Newbie in need of some support

<3loudandproud<3

Hi all. Please be patient with me as i dont really know how to start here. I don't know if i've posted this in the correct area either.
Me and my partner have been with a debt management company for about 2 years (i know this is bad but had no choice at the time) and we have approx £19,000 of debt . weve had to reduce our payments due to our car going to the big scrapyard in the sky and havin to take a loan from my mother in law as the car is needed for my other half to go to work. our debt has never seemed to move at all even though were only paying £130 a month at one point we were paying £450! we really want to get out of debt as soon as possible but after my partner gets paid and we sort our outgoings we seem to mess up every month and leave ourselfs with nothing after 2 weeks and live like paupers til payday again. Has anyone got any tips how we can reduce our debt as quick as possible and how we can make our money last the whole month? Any help would be greatly appreciated as we have 2 young sons and dont want to ever let them go without because mammy and daddy got into a big mess. Thanks xoxo

dancingfairy

Hi. A few things spring to mind here:
1) your budget is either way out and you haven't allowed yourself enough to live on or you've got holes in your pocket and it's just disappearing somewhere.
2) I'd start by doing a SOA (statement of affairs) from makesenseofcards website - this will ensure that you have budgetted for things like car repairs, birthday presents, haircuts, a small amount for entertainment, clothes, tv licence, tax, mot, etc etc - often things you pay out for from time to time but if you don't budget for it and put a small amount away each month it can ruin all your hardwork. The budget on that website should ensure you don't miss anything out - oh and make it realistic - you've gotta live on it for a while after all.
3) As you are reviewing your budget anyway I'd consider switching to a free service which will see more of you hard earned dosh actually repaying your creditors - which is a win win. Give whatever notice you need to to the company that is handling things for you at the moment and go with CCCS or your local CAB etc - bear in mind you might have to wait a while for the CCCS as they can get busy so don't give notice to your current people until you have got in touch with the CCCS and had a chat.
4) start a spending diary - this will identify if there are any holes in your budget or if you are spening more than you think anywhere - it's pretty simple, write down everything you spend money on - especially cash/credit cards - hopefully you will know about the DD's/Standing Orders - it's the other stuff that can be a bit of a mystery sometimes
4) Get in touch with your creditors and ask them again if they will stop interest and charges as it doesn't seem like they have - you need to keep asking them. Perhaps write to them and let them know you will be switching company from x,y,z to CCCS but that you need them to at least stop interest and charges to give you a chance. Once you are with CCCS etc get them to write to your creditors to get them to stop interest and charges - your creditors won't just roll over and stop charging interest without a fight so you have to constantly ask them until you get some sense from them - not sure if your current company has been doing this for you?

Anyway that's probably enough to be getting on with for now - some of it you can start the ball rolling with straightaway.
Best of Luck
df

dancingfairy

Oh and you can always try the cash method - you take out the money you need for food or petrol or whatever at the begining of the week and keep it in an envelope/jar etc and when it's gone it's gone and you have to wait until the next week - it works for some people. If you keep the receipts in the envelope and find you have run out of money you can quickly check what you've bought and figure out why you've spent so much over.
df

RAS

Who is providing your debt managment plan?

I hope it is a charity.

Why have you taken out another loan, albeit with a family member when you are on a DMP; your DMP provider should be able to suspend payments for a month or two so he could get a run around?

dancingfairy

As Ras says you would have been better off stopping your payments to the dmp for a few months (or making 1 pound per creditor payments) whilst you got the car thing sorted. Hmmm.
I think I'd write to the creditors - point out that you have needed to sort out something regarding a car to get to work and that you are only able to make token payments and let them know you will be changing company soon anyway so they will get more but please could they be patient for 1 month/2 months? Please tell me it's a cheap car?
df

<3loudandproud<3

Thanks for your help peeps dancingfairy- i am gonna try and switch DMP's cos a quarter of my monthly payments actually goes to them and not my creditors, how could the local CAB help? not too sure of the envelope idea tho its just hard making money last a whole month without messing up if ya can understand. My DMP at the moment is a company called Gregory Pennington and im not able to stop payments for any reason so my MIN had to help but even she has put interest on top of what we owe her. And yes Ras it was the best cheapest car we could get. our lowest monthly payment we could ever pay them them is £90 or they get nasty and just won't allow it at all

RAS

Ditch Gregory Pennington immediately. You will find that they require a period of noticve; I think it is one month.

Then ask CAP, CAB, CCCS or NDl to run your DMP, or possibly payplan.

In that way all the money you pay out goes to your creditors, not to make a profit for GP.

<3loudandproud<3

Who are CAP, NDI and payplan Ras??? im not too familiar with a this lingo yet

RAS

Here they are http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/debt-help-plan?utm_source=forum&utm_medium=clicks&utm_campaign=resourcebar#help

<3loudandproud<3

thanks you