Are we nearly there yet?

Pauper1

We've had such a lovely, slow day today. Again, DS has watched a lot of telly but his cough has come back so keeping him still has been a bit of a priority. I've kept us washed, fed and clean, and that's about it.

I have managed to work towards my December goals though, as I made an extra portion of pasta at lunch, which I will freeze for DH's lunches. He's definitely getting better at taking things to work, but if I have a secret stash of emergency lunches for days when he's "forgotten" then I can pre-empt his laziness. It's also just DS and I for tea, so I chucked a load of stuff in the slow cooker. I've made a huge amount so hopefully I'll get a couple of lunches from that too.

I signed up for YNAB today. I wanted to do it ages ago but didn't want to pay. I found out earlier that they do a year's trial for students, so I whizzed off to do that.

DebtFreeDuo

Of course yes you won't be a first time buyer! I'm not sure if you could still open one though and just not claim the government bonus, I say this because they are one of the best interest rate savers I have found but there could be other regular saving accounts that are equally as good.

Lauralozzle

Popping in to subscribe.

You look like you’re doing well and are focussed at making things better and sorting the debt.

Pauper1

YNAB is confusing me slightly, but I think it's mostly because of how I usually keep track of my budget. We use credit cards for groceries and petrol, and have two separate bank accounts that we transfer our budget for these to each month. Then as soon as we have spent the money on the card we transfer that amount from the relevant account to a different account called 'money for credit cards'. That way we know the credit card bills are covered, and how much budget is left per category. (I'm aware I have a ridiculous amount of accounts but I honestly find it easiest this way) Anyway, I'll get my head round it I'm sure.

I had to buy a new phone today so we went to our local trade in place cos the man who runs it is so helpful. He gave us a discount so I could stick to my budget. Although to be fair I don't think I've ever paid full price for anything in there! I was a bit gutted to be moving more money from the emergency fund but DH said it could be my Xmas present from him, and I planned to adjust the standing order to put the money back in over the year. When we got home, he'd had a letter advising of a tax rebate, so that's covered! Plus my slight overspend that I mentioned the other day. Phew.

I've also added another emergency DH lunch to the freezer as I made extra lasagne tonight. I was also sneaky and dished up slightly less than usual to DH (who always asks if there's any left, as he knows I tend to make some to freeze) so when he wanted more, I still had my portion to freeze! Win.

Is anyone else having any problems with PA by the way? It loads the website but when I click on log in, it never loads

DebtFreeDuo

PA is working for me. Well done on paying for your phone up front, it sounds like you have it all covered.

HairyHandofDartmoor

It's great that two of your creditors have accepted you settlement offers :T. What percentage have you offered them?

It is important to keep track of the little spends as they add up to a lot of money :eek:. I try and write on my DFW diary how much I spend each day to help me keep track. Also DH and I don't have any credit cards and we try to use mainly cash which helps to keep down our spending.

Pauper1

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

It's great that two of your creditors have accepted you settlement offers :T. What percentage have you offered them?

It is important to keep track of the little spends as they add up to a lot of money :eek:. I try and write on my DFW diary how much I spend each day to help me keep track. Also DH and I don't have any credit cards and we try to use mainly cash which helps to keep down our spending.

They've accepted 58% which the debt advisor said was quite low and did say that they wouldn't expect all of them to accept it. Most have come back with counter offers of around 80%. The biggest debt has asked for evidence of where the money has come from, so hopefully they're only doing that because they are seriously considering accepting the offer.

I definitely do need to keep a record of what we are spending. I think I managed to yesterday, and today should be low/no spend.

Lauralozzle

Good job on the sneaky lasagne portions. The things we have to do to get bits in the freezer. Might have to think of that myself.

Yey! Tax rebate. Things are looking on the up.

Keeping a record of what we spend is really important and is my biggest downfall.

I hope you can get good settlement offers with the others debtors - 58% is amazing!

HairyHandofDartmoor

Asking where the money has come from is a good sign. Lots of our creditors asked questions before they said yes. They all wanted to know where the money had come from and they all wanted to know that we had offered all of our creditors the same percentage.

One of them said no, asked a couple of questions on the phone and then said yes. Another said no, asked for medical evidence, and once they got that wanted copies of acceptance letters from our other creditors, and finally said yes :T.

The longer it will take to pay the debts off through a DMP, the more likely they are to say yes. It is a bit of a stressful process, I found it stressful anyway, but definitely worth it in the end. Good luck .

Pauper1

LauraLozzle 58% *is* really good I know, but some of them we've been paying for years (probably at least 5 years for most of them, longer for others) so had already managed to pay about 30%. With the 58% settlement they'd have received around 71% of the total debt.

Plus a few of them have added on such huge amounts of interests and charges over the years so I've no doubt that they would actually be getting 100% of what we originally borrowed anyway. Haha. Sorry, that turned in to a bit of a rant!

HairyHandOfDartmoor The letter that Stepchange sent to them all showed the breakdown and the medical stuff, so hopefully that bit is covered. But I am taking them asking for more info as a good sign! Our DMP is currently due to take 45 years I believe and one of the creditors that said an outright no is literally getting pence a month for a £50 debt...

How strange that one of yours wanted proof that others had accepted - I can't see the reasoning behind that one really!