DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

The_mangler

We have been growing our own veg this year - we planted tomato seeds a week ago on the windowsill and they are nearly ready to go in the grow bags but I dont think they will be ready for a couple of months yet. We also planted lettuce seeds, theyre growing nicely but I think they may be ready in about a month. We have that many broccoli and cucmber plants that Im tempted to sell some, failing that the broccoli will be frozen. We're also attempting peas, carrots and beans which we can freeze. If youre quick most seeds can be planted outside now, ready to harvest July onwards fingers crossed.

Ive taken the advice given in here, I'll be phoning those lenders whose payments are due this week and explaining directly that we have a DMP in place and they wont be paid till 25th. I hate phoning

925pws

The_mangler wrote: »

We have been growing our own veg this year - we planted tomato seeds a week ago on the windowsill and they are nearly ready to go in the grow bags but I dont think they will be ready for a couple of months yet. We also planted lettuce seeds, theyre growing nicely but I think they may be ready in about a month. We have that many broccoli and cucmber plants that Im tempted to sell some, failing that the broccoli will be frozen. We're also attempting peas, carrots and beans which we can freeze. If youre quick most seeds can be planted outside now, ready to harvest July onwards fingers crossed.

Ive taken the advice given in here, I'll be phoning those lenders whose payments are due this week and explaining directly that we have a DMP in place and they wont be paid till 25th. I hate phoning

I hate phoning too which is why I just write. Good luck with it all.

925pws

Well the DMP will start in June. I am not jumping for joy to be honest. CCCS just told me how long it will take and to be honest I just can't repeat the number of months

They had initially suggested an IVA but I really don't want to go down that route at all. I want to pay back everything.

The best I can do is continuing to try and make a payment a day and look for additional work or sell stuff to bring in extra money to pay this off.

I just want the ground to open up and swallow me whole

Time_to_face_the_music

925pws wrote: »

Well the DMP will start in June. I am not jumping for joy to be honest. CCCS just told me how long it will take and to be honest I just can't repeat the number of months

They had initially suggested an IVA but I really don't want to go down that route at all. I want to pay back everything.

The best I can do is continuing to try and make a payment a day and look for additional work or sell stuff to bring in extra money to pay this off.

I just want the ground to open up and swallow me whole

Hi 925pws :wave:

Twice I have written a long reply to your post and lost it. I need to go and weave some magic in the kitchen and make a very unlikely set of ingredients into something that resembles a meal but just have to try once more to answer you.

Before we entered our DMP in February, life was very different for me. I could not sleep, I would spend all day worrying how I was going to stretch every penny to meet the bills, I would pay a credit card bill then immediately start checking our online accounts to see when we could use that card again, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, day in, day out, month after month, there was no end in sight and we were convinced that we would end up retiring and about £100,000 in debt.

I can't kid you and say it's easy being in a DMP, it's not and the start up is tough going and you have to face some painful realities. Seeing £81,306 of debts written down for the first time was amongst the worst moments of my life. We knew it had to be done and we had made it worse by putting if off for a couple more months to falsely struggle through Christmas. Oh what a mistake that was but next Christmas will be very different and much happier. We still occasionally panic about the life expectancy of our old faithful car and our mortgage and the secured loan on our house and ... and ....

So there is the bad side but what about the good side, what keeps us going? Just one thing, knowing that every month our debt is actually reducing instead of increasing, once a CCCS payment has gone, we can't borrow that money back again, it's gone to make a difference to our debt. The first month's statements may not make pleasant reading, I think we had £800 of interest and charges and many people say they are actually more in debt for a couple of months or longer. Maybe we were lucky because it was only one month for us but now each month we can see a difference. This month one of our debts went from the £4000s into the £3000s and one from the £14,000s into the £13,000s. Yes they all still add up to £76,200 but it's a significant difference from £81,306 in February.

I have changed since starting this DMP, I like to fight everything now. Charge me interest and I'll get the FOS onto you, overcharge me 10p in Tesco and I'll queue up at the customer service desk to get it back. I even asked someone to reduce something for me last week and they did! My OH thinks it is hilarious because it's just not me but I feel like I have to do it. All the years, we were paying our salaries into the banks, paying thousands in interest on overdrafts, credit cards and loans, they loved us. As soon as the money ran out, they didn't want to know. Loyal customers? Pfffft we don't care about those, we just want your money! Well they won't get it easy any more and I will encourage everyone else to fight them too, am already doing on the DFW forums and will continue to do so.

How can we make this easier? Well we try and stretch our budget and pay a little bit more off in addition to the CCCS payment. A week's worth of eating beans made a payment possible to the NatWest when they were piling extra charges on of £6 per day. We are going through our clutter, and trust me we have tons of it, and gradually assessing everything to see what needs to be thrown away or what we can sell. A few weeks ago, we took a bootful of clothes to one of those cash for clothes places, it was all stuff we didn't wear any more/didn't fit etc and we got £30 for it. I have learned to sell on ebay and am extremely proud to say I made £157.50 yesterday. I have found out I can do surveys and earn Amazon vouchers to save up for Christmas presents. I am going to learn to make wine and ginger beer thanks to someone on the DFW forum who seems a bit of a homemade wine connoisseur!

On this forum I am sure we have all been where you are now, it's not a good place but you can get past it. I have said this before and I will say it again now and please know I mean it, I will support you and so will other people here. Need an ear to bend, use mine. Need a shoulder to cry on, I've got two and they are broad. I will come out of this stronger by fighting it all the way. You can too.

iwilldoitthistime

thankyou for such a lovely, thought out post ttftm. You really help all of us out here who are worrying about what will happen next....

925pws

Dear ttftm, from the bottom of my heart I thank you for your reply. I'm only managing now to reply in between the tears

I find it very hard to put in to words how I am feeling and how this changes every hour. I am forever grateful to you and all the lovely people on this thread who gave me the courage to face up to my debt problem and the continuing support and advice that you give freely and without judgement.



I am sad, sad for my family and sad for myself. The choices I made in the past were not good ones, I wanted all the little luxuries that go with a materialistic world. And thus lies the crux of why I am where I am today. I seem to equate Stuff = Success = Love.


I got myself in to this mess and I know with your help I will get out of it. There’s no turning back now, no more credit that I can apply for, the journey has begun and I must see it through. I know it is a long, long road but there is no other path now, it has to be this one.


I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Great post TTFM

Hope you feel better soon 925. Try break things into small chunks. Old timers will know that when I fret I clean and plan to channel the energy positively. Emptying cupboards can be liberating. Planning shopping lists will save you a fortune. Shopping is one area of your budget you can get something back for yourself!!!! The other thing I do is look at my spreadsheet, I can look back and see where I came from and what I have achieved. I look forward in 3, 6, 12 months and post dmp and see where I will be. It is hugely empowering.

The other advice is if you have a worry be as specific as possible so that people here can help with a range of options for you to consider. There will be a variety of options. That's the power of having these online pals who understand just how it is and are happy to share those experiences.

HHx

Time_to_face_the_music

Just after I responded to 925pws's post, I read another post on the main DFW forum. One of the resonses made so much sense to me and I thought I would just like to repost it here:

thatsean wrote: »

Remember 3 things:
1. You're not alone
2. There's nothing you can tell CCCS/Payplan that they haven't seen before
3. There's more to life than money, you need to get a handle on this to stop it happening again, but don't let debt ruin your life. Understand why you got into debt, and plan a way out of it, and feel proud that you are facing it head on.

thatsean knows his stuff :T

Jenjen

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

We are expecting some extra income this month from OH's exam marking but we wanted that to go towards natWest OD not car bills. It looks like the ABS issue could be one of 3 things, one fix is free, one costs a few pounds, the third would write the car off. So we need to 1) jetwash the wheels and hope there is muck on the sensors. If that doesn't work, 2) check the fuse and try replacing. If that doesn't work, 3) use the exam marking money to buy a cheap car but we are both useless so would have to find someone to come with us to the local auction. I think it's time to go and ask my neighbour can I borrow his jetwash then pray.

What type of car is it? My ABS light cam on on my 8 year old Focus a couple of months ago. My DH tightened the handbrake cable (which also needed doing anyway) following instructions in the Haines Manual and the light has never come on again since. So that might be something you could try. DH is not a mechanic and he managed to do it fairly easily.

925pws

Ok I was really down yesterday but I guess that is to be expected on this journey. A big thank you to those who have supported me thus far. I do hope there are more up days than down

So with renewed vigour I came in to work and have negotiated a number of reductions in my outgoings, they have now reduced by £50 per month :T

I am about to clear o/d number 2 which means for the first time in many, many years I will be in the black this month. I am also going to set up a savings account - even if I can only manage £20 per month, it will be a positive start.