NEW start...Starts HERE

Wednesday_girl

hello everyone, newbie here x :beer:

I have decieded to start posting, as a lot of other people say, for me, to keep me in check and see where im going - and hopefully motivate me to do something about my situation.

Im in my early thirties, just bought a house (albeit shared ownership) and have a young child (2yrs). Both me and my partner work on reasonably good wages (?) however we never seem to have any money! we have not had a holday in 6 years, new clothes (about the same time), never go out evenings or weekends (?so where the heck does it all go?).

We dont have any CCs, store cards, loans etc. The main problem has been falling behind with utility bills at our previous (very large and ancient) rented house, and getting overdrafts to help pay some of the solicitors fees when we bought the new house. This is costing us the most money....halifax £5 / day for unarranged overdraft (im currently -£120 in unarranged terratory, over my £550 limit).

I was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago, which has put a strain on everything. This is when the utiltiy bills started to fall behind - because i was in/ out of hospital - they went unpaid for a good few months, they were then transferred to DCAs, i paid for a while, then stopped, and (i will admit ) havent yet plucked up the courage to speak to these people to arrange any sort of payment offer/ plan.

TBH - im miserable, I have been given 50% survival chance for the cancer, i would love to quit my job and spend more quality time at home, but cant face earning less money and having even less quality of life than now (?) as i cant get life insurance, i would also be losing my pension benefits (or death in service, if thats the case). This problem is the one that keeps me up at night.

My intention for 2012 is to get all the arrears sorted, be able to save for a first family holiday (in this country), save some money for some home-improvements, and ebay some of my old clothes to buy some brand new ones.:j. Hopefully by the end of 2012 i will be debt free and still cancer free, and then i can think about changing jobs.

from today I am going to be more +ve. I will post my starting plan of action for this week, and on wednesday i will do an update, and a SOA for advice.

If you have got this far without nodding off, thanks for reading:rotfl:

Wednesday_girl

Plan of action for this week:
-Find out exact balances on all arrears with aim to start payments in Jan
-Start spending diary
-Post SOA
-Start sealed pot for holiday fund/ household (coppers at the mo, anything else to the O/Ds)
-Sort out wardrobe for ebay items
-Try to have at least 3 NSDs this week

Wednesday_girl

no time like the present - just to get the ball rolling checked my eon account online, whilst holding my breath - £698.53 owed with new bill to be added on the 12th december - im estimating that this will add another £60ish. Eon has not passed this one to a DCA. They phoned me about 8 weeks ago and arranged £120 per month payment plan, but then did not take the money (i think this has been a fluke admin error) which i need to get ontop of ASAP before it does go further. And also start being more energy efficient x

Itsadogslife_2

Hi Wednesday girl, didn't want to read and run, you sound so positive considering everything that is going on, you must have periods when you are fed up, anyone in your position would, but at least you are tackling things head on rather than burying your head in the sand.

I think the most important part for your health is trying to stay positive, try not to let it get you down as it is then winning - you can beat this

clippy_girl

hi wednesday girl :wave: just wanted to say good luck with your journey

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Wednesday_girl wrote: »

no time like the present - just to get the ball rolling checked my eon account online, whilst holding my breath - £698.53 owed with new bill to be added on the 12th december - im estimating that this will add another £60ish. Eon has not passed this one to a DCA. They phoned me about 8 weeks ago and arranged £120 per month payment plan, but then did not take the money (i think this has been a fluke admin error) which i need to get ontop of ASAP before it does go further. And also start being more energy efficient x

Hiya Wednesday_girl,

I also want to wish you well with your journey :beer:

I also wanted to pop in to say to just contact us again and we can re-set up a payment plan, if an arrangement is not set up on the account this is when it gets passed to a DCA.

Ask if you can have an energy monitor, you can get one through your online account, this will help with monitoring your usage.

If you need any help from me, just ask it's no problem.

Helena

Wednesday_girl

itsadogslife & clippy_girl - thanks for your comments, i need to keep my positivity going, i have been depressed for 2 yrs now - and its not doing me any good! If i try to start making small changes, hopefully big changes will come my way eventually.

Helena from eon, thank you for posting, its actually made me feel better, I have a plan (in my head) and the SOA will sort this out for sure, that i am going to start paying £10 per week out of my wage and £90 per month out of my partners wage. If i have calculated correctly i should have cleared my arrears then by mid 2012. I will make the first payment on thursday this week. I dont want this going to a debt collection agency if i can help it. I do have an energy monitor - which has not come out of its box - i am going to dig this out tommorow, read the instructions, and give that a whirl.

I know i am going to have to make changes to our spending. I know its all frittered away - sandwiches at work, magazines, childrens magazines, a new toy everytime we go to the shops, too much food shopping without a list (and then waste), spending too much on other people - birthdays, xmas, housewarming, new babies etc etc. When your feeling down, spending money on these little 'treats' or spoiling my DD does make it feel better for a while. - even if its just putting on a 'front' that everythings ok.

Itsadogslife_2

Spending money is a bit like chocolate when you are on a diet, whilst you are doing it you feel much better but after the guilt makes you feel worse. In my experience, children value your time much more then gifts, she would probably just as much enjoy doing cheap activities together, how old is she?

Magazines and such, there is lots to read and do on the Internet. Twitter will get you the news from the horses mouth rather than the tabloids version of events

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Wednesday_girl wrote: »

Helena from eon, thank you for posting, its actually made me feel better, I have a plan (in my head) and the SOA will sort this out for sure, that i am going to start paying £10 per week out of my wage and £90 per month out of my partners wage. If i have calculated correctly i should have cleared my arrears then by mid 2012. I will make the first payment on thursday this week. I dont want this going to a debt collection agency if i can help it. I do have an energy monitor - which has not come out of its box - i am going to dig this out tommorow, read the instructions, and give that a whirl.

Hi Wednesday_girl,

It's really good that you have a plan.

I would just say make sure your payment arrangement is set up properly with E.ON and this is agreed to.

If there is no official arrangement set up on your account, this is when it gets passed to a DCA.

If you need any help with setting the arrangement up, just email me using the email address in my profile page and I will be more than happy to help you.

Helena