The long haul supporters thread...

thevinternet

Again, no DMP for me, I am going "solo" on my debts, well I would be if it wasn't for all the help on here!

Some great suggestions from ISOM there, also I would suggest cancelling gyms (use a bike or buy a couple of cheap exercise dvds from ebay instead), sky membership or any other non-essentials.

If you have ever paid PPI on a loan or CC, claim it back.

As regards food, BOGOF deals and batch-cooking are your friends, and always take lunch to work.

They seem like big sacrifices to begin with, but after a while, it'll seem 'normal' to you and you'll wonder why on earth you used to waste all that money!

julie2011

Hello

Thankyou all so much you have given me hope. I really dont want to do the DMP so will be looking for help from you all in finding ways to reduce the payments. My problem happened when i transfered a couple of credit cards onto 0% but then the 0% ran out and am now stuck with masive interest rates. i cant transfer them to a better interest rate which is life of the balance because i have so much on the cards no one will offer me a card with the amount i need. i already have 4 credit cards.

i spend £150 a month on food then a bit more each week, think i need to sort that side of things out!!.

As for other little bits, i dont really treat myself at all, dont buy clothes unless i have to, dont drink or go out, havent been to the cinema since king kong came out. The only thing i pay for each month is £10 a month for Anscestry.co.uk, love a bit of family history.

In_Search_Of_Me

Well took my own advice and went back to basics and added cc's up...suffice to say :eek:. Time to knuckle down Thankfully all Christmas presents are done and cupboards and freezer are full so will be ok. Christmas meal etc all paid for so thats good. Only problem is we are away at Christmas (Italy to stay with best mate) and there are things like cattery to pay for but I will soon get settlement for car accident which will take it down a fair but buy my main aim is to pay more than the mins which Ive not done for a while; partly due to circumstances but I also got out of the habit...so for me short term goals are to plan more re cooking/lunches etc, chase up appointment with podiatry (having to pay to park closer to office) and be refreshed and ready to go for it in Jan but not go potty meanwhile plus ask "need or want" and say no to the wants....Soup is cooking as I type lol!

Julie think it would be really good for you to do a spending diary and maybe think about the grocery budget (there is a challenge on old style)...Does oh live with you? Just wondering if you have looked at this jointly? Can totally understand that you dont want to do a DMP - I was the same and CCCS told me to make token payments at the start which sacred the +rap out of me!!

lauradora

hello everyone :hello:

havent seen you all in a while xxxx

Im still here.....still paying!!!!!

Doing a new SOA ready for the new year :j:j

In_Search_Of_Me

Hello Laura...long time no see!
Have decided on a new strategy for paying my cc;s down and am going to do it 1000 at a time rather than looking at the whole amount as its always been overwhelming...Im also going to log how much interest I pay on then each month and hope that this will be a help...have broken into the paper mache piggy and there was 50.41 in it which will go off the highest cc plus decided to sell my spinning wheel; much as I love it she is gathering dust, taking up nonexistent space and could fetch a bit! Fingers crossed...off to list her!

millionaire_in_training

ISOM I've been doing the interest thing for a few months now ( see siggy) and I am now finiding it motivating as it has started to go down quite a bit. Unfortunately will go back up this month as I have added just over £1k onto my high interest card. Not going to let it worry me too much as I am going to hammer it down as soon as Christmas is over and I know I can do it. I like seeing the interest going down though as that money should be mine

recurrent-ostrich

Does anyone plan for after they're debt free? Have spent ages today dreaming about how we'll be able to do the house up a bit and then move to a bigger house after we're debt free, which I suppose it a bit silly when we've only just started our journey, have nearly 50 grand of debt and will be paying it off for years yet, but it's nice to be able to think beyond the next umpteen years of scrimping and saving every penny to clear debts!

Jenjen

Hi, Please can I join you in here?

We are just setting up a DMP with CCCS to pay off around £28k of debt and also have about 8k of family debt to pay off.

DMP is being set up to run for over 16 years to start with but we would really like to be debt free in 5-6 years. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

I think we mainly need to earn more rather than cutting spending. DH has 2 job interviews for more money and a smaller comute than he currently has next week so thats a good start. I'm self employed and business is starting to go well so I'm hoping my income will start to make a good contribution. Failing that I will get a job in September when DD starts school.

Jenny

nomorespending

number 288 checking in... Have had a mixed weekend in relation to clearing debt - in one way i did really well yesterday and decided to drive me and OH to works do to keep spending down - we went for a meal and drinks and I have budgeted £50 for the night. The meal was really good value so I only ended up spending £20 so was please with that.
However OH wanted a roast dinner today as he was hung over, so having planned not to do any shopping I had to go and pick up veg etc, which ended up costng me £30 !! ( it included a big gammon whcih was £10 but will use it for tea tomorrow night and it can go in the egg loaf i'm making as my slimming world lunches. ) I had planned not to buy any more shopping at all so a bit gutted about that but on the up side, i would hav had to get some shopping n on wendesday and i shouldn't nee to now. I have also spent money on clothes... oh no!!! I have lost some weight and my workl clothes are a size too big, it sounds stupid but my suits just look ridiculous, so I have bought 3 seocnd hand suits on ebay. This has totally 31 pounds, but i had over a hundred poinds in my paypal account from ebay sales last week so its not come out of my bank account. I have transferre £50 into my bank from paypal so that should help me last withouth goign overdrawn before payday.
I'm going to go off now and read some of the money saving threads....will check in again tomorrow.. keep me on track! ohh i will also report in whether I actually complete my mileage form for work which will come through in January if I process it this week - jsut have to make myself do it!!

dark^knight

recurrent-ostrich wrote: »

Does anyone plan for after they're debt free? Have spent ages today dreaming about how we'll be able to do the house up a bit and then move to a bigger house after we're debt free, which I suppose it a bit silly when we've only just started our journey, have nearly 50 grand of debt and will be paying it off for years yet, but it's nice to be able to think beyond the next umpteen years of scrimping and saving every penny to clear debts!

There is nothing wrong with this. In fact, this should be a motivation during the tough times to remind yourself why are going through the pain and to not give up.

We've all been through this journey, and at times it is tough, but at the end it is definitely worth it.

I hope you get there and realise your dreams very soon, Good luck.