Struggling - anyone else have this issue when starting up?

BlushingRose

Hi all,

Well today both Mr BR and I have been in tears as we just feel like we're not coping on the current budget at all.
I've also discovered that although we've got £20 down for water per month, it's actually £60 and so we'll have to get back onto CCCS again and ask them to change things.
We just don't seem to be coping with the budget at all and if we don;t go overdrawn at the end of our month (24th) then I'll be extremely surprised.
Help...
We're not sure what to do as we don't want to reduce the CCCS payment more than we have to as it'll make the debt take longer to pay off.
Did anyone else get their budget so long when they stared off? Did anyone else sent off a SOA to CCCS that was incorrect?
Is it us, are we just useless?

rising_from_the_ashes

BR, hun, you are not useless. You (and Mr BR) are going through a hugely stressful time with huge amount of changes.

When you did your budget - how realistic did you think it was (ie did you go through the last 12 months' worth of expenditure to ensure you estimated correctly)?

Did you have to reduce any budgets from what you put down?

It's a huge learning curve to try to stick to a budget (it's taken me a long time to get to grips with it and I've only recently managed to start setting money aside each month to cover bills when they're due) and it's bound to take time.

Have you got a water meter? £60/month for 2 seems an awful lot.

If you need to ask CCCS to change the budgets - do - much better than finding yourself overdrawn again as you can't do this on a DMP.

Good luck

pure_dead_dopey

get the budge changed, being on a DMP is about chosing to pay the money back at a rate you can afford, after all you're on a DMP cos you couldn't afford to pay it back at the rate the creditors wanted.
If you have an unrealistic budget it won't work, it'll fail
CCCS are there to help set an reasonable and affordable budget, and you have to drive that with them.
don't be persuaded to set a budget that you know won't work
and you're not useless BR, you are learning how to cope with this, we've all been there,

Angry_Bear

I agree with the previous posters that making sure your budget is realistic is most importanct, but you could also look to tackle this from a different angle - have you looked at upping your income?

Online surveys etc only make a small amount but that can be used for treats or unexected things (I've just bought some lovely new bedding with my Amazon vouchers ).
Maybe you or Mr BR could look at taking on overtime or a part-time second job?
Then of course there's selling things on ebay and getting all the cashback you can.

And don't forget to find out if you can claim back PPI or bank charges.

Good luck, and don't let things get you down. You're doing well

BlushingRose

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

When you did your budget - how realistic did you think it was (ie did you go through the last 12 months' worth of expenditure to ensure you estimated correctly)?

Did you have to reduce any budgets from what you put down?

Have you got a water meter? £60/month for 2 seems an awful lot.



Good luck

Hiya, thanks for your reply x

When we did the budget originally on the CCCS website, I think we were doing it with a sort of panic. Mr BR read through the last couple of statements and I put down the figures. I now realise this wasn't the best (correct?) way of doing it, but we didn't know any better really.
We've not had to reduce any of the budgeted amounts that we originally put down, in fact we're probably missing stuff. We have nothing for an emergency fund and nothing for birthdays/Christmas and stuff.
No, no water meter...the water (I've today found out) is paid £60 a month for 8 months of the year. I've suggested that, assuming CCCS will change it to reflect this, we can put the extra money into an emergency fund when it's not needed for the water bill.

BlushingRose

pure_dead_dopey wrote: »

get the budge changed, being on a DMP is about chosing to pay the money back at a rate you can afford, after all you're on a DMP cos you couldn't afford to pay it back at the rate the creditors wanted.
If you have an unrealistic budget it won't work, it'll fail
CCCS are there to help set an reasonable and affordable budget, and you have to drive that with them.
don't be persuaded to set a budget that you know won't work
and you're not useless BR, you are learning how to cope with this, we've all been there,

We're planning to ring CCCS tomorrow although to be honest we're a bit scared to. We've recently had to ring them about car repairs to the point where they're not taking any payment in Feb at all as we need it all to get the cat sorted out.

I was saying to Mr BR this afternoon that the advantage to doing your *owe* DMP would be that one wouldn't feel beholden to a company and we wouldn't have to 'ask' them for our own money to pay for stuff. However, as history has taught us, we're not disciplined enough to do this on our own otherwise we wouldn't be in the dent we're in.

BlushingRose

Angry_Bear wrote: »

I agree with the previous posters that making sure your budget is realistic is most importanct, but you could also look to tackle this from a different angle - have you looked at upping your income?

Online surveys etc only make a small amount but that can be used for treats or unexected things (I've just bought some lovely new bedding with my Amazon vouchers ).
Maybe you or Mr BR could look at taking on overtime or a part-time second job?
Then of course there's selling things on ebay and getting all the cashback you can.

And don't forget to find out if you can claim back PPI or bank charges.

Good luck, and don't let things get you down. You're doing well

Re: upping income. I am a member of a few survey sites and that one with the super button but don;t get much luck with surveys and no friends want to join to make earning easier.
I'm currently only working 'now and then' and have been trying to find regular work for a while, so the situation isn't made easier by the fact that we have only one income atm.

I've been seriously thinking of seeing if we can reclaim PPI as I know Mr BR had it on one card for sure as we cancelled it when we started the DMP. However, bank charges refunded? Tell me more please.

pure_dead_dopey

BlushingRose wrote: »

We're planning to ring CCCS tomorrow although to be honest we're a bit scared to. We've recently had to ring them about car repairs to the point where they're not taking any payment in Feb at all as we need it all to get the cat sorted out.

I was saying to Mr BR this afternoon that the advantage to doing your *owe* DMP would be that one wouldn't feel beholden to a company and we wouldn't have to 'ask' them for our own money to pay for stuff. However, as history has taught us, we're not disciplined enough to do this on our own otherwise we wouldn't be in the dent we're in.

]

BR if you're 'scared" to phone CCCS, the relationship is wrong, they are there to help you, not make you scared. it's your debt and you need to fix it one way or another remember a DMP isn't the only answer, there are others.

CCCS should never have let you set up a budget for a DMP without anything in it for emergencies, whaat planet do they live on???

BevieB

BlushingRose wrote: »

Hiya, thanks for your reply x

When we did the budget originally on the CCCS website, I think we were doing it with a sort of panic. Mr BR read through the last couple of statements and I put down the figures. I now realise this wasn't the best (correct?) way of doing it, but we didn't know any better really.
We've not had to reduce any of the budgeted amounts that we originally put down, in fact we're probably missing stuff. We have nothing for an emergency fund and nothing for birthdays/Christmas and stuff.
No, no water meter...the water (I've today found out) is paid £60 a month for 8 months of the year. I've suggested that, assuming CCCS will change it to reflect this, we can put the extra money into an emergency fund when it's not needed for the water bill.

Re Water bills. CCCS will average over year and calculate a monthly amount.Therefore £60 x 8 months = £480, divide by 12 months equals £40 per month. Are you on a meter as we pay £32 per month and we have 3 in house?

BlushingRose

BevieB wrote: »

Re Water bills. CCCS will average over year and calculate a monthly amount.Therefore £60 x 8 months = £480, divide by 12 months equals £40 per month. Are you on a meter as we pay £32 per month and we have 3 in house?

£40 a month? Well we put down £20 so we're still wrong.

No, we're not on a metre.

BevieB

BlushingRose wrote: »

£40 a month? Well we put down £20 so we're still wrong.

No, we're not on a metre.

If you contact your Water company they can give you an estimate on what the monthly payment would be for a water meter. (We pay every month) Give them a ring cant do any harm.