Struggling - anyone else have this issue when starting up?

Bettingmad

BlushingRose wrote: »

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?

BR can you post your current SOA with the figures you have been allowed in your budget to CCCS. I'm sure we will find areas to improve upon.

black_cat

I don't really have any advice but just wanted to say that it does get easier x

DVardysShadow

BlushingRose wrote: »

... Is it us, are we just useless?

No. You are doing fine. £48000 debts is an awful lot of looking the other way while your money goes where it will. If you are now beginning to notice £40/month sneaking off to the Water Company that you had missed it shows that you are getting it all under control. You should be congratulating yourself for spotting it and not letting it mount up as a big problem with your DMP.

Mort

BlushingRose wrote: »

Did anyone else get their budget so long when they stared off?
Is it us, are we just useless?

You are not useless. Think back to what a tizzy you were in before you started the DMP, most of your posts seem a lot happier now. What you have been through is enormously stressful. Mistakes happen, you will deal with this one and move on.

And to answer your first question.
CCCS would not take us on as they reckoned our income was enough to cover outgoings - I had forgotten to tell them about our second mortgage. Payplan took us on because I did include it.
I did all the setting up of direct debits on our new bank account and what did I forget? You have probably guessed it.
The second mortgage did not get paid for 6 months and because we had paid in a lump sum from endowment compensation the building society did not tell us, I only found out when I looked over the annual statement.
Luckily, for us, we had been putting all spare cash into a savings account thinking we were doing really well so the situation was salvageable.

Angry_Bear

BlushingRose wrote: »

However, bank charges refunded? Tell me more please.

The courts officially ruled that charges were okay (late payments, over your overdraft limit etc) but if they're deemed to be excessive or to be worsening your situation when you're in financial difficulty (I'm guessing that's you!) then you might be able to claim them back.
My OH's CC gave him over £700 back with only one letter, and the ombudsman just made RBS give me £350 back from when they cancelled my student overdraft without notice a few years back.

Worth a try

ETA: link http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges

BlushingRose

Thanks..
I think Mr BR will be ringing CCCS on Tuesday rather than tomorrow as he will have more time available to chat with them if necessary.
We were sitting, longing at the budget and realised as well that £40 has gone missing somewhere and we're not sure where. I keep a spending diary on everything we've spent, but, obviously at some point, this didn't happen and so we're worse off then we should be at this point in the month.
Things are so tight that Mr BR spent only £5 on a present for me birthday and got upset today when we went through the month's spending as it meant he had to tell me how little he'd spent (his words). I told him it didn't matter (it doesn't) but it did make me realise that we have nothing 'spare' or budgeted for presents through the year either.

BlushingRose

Angry_Bear wrote: »

The courts officially ruled that charges were okay (late payments, over your overdraft limit etc) but if they're deemed to be excessive or to be worsening your situation when you're in financial difficulty (I'm guessing that's you!) then you might be able to claim them back.
My OH's CC gave him over £700 back with only one letter, and the ombudsman just made RBS give me £350 back from when they cancelled my student overdraft without notice a few years back.

Worth a try

oooh, interesting...
well the YB certainly made things worse foe us in the final few months by charging us charges like mad. Mr BR even wrote to them to ask them nicely to stop charging us as it really wasn't helping, and their response was 'it's not us, it's the computer'.
not sure how we'd start to make a claim though - any advice re; words to use?

Angry_Bear

Did a sneakey edit above and added the MSE link (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges) there's templates and advice on there.

camuk81

Oh you poor thing you have been through the mill, keep it up.

Everyone has these blips. The first two months I have an unexpected phone bill from orange then the blighters tried taking another £160 again from me!

Big hug to you and the hubby you will get there

BlushingRose

camuk81 wrote: »

Oh you poor thing you have been through the mill, keep it up.

Everyone has these blips. The first two months I have an unexpected phone bill from orange then the blighters tried taking another £160 again from me!

Big hug to you and the hubby you will get there

Thanks x

It just seems to be that suddenly, now we have no credit cards, everything is going wrong, the car - I'm worried about one of the cats as well....*sigh*