DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

Time_to_face_the_music

Ellieseleven wrote: »

Totally sympathise re: the car TTFTM - I took my car for a service today expecting a bill for £150 but got a phone call to say that it needs new brake pads/drums front & back = £550:eek:I had saved £300 so have had to have service plus front brakes done and back will have to wait until next month - but on the plus side, I would have put all of this on my credit card in the bad old days:o (although I wouldn't still have a car that was 5+ years old, I'd have re-financed by now) so I'm looking at this as it's far cheaper than a) having more debt on my CC and b) having car finance over 3-5 years hanging around my neck, if you get my drift:)

Ouch

Bad news but I love the way you see the positives of not paying on a CC and not financing a new car :T

iwantafreshstart

evenin all

well ive been reading up on what ive missed and i must say youve inspired me to dust off my slow cooker and start using it again, i used to be good but got a bit lazy with it.

hope everyone in the first few months is doing ok, i think ive come out of my black cloud now cause im feeling positive and on top of things again since i had my review.

just a quick question tho that might seem a bit silly. i have a spreadsheet set up with all of my incomings and outgoings on it. every time i shop i enter the figure and it does all the calculations for me and i have a different page for each month. its set up for every month through 2013 at the mo too.

what i was goin to ask is this...we obviously have a budget with either CCCS or Payplan so how do you manage yours? do you withdraw cas every month and put each category into envelopes, do you have separate saving accounts and transfer the amount per budget for each category or do you leave everything in one account and make a note of how much is in the for each category?

sorry if i havent explained this very well but this is something im still trying to find the best way of managing. at the moment its all in one place and when i spend anything its just subtracted from my spreadsheet but i have found myself short a couple of times and have had to pull my belt in for a couple of weeks.

sorry for the waffle im a complete nightmare )

Hopelessly_Hopeful

iwantafreshstart wrote: »

evenin all

well ive been reading up on what ive missed and i must say youve inspired me to dust off my slow cooker and start using it again, i used to be good but got a bit lazy with it.

hope everyone in the first few months is doing ok, i think ive come out of my black cloud now cause im feeling positive and on top of things again since i had my review.

just a quick question tho that might seem a bit silly. i have a spreadsheet set up with all of my incomings and outgoings on it. every time i shop i enter the figure and it does all the calculations for me and i have a different page for each month. its set up for every month through 2013 at the mo too.

what i was goin to ask is this...we obviously have a budget with either CCCS or Payplan so how do you manage yours? do you withdraw cas every month and put each category into envelopes, do you have separate saving accounts and transfer the amount per budget for each category or do you leave everything in one account and make a note of how much is in the for each category?

sorry if i havent explained this very well but this is something im still trying to find the best way of managing. at the moment its all in one place and when i spend anything its just subtracted from my spreadsheet but i have found myself short a couple of times and have had to pull my belt in for a couple of weeks.

sorry for the waffle im a complete nightmare )

I keep my realtime one in the spreadsheet and always obey that balance rather than the bank balance that generally lags behind and has the potential to mislead you.

Hope that helps

HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Ellieseleven wrote: »

Totally sympathise re: the car TTFTM - I took my car for a service today expecting a bill for £150 but got a phone call to say that it needs new brake pads/drums front & back = £550:eek:I had saved £300 so have had to have service plus front brakes done and back will have to wait until next month - but on the plus side, I would have put all of this on my credit card in the bad old days:o (although I wouldn't still have a car that was 5+ years old, I'd have re-financed by now) so I'm looking at this as it's far cheaper than a) having more debt on my CC and b) having car finance over 3-5 years hanging around my neck, if you get my drift:)

Sounds like you are well on track to sort the car Ellie. Well done.

HHx

bertman

Ellieseleven wrote: »

Totally sympathise re: the car TTFTM - I took my car for a service today expecting a bill for £150 but got a phone call to say that it needs new brake pads/drums front & back = £550:eek:I had saved £300 so have had to have service plus front brakes done and back will have to wait until next month - but on the plus side, I would have put all of this on my credit card in the bad old days:o (although I wouldn't still have a car that was 5+ years old, I'd have re-financed by now) so I'm looking at this as it's far cheaper than a) having more debt on my CC and b) having car finance over 3-5 years hanging around my neck, if you get my drift:)

Hi - just wanted to add my two penneth... I am renowned as being tighter than a gnats a**e when it comes to cars and servicing. Don't whatever you do get the brake pads done at the main agent or the same place that is servicing the car, try some of the places like Kwik fit or see if a local mechanic will fit them if you buy them - seriously they are dead easy to fit. And this is from a guy who struggles to put up shelves! I did these on my last car, it was an old Volvo that with a bit of TLC went up to well over 200 thousand miles. I used to have places I would get tyres from, seperate to where it was serviced etc. Over the years I reckon I saved a fortune!

bertman

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

I keep my realtime one in the spreadsheet and always obey that balance rather than the bank balance that generally lags behind and has the potential to mislead you.

Hope that helps

HHx

Same here, I never use the bank balance as that is usually a day or two behind real world actions. Especially over the weekend its usually Tuesday by the time the bank has caught up with weekend transactions.

iwantafreshstart

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

I keep my realtime one in the spreadsheet and always obey that balance rather than the bank balance that generally lags behind and has the potential to mislead you.

Hope that helps

HHx

thanx HH

i log into my bank every day to make sure the balance tallys with my spreadsheet but have never divided the budget into the separate categories but i want to do this now and shave off a bit more savings where i can.

its brilliant being in control but this budgeting stuff is a minefield sometimes eh :rotfl: xx

Light_in_the_Dark

Hey,

This is my first post since I have faced up to the fact that I can't do this alone - I have tried and slogged through trying to pay off my debts alone but I couldn't manage it. I have had sleepless nights and worried myself sick.

I had my LBM on the 24th and after reading through this site I decided to contact CCCS and what a releif it is. The paperwork is now all sorted and my DMP starts on the 1st November.

So I just thought I would say hello and thanks to everyone on here, there are so many inspirational stories. I am looking at the challenges and will be choosing one to start with.

Jo

iwantafreshstart

Light_in_the_Dark wrote: »

Hey,

This is my first post since I have faced up to the fact that I can't do this alone - I have tried and slogged through trying to pay off my debts alone but I couldn't manage it. I have had sleepless nights and worried myself sick.

I had my LBM on the 24th and after reading through this site I decided to contact CCCS and what a releif it is. The paperwork is now all sorted and my DMP starts on the 1st November.

So I just thought I would say hello and thanks to everyone on here, there are so many inspirational stories. I am looking at the challenges and will be choosing one to start with.




Jo

hi and welcome

the folks on this thread are amazing, ive lurked more than ive posted but hopefully thats going to change now im feeling stronger

ive been with CCCS a year now, my DMP started in Nov last year and i can honestly say its the best thing ive done. all the things i was worried about didnt happen, i wasnt hounded on the phone, i didnt have people turning up at work and i didnt have bailiffs at the door.

in fact i didnt hear from all of my creditors and things have been pretty quiet all along.

good luck on your journey and always remember youre not alone we're all in this together :beer:

xx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Light_in_the_Dark wrote: »

Hey,

This is my first post since I have faced up to the fact that I can't do this alone - I have tried and slogged through trying to pay off my debts alone but I couldn't manage it. I have had sleepless nights and worried myself sick.

I had my LBM on the 24th and after reading through this site I decided to contact CCCS and what a releif it is. The paperwork is now all sorted and my DMP starts on the 1st November.

So I just thought I would say hello and thanks to everyone on here, there are so many inspirational stories. I am looking at the challenges and will be choosing one to start with.

Jo

Hi and Welcome

Hardest step done. This time next month your debts will be going down!

Yippee

HHx