Questions about a DMP

antonia1

Just wanted to say good luck - choosing to tackle debts is a hard decision to make, and well done for recognising that there is a problem.

The only advice I'd give is to do a SOA so that you know where your money goes each month, how savings can be made, and will give you a realistic picture of how life will be if you say put and keep paying the debts.

eyeopener2

It is hard work all this and it is depressing but you are in a position where you can make the call. The decision isn't being made for you eg bankruptcy or ccjs' or credit being withdrawn.

Your option seems to be to live like Church mice, which isn't the end of the world belive me.

Frugality is fun, hard but fun, and when your free you will feel fantastic.

boschiba

thank you. I've done the big piece of paper thing... I think we will be staying put, prob doing a DMP - and hoping to sell part of the garden for development. wont impinge on the house/main garden (actually means less work for me); could be very lucrative. I know it will take a good couple of years to come to fruition, but it will be worth it.

AND I've just checked our scottish power account (we pay £260 a month DD for gas and elec) and discovered it is £840 in credit (stunned emoticon). I've entered new meter readings and will be renegotiating very shortly.

going to do the SOA as well, but I find it so difficult because of the working from home thing - what costs go where plus I am a bit cr*p really and dont have a clue what I spend on things like food or diesel.
how does anyone work it out??

Tixy

boschiba wrote: »

going to do the SOA as well, but I find it so difficult because of the working from home thing - what costs go where plus I am a bit cr*p really and dont have a clue what I spend on things like food or diesel.
how does anyone work it out??

Start by checking back over the last couple of months bank statement / credit card statements to see if you can get an estimate of how much you spend (this won't work if you tend to use cash of course). Then start keeping a spending diary for a month or 2 and write down everything, so you can refine your SoA with more accurate data.

Good news on the gas/ elec.

antonia1

With working from home, anything you claim back as expenses shouldn't be included. Everything else should be included.

As well as the spending diary, it helps to keep receipts, especially from food shopping (because it can help with what is actually food and what is toiletries etc), so that at the end of the month you can make sense of everything in the diary.

boschiba

so if its reclaimable its not a spend? but it still affects the cashflow obviously? its this kind of thing that makes me confused.

Tixy

If you are self-employed then ideally you need 2 SoAs. 1 for business that include all your business expenses and savings for tax etc and leaves you with the equivalent of a 'take home' figure.
This figure would then appear as your income on your personal/household SoA, which will then not have any business expenses on it.

antonia1

Ignore me - I cross posted with Tixy, who gave a much clearer answer than me!

boschiba

ok, its beginning to make sense to me now! Business Debtline have what they call an interactive SOA which does what you've just said Antonia. just need to get my head round it - better do some filing first!