Take it to the Mattresses!

Grand_Benders

Just finished drafting the letter I'll mail-merge on Monday to all our creditors. Feel free to comment, advise or otherwise tear it apart. I've tried to cover as many 'starting a DMP' issues as I can in the hope that I'll minimise the stress of letters and calls (although I'm not kidding myself that they'll all comply, but I can try )

Dear Sir/Madam

I am currently experiencing financial difficulties and have received advice from Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) to help solve my debt problem. They have recommended that myself and my partner enter into a Debt Management Plan (DMP) with them, and we have now sent them our agreement together with full details of all creditors, debts owed and our monthly household income and expenditure.

I find myself unable to meet the minimum payments on my account with you this month, and so have enclosed a cheque for £5 which is all I can afford whilst I arrange to get my finances in order. I hope you will see that this shows a willingness to continue to pay something to my debt with you and work towards clearing this through the CCCS DMP.

I would ask that you please consider reducing or stopping interest or any other charges on my account to help me during my financial difficulties and to avoid increasing my debts any further.

All correspondence and contact in relation to my account should now be made with CCCS direct and they will be in touch with you shortly to confirm their details and the start date of the DMP. Our DMP reference number is XXXXXXX and you should quote this on all correspondence with them.

I note that the due date for payments to my account is currently around the XXth of each month. Since CCCS send all payments out around 25th of each month, I would be grateful if you could move my current ‘due date’ to 25th or later in the month to avoid timing differences with CCCS which might result in unnecessary late payment charges, further compounding my debt problems.

I thank you in anticipation of your assistance and co-operation whilst I am going through this difficult time, and assure you that I am doing everything I can to resolve my current financial situation in a responsible and sustainable manner.

Yours faithfully

Thoughts?

Grand_Benders

So, after canvassing opinion on the DMP thread, I'm going to modify the wording about contact so that if they DO contact me, it's only in writing.

In other news, yesterday was our 4th deliberate No Spend Day since our LBM. 4 in 2 weeks is a good start. Today is heading towards our 5th, but won't count it till the morning, in case we have any more 'accidental' purchases like the bike battery on Friday! :doh:

mum2one

def agree with adding letter only, if you get stuck there are letters on the debt thread that are used for companies that ignore the do not contact unless in writing.

Youve done the right thing at least by enclosing £5 more than most, as its £1 usual token payment, so that should be brownie points in the view of the companies. xx

Grand_Benders

mum2one wrote: »

...
Youve done the right thing at least by enclosing £5 more than most, as its £1 usual token payment, so that should be brownie points in the view of the companies. xx

Actually we've written out the cheques and decided to just send £1 after all

Gathering everything ready to send off tomorrow and feeling quite organised.

We have some things on ebay finishing around midnight tonight and there's been a wee flurry of activity in the last couple of hours, so I'm quite hopeful for a decent price.

Every little helps

Grand_Benders

Right! Mission Part 1 Accomplished!
DMP application and all applicable paperwork send to CCCS! :T

Mission Part 2 in progress.
Token payments and DMP letters to creditors prepared, printed, signed and enveloped with relevant cheques attached, awaiting postage printing and mailing out tomorrow since I've missed today's post.

All, that is, but Barclaycard, who have been most difficult, from not printing my full account number on my statement downloaded from their online system (**** **** **** is not helpful!), to having absolutely NO mailing addresses anywhere on their site. Hoping someone comes along to the DMP thread shortly to help me out there, or BC will be singing for their money!



First batch of eBay stuff finished around midnight last night (too late... must list earlier this week) and we made around £39 from this first batch. All stuff we've been tripping over for years, so a pretty good result. Must go searching for more stuff!

PinotGrigio41

Hi there Mr & Mrs GB,

I have seen you floating around a few other diaries and the DMP thread, so thought I would just drop by and say hello.

Soudns like a positive start for you both, wishing you lots of luck. Will subscribe and keep you company on your journey from time to time if thats ok !

Good Luck

Pinot x

Sligogirl

Aldi is such a great shop I think, we also have switched to them and do a big shop once a month where we stock up on all the basics. Yesterday however, I needed something for dinner, so popped into tesco and bought a small chicken for very little about £2.50. I made this little chickey into a yummy roast dinner. So a nice meal for two including roast potatoes and veg cost about £3.25. I was interested in that you said we try to have two spend free days per week. I find if you make a list when you shop and stick to it, you will always spend less on food. If there is some chicken leftover, make a chicken and pasta bake for supper. when shopping I say to myself, "do I really need this", if there is even the smallest doubt, it goes back.
If anyone is interested in frugal, but delicious recipes, on how to make tasty meals on a budget, please let me know and I would be happy to provide a recipe a day here.
all the best
Sligogirl.

Grand_Benders

All the ebay stuff now shipped. Underestimated all but one of my 5 sales' shipping, but managed to claw back the overage from the one that wasn't over. Must make sure I weigh everything before I list!

Relisted the 4 items that didn't sell, but took off extra photos, so I won't have to pay extra fees. Why doesn't anyone want my original 80s (but still working) hair crimper in the original box??? :rotfl:


Getting the Barclaycard Token payment and DMP letter sent off today now that I have an address (five actually; this forum rocks!)

Moneysaving stuff we've done this week so far:

Registered for O2 Priority Moments. Had no idea they just give stuff away for free for being an O2 customer. We both got a free lunch from Uppercrust yesterday (baguette and a bottle of coke) and because the nearest one is right in the city centre, it also meant we got a bit of exercise.

Popped into the Orange shop to get a free SIM card for my original (now spare) iphone, so that we can have Orange Wednesday cinema nights. Had to top up £5, but our nights to the cinema with food/drink would cost around £30 for both of us :eek: so we're now on a mission to see if we can get a night out for as little as possible. We don't really drink that much (maybe 3 bottles of wine a year (yes, a year...!) so TV and cinema are our entertainment.

Part of our Aldi shop last week was a couple of whole chickens (I usually buy breast fillets) and broth mix. We managed to have lovely roast chicken dinner on Sunday night, then on Monday we had Chicken Pitta pockets with salad (also used to buy mixed ready to eat salad, so bought actual lettuces this time) and the rest of the chicken meat has gone in the freezer for a curry at some future date. Boiled up the bones for stock and made a lovely Broth, so that was lunch today and will be again tomorrow. One 1.3Kg chicken at £2.69, so far accounts for 5 meals for 2 people! :T Still have a whole chicken in the freezer, so we'll give it a week or two and then repeat that whole 5 meal menu again!

In digging around last night looking for a cable to go with my camera that sold, I found 3 £2 coins and a £1, so they're now in my £2 jar and my pocket respectively!

Also found three other things that can go straight on to Ebay tomorrow night (Thursday listing night) without any effort other than a couple of photos and a few sentences, which I can write in the car on my way home (not driving)

I'm totally inspired by Gargrave50 to save wherever I can using freebies and to list as much [STRIKE]tat[/STRIKE] errr treasure as I can on ebay to declutter AND make money! :rotfl::rotfl:

I invested 1.99 and bought an app for my iPad called Account Tracker, which I've set up with my CCCS-approved monthly budget headings and amounts, and I've set up all our regular Direct Debit bills. I've added bank/cash accounts for 'cash' that we carry around, the penny jar, the £2 jar, my Royal Mail postage account that has a prepaid balance in it, Paypal, and the wee float that I keep aside with change for any craft fayres or boot sales that we do. So now EVERY penny we have anywhere is completely accounted for, and can be transferred between them as necessary. I now have it on my phone too, so wherever we are, at any time, I can immediately see how much we have left on our budget for that month to spend. Also, I keep finding pennies all over the place, so they can be added as 'other income' and go straight into the balance for the pennies jar! Every penny spent or earned goes straight into the account tracker.


We have become completely addicted to money saving, money 'acquiring' (ebay, found pennies etc) and knowing exactly how much we have. Our LBM was 19 days ago and we are transformed! :rotfl:

Grand_Benders

Sligogirl wrote: »

Aldi is such a great shop I think, we also have switched to them and do a big shop once a month where we stock up on all the basics. Yesterday however, I needed something for dinner, so popped into tesco and bought a small chicken for very little about £2.50. I made this little chickey into a yummy roast dinner. So a nice meal for two including roast potatoes and veg cost about £3.25. I was interested in that you said we try to have two spend free days per week. I find if you make a list when you shop and stick to it, you will always spend less on food. If there is some chicken leftover, make a chicken and pasta bake for supper. when shopping I say to myself, "do I really need this", if there is even the smallest doubt, it goes back.
If anyone is interested in frugal, but delicious recipes, on how to make tasty meals on a budget, please let me know and I would be happy to provide a recipe a day here.
all the best
Sligogirl.

Thanks for the 'luck' wishes! I had started drafting my latest entry before you posted, and as it turns out, we're both talking about stretching a wee chicken to its limit! :rotfl:

I am now a complete convert and will be frugal from now on.

Grand_Benders

Feels like things are happening today.

Popped into the Co-op branch to sign mandates for our joint cashminder account and also sorted out a savings account because I forgot this initially :doh: We'll use this to syphon off the budget items that are to cover annual stuff like road tax, insurance, etc. Don't expect there will be much in the way of actual 'savings'!

Got a phone call at lunch time on my mobile from a blocked number. Braced myself for the first creditor call, but it was CCCS to let me know that they needed my Barclaycard account number (since the unhelpful BC people *** it out on the statement!) Confirmed everything was going through today, and creditor letters would be sent out, except Santander to give us time to sort out bank account stuff (which will be sorted tomorrow).

Got a text from them shortly afterwards with confirmation that our DMP has been set up, and the aftercare number to give them the go-ahead with Santander once our bank/cash is safe!

Yesterday was a No Spend Day, after a spate of Low Spend Days that were supposed to be NSD but got foiled by something or other that I would forget! Quite pleased we managed it yesterday, considering we were at a gig last night (tickets bought before LBM and we tried to sell them at work to save the cash but no takers). Almost caved about 20 minutes before end, as it was absolutely boiling hot and I needed a drink, but asked behind the bar for a glass of tapwater for a grand price of £0.00 Scottish Water is amazing for drinking anyway, and better than some 'mineral' waters. Yay for the fab bar staff at Glasgow Barrowland! :T

Today is most definitely a SPEND day (yes, capital letters are required) since our car is having a service and some essential repairs, with a total bill of £497.50 :eek:

We knew our car budget was bust this month before we started, and it was part of the reason we did token payments of £1 this month, using the cash that would have been paid to CCs to the garage. The good news is, our friendly mechanic says that for the mileage on our car, we're in pretty good shape mechanically (now that the throttle body has been replaced and he's freed the binding handbrake and replaced spark plugs). He's a good guy and we've become pretty good mates over the years he's been looking after our Smartie, so I know he doesn't rip me off. Not my experience with other garages! :mad:

Anyway, I'm so over the car costs and all our other budgets are safe for now (but it IS only the 5th of the month :rotfl:).