Thanks and some advice...

mrsdwhite

Hi,
First to say thanks as I posted the other day asking for advice for my DH with his debts. Well he finally saw the light and called National Debtline and is in the process of seting up his DMP. His letters went out today to his creditors. I'm so pleased that he has done it, he will be in so much of a better position once it's set up. And they think it will only take him 5 years to pay his £40k+ debt off which is way better than I expected, I thought it'd be 10 years :-)
I am looking into setting up a DMP myself now, though my debt is *only* £10k I tried National Debt line but struggled to get my postion across to the guy on the phone, seems my DH got somene a lot more helpful than I did. I have used th CCCS website and filled out the budget section, it recommended a DMP, which I filled in my details for. Does anyone have experience with a DMP with CCCS? What should I expect to happen now I have sent my details?
Also, for people already living on a DMP, can you tell me what it is like living on the budget? How does it work for buying gifts etc...? Obviously you can't put in your budget that you want to spend £600 or whatever a year on gifts so do you struggle to buy gifts or just save?

Thanks again everyone

Tixy

Hi

CCCS are one of the recommended places and most people on DMPs with them seem very happy.

Its certainly not easy getting used to living on a budget to start with and things like keeping a spending diary for the first couple of months can help a lot. I think if your budget is a lot less that what you were spending it can take some time and effort to reduce outgoings (especially on things like groceries), but there are lots of tips on these forums and after a few months it becomes second nature.

Regarding gifts and other expenses that you don't pay out every month most people try to set up a second account or a savings account to put aside the monthly budgeted amount for these things so that its there when you need to spend it. Eg if your monthly budget for gifts is £30 a month then after payday transfer that money across to your savings. On a month you need to buy a present either pay for it from that account or transfer back the amount you intend to spend to your main account.

Some people have lots of differnt accounts, one for presents savings, one for car maintenance/tax savings etc etc, other people just have one account and then set up a spreadsheet or tally book so that they know how much of the total balance is for each area of expenses. There are a few savings accounts that allow you to have one account but to allocate money to different savings pots within that account (its sort of a banking method of keeping your savings in different envelopes).