Single Mum - Struggling to get realistic SOA

MikeJXE

Haha a normal kid ? She's a teenage girl and cannot be on the phone tooooooo looooooog 

Pre_Approved_Junkie

enthusiasticsaver said:

Pre_Approved_Junkie said:

Yeah, they will both be locked to EE, but I did see a section on the EE website on how to unlock your phone so if they don't charge for that, I wil do that. If they do, I'll just get sim budles for PAYG.

I have another question about the DMP. If I'm putting the payments I'm not making into an Emergency fund, won't Stepchange see that and say it will have to be used for debt payments? Is there a min/max amount for the EF?

I don't think they normally question you as to that although no doubt they will ask if you have savings.  Worth asking on the DMP thread but if you go through your soa with them shortly the EF won't have had time to build up anyway.  You are allowed a reasonable EF as you will not have access to credit but as to whether there is a limit I don't know.  It is likely to be thousands rather than a few hundred.

Thats great, thanks! This is all so new to me. I didn't mean to post this thread in the diary bit either. I thought it was in the Debt Free wannabe main forum, but first thread, saw the create post button and just pressed it. I'll look for that DMP thread in a bit.

Pre_Approved_Junkie

MikeJXE said:

Haha a normal kid ? She's a teenage girl and cannot be on the phone tooooooo looooooog 

  You know what I mean. KIds these days have a totally different way of passing time than what I did.

KxMx

Now you've done a SOA, it can be a useful next step to keep a spending diary, of every penny whether that is cash, card, DD payment etc, for at least several weeks. 

It highlights exactly where your money is going, as opposed to where you think it is going. 

Try not to feel too horrified (I was with mine!) as it is firstly a learning opportunity, before you later work on being more mindful about spending. 

Pre_Approved_Junkie

KxMx said:

Now you've done a SOA, it can be a useful next step to keep a spending diary, of every penny whether that is cash, card, DD payment etc, for at least several weeks. 

It highlights exactly where your money is going, as opposed to where you think it is going. 

Try not to feel too horrified (I was with mine!) as it is firstly a learning opportunity, before you later work on being more mindful about spending. 

I did try last night to start an excel sheet, but I HATE excel so gave up My local hardware shop may have a physical diary if I look tomorrow. Thanks!

MikeJXE

Excel has a family budget template you just fill in the blanks, the more you use it the more experienced you get 

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MikeJXE said:

Excel has a family budget template you just fill in the blanks, the more you use it the more experienced you get 

Good Lord. You people are SO valuable! Where have you been all my life! Thank you Mike!

savergrant

" Thats really helpful. Thanks. I think I'm going to give the rgwmobile a go. As for my daughter, if she exceeds the 5gb, then tough as it means she's been on the phone too long instead"

My sister was about that age when our mum left and dad was finding it tough. I remember him saying he'd decided to have the phone disconnected. We hardly used it but it had a big impact on my sister and she worried things were going to get worse.

5gb is about right for your daughter's usage but the lebara deal is 3gb and she would need to cut back or be smarter with her usage (often we can usage wifi in public places but don't look for it). If she is already making sacrifices cutting down on her phone use might be an extra one which actually makes little difference.

Actually the Feb offer from rwg means after you pay the first month you get credit which CAN pay the next couple of months (although you may need to be savvy and stop it aitorenewing from your bank account then buy the bundle again using your credit).

savergrant

If you are not going to make your monthly payments to ee I would suggest you get advice from a debt counselling service before the next payment is due. Even if you don't want to keep your numbers (and there may be good reason not to) you may be better off letting ee know that you are no longer using their services. If you text pac to 65075 from each phone ee will calculate the cost of cancelling the contract, this is likely to be cheaper than waiting for them to disconnect your services on the grounds of defaulted payment. Normally you would be expected to pay the sum due straightaway, but if you have a dmp then I understand it will be added to the debts you cannot afford to repay. Your contract with ee will only end when another provider requests the transfer of the number, or ee disconnect the service for non-payment.

With luck the amount you will need to pay ee each month will then be less than you have been paying so far. But you really don't want to be paying for another mobile service while you are still connected to ee. What you could do is order a couple of lyca sims ready to put in your phones in case ee disconnect you, they cost 1p per month for 6 months and give you 3gb (the offer changed on 2nd feb). You pay 1p each but the 30 days only start when you put them in the phones. You will then be charged 1p each 30 days for the next five months, then you can keep paying £4.75 per month or move to another network. Runs on o2 network, check your postcode for signal strength.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/sim-only/lycamobile/

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/coverage-checker/

Pre_Approved_Junkie

savergrant said:

If you are not going to make your monthly payments to ee I would suggest you get advice from a debt counselling service before the next payment is due. Even if you don't want to keep your numbers (and there may be good reason not to) you may be better off letting ee know that you are no longer using their services. If you text pac to 65075 from each phone ee will calculate the cost of cancelling the contract, this is likely to be cheaper than waiting for them to disconnect your services on the grounds of defaulted payment. Normally you would be expected to pay the sum due straightaway, but if you have a dmp then I understand it will be added to the debts you cannot afford to repay. Your contract with ee will only end when another provider requests the transfer of the number, or ee disconnect the service for non-payment.

With luck the amount you will need to pay ee each month will then be less than you have been paying so far. But you really don't want to be paying for another mobile service while you are still connected to ee. What you could do is order a couple of lyca sims ready to put in your phones in case ee disconnect you, they cost 1p per month for 6 months and give you 3gb (the offer changed on 2nd feb). You pay 1p each but the 30 days only start when you put them in the phones. You will then be charged 1p each 30 days for the next five months, then you can keep paying £4.75 per month or move to another network. Runs on o2 network, check your postcode for signal strength.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/sim-only/lycamobile/

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/coverage-checker/

So if I send the pac text, does that automatically trigger it to be disconnected or is that just a Standard  information text?