A Thread for After Debt?

166million

Just bought the presents and that's it.

Attackthebanks

Hi all,

Long time lurker, only recently started posting.

This thread really caught my eye!

Back in 2004 my Wife and I, were in debt to the tune of £17,000, we needed a mortgage and got knocked back on the debt alone.
That was the catalyst for dealing with our debt and letting our family know.
After my my mum got over the shock and scale of the debt, and me feeling like s**t for letting her down, we went seeking advice fast!
We both moved into my mums house, in hind sight this was the best thing that could have happened at the time financially.
We were both working and were able to save £3500 very quickly, we also came across Payplan and by sheer luck landed with a company that's SOLE purpose was to get you debt free, not take more money off you for the privilege of this service!
In 2004 the long goal ahead was to be debt free in 5-6 years.
We stuck to the Payplan religiously and were making a great dent into our debt.
In 2006 with the £3500 we had manged to save, we thought of using it as a deposit for a mortgage, being in a DMP and having no quick get out in sight i thought our chances were non existent.......but i was wrong!!
We couldn't go to any of the high street banks with the DMP in place so we went to a company that acted as a broker, they said as long as you have a deposit even if your on a DMP (as long as NO payments had been missed) they can still secure you a mortgage.
We got accepted and used our £3500 for the deposit, (this was pre needing a 10% deposit for mortgages of today) so in that respect we JUST got in under the wire!
We were then able to get a £7500 loan from the mortgage company, and make settlement figure offers to the creditors on the DMP with Payplan, and made sure they were FULL&FINAL payments with letters to back the offers up before payment was made!
We were able to make some very damaging payments to some of the debts owed, including 1 credit card for £5200 taking a settlement of £1700!
The Payplan payment stayed the same, and i removed the creditors that had been settled from the DMP meaning the debts with smaller amounts were now getting bigger payments and clearing FAST!!
We became debt FREE in 2008...
Off the back of that we now have a Mortgage, a credit card with a balance of £0 (and used correctly now), a car and other lines of credit available to us.
I am VERY VERY lucky in the way events played out for me, i only have myself to blame for the sheer amount of debt and bulls**t materialistic things i bought that led me into the debt i was in.
But......
I wanna just say to people it IS possible and there IS light at the end of what is usually a very LONG tunnel, everyone deserves a second chance to get it right, just learn from your mistakes i know I DID!

Mort

166million wrote: »

Just bought the presents and that's it.

That's the way to do it.

Mort

Atttackthebanks - congratulations on turning yourselves around and staying debt free.

rising_from_the_ashes

Attackthebanks congratulations on winning the battle to become DF :j and for being able to maintain it (something for us all to aspire to) and being able to have your own home!

rising_from_the_ashes

Well, have just signed up to switch my B/band to B*T and have got quite a good deal on line rental too.:D

ETA I'm one of the unlucky 16.4% of households stuck in "market 1" which means only B*T supply my area & so very little choice / ability to make savings

Paid in advance for the year - which will be a bit of a hit on the budgets and will require some jiggling :eek: (and probably raiding my last gasp emergency fund which has about £150 in it so will just cover it) :eek::eek: but it will save me £63 / year :j and I will get "anytime" calls, rather than just evenings & weekends :j (one of the reasons for the recent upping of my monthly D/debit to £23.50 :eek:). Plus £25 Sainsbobs giftcard .... Plus £35 cashback;)

Only problem ..... I need another savings pot to save up for next year :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Currently sitting at 10 accounts :eek: (main, bills & 8 pots) so think things are getting a bit out of hand .

Really need to bite the bullet and try to combine some pots :eek::eek:

*runs off for a lie down as feeling faint*;)

LianneH

welcome b_girl! this thread is really good at helping you to keep on track and also a good "confessional"!

hi attackthebanks - thats a real inspirational story - well done!

166_million - well done on your first DF month, no harm in a small treat, but well done you for resisting!

JG - whoo hoo, fantastic news on the house!

Rising - 10 pots - how do you manage them all?

happy MSEing everyone
Li x

LealeaV

Wow - so much has gone on since I last had a chance to read through this thread!

JG - I am so pleased that you got the offer accepted on the house!
AND you go girl for getting the wall sorted out - you are right, why should you pay for the repair?

Rising - that looks like a really good deal that you got from BT... and dont mention pots to me... I really am a squirrel when it comes to having too many pots! lol

166 Million - Well done on just buying the presents. We all have moments when we want to spend, and to be honest I have found it hard myself to strike an even balance between saving and spending! We are all in it together, so know what you are going through.

b_girl - I live by my spending diary - I have a really pretty little notebook that I use for it - and it has become my best friend (worse enemy when I know I have fallen off the wagon a bit) BUT it has just shown me how easy it is to fritter money away!

LianneH - CONGRATULATIONS on the news that you are having a boy! Have you thought of any names yet?

SOT - Hows the OU course going? I bet you missed you lil dog while she was away!

Well I have a tough month ahead of me - The Easter trip to see the parents, is gonna be a bit costly and with the numerous meals out we have lined up - it might hit me on the scales too!

But I am looking forward to the long weekend ahead and spending some nice quality time with the family! I have missed them so much and after the last month of feeling poorly - even more so! Sometimes you just need a mum hug to make it all better!

Hope you all have some nice plans for the Easter break! x

rising_from_the_ashes

LianneH wrote: »

Rising - 10 pots - how do you manage them all?

I find it really easy as everything has it's own separate budget - eg put £50 into the cats pot on payday and then when the cc bill comes in, transfer the relevant back to my main account to cover what I've spent

But ... I find it really hard to keep track if I've more than one budget in a pot IYSWIM?:( Def need to work on this as I can't just keep creating more & more & more ......


Well, finished for a week now :j:j so hoping the weather picks up a bit - horrible snow & hail here today!:eek:

rising_from_the_ashes

OK .... spreadsheet help desperately needed

I am going to have to combine some of my pots - it's just not feasible to have one for every single thing - and really need to get some of the other budgets sorted (don't put anything aside for these:o so they come out of my spending money each month).

But I am really struggling to work out how to keep track of how much belongs to each budget in a combined pot - never really tried to do anything like this before.

Will have the following pots:

• Pets = £90 (Dog = £40 & Cats = £50)
• Car = £55 (MOT, servicing, repairs, breakdown cover & tax = £35, Insurance = £20)
• House insurance & L/line advance rental = £37 (HI = £25 & L/line = £12)
• Hair, Dentist & Clothes = £36 (Hair = £8.33, Dentist = £10, Clothes = 17.50)
• Presents & Anything else = £52 (Presents = £10, Anything else = £42)

Really confused as to how to show the amounts belonging to each budget and an overall balance?

eg: Pets balance currently is £265 but £200 of that is the dog and £65 is the cats

If I spend, say £20, on the cats, then their budget reduces to £45 (and overall budget to £245) but the dog's budget stays at £200


Hope some of that makes sense?:o

Can anyone point me in the direction of a spreadsheet that might help