Scared,Excited, Delving into the unknown

angelsam1984

:eek:

Erm

I have just closed my financial dealings with Gregory Penington..............
I have a financial interview on the 7th October with CCS...............
I have written to all my creditors
I am pursuing 2 companies atm for charges
BUT
Apparently CCS gets funding from some of the creditors
It doesnt stop charges or interest
If you pay on the 1st it holds your money for 25 days gaining interest
AND
all my payments are set up for the 1st-11th so ill get more charges

I hope I am doing the right thing, I feel confident that I will succeed but I am worried I may get caught out somewhere and it will end up costing me more!

I don't know wether to go to CCS or try and deal with the creditors myself
I am not working and have enough time on my hands to do this myself and understand itll be alot of work but I dont know if I have missed anything out in my planning or if I am just being too optimistic

Please post views and comments!

very confused

Sam

madduck

Hi Sam

Don't worry too much - CCCS are great. I've been on a DMP for over 2 years now. At first it was a bit scary - but looking back now - it was the best thing that I ever did!

Taking your points one at a time:

* CCCS are part funded by the credit industry - but at the end of the day - they are a registered charity and the links with the credit industry may work to your advantage. My experience would leave me thinking that they are respected by the credit industry and you are likely to have less hastle than doing a DMP on your own.

* No-one can guarantee to stop interest/charges - however - again from personal experience, all of my creditors have stopped interest/charges.

* Payments is taken from your account on 1st of the month and paid to creditors on 25th, but once the DMP is up and running - this isn't a problem.

Hope this helps

angelsam1984

Ok I do agree but

I have just done a SOA and think I could swing it on my own - I dont know how much help CCS would be as I am going to pursue some charges..............

SOA as follows:

Petrol 150
Fraud prevention insurance 4.99
Mess Bill 30
Car Insurance 38
Internet (AOL) 32.5
Child Maintenance 350
BT 20
House Insurance 11
Barclays Account fee 5
Overdraft Protection 0.8
Tv Licence 11.07
Electric 40
Gas 45
HP Uniform 100
Mobile (Orange) 33
Car Tax 15
Glasses 15
Food 250
Baby Nappies etc 120
Rent 180.64
Personal Insurance 18
Household products 60


Total 1530

PAY 2100
Benefits 120


Total left for creditors 690 which is over twice as much as i paid with GP

Have I missed anything out?


Thanks in Advance

Sam

chevalier

HI there
I don't notice any car tax on there, or any car maintenance/service. Also no xmas, birthday, wedding pots.

What is Hp Uniform 100? Are you in the forces? I thought all the kit was free

How many people is the food for? If is just you (and a baby? as you are buying nappies?) then this is very high. I saved a fortune with my two, by pureeing fruit etc and freezing it in ice cube trays. Also cooking from scratch, batch cooking, (for the freezer) and maybe changing supermarket (I gather lidl and aldi are MUCH cheaper), would all help.

There seems to be an awful lot of insurances of one sort or another, do you need them all.

What is your debt? ie creditor, amount, minimum repayment and apr? This way we can point you to some strategies.

CCCS is a good idea, I feel, as it keep you from temptation, to say you will just pay a bit less this month. I gather that if you start messing about with the payments, they will call you and see what is going on.

Best of luck whatever you decide.
chev

angelsam1984

chevalier wrote:

HI there
I don't notice any car tax on there, or any car maintenance/service. Also no xmas, birthday, wedding pots.

What is Hp Uniform 100? Are you in the forces? I thought all the kit was free

How many people is the food for? If is just you (and a baby? as you are buying nappies?) then this is very high. I saved a fortune with my two, by pureeing fruit etc and freezing it in ice cube trays. Also cooking from scratch, batch cooking, (for the freezer) and maybe changing supermarket (I gather lidl and aldi are MUCH cheaper), would all help.

There seems to be an awful lot of insurances of one sort or another, do you need them all.

What is your debt? ie creditor, amount, minimum repayment and apr? This way we can point you to some strategies.

CCCS is a good idea, I feel, as it keep you from temptation, to say you will just pay a bit less this month. I gather that if you start messing about with the payments, they will call you and see what is going on.

Best of luck whatever you decide.
chev

Hi Chev

There is car tax - but thats including MOT
HP uniform is because hubby got promoted and has grown quite a bit since his last fitment of mess kit - if he doesnt have it he could get sacked (its until Feb)
No Xmas Bday etc cos I am tight :rotfl:

No really we have saved £500 for xmas and I have a jar for change and should hopefully sell this car soon

Food Includes £10 eating out and £30 dog food
Yes got a 4 month old son lovely little man normally costs about 120 for nappies and all

Hubby has to have PAX life insurance for army and home - covers me too
House insurance is just contents - and mess kit

I use Tesco because I cant drive and my hubby goes away alot and living in the middle of nowhere i need it to be delivered!


Debts only approxiamte of date until I get full statements

No Idea of apr etc but I can give what GP was paying them

Creditor owed Oct1st 2006 GP agreed Payment
HFC 2500.00 62.36
HFC 400.00 15.18
DLC 2000.00 61.73
DLC 200.00 5.00
GE Money 937.50 26.32
Orange PC 200.00 6.43
Capital One 900.00 26.56
CitiFinancial Europe 1700.00 42.33
Monument 900.00 19.30
Argos 100.00 5.00
Index 400.00 11.54

10237.50 281.75



This doesnt include Natwest balance 1060 as there are 1000 of charges on the account which i am pursuing but sending a token payment.

Sam

chevalier

Congratulations on the baby. Did you get your government £250 or £500 ok? Whilst I know it is supposed to be for your little man, you could use it to overpay the debt, and pay your wee one back when you are debt free?

Ref nappies. It is amazing how many of them you go through. Have you thought about reusable ones. For the price of one months disposables, you could get a big pack of reusable ones. (Or even more on ebay, new ones that is). In some areas you can even get a grant off the council towards the cost, whilst in other areas, they have a nappy laundery service where they get washed for free!

Over the course of a year (though the amount of poo's your small one has DOES get less honest:D ), you would save over £1000 on nappies alone:eek: !

I also don't understand ref GP. You were on a DMP with them, and it has now finished? I am a bit confused as I thought that you stayed on a plan until all the debts were payed? If you were hacked off with paying the fee, then try CCCS or payplan who do not charge as they are charities.

Regards Tesco, do you have an Asda near you (not sure where you are in the country). Even I was surprised how much cheaper my shop was in Asda this saturday compared with Tesco.

I got at code here for free delivery (for Asda out of the Asda magazine so will work). It is M4-AM-BT-46. I was expecting to spend £100 (was buying xmas presents too:D ) and it only came to £77! Result!:D
You can also find loads of free delivery or x amount of your shop for Tesco in the Grabbit whilst it's here forum, where there is a special Tesco forum.

Best of luck, off to bed. Will look out for you tomorrow...zzzzzz

chev

angelsam1984

Morning Chev, I couldnt stay up any longer,

Ref the nappies I think I spend approx
£16 am month on nappies
£5 a month on wipes
£30 a month on formula milk ( I did breasfeed till 3months)
£20 a month on baby breakfast/powdered meals/baby fruit ( I am too scared a making stuff for him)
and I am trying to save the rest for when he has another groeth spurt into 6-9 months clothing (wont be long!) and another car seat (Weighed 6.7kg 4 weeks ago)

I know the food shopping may seem alot but I have just sarted to batch cook, so hopefully it'll work out, just go to stop the other half from buying snacks (not like he needs them) And do some cookie cooking etc.

Whatever I save though will not have much impact on what I can give to the creditors as my OH is meant to be able to pull £100 at any time for functions, etc He is not ever meant to be in financial difficulties as it is a dissmissable offence in the army and if he can' come up wih the goods Then they could easily investigate it.

I was with GP and thats what they were paying each creditor plus there £52 admin fee.

In terms of shopping the only two that will deliver are tesco and sainsburys, I ALWAYS spend time looking for the £15 off so I get £10 off and free delivery I know its on £100 spend but I try to do it everytwo weeks (including baby stuff)

The hard part in this is my OH and his trips to tesco, halfords etc on his own. He said he would start agency driving but never see it and I feel guilty enough that I don't input ino the income.

I didnt apply for the grant - I didnt know how to or if I would be entitled to it and its probably too late now.


Sam

shayshay

If its the child trust fund that should be automatic or at least it was with my last two, however we can't touch it as it is in the kids name until they turn 18

With regards using the CCCS, if the problems such as interest and dates are going to be messed up I would use CCCS as they are that much closer and stand a far better chance of getting those rearranged making it a little more comfortable for you.

chevalier

Ah I see now. I thought £120 JUST on nappies was a bit much. Don't be worried about making your own stuff up. I did frozen apple. take 2 applies peel and cut them up and cook on low temp with a little water. When soft either put them through a blender, or else get a moule (sorry french word and don't know the english equivalent), which is to puree stuff by hand. The best thing about doing your own stuff is you know exactly what is going in it. I often found with the shop bought stuff, that what I thought was pure apple, pear or whatever, had other things in it too. Particularly with my second child, I wanted to be extra careful as my first child has a severe allergy.

The other thing with your own food, is that it tastes like food. Try some of you babies baby food, it tastes REALLY bland, even the fruit ones. And they have not texture at all, which your own food will. Say two apples cost 50p, this would easily give you a tray full of frozen food, which would be about 4 or 5 meals worth. So for the cost of one jar, you get five meals! Ask your health visitor about this, or there are cookery books especially for babies which might give you inspiration.

If your hubby need to provide £100 at the drop of a hat, perhaps the best approach would be to have a sealed envelope with this in. Then it is taken care of and you don't have to factor it into your budgeting?

With regards to clothes, I cannot recommend enough https://www.freeecycle.org. You have to join the local groups first (not difficult to do), but then you will often find clothes being advertised on there. Which of course will save you a fortune, when small person grows!

best of luck
chev

angelsam1984

Cheers Chev -

In someways I havent a clue but realistically I know what I am doing, I being the prominent word not OH!

Ah well ty for the ideas and suggestions.

Just doing my spring clean to find any change (good motivation!)
then off to get DS injections done eek!

Got some mince to cook as run out of spaghetti bolognase in the freezer.


Will chat later if I find anything interesting-

OH xmas presents this year for close family grannies parents etc is a photo album with photos of little un from birth till xmas. If I run out of photo albums (I got given 4) I will nicely dress a CD with them on and do a personalised hand made xmas card

Still stuck for OH's kids - they have too high expectations so I am badgering my OH to give them £50 each as it was last year. thats £200

Sam

Sam

LewisC_2

You appear to be spending way too much on your mobile phone and internet - have a look at new providers or downgrade the service.