January 2015 is the beginning

January2015

Hello Diary

The update on my week so far is that I cleared £200 in ebay sales (after ebay and paypal fees) so really pleased with myself

The car is now repaired and running like a dream. We found a local mechanic to fix it and he charged us £200 less than the garage quoted (still cost just over £300 though )

I've managed to scrape together £375 to pay Very (ebay sales helped) and avoided them adding interest at the end of this month for buy now pay later (BNPL). I have another BNPL due end May and a final one due end October....so all guns blazing to clear those before Very can added any extortionate interest. Very refuse to stop interest and charges so I just want rid of this debt - it is our smallest debt and because we are making DMP payments to other creditors I can manage this through ebay sales and hopefully some additional hours at work over the next few months.

So feeling very chuffed that we managed to cover £710 in bills/debts without resorting to the historic method of using a credit card

System

Well done:T. Pleased all is going well for you and you now have a fully functioning car

January2015

Another weekly diary update.

It's been a good DMP week. RBS and NatWest have defaulted my CCs and Hellifax have, after us sending a letter of complaint, agreed to default our current account overdraft - we're just waiting for the formal default paperwork for that now.

A bit of concern is that 2 of our CCs are with VirginMoney (VM) and were operated by MBNA. We've just been notified management of all VM CCs are transferring from MBNA to virginmoney. MBNA have been so good and supportive of the DMP - we just have to keep fingers crossed that VM take the same stance or, even better, default us straight away.

No response from BC yet re our complaint about interest charges.

I've had a couple of 'down in the dumps' days this week - need to hit myself over the head with a big stick and tell myself we are better off than we have been for years (because in reality we are) and remind myself we have a future that will be clear of mortgage and debts.....just some days it's hard.

January2015

Phone call from Hellifax this morning to advise they are looking into our complaint re. interest on our loans. They will have to phone back when DH is also home so they can talk to him as well.

They said we have made it clear in our letter what action we want and they will look into what they can do. Fingers crossed. As they have agreed to default the OD I can't see how they can treat the loans differently - but will have to watch this space for an update

January2015

Hello diary

End of first month on a DMP - in fact our 2nd payment to SC went out of the bank today.

Having managed to squirrel away an emergency fund which I thought would 'last' we had the month from hell. Some bit on OH's car went (over £300) and then I had to find over £300 to pay catalogue company to avoid extortionate buy now pay later fees......and this week OH has dental fees of £240. It was leave him in pain or pay up.....I did have to think about which option to choose

Emergency fund now depleted to a grand total of £16, but we covered it all and we are scraping through.

I just hope month 1 of our DMP was a serious blip that won't happen again for at least several months to give us time to build up those emergency funds again.

I'm still feeling positive about being on the DMP and am looking forward to seeing those balances reduce on our SC login account:j

January2015

Just logged in and checked all our account balances. Debt has gone up overall (mostly because MBNA/Virginmoney added fees and charges right up to end Feb and will not back down on the date they agreed to freeze fees and charges from ). So debt increased first month on DMP. Hey ho, the only way is down from here on in

I still feel better because even though it increased I can accept it and know it's not going to continuing increasing month on month and the light is glimmering at the end of our tunnel - still a long, long way off but at least we can see the dim glow.

January2015

Hello Diary

8 days since my last entry:eek: I think I need to admit to you I am not, and never have been, an avid diary keeper:o

I do log in to the DFW forum every day - it's become a compulsion in fact. I read loads, love to catch up with diaries and most especially I feel I have found a 'home' on the DMP Mutual support thread. I tend to post most of my DMP journey updates on the mutual support thread - I think that's because there are several other DFWs who have had their LBMs and started their DMPs at a similar time to me and we are supporting each other with our experiences. It doesn't feel right to clog up the forum virtual hard drive by posting everything on both the mutual support thread and then back on my diary.

DMP is going well - 2nd month payment taken on 1st April. DFD at start of DMP was 108 months....so only 106 months to go then:rotfl:

On a very positive note I spoke to Hellifax on the phone today who confirmed that as per our request our loan accounts are now with recoveries dept and all interest and charges have ceased:T I sat and thought about this and we had 6 years to go on each loan. My loan is 'frozen' at £11k and DHs is frozen at £19k. So we will be repaying £30k. Had we continued and paid the interest we would have repaid £18.5k on my loan and £31k on DHs loan. Total would have been just under £50k:eek: OMG what were we thinking.......ok, stupid statement....clearly we were not ever THINKING. Thank god for LBMs is all I can say.

It's late, it's 2:30am and I can't sleep. Since LBM this is unusual. I don't know why I can't sleep but I know it's not worrying about debts. I do worry about severe lack of emergency funds (car repairs:eek: dental bills:eek: Very buy now pay later cleared:eek:). I have the opportunity to work some additional hours next month and every extra penny will be going into our emergency fund.

I will try and contact you at least once each week, dear diary - so don't be to despondent if you don't hear from me for a few days On the bright side, if I commit to diary entries once each week, you dear diary, will have a minimum of another 424 entries (106 months x approx 4 weeks each month) - goodness it's late AND I am doing maths!

Night, night everyone:)

January2015

Two diary entries in one night - WOW.

I meant to write, but forgot, that I want to thank everyone who voted for my Lenders Code post for post of the month. I don't think it's been drawn yet, I don't think my post will win - but do you know what I don't mind at all - just knowing that my post helped others in very similar situations to mine has meant the world to me and knowing those folks thought and cared enough to nominate and vote for my post - I am on cloud nine hundred and ninety nine because as a fairly new DFWer it means a lot to me that I was able to give something back to this wonderful forum and the wonderful, non-judgmental people who share freely their advice, knowledge and experience of the DFW world.

Thank you everyone - you know who you are

takingcontrolatlast

Hi January 2015, i have just stumbled across your diary and have starting reading your journey - I wish you both the best of luck and would like to subscribe

January2015

takingcontrolatlast wrote: »

Hi January 2015, i have just stumbled across your diary and have starting reading your journey - I wish you both the best of luck and would like to subscribe

Hi and welcome - it's lovely to have company along our DFW journey:beer:

It's been a really quiet week. Ebay sales have been really good - over £200 so I am really chuffed. And even better, they all being collected so I do not have to package and post anything:T

Ebay funds are going straight into our very depleted emergency fund and I already feel better knowing we have a little bit of a safety net should anything (else) go wrong.

Other than that - I have yet to start my diet. I keep promising I will start tomorrow, but as the title of an old film states "Tomorrow never comes". Seriously, I am determined my diet will start tomorrow. I need to lose humongous amounts of weight. I am carrying the equivalent of another person around and it's neither pretty nor healthy

I have set up the Nintendo Wii and will start 'stepping' on the Wii Fit tomorrow.

Happy Sunday (what's left of it). Hope you are all keeping well and debt busting like mad:beer: