Tiger's DMP Journey

MovingForwards

Look at the 1p a day savings challenge, it is good fun. Same as the 52 week challenge.

Ive been doing them for a couple of years and it does make a difference as you get into a routine of moving money out when you get paid and paying bills/living on the remainder

DMP_Tiger

I have read through the savings challenges, thank you. I just need to get through a few months of living within my means before I concentrate too much on savings. I know I need an emergency fund but I will be gifted some money next week so that will go straight to the EF.

It's payday today and I have moved the £26.18 I have left over from last month, plus another £150 to savings pots (Christmas, car and holiday £50 each).

Savings fund is now £176.18, I can't remember ever having savings before :j

Just need to get through summer hols without overspending.......

DMP_Tiger

Good morning Diary,

Had a great weekend but VERY expensive Allowed myself £40 and spent £130 :eek:

Need to break the habit of overspending on the first weekend after payday. Before it wasn't a problem because any overspend I could put on the credit card and pretend that I could pay it back :rotfl:

Need to go shopping tonight for food but only need enough until Friday when I take out the next weekly budget money so hopefully will be ok.....

DMP_Tiger

Today I have realized something.

In 1992 At the age of 24, just prior to getting married, my wife and I bought our first house on a 25 year mortgage. We borrowed £38,000. We are still in that house so the mortgage should have been paid off last year at the age of 49.

I will be 51 this year and my mortgage debt is just over £70,000. This is because we have consolidated our debts by remortgaging several times over the years, the last time being in 2015. I have always thought of our mortgage being mostly house purchase and partly debt. But today it has occurred to me that my £70,000 mortgage is 100% debt.

Add that to my unsecured debt of around £35k and that makes a total of £105,000 :eek::eek:

This makes me feel physically sick. That's a lot of overspending

DMP_Tiger

Talking to my wife last night and she is really keen on getting a part time job in September. Even a couple of morning a week will make a huge difference, as long as she doesn't spend it all on clothes, make-up and Prosecco......

Aqua have sent me a text asking me to call them. I don't really want to. Also, Barclays keep leaving voicemail messages asking me to call them. I don't really want to do that either

What I want is for the debts to sort themselves out. These first few months are such a ball ache

I don't think the debts will sort themselves out, I will probably have to sort them out myself. Problem is, now we are budgeting properly and have no CC's or Overdraft, the debts feel like they are in a past life and I don't really want to pay the money back......

DMP_Tiger

So today I have written letters to my 5 creditors with my monthly payment offer. It is very low in comparison to the monthly minimums that I was paying but it's all I've got at the moment so they can't have any more. They shouldn't have been so stupid as to lend it to me in the first place :rotfl:

I don't think my offers will be accepted but from what I've learnt, the best thing is just to pay it anyway...

I feel like I've taken another step further along the road to debt freedom.

Very long road though......

motivated

DMP_Tiger wrote: »

So today I have written letters to my 5 creditors with my monthly payment offer. It is very low in comparison to the monthly minimums that I was paying but it's all I've got at the moment so they can't have any more. They shouldn't have been so stupid as to lend it to me in the first place :rotfl:

I don't think my offers will be accepted but from what I've learnt, the best thing is just to pay it anyway...

I feel like I've taken another step further along the road to debt freedom.

Very long road though......

Hi DMP tiger

Well done for taking the next step too

Did you also send them an I & E with the letters. I did and all our creditors accepted the offers without question. I sent them all the same income and expenditure info along with their letter of monthly payment offer. Each of our creditors could see the amounts the others were getting and how much we owed each one too. We just got replies stating they accept and wanted a review in x amount of time.

Good luck

DMP_Tiger

Yep I sent them all I and E to back up my original letters telling them that I was in financial difficulty.

What I have sent today with the letters is a breakdown of creditors, balances and what I propose to pay each one so that they can see I'm treating them all fairly.

motivated

I would say there won't be an issue with your offers. Once you have had confirmation from each creditor and you set up your standing orders the relief is amazing. Then you can sit back and let the DMP roll whilst you start to enjoy life again
M

DMP_Tiger

Thanks M, that's encouraging. I'm looking forward to being able to let the DMP roll on in the background.