DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 6)

londonfraggle

jles49 wrote: »

please could i have a dmp number thank u lol

and me and me and me - please!

pinkiepie68

Hi Fraggle

Know what you are meaning - it has a massive impact on your mood - I have been trying so hard to be "normal mummy" to my little girl who is 5 and has no idea why I do not have my smily face any more - she also keeps askinf why I have to make so many "business calls" when I get in from work. I was in a similar situation with my wages (i,e, not sure whether they would go into my new account or not). Lloyds CC did the dirty and offset a CC payment £ 69 against my OH's last wage that was paid into our Lloyds current account, which left us short for our home insurance. CCCS were going to start our plan in September, but I felt that I needed a bit more time to get everything organised (and an emergency fund of sorts behinf us) so I just asked if I could defer my payment until the beginning of October and they were fine. The only problem I have had is that CCCS did not note this on my details on their system and sent out all my letters of offer to my creditors with a September start date, then when i highlighted this to them one counsellor they said they would send replacement offers, but when I called back to let them know they had missed one of my 2 Lloyds overdraft (for £ 250) from my list of creditors, they gave me different information by telling me just to tell my creditors to call them if they phoned me - a bit bizarre!!

I feel as if I am worrying about everything at the moment - like I worry when I have too much post and loads of phone calls, but then all has been quiet for a week and now I am worrying that there are none!!!!

The one good thing I have had is that I have had letters of acceptance back from 8 of my 19 creditors, but the biggest pains in the !!!! are Argos and Barclaycard - how many times can these people Phone???!!!

However, I feel I am in a slightly better place than I was a couple of months ago.

Just (trying) to keep the smiley face!:)

Gpuk

bigmommamuppet wrote: »

I have also tried splitting my budget up into chunks i.e. X amount for petrol, food etc. but again I overspend on nearly everything each month.

Main areas of overspending are food (we spend approx £350pm for 4, and entertainment/ going out- haven’t told anyone we’re on a DMP so trying to carry on with life as normal… which I think is the main problem, for example friends want to go out for dinner on Saturday, babysitters, taxis etc, will cost best part of £200:eek::eek::eek: if not more, but stupidly we said yep no probes…..defo have to cancel this..)

Therefore any budgeting advice would be muchly appreciated.

Thanks

Becks

Hi Becks

I'm only just starting on the whole DMP thing but I have been budgeting food/petrol for months now and i'll tell you what has helped me.

First, I have told my closest friends what has happened and they have been SO supportive, we haven't stopped being invited out but if they ask and I say "thanks but I can't afford it" then they KNOW I mean it and don't bug me about it. Now if I and my best mate want to go for lunch we go to £3.50 crown carvery, Harvester 1/3rd off or we scour the voucher codes/MSE website for BOGOF offers. For dinner we find a local all-you-can-eat chinese buffet or similar OR we go halves on a takeaway (the other day out friends came round we supplied the BBQ and a pack of burgers, they bought the sausages and buns).

Second, I too like your OH and probably everyone else on here would be mortified if my card declined in a petrol station or in the supermarket, this actually did happen to me a few months ago and I wanted to die!! SO now before I go shopping I look through the cupboard and fridge/freezer and then with that and the ideas in my head of what I fancy to eat that week I write myself a meal plan to last until the next time i'm going shopping. I then write my list of what I need to fulfill that meal plan and then I add basics that I like to have in my fridge incase 1 day something crops up and for some reason I can't make that dish for example bacon. eggs, mushrooms to make a quickie fry up or omlette. I then go on to ASDA website (which is where I shop) and I note down ALL the prices of the things on my list and search for offers as i'm doing it, as in my local ASDA they don't always have every offer they are doing displayed on the shelf but when it goes through the till it will still come up as an offer (crafty)!! I allow myself £5 extra on top of this amount for any impulse buys (I am human and a shop-a-holic and I do find all of the above alien)! Or incase there is something I have missed or something good in the reduced which I haven't budgeted for.

Thirdly, I have a purse with 2 pocket sections and WHATEVER I buy whether it is a packet of gum or my main weekly shop, the receipt goes in there and I have a running total on a piece of paper in there......I thought I had done really well a few weeks ago and only spent £42.42 on shopping but I forgot I went to Aldi and topped up bread, milk and a few extras totalling £27.93 and then I had popped into Somerfields and spent another £4 on some bits SO I am deluding myself into thinking I have only spent £42 on my weekly shop when infact that week I spent £74!!!:eek:

Fourthly (is there such a word)?? This will all only work if BOTH of you are doing this as there is no point you scrimping and saving every last penny whilst shopping if OH isn't so he needs to save all his receipts as well! Clip all petrol receipts together and make sure your not buying more than you need to, if you only need £10 petrol to last til the end of the week/month only put in £10 worth! You will save petrol not lugging a full tank around and also if you haven't already, join petrolprices.com, so you know where your cheapest fuel is.

It's so hard trying to do all this and some weeks we all fail miserably but if we slip we have to get back up again because this is the last hope!

The last thing I can say is big hugs for trying and bigger hugs for realising it's not quite working out and wanting to do something about it

If all else fails then you might need to adjust your DMP payment because you really are just leaving yourselves too short and that's not helping anyone least of all you x

lez6781

I have just entered into a DMP with CCCS with my first payment due first oct and I feel so relieved about it all at the moment.
I would like 1 day in the future to be able to own my own house, does anyone have any experience of getting a mortgage after completing a DMP and becoming debt free! My debt free date will be in 5 years and then in another 2 I can save enough for a deposit if I have no debts to be paid with extortionate interest rates!! But I'm concerned that even if I can raise a deposit I wont be able to get the mortgage because of the DMP?

Any comments would be appreciated

Cheers

ianmak

ianmak wrote: »

Welcome jles! Your number is: 334

Please join in if you can!

jles49, I did your number the end of July, see above. Fraggle, I'll sort one out for you soon.

londonfraggle

pinkiepie68 wrote: »

I feel as if I am worrying about everything at the moment - like I worry when I have too much post and loads of phone calls, but then all has been quiet for a week and now I am worrying that there are none!!!!

The one good thing I have had is that I have had letters of acceptance back from 8 of my 19 creditors, but the biggest pains in the !!!! are Argos and Barclaycard - how many times can these people Phone???!!!

However, I feel I am in a slightly better place than I was a couple of months ago.

Just (trying) to keep the smiley face!:)

I know exactly what you mean - I do all of the above, and then worry a bit more if I think I'm not worrying quite enough!

But, yes, this has to be better than the alternative, where I was regularly waking up in the middle of the night (if I fell asleep at all!). At least now I'm taking action and that feels pretty darn good...

I had an hilarious phone conversation with one of my creditors today. He called a few days ago and actually snorted when I told him I was in the process of setting up my DMP and to expect my notification and token payment any day, after which the CCCS would be dealing with them. After much "can you not make a payment now" kind of to-ing and fro-ing (what part of "token payment" "is on way" "after which the CCCS" "will contact you with pro rata payment" do you think he didn't understand?!?!) he eventually finished off the call with a big scary "well I'm going to call the CCCS now myself" - go for it I said!!! Anyway, today he called me again. I answered as I knew who it was - and said "hello again what can I do for you" to which there was silence then "um, actually I don't know, I don't think I need to speak to you right now". Brilliant! So on the ball these people!

Hope you all have good worry free nights sleeps tonight!

Fraggle x

Gpuk

:rotfl:Fraggle that has cheered me up!! :rotfl:

Daffykjs

Hi all,

Well I've messed up again this month! I'm really sick of it coz i just don't (didn't) get where it's been going wrong! I'm just not good at this budgeting lark!

So I've just been looking at my spend diary and trying to find where i go wrong! I have to admit to still being a little confused about it but somehow end up spending over twice what i should be so there lies the problem!! (In fact there lies my whole problem and why i'm in this mess in the first place)

So now from next month (get paid 25th or the friday before if it's a weekend) things are gonna change! On payday each month, i'm going to take out the whole allocated 'fun' cash for that month and only spend cash on these things. Petrol and grocery money will be left in the account BUT I'm going to be more careful to stick to the budget! one of my weaknesses is alcohol at the weekends, and i've realised this has not in the past ended up coming into either the grocery budget OR my fun budget! So it's additional! So on a sunday when i do my shopping I will buy alcohol for the next weekend IF (and only if) there is enough spare budget after food. if not i'll go without.

Actually the change is going to start from next tues when hubby gets paid tbh. his money goes in twice a month to the bills account! but because his last wages were given to me in cash to pay in myself we ended up spending some of it and were therefore short for the bills and i therefore ended up putting some from the other account in to cover it! so i've worked out how much I NEED until payday and on tues when his next lot goes in i will take that money (£80) back out of the bills account in cash and that will be all i have til payday!

Fingers crossed I have finally got my head round it all now, and that from now on i can make it work. Coz I'm quite frankly fed up of feeling like a failure each month when i end up going over!

In all honesty i feel like i've have a second LBM!! i just wasn't looking at it honestly and was seeing extra that wasn't there and spending like it was there!

I WILL get control of my money!! And it WILL be sooner rather than later!

Daffykjs

Gpuk wrote: »

:rotfl:Fraggle that has cheered me up!! :rotfl:

they really are useless sometimes aren't they! i've had the 'oh actually we've already spoken to you' thing loads of times!

Welcome Sprout (and other newbies of course), I know exactly what you mean about the going out but still feeling guilty thing!! I get that and also spend the whole night worrying about going over the budget I've set for myself, or the moment where i have to go home coz the money has all gone!

I hate being skint and not being able to have a worryfree social life! (altho having this is the first place was probably part of what got me to here so maybe it's for the best!)

Brussel_Sprout

Daffy - I know my social life has a massive part to play! Life has changed for the better now though, having an appreciation for money (or lack of it) is a much healthier attitude rather than being frivolous.

This post has inspired me to keep on top of my DMP and keep looking and focusing on when it will be paid off. I even voluntarily phoned Triton (Natwest) today to ask them some questions about my overdraft/loan payments! Very brave of me I thought!!

I have been through all of my credit card statements, the loan statement, and have got an up to date amount on my overdraft. I have calculated it all together and re-visited my initial paperwork from Payplan and I have detailed my debts in my signature. Makes it more real to see what I've acheived so far!!

I'm already thinking of the holiday Im going to treat my other half to when this is all paid off!! :T