Searching for a Debt Free Happy ever after

Floss

Also consider speaking to your children's school - a lot of families will not be able to put their hands on £60 at short notice for things like trips & hoodie. When I was a single mum to 2 teenagers 20 years ago, their school were happy to take payments over a couple of months and they also subsidised some GCSE trips meaning I didn't pay full cost.

EssexHebridean

I'd say definitely get your SOA put together and posted - things shouldn't be as stretched as it sounds like they are - and my thinking is that if there are certain areas which aren't currently covered as well as they should be in your budget there may also be areas that could in fact still be tweaked to make relatively pain-free savings that you're not seeing at the moment - sometimes seeing the wood from the trees can be tricky and more sets of eyes can really help!

I'd personally be in favour of telling Stepchange you need to stop payments altogether for a few months while you reset, get the loan to your friend paid back and start to work through and live with a revised budget,  then when you are ready to go back to them you can do so with a fresh start, and emergency fund and lowered payments if needed. 

I'm not quite clear whether the debts have all defaulted yet - and so interest has stopped? That would make a difference to what would be your best route to move forwards, I think. 

Winkflower

So I'm back after a year to update, share progress  and make use of a sounding board and be accountable.

Last year we were a year into pur joint dmp fling from 42k to 35k in a year. We have 3 children. The dmp was feeling very unmanageable and I was losing a lot of sleep 

I took the good advice on here, we had  a month break from stepchamge and red I'd our budget and went from 600 to 410 per month.

Which means we are now 2 years in and at approx 28k of the original 42k.

It feels a slow but I've learnt so much on here.

On another diary I learnt about getting money back fir student loan contributions in years you haven't reached the tax bracket fir them. Obviously this goes back on the loan buy was stunned to get 1100 back in my bank account.

I've also made some progress in that I always let my car insurance renew automatically, silly I know but Ibe8ng a busy mum of 3 working was always an excuse I gave myself. Anyway our premiums for mullti car with 2 cars went from £80pcm to £97pcm last year but thr renewal was jumping to £127pcm! Silly me, I didn't have my no claims protection either. I've now shopped around and is now £63pcm!  I wish I'd shopped around sooner!

I've also decided to gey contents insurance and although an additional expense it's something we should have had long go and feel like I have potentially git a bargain plus cashback through topcashback.

The dmp feels like it is going on forever and thst the costs ate getting higher and higher but I've been through all rhe dds and cut as much as I can.

Our tumble drier broke and we got an airfryer earlier on in the year. I've been really lax at giving meter readings, must do better but was anxious about giving a reading. I put a reading in and now £200 in credit! So I've requested that back too.



We still find things really tight month to month and I'm constantly praying our old cars don't break down but jogging along. I do wish we had built up.an emergency fund and missed payments and got defaults before starting our dmp but you live and learn!

We borrowed 1k off a friend and 500 from family in the last year but have paid both back which feels good.

I'm also on a bulk buy mission at the moment to save money. I've started with toilet roll,washing tab and bubble bath. Oh and kitchen roll. 

Happy weekend all,
Thanks if you read this far. 
We've got this

Wink

PM22

It's great to hear from you and great to hear the progress you are making x 

Winkflower

So we started pur dmp Feb 2022 with just shy of £42k.of debt.
This jusr feels like the most never ending dmp but sticking with it, currently repaying just under £500 per month and debt stands at £25,400.
I'm really annoyed with myself we didn't find this site before we found step change and didn't default and build an emergency fund. I so wish we had. 
Just worked out that we've paid off 38.5% of the debt off with 61.5 percent to go.
That doesn't feel great when we've been doing this for 3 years, looks like another 5 to go.
It also feels like january 68th, as fell into the got paid early  in Dec, used it to buy children's Christmas presents, now have to make it through another 10 days trap...
On the plus side in years gone by we would have used ccs and had interest added and debts forever looming and it feels good we aren't adding to debt but are chipping away at it.
How I wish we had the extra £500 each month though!!
I'm really really going t otrt and put some money away for birthdays and Xmas this year..it's just really hard when there's always too much month left at the end of the money 
Wishing everyone a good week.
W xx

Winkflower

im finding this helpful as a visual for percentage of debt paid. Its just helping me to colour it in and see progress.

ManyWays

.it's just really hard when there's always too much month left at the end of the money 
If your StepChange budget is right, there shouldnt be.
Think of all the expenses lines, some are regular every month like council tax, rent, broadband etc. Some are pretty regular every month like groceries and petrol and pocket money. 
The rest are either annual bills (car insurance, Xmas), or general provisions that you dont spend the same amount on every month (holidays, entertainment, haircuts, clothes).  These you need to get savings pots for, Monzo, Chase and Starling all allow you to have named savings pots or you can literally use an envelope for each if your are happy with a lot of cash in the house. So if your clothes amount one month is £80 and you spend £30, you put the other £50 aside so it's there when the kids shoot straight through to the next size up in everything. You dont think, oh this month is going well, lets go out for brunch, that is the clothes monthey you are spending and this month hasn't gone particularly well. 

Have you looked at whether your DMP can be speeded up? Have any of your debts been sold to debt collectors? 

Winkflower

The trouble is that I created pots on starling for birthdays, Xmas etc and then put the money in and then by week 3 of the month need it for food and day to day expenses and ti's gone again. So am never able to get into a position where I save it as there's not enough to save.
We don't have takeaways or trips or spend much in clothes at all or presents. There just always seems to be something like a birthday or mot or appliance breaking or tyre. I'd love to have those pots it's just finding a way of getting money in them and not needing it to be able.to use it for those things rather than chasing our tails.
There are 4 with link, 1 with moorcroft.
Thanks for reading and your comment:)

RAS

We really need to see your SOA to comment properly. Are you sure that you've actually got enough money to be repaying debts?

It may also be better to have one pot for all the motoring, birthday, replacement stuff to start with.

Grumpelstiltskin

Winkflower said:

The trouble is that I created pots on starling for birthdays, Xmas etc and then put the money in and then by week 3 of the month need it for food and day to day expenses and ti's gone again. So am never able to get into a position where I save it as there's not enough to save.
We don't have takeaways or trips or spend much in clothes at all or presents. There just always seems to be something like a birthday or mot or appliance breaking or tyre. I'd love to have those pots it's just finding a way of getting money in them and not needing it to be able.to use it for those things rather than chasing our tails.
There are 4 with link, 1 with moorcroft.
Thanks for reading and your comment:)

OK So as Many Ways says your  Stepchange budget is not correct, you should have enough in your budget to cover things ie birthdays and you should have saved enough in an emergency fund before you started your DMP.

What to do, hold off for a few months, save for an emergency fund and redo your budget to cover emergencies etc.
OK it ay make your debt free day further away but life should be a little easier