DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Julie67

Morning all,

I've been missing for a couple of days, family visits etc but thought I would pop in and say hello.
Hi to all the newbies 👋Zenshi, Humphrd, Choppy, frugal living sorry if I've missed anyone.
Just to say you've come to the right place. I couldn't have managed without the helpful and informative posts on here. As HH says, you can't ask the wrong questions, we all have them.
Just a quick response on the interest question. 7 out of 8 creditors have frozen or vastly reduced interest and just waiting on the HSBC this week, a lovely man called Richard is now dealing with this for me, should stop interest and accept my DMP.:T
Zenshi, don't worry too much if you do have to speak to someone, just be firm and honest. I've found everyone pretty straightforward to deal with.
Frugal living, the credit cards were very quick responding, better than anyone else, and I was most worried about them as we hadn't taken them out that long ago, I was sure they would tell us to get lost.
Geek Alert, look away now if you hate spreadsheets, this is a spreadsheet question. My current spreadsheet is on my old lap top as I have Microsoft office package on there. I use my Ipad for everything else but as it doesn't have Microsoft office package I can't do my spreadsheet on here, any ideas without spending money. I don't want to keep using the old laptop it's on it's last legs, keeps fainting as my son says lol. It keeps fading out and shutting itself down! Does anyone know of a free spreadsheet package on Apple IPad I can use. I really want to look at it every day but its such a faff firing up the other machine, sorry I did warn you it was a geeky question.👀
Have a good day all

Julie67

Mossop01 wrote: »

Hi all, little update of my own, just realised today it's been 3 months since my LBM and contacting SC and 3 months since I've came off my anti depressants, stress from our debt was so debilitating at its peek and now I feel so much stronger and in control, I no longer dread the postie coming with the bills and love updating my spreadsheets .......partly this is due to the support I've had from here as I no longer feel so alone ....so cheers!
A long long way to go but we can enjoy living on the way!
Sorry for the rant...I'm probably hormonal ...but nevertheless it is heartfelt!

Cheers:beer:;)

Hi Mossop, Well done you :T:beer: so glad things are better for you now. It's about the same time for us as well and I feel exactly the same. So much less stressed, able to enjoy just normal every day things. My lot came for lunch yesterday and it was lovely with kids and grandchildren running around, I thought to myself I just wouldn't have been able to enjoy this the same before Christmas. The debt hasn't gone away but it's manageable and moving in the right direction. Best thing we ever did. Just think in about 6 yrs we will be posting that we are debt free lol:rotfl:

zenshi

I only have an iPad so will be interested in a free spreadsheet link/app too.

I'm sure once I get in the swing of things then I shall be alright talking with creditors but at the moment it's all just aaargh!!! It's a lot to deal with

Hopelessly_Hopeful

zenshi wrote: »

I only have an iPad so will be interested in a free spreadsheet link/app too.

I'm sure once I get in the swing of things then I shall be alright talking with creditors but at the moment it's all just aaargh!!! It's a lot to deal with

You dont have to speak to them, you can do in writing if you prefer.

HHx

zenshi

I have missed this moths payment and have letters to send today but last week one phone number was ringing like six times a day. I have caller display and I'm sure it was them. I'm afraid to say I ignored it! I just couldn't deal with it

Hopelessly_Hopeful

zenshi wrote: »

I have missed this moths payment and have letters to send today but last week one phone number was ringing like six times a day. I have caller display and I'm sure it was them. I'm afraid to say I ignored it! I just couldn't deal with it

Have you included in the lteer that you only want to be contacted in writing?

The calls will stop and if not you report them then they stop. Turn the ringer off or unplug it if it stresses you.

HHx

Julie67

Hi Zenshi,

I agree with HH. I know, I didn't want to speak to anyone, at all. But I found once they had spoken to me once and I asked them not to ring and only contact me in writing, and to remove all my numbers, I have not had one call from anyone, but maybe I've just been lucky.
Will do some research later see if I can find anything free to use on the iPad. Will post later Julie

Jenjen

Hi Everyone

I've got some catching up to do because I've not been on for ages. This is the first time I've seen the shiny new thread.

Everything is going really well with our DMP and I am so glad we did it. We even managed to deal with a £300 repair bill for my car a couple of weeks ago without any stress over how we were going to pay for it.

I have just completed a review with Step Change as a few things had changed, most notebly the fixed rate on our mortgage coming to an end and our mortgage payment dropping by £65 a month. We have now managed to make 2 increases to our payment to Step Change in 15 months on the DMP. Our original debt free date was 16 years away but just over a year in and we now have only 8 years left.

Still have a few ideas of how we will increase our payment in the future as well. DH is currently paying over £125 in student loan contributions but he finally rang them a few weeks ago and confirmed that he only has just over a year left on that, so when that finishes we should be able to make another significant increase to the payment.

There is also a possibility of a promotion at work for DH in the not too distant future but I won't say too much about that in case I jinx it.

I have also heard from the FOS that we have won our PPI claim from Barclaycard although 2 weeks later I have still not heard from Barclaycard and don't even know how much we are owed. But when we get that it will probably come straight off the debt which is still part of our DMP. So that should knock a few months off the debt free date.

So its all looking good here. We are even going on holiday to Cornwall in May. My mum is paying for the holiday, we just have to buy food and fuel so we should be able to squeeze that out of our existing budgets.

We were always aiming for debt free by 2020, more recently we decided we could probably do it by 2018 and I am secretly now aiming for 2017.

Good Luck everyone just starting out. I hope you all have a smooth a ride as I've had so far.

Julie67

Hi Jen Jen

Thanks for letting us know how your getting along. It makes a huge difference to people like me 3 months in who are doing ok but need support to imagine being able to predict the debt free date. I'm hoping to up our payments to SC along the way to bring forward our date, otherwise I'm just happy for now managing to pay everything and having enough to live on.
Good luck with everything and hope things continue along an even path for you

fifitrixiejane

Hiya,
Just popped by to see how everyone is doing.. A few newbies I notice!

Well, been on my DMP for 3 months now, things are going well..I haven't checked my statement yet this month I wanted to let things get paid for a a couple of months then look to see with the hope I'll be pleasantly surprised when I look! I've had a couple of things I've had to sort out, but other than that interest and charges have been frozen, which is brilliant.

But the best thing in the world in no worry! At any given time I could tell you how much money I have in my bank and for once in my life, considering this is the last week before I get paid I still have money left from my budget.. I can't tell you what a great feeling that really is! I go to my bank and rather than worry about being declined, now I have money in it, money for shopping..brilliant. I used to be one of those people who never looked at their bank accounts and put my card in the machine and hope it didn't get declined.. What a change around for me!

So, all good here..no more worries..everything going well..the best thing I've every done.

How is everyone else doing?
:j