors by letter only? I really don't like talking to these people on the phone, I really don't need to feel more ashamed than I already do and they always seem to make me feel worse and bully me into something I don't want to or can't afford to do.

VanillaDelia

Rachael

I think you are doing really well to cut the costs down.

I also find myself using these payday loans and I am also trying to wean myself off them. I have 2 which are ongoing and I keep deferring them and putting an extra amount on top to gradually get them down. I am hopefully going through a DMP with CCCS and it looks like my paydays will be added to the plan to actually get rid of them once and for all.

Keep up the good work.

VanillaDelia

What I find with my creditors is they are all very abrupt so i treat them how they treat me. I have in fact blocked their numbers from getting through to me and now I only receive letters in the post.

rachaelfleur

I just don't answer the phone and they constantly call and never leave messages. Eventually they send a letter which I always reply to and state in them that I want to communicate only by letter, which is usually ignored cause the calls just keep coming!

I've reduced my payday loan slightly, the highest amount i borrowed was £420, with a repayment of £525! What a waste of money. I'm now down to borrowing £380 and I'm going to try and reduce it by £20 a month, unless I get something to pay it off in one go. Currently filling out an application to my credit union for a small loan to get rid of it, fingers crossed it's approved. If not I'll just have to plod long, paying as much as I can towards it.

debrag

the payday loan is this included in your 'incomings'? This is an extra thing you're receiving each month even though you are paying it back (with interest). If it is then remember to reduce that amount each time you reduce the amount to take out

rachaelfleur

Oops! I didn't include the payday loan as an income on my previous SOA, that's really dumb of me. I'll definately remember this month to include it. Hopefully I'll get a small loan to get rid of it completely though. Although here's my negative thought for the day, good things never happen to me :rolleyes: