The long haul supporters thread...

chimp_choker

wendy24g wrote: »

Dubgirl why not try saving that amount for a few months to see how doable it is before commitingit to the DMP?

Dub girl,

Do as wendy says and save the money before commiting top the DMP the extra money. I was with the CCCS for a while and they have prescribed expenses that you need to meet. Creditors understand that and leave you alone most of the time, well except the good people at MBNA that is.

If you commit to another £35 a month then the creditors will see this and think you are scamming them and put pressure on you to pay more. The phone calls will start again and the stress will get you down and then the option of giving up really does look viable........ ask one who knows.
It is laudable to want to pay off your debts faster and more power to you for doing so but you are asking for trouble if you "go public " with the extra money.
You say you are sure you could save the extra money each month but what if you can't one month?? A couple of examples for me are these. Car tyres, I am disabled so my lifeline is my car. Without it i'm housebound ( the wife won't buy me a quad bike in place of those old people wheely scooters) so i need the car. We are up to the hilt with our debt repayments which I now manage personally without the CCCS which have risen from £191 to £379 per month because i was honest and told them of the move back into work. When I couldn't do the work and left the job I still had tofind the extra money as they were giving me grief on a dialy basis. To do this other things had to go including food and petrol so not only was I housebound but hungry as well.

Second example was life insurance, couldn't afford the premiums because i was committed to the DMP. We now have no life cover for the mortgage and are in such a postion that we are now paying £5 a month to 14 creditors but we have no back up savings so we never have more than a couple of quid to our name.

If you can save the £35 a month or even more then go for it but put it in papier mache "debt pig" and say nowt to the creditors. That way if you need "tyres" or life insurance or even just a bar of chocolate to cheer yourselves up then you have it and you don't need to go hungry because of your eagernes to pay off your debts. Then at the end of the year you can always make yourself feel good by paying the savings off a CC or whatever but without the pain of the committment.

Look at my sig tag, My debt is without the mortgage and in 2.25 years I've dented it a bit but DFD are only numbers so nothing to beat yourself up about.

Finally, if you really want to cut back and save money do an SOA.... it really does help as there is a wealth of info on this site from people. Look at www.greasypalm.co.uk for money savings. If you use this link below then I'll eventually get £7 but I don't hold my breath. http://www.greasypalm.co.uk/r/?l=958795
Having said that I'm on over £100 so far this month.... free money. I've saved so much by using this site it's unreal and helped me reduce my debt by over £26k in 2.25 years.
As for the OH, do it underhanded ly ( women are good at this I'm... but not as good as me) If they have a favourite brand of coffee buy a cheaper one and put say 5 teaspoons into a new jar and mix it up. gradually increase this until they re drinking cheaper coffee brands. Water milk, fruit juices etc down by 25% so you get 5 pints of milk for the price of 4 ....... and i do it with skimmed milk. If he has hair, tell him that you will buy a pair of sheers / clippers so you can do home hair cuts if he can't help with the budget etc and to finish here's one from my wife. She emptied the washer and there was a pair of new red knickers on the line. I was dismayed at this as we had no money and no food.....( we lived on 4 cups of tea a day for 4 days that week) so I politly asked where they came from. She replied that the new knickers I'd bought her were white and if she wanted a red pair she put them in with a red towel so the colour ran..... She said that she could get at least 5 washes before having to "re do" them. Now when you are as far down as that it helps to be members of this site but save the money just in case.....
Sorry it's a long post.

Chimp

jonnyboy80

Evening all..Good to see how well some of you guys are doing at the moment!! Haven't quite finished my sig for April but hoping to clear £2.5k by the end of the month!!

Tigert

Hi, Can I join?

Just 1 month into a DMP that will last exactly 5 years at current payment levels (though will hopefully get a decent payrise next week thanks to a promotion).

Was just thinking things were getting a bit quieter with the creditors today, But then came home to a small mountain of post :-(

chimp_choker

Tigert wrote: »

Hi, Can I join?

Just 1 month into a DMP that will last exactly 5 years at current payment levels (though will hopefully get a decent payrise next week thanks to a promotion).

Was just thinking things were getting a bit quieter with the creditors today, But then came home to a small mountain of post :-(

Hi Tiger T
Keep the faith, they will eventually sod off into their little corners for at least 6 months so don't give up. Besides if you had no debts to worry about or deal with what on earth would you do ??

Shoesmiths are the ones dealing with my nationwide CCJ and they sent letters today demanding a payment imediatly or they would take me back to court for defaulting on the CCJ.... I love people like this that don'tlook up the case first. In our case we have to pay the payment on or before the 30th of the month. I took immense pleasure, and i mean absolute pleasure in ringing them up and telling them to go forth and multiply...... then I sent an email to ram home the point....

Keeping_Positive

chimp_choker wrote: »

Shoesmiths are the ones dealing with my nationwide CCJ and they sent letters today demanding a payment imediatly or they would take me back to court for defaulting on the CCJ.... I love people like this that don'tlook up the case first. In our case we have to pay the payment on or before the 30th of the month. I took immense pleasure, and i mean absolute pleasure in ringing them up and telling them to go forth and multiply...... then I sent an email to ram home the point....

:rotfl: :T :rotfl:

1_step_closer

Hiya!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while but I completely understand where you are all coming from! we have cut down and cut back and got depressed and waved the plastic......seem familiar?

I think what helped us is the fact we don't HAVE to go out to have a good time. we have friends over or visit friends and as one of us is always driving drink isn't an issue. We cut Sky right back to the basic as there are some programmes I cannot live without lol! and we do treat ourselves every now and then to feel things are worth living. But we are managing so far and my biggest concern was food shopping, I tried too much to live on £100 a month and blew it every time. So I upped it to £150 a month and feel a whole lot better. Got a bit more lee way as some smart price/basic type products just don't do the trick for me!

anyway take care

1 step x

ltm07

1_step_closer wrote: »

Hiya!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while but I completely understand where you are all coming from! we have cut down and cut back and got depressed and waved the plastic......seem familiar?

I think what helped us is the fact we don't HAVE to go out to have a good time. we have friends over or visit friends and as one of us is always driving drink isn't an issue. We cut Sky right back to the basic as there are some programmes I cannot live without lol! and we do treat ourselves every now and then to feel things are worth living. But we are managing so far and my biggest concern was food shopping, I tried too much to live on £100 a month and blew it every time. So I upped it to £150 a month and feel a whole lot better. Got a bit more lee way as some smart price/basic type products just don't do the trick for me! anyway take care

1 step x

You're right about not having to go out to have a good time,we regularly have friends & family come to ours & vice versa. You're also right about some of the basic brands. Most of it is fine but there are some things that we don't like either,so there's no point buying it if you don't enjoy it. We have found Aldi to be our saviour & can honestly say that we enjoy 99% of what we buy from their & it's great for our pockets too! Back later! All the best!!

skibadee

Debts total approx £54,500.....currently in DMP with Payplan....pay £256.76 a month DFD 2026........so stressed only been in plan for 3 months and alreay Citi cards have passed debt to 1st Credit....who won't accept payment offered......and are now threatning a door-step debt collector who will prepare a pre-legal action report and then pass report to their legal dept.....have written to them....as I do not wish to talk to them on phone after last call.......have explained to them that I can not afford to increase payments and they can see this if they look at income and expenditure form from Payplan.....also have a debt with Citi financial..who have not accepted offer either so no prizes for guessing where that will go to.

ltm07

Hi & well done for posting. ISOM should be around later to give you a number. Can't really give you much advice on your situation but it might be worth posting a new thread on here as there are plenty of good people who will be able to advise you. All the best!

In_Search_Of_Me

skibadee (114)

Welcome! Post your SOA on the main boards & people will assist. Have you contacted payplan re the DMP and extra payments asked for? I dont know much about DMP but there is a DMP thread where pepys can offer extra support relating to that! Hang in there!

Hows everyone else doing? I have finally hit the £10,000 barrier which when you take into account that I only started in Apr 06 with a big blip in the middle! isnt bad going with my every day outgoings! Am dead chuffed! Hope the next 10,000 will feel quicker!!