My DMP diary - 2026 (year 1)

Dakota_Rose

Great picture! This is one of our catchphrases at work and keeps us going in the tough moments (which is most of the time) 😂

Enjoy the new socks! Every time you look at them, you can think ‘Ooh look at my free socks’.

ArtyJ931

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81957071#Comment_81957071

and I will! Haha

ArtyJ931

Voucher used for shiny new socks - £2 left went towards new pants. I'm truly living my best life.

In other news I've cycled a 12 mile round trip for aforementioned pants n socks so that was good exercise and the weather was beaut and cost me £0 in fuel costs.

Extra money saving wonders - arrived home to find a house down the road has a skip outside full of beautiful Victorian bricks which I have spent the last hour or so reclaiming. I had been looking at them online as I need a load for the garden and am thrilled to have been handed them on a plate. My hips and thighs are somewhat less pleased.

Re DMP: Checked the new email which was created specifically for the purpose of the DMP - for all loans/ cc and nothing much in there other than an 'oh dear you haven't paid your loan' email from tesco. Also sent off the bank statements that I have (I don't have all that they requested) back to tesco in reply to their request as part of the investigation into my affordability complaint. Updated my DMP spreadsheet accordingly.

My plan is to check the email address every week or so as the main thing is going to come through the post (default notice).

ArtyJ931

16yo car scraped through its MOT yesterday with a small fail, readjustment and then scraped a pass but with an urgent advisory. Actually had money in the “car” pot to pay for it!!

However as it’s only month 2 of all this pots business and being able to put money aside I don’t know how the pot will hold up to sorting out the urgent advisory (brakes). I only have £60 left after paying for the MOT. If it’s more it will have to come out of the emergency fund (exciting that I have the option to dip into an emergency fund!!)

ArtyJ931

Various calamaties later - it has cost me over £300 to sort out the advisories. I only had £60 left in the car pot so the rest had to come out of the emergency fund. I suppose that is what it's for but felt a bit annoyed that I've already had to dip into it in month 2. C'est la vie.

Did my weekly check on the email account I set up for debts and had an email regarding one of my affordability complaints - my zillions of questions around this can be found on a seperate thread :

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6662145/when-to-make-affordability-complaints-in-the-dmp-process

Paid myself my weekly spends out of my groceries/petrol/entertainment/etc pot. Financially everything is going well and I'm not in any bother as general spending is accounted for and various pots are building up. This is obviously because I've stopped paying my debts and so I can afford to… live. Shocking, I know.

A stressful week at work and I'm very busy so the weekend is incredibly welcome. It will be a low key one which I am thrilled about.

1 missed call this week from an unknown number… is it a spam call or one of the banks/companies calling about a missed payment? No idea as they didn't leave a message. All calls from unknown numbers go into a seperate folder and I don't get notified of them. I am checking on the missed calls situation every week but not sure why. Doesn't really matter.

ArtyJ931

£200 received from a bank switch today and that has gone into a “house” pot as I have so much work at home that needs doing. Considering looking into another one as it seems like easy money to top up a pot or two.

Re: the affordability complaints question above I had about how to respond to an email back from a cc provider - I also asked debt camel and she said to ignore them. So I will!

ArtyJ931

Update - week 5

• 0 letters this week
• A few emails about missed payments
• A few texts about missed payments - my phone isn't good at screening texts.. either that or they use different numbers to keep contacting you. Contemplating getting a new number as I am on a rolling sim only contract so it would be no great shakes.
• Another email about my affordability complaint asking for the same thing I had decided to ignore last week. Ignoring it again this week.

Nothing else happened yet. Looking forward to payday next week to tuck former debt repayment money into the emergency fund.

It was all adrenaline for the first few weeks and now it's just slightly unnerving…

MillQueen

Just popping in to tell you that you are doing good and tackling all this with courage. You're being really organised with the email address and keeping things boundaried with the pots (they bring such joy don't they when there's actually money to pay for things that last month's version of you set aside).

Maybe you will make a gradual adjustment to this new normal and grow to enjoy the peace?

ArtyJ931

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81976862#Comment_81976862

thank you 😊

ArtyJ931

So today one of my affordability complaints (the largest) for 4 loans plus one cc has come back as a no from the provider.

I have sent the complaint to the financial ombudsman which felt very nerve wracking.

They say they will reply in 7 days to let me know if they will look at my complaint.

This complaint being upheld would shave a significant amount off my outstanding debt so I have everything crossed.

I also got a letter from my mortgage company saying my fixed rate is ending and I haven’t got a new fixed rate so my new mortgage payment will be £1100 ish. Currently £697. Nearly had a heart attack as I rolled onto a new deal as far as I knew at the beginning of March. Called in a panic and it was auto generated and I have already secured a new deal at about £100 per month less than I could secure now so that was a RELIEF.