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Not sure whether to go DMP route
Comments
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A DMP has certainly worked for me, as I now have 3 months left out of a projected 84.
When I started my debts were nigh on £22k.
The last 7 years havent been easy, but if I can do it so can you !.
I congratulate you on facing up to & dealing with your debts and wish you well on your debt free journey !0 -
A few things to add here. If your existing car is doing well and in a decent state of repairs, don't sell it. A Rover 220, I assume diesel, will be at least 12 years old, incurring more costsover your initial saving, not to mention probably not as reliable or safe.
£500 a month on groceries, is really £555 with your wifes 10% discount. This is way too high, the old style board will help but rember just because your OH gets 10% off doesn't mean that Asda is always the cheapest.
Do you live far from your wifes work? £100 on fuel seems high, the school run can be done on foot where possible.
Try and pick up an energy monitor cheap and see where your electric goes.
Can you ask the HMRC to adjust your Tax code, rather than pay back £55 a month.
If you want to avoid a DMP then you need to snowball your debts and get the incomming back to level with out goings. Check the snowball calculator at www.makesenseofcards.co.uk
As for DMP ask CCCS if the Amex is still allowed, do you properly claim back all your work expenses?New PV club member. 3.99kW system. Solar Edge with 14 x 285W JA Solar panels. 55° West from south and 35° pitch.0 -
Thanks again for all of the help here.
With regards to my current car. It is all working fine but has done nearly 180k. It has had one or two issues in the past year and im thinking it might be time to sell it whilst its worth something.
Yes groceries can be cheaper but I think £400 is about as low as we could get it. When looking on CCCS planner 480 was recommened for us. Its mainly Asda with some Aldi shopping in there too. I also get somethings from my staff shop (Heinz) which is great as I love beans
My wifes work is about 6 miles away so too far to walk especially after a long night shift.
HMRC £55 has 2 years left the other has only just started for 12 months.
I will have a look at that link, thanks.
There is the potential for us to be able to break even if my wife gets a full time job, but like I say who knows when this might happen.
Thanks again
MarkA few things to add here. If your existing car is doing well and in a decent state of repairs, don't sell it. A Rover 220, I assume diesel, will be at least 12 years old, incurring more costsover your initial saving, not to mention probably not as reliable or safe.
£500 a month on groceries, is really £555 with your wifes 10% discount. This is way too high, the old style board will help but rember just because your OH gets 10% off doesn't mean that Asda is always the cheapest.
Do you live far from your wifes work? £100 on fuel seems high, the school run can be done on foot where possible.
Try and pick up an energy monitor cheap and see where your electric goes.
Can you ask the HMRC to adjust your Tax code, rather than pay back £55 a month.
If you want to avoid a DMP then you need to snowball your debts and get the incomming back to level with out goings. Check the snowball calculator at As for DMP ask CCCS if the Amex is still allowed, do you properly claim back all your work expenses?0 -
Oh and yes we probably will be losing child benefit in April. Awesome calculation by the goverment there
Thanks
Mark0 -
Hi mark,
Best of luck with whatever you decide to do. I would recommend cccs, we were just about managing before our Dmp but would use the cc if we were short almost every month. This website has helped me so much, especially learning how to make the most of the money we have by budgeting. We now manage on £30 a week food shopping, and we hardly ever pay full price for anything anymore. The Dmp support thread is great for getting advice too.
All the best,
EmLBM April 2011 DMP June 2011 DFD [STRIKE]Jan 2015 Aug 2014 March 2014[/STRIKE] Ended DMP Jan 2013
Total Debt LBM £38,978 :mad:Total Debt (to parents) March 2013 £13,5000 -
Thanks Em
I will talk to the CCCS during the week.
Markartyfartyem wrote: »Hi mark,
Best of luck with whatever you decide to do. I would recommend cccs, we were just about managing before our Dmp but would use the cc if we were short almost every month. This website has helped me so much, especially learning how to make the most of the money we have by budgeting. We now manage on £30 a week food shopping, and we hardly ever pay full price for anything anymore. The Dmp support thread is great for getting advice too.
All the best,
Em0 -
Your gas and elec are very high. Look at the utilities forum here and/or martin's articles on Shopping around. We have a semi and pay £50 combined. Not have the kids so am sure yours needs to be quite a bit higher but room to reduce quite a bit. Are you maybe on estimated bills?
Do you know how you got into the debt? You have quite a few loans so were they for things like doing your house up or did they clear cc debts? You don't need to tell us, but knowing how you spent £50k more than you have coming in is an important part of hanging your situation.
L
Maybe try things like fixing the grocery budget at it's Current level then getting the spends down to cover thE kids clothing needs?
All the best.Debt at highest: £8k. Debt Free 31/12/2009. Original MFD May 2036, MF Dec 2018.0 -
Yep the energy bill is too high but im hoping with the changes we have / are making that this will start to come down. We are now in credit leading into the winter and just need to fix our broken programmer so as to minimise boiler useage (old system so is not that economical).
As for getting into debt, I do know how that happened. Mainly stupidity with cars, some home improvements, trying to consolidate once things had got bad and finally subsidising inclome when my wife losy her job after our 2nd child.
So I know how we got here and wont be making these mistakes again once we are clear, but for now it is what it is.
Thanks
MarkYour gas and elec are very high. Look at the utilities forum here and/or martin's articles on Shopping around. We have a semi and pay £50 combined. Not have the kids so am sure yours needs to be quite a bit higher but room to reduce quite a bit. Are you maybe on estimated bills?
Do you know how you got into the debt? You have quite a few loans so were they for things like doing your house up or did they clear cc debts? You don't need to tell us, but knowing how you spent £50k more than you have coming in is an important part of hanging your situation.
L
Maybe try things like fixing the grocery budget at it's Current level then getting the spends down to cover thE kids clothing needs?
All the best.0 -
Hi
I think you need to forget the moral dimension where money is concerned. Yes you agreed to pay back the money on certain terms but your priority is your family. Everything else comes second.
The banks do not care about you, you are a number - please remember that.
I would suggest you talk to CCCS (or just complete the online Debt Remedy, it gives you a guide to the length of repayment on the DMP).
You do realise your credit rating will be completely trashed? Will you want to remortgage anytime soon?Will this affect work or any future employment?
You will have to change bank accounts.
I would look into cutting back drastically on anything and everything before you actually go down the DMP route. I'm on one (with CCCS) and it was the best thing I ever did however I was in real dire straits and was missing payments left, right and center but I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is difficult, its hard work and sometime downright depressing........but.........it works.
Keep looking around the Debt Free Wannabbe board and the Old Style Board for inspiration of cutting back.
Do the Debt Remedy as a starting point and see how long a DMP will last as well.
Good luck, your considering your options which is good, and you will escape this trap.
E2I'm Debt Free :j 2/09/2013
Debt at LBM 30/04/2010 £24,109.38,0 -
Thanks E2. Yes I will be trying everything before I do go down the DMP route as I realise that my rating will go down the toilet. This is the scary bit but part of me thinks that this could be the best thing for me as if its not available then its not even an option.
Only worrying bit would be the mortgage aspect. We have decided to stay where we are as we were going to move up north and downsize as part of my new job but we couldnt even get someone to view the house despite me lowering the price to bottom of what we could afford and lower than every other property of same size in same area. So we are definately staying where we are. We are currently on base rate + 1.1% which is the rate after our initial 2 year fixed. So only worry is if rates start to go up dramatically. But they would have to go up by quite a few % to be higher than any fixed rate that is available to us.
Main thing is I dont want to get to the point where I do start struggling to pay and at the minute it just looks like our debt will continue to rise.
Thanks for the food for thought again.
Mark0
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