determined to be debtfree!

Deeperblue

Hi DFW321,
Glad you got the mystery of the missing £300 sorted! Wonder how long it'll take them to refund you? I hope their not one of these people who hold onto it for as long as they can.

Wish I had 2 freezers some days! Mine is a little chest freezer (where the top opens rather than the front) and I'm having to dig stuff out from the bottom all the time.

~ D.B. ~

abba1772

things are ok my end hun just itching for pay day so i can start repaying my debt properly but it's not til the 10th so a week to go lol

debtfreewannabe321

I know what you mean waiting for pay day, Ours is the very last working day of the month and so the last week of the month always seems to drag and i am always broke by then....BUT armed with my new budget I am hoping this will be the first month in a LONG time that I wil lhave money left right until the end (we shall see though lol)

DB My mum also has a chest freezer (huge one) and she is always finding surprises in there LOL, she promised herself she wouldn't buy any food last month until she had used up things in there....i think she got her monthly shop in for £20 (fresh stuff & fruit/milk/bread etc) and lived off the freezer ,...it's still not empty now!

And as for my money being refunded we have been told monday, tuesday at the latest so it had best be as the bank it is going into is one of our creditors so i can't hold off posting the letter for ever- CCCS will contact them before me at this rate :eek:

Today I have had a NSD and made batches of Shepherds pie ( i got 3 meals from it but ran out of potatoes lol) so i have frozen the mince part and will just make mash to go on top on the day! I am going in to town tomorrow but am going to take a list & cash (not a card) so i cannot go over my budget! And besides it is half term this month so i am determined to save some money so i can treat my son

I also want to use up meals in my freezer so next week i am going to try and keep my budget right down (i've allocated 250 for the month and spent 47 so far) would like to keep it right down so i can afford a take away at the end of the month for my birthday & before my son goes bk to school :T

This weekend will be cheapish too as only going to town tomorrow for a few hours, tomorrow night i am around a friends house and she is cooking ( i did a meal for her & kids this week) and on sunday i have a sunday lunch out which is already paid for - was only £1.50 any way for me and kids :cool:

Hmmm not much else to report really just waiting on banks & cccs and dd to all change over now, i've done the hard part....now it's all a waiting game!

patman99

Having looked at your soa you have quite a surplus. I fear that cccs will look at all your paperwork and decide that you can manage your finances well-enough that you don't need a DMP.

debtfreewannabe321

Hi Patman :wave:i'm hoping they don't do that! I received a direct debit mandate from them this morning saying it was all set up and they will be taking the first payment march 1st....without wanting to give lots of personal info away, I suppose i should have explained a bit better about our SOA atm...The wages are higher because hubby is working out of the country so he gets extra money (he's in the army) for tax relief and extra money each day ....this means his wages will dip again after april when he returns by about £300 a month...even with the surplus though we were struggling every month because of the amount of bounced DD's, cheques, overdraft fees etc etc etc .... I have explained the situation to CCCS and they were happy to help.

Today i had planned on having a NSD and i failed miserably and now am feeling super guilty I went to go to the bank this morning with £250 (to cover DD's due out next week) and it was closed, so i popped to a$da for 6 pints of milk -not even for me for a friend- and i ended up spending £41 of my clothes budget on the kids, to be fair i got quite a lot for my money, the baby i got 2 pairs of trousers, 3 tops, for daughter i got a pair of trainers & new underwear, and oldest son i got 3 tops....but i am feeling very bad now even though i am still under budget for clothes for the month. I think it is because i am so used to spending zilch on the kids...and when i do it is charity shop clothes or ebay...but to see the look on my daughters face because she got to choose her own trainers was priceless she was so excited that then made me feel guilty because we've never had the money to buy her nice new things! She currently has her new peppa pig trainers on and won't take them off now so cute!

I also didn't stop at the clothes section as hubby is away this month missing valentines i bought him £16 worth of bits and bobs to send out to him in a parcel on monday- good news is i don't pay postage too :cool:.

Ok well today will be written off :rotfl:and back on to budget and lots of NSD (and if i can't manage those then LSD) to come - I hope!!!

Off to a friends for dinner later so no cooking today either :j hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Deeperblue

We're only human babe, and the fact that you feel guilty shows that your at least aware of what your spending and not doing it without thinking, which is the dangerous thing. As long as your not doing it every day! Thought your clothes budget was £25?

Have you ever been to the NCT nearly new sales? Depending on the ages of your kids you can get amazing bargains on 'nearly new' clothes and they are fantastically popular, plus loads more choice than charity shops. Same goes for car boot sales. I love car boots when the weather is ok, and if LO brings me something she's found and is desperate for it's generally only 20p and I can say yes

Bet its nice to think the DMP is all in order now. :T

Have a good weekend!
x
~ D.B. ~

debtfreewannabe321

Hi DB, my clothes budget is £60 although i needed to get my son shoes for school (oops) i'm sure he can last until easter now though so can use march's budget for that (excuses excuses) we LOVE car boot sales here! But i never go in the winter tooo windy lol esp with the 2 little ones in the pram they cry all the way round but in the summer i can't wait to spend my sunday mornings looking for a bargain or two not been to the NCT sales everyone keeps saying i should! I will have to find out more about it!

And soo pleased about the DMP finally being set up ....although have got a worrying feeling now after patman's post that they may change their minds andnot help us (really hope not) i find it stressful enough looking after the home, finances & kids and worrying about hubby without having the worry of setting up the dmp myself so can not wait until 1st march when the first one goes out so I know it is all done and set up!

And the extra money i spent on hubby i have taken out of my birthday present fund so can feel less guilty about that now!

note to oneself: Must try harder to avoid supermarkets!!!

Deeperblue

I have no idea what to do about valentines day! :doh: I've already done all of the obvious money saving gift ideas that I can think of. *sigh* There must be a thread on here somewhere to get some inspiration

So how does the DMP work then? It sounds like they've already approved you if they are talking about taking payments out of your account next month

Roll on the summer car boots ey? :T I think I'll actually do one myself this year too.

~ D.B. ~

debtfreewannabe321

DMP works as follows ( or this is what i have gathered from phone calls anyway) the CCCS write to all my creditors, -i have just sent them up to date statements of all my creditors- and ask that interest be frozen on them all. of course each creditor can say no, but the bloke said most usually say yes (fingers crossed) i then cancel all DD's SO's etc to each creditor and pay the CCCS once a month and they split the money equally to all the creditors, if i have a lump sum they ask me not to pay a seperate creditor but to pay them (CCCS) and they will split it up again as they do my monthly payments. I've been told IF all creditors stop interest & charges then i should be debt free in 3 yrs and 10 months if not then obviously it will be longer so i guess i just have to wait and see now??

And as for car boot sales i'm also thinking of doing one this year i've got enough junk to fill a shop up with! lol x

debtfreewannabe321

Well it's Sunday and i managed to do the whole week within budget (food wise &everything else) :j

Today i'm going out for sunday dinner so no cooking for me :T (can you tell cooking isn't my fav. past time hehe) My task for today is to empty out the freezers and re-organise them! I have one at the bottom of my fridge/freezer & a stand alone larder freezer so not too big a job....but most drawers are packed full :eek: so may be there some time lol!

I'm determined to get at least 5 full meals from them so when i go to do my food shop tomorrow i can spend on just fresh stuff and save even more money this week :T

I haven't spent any of my petrol budget yet BUT have 2 long round trips still to do this month!

Clothes...well i discussed that one already lol and will just have to write that off (esp as i just realised i need some new bits too )

I joined our local toy library so everytime i go to buy a toy for the kids now i stop myself and tell myself that they will be bored of it in 5 mins and i can get it for free now from the library! (membership was £10 for the whole family but hoping i wil get my money's worth and then some!)

Anyway I may be back later, I hate the weekends atm so boring, can't wait until hubby is home, so unitl he is back i may just be on here (& fb) all the time talking to myself lol