do you go on holiday when on DMP ?

susieanne

Feeling really fed up been on DMP for 3 years everything going ok but debts not coming down much , prob going to be in debt another 20 years , i have been thinking i could prob afford to pay alittle extra but would still take me another 15 years to be debt free by that time my children would have all grown up left home ,married and not had a decent holiday memory . We go camping every year which is ok but always seems to rain . My children loved camping when they were younger but my youngest is 14 now and all there friends go abroad so i think camping seems abit naff now . When i was growing up we never went abroad my parents coundnt afford it , i remember feeling alittle jeleous of my friends when they spoke about there summer holidays so i know exactly how my children feel .
The solution is i dont pay the extra against my DMP and enjoy a few holidays abroad whilst my family are still at home , they wont be wanting to come away with us soon , just wondered how the rest of you feel who are on DMP ?

RAS

Hi

Two options I suggest.

1. Take the tent and the kids to France. French municipal camp sites are oftern brilliant and cheaper than Uk ones.
2. Or go Eurostar and either camp or hostel or maybe house swap at the other end?

But be aware that there are upfront costs like the passports to think about.

Firewalker

Hate to be a party pooper but I will pay the debt. However, I'll do all possible to pay it much faster than 15 years - this means increasing income which while not easy is not impossible either.

FW

swampduck

This is a question which I feel will split people down the middle, do you or don't you? kind of thing.
We are currently on a DMP which we created ourselves and despite heavy handed tactics by debt collectors etc we have stood our ground and things have now settled down. Everyone is being paid and we are snowballing debts too and they slowly but surely going down.
The thing is trying to strike a happy medium - this was brought home to me when reading the pensions thread and people were talking about the big number and how much they would need to live when they retired.
What a lot of people forget when they are paying their debts is to think about the future too while remembering that life is for living too.
We too were paying debts and living a very boring austere life and getting totally fed up with it.
So we number crunched -
thought about our current ages (both in our fifties)
thought about pensions (not as big as they should be)
thought about debts (they needed to be paid whatever happened)
thought about how long we had to go on the mortgage (didnt want to have to work beyond retirement age because we still had a mortgage to pay)
- and thought too about how long we had before we retired.

Taking all these factors into account and the time span left to enjoy relative good health and to keep working - we came up with figures that took all these things into account as well as holidays. By the time my partner retires everything will be paid off and we will still have a few years of me working to stash some savings and enjoy a few holidays.

Life is too short not to enjoy it (after all you are a long time dead!!)while you can especially when you have children, so why should you not have a holiday abroad - there are deals to be had if you go all inclusive - sometimes going abroad can be as cheap as holidaying in the UK.

It all depends on your outlook and what you want from life now for you and your family.

The thread that brought about our big change in thinking made us think about lots of things especially when other MSE'rs realised they had spent years paying off debt without an eye to the future only to realise that their twilight years would continue to be an extension of their debt ridden years - with little money and no happy memories to look back on.

Sorry to go on but do think about it - life is for living - here and now!


Swampy

DevonGirl

Hi

I agree with RAS. There are cheap holidays to be had even on a DMP. Are there any items you could sell to raise a bit of extra cash? A couple I know recently had an attic clear out and raised £480 out of stuff that hadn't seen the light of day for years! Also don't forget about holidays such as the £10 holidays you can get in some newspapers etc. Some of the other threads on this site might have special offers etc. Could the family agree as a unit to maybe have a few very tight months with groceries, entertainment etc to finance a trip? I'm not sure how much you're talking about as you say you want to go abroad, but so make sure you cut your cloth etc..

As a DMPer myself I do totally agree that you've really got to put as much into repaying your debts as possible. However, especially for those in it for the longer term, you do have to live a little as well. It seems a shame for the kids to miss out on the joys of a holiday because of your debt problems, it's not their fault, and they will have left home before you know it. And it doesn't matter that you can't take them all inclusive to the Bahamas, just a few days away on a cheapie holiday will be just as much fun if you plan it right.

My advice would be to plan a cheap holiday, enjoy it guilt free while you're away, and when you're back home relaxed and refreshed with kids happy, you can double up your efforts with renewed vigour to be as debt free as soon as possible.
DG

Edit: try the 'Report holiday deals/ bargains + special offers' board under the 'Overseas Holidays & Travel Planning' forum on this site.

DS4215

I'm in the same situation - although I'll be debt free in 5-6 years at current rate. About which time DD will be too old to want to come on holiday with us. Luckily I've found some extra income that I am currently throwing onto my DMP and might be able to get rid of that within the next 18-24months. At which case my DMP money will go to pay back the CCJ and half of any extra income will go that way too. The other half will go in a fund to take one last good family holiday before its too late...

longforthesun

I would say go on holiday.

When we were on our DMP we went on holiday. I found that the ammounts the CCCS allowed us for living expenses were generous and that I didn't spend £365 a month on food shopping so I saved what I could there, likewise for other items.

We had a wonderful week abroad and my kids loved it. We couldn't afford to do all the expensive tourist attractions but we went to a lcoal supermarket got bread, ham etc and we took a cool bag with us and had picnics on the beach. We also found a local park and other free things.

Life is far too short. Your kids are only young for a short time.

Tixy

I'd go for a frugal foreign holiday if you can save up enough between say now and next summer. Or this year if you can stretch what you have saved for UK camping to get you to somewhere such as RAS has suggested.

Hopefully the kids sound old enough to understand you cannot go every year and will have to be on a budget once you get there. And whilst a lot of their friends may go abroad I bet quite a lot don't, especially in the last couple of years.

Learning2Budget

we are on a dmp, and we have very young kids, so hopefully they won't notice that we don't have nice holidays abroad, and by the time they do notice our dmp will be paid, however I can totally understand where you are coming from. I agree that savings can be made on food shop, selling stuff on ebay, etc. CCCS give us £400 per month for food and we don't spend all that on food, so we get to live a little.

How about holidays alternate years? Throw money to your debts 1 year, holiday the next?x

soccermom

I say go on holiday as someone said try one of the camps in France my brother and his wife have just come back and had a great time. They booked cheap flights for the 4 of them and booked a caravan on one of the big campsites with all the facilities. They went in June and all told it cost a little over a £1000

You will never get those years back and creating great memories for them is irreplaceable.

Why not book a winter holiday instead of buying xmas presents. we did this one year and spent £5 a head on each other for gifts, kids never remember what they get as gifts for one particular year but most will remember the stuff they did on holiday.

susieanne

Wow thankyou so much everyone for understanding , when i first posted i expected people to say you dont deserve to be thinking about holidays when you are in dept . I do think i think that myself and when the kids where younger they didnt mind where they went , we would go camping like i said and we took everything with us food etc we didnt spend any money , they loved it but slowly as the kids have got older they want more and its not there fault that i am in debt . I feel really bad now that we couldnt have had better summer holidays over the years . I can already see our family doing there own things my eldest two like i say wont want to come away with us soon . I would love to have say 2 more years with all the family together going abroad , we know how to live on a budget so if theres a beach eating sandwiches & snacks on a beach would be total luxery to us . There is some great ideas from your posts which i will look into . I just feel that life is very short and to live like we have been is so boring . thanks everyone sorry if i have gone on abit