Suicidal - please help me!

chimp_choker

in2deep wrote: »

Chimp how on earth have you cut yours by 95% in 3 years....thats amazing work.

By doing virtually everything that is said on these boards and I mean virtually everything. Sell anything that isn't nailed down, scrimp and save every penny, pick up money off the floor, hassle creditors to the max, constantly change providers for everything and for the last 17k remortgage.....

LandyAndy

in2deep wrote: »

Chimp how on earth have you cut yours by 95% in 3 years....thats amazing work.

:rotfl: I thought I'd done well to get from £75k to £0 in 5 years.

Just goes to show there's always someone smarter than yourself:rotfl: .


Well done Chimp.:beer: :beer: :beer: (not that we're spending our new found wealth on beer.........are we?:D )

chimp_choker

LandyAndy wrote: »

:rotfl: I thought I'd done well to get from £75k to £0 in 5 years.

Just goes to show there's always someone smarter than yourself:rotfl: .


Well done Chimp.:beer: :beer: :beer: (not that we're spending our new found wealth on beer.........are we? )

never had a drink in over 25 years now. Not a recovering alcho or anything, just used to get into a wee bit of trouble now and then shall we say. The only three things smart about me is that I had my lightbulb moment, I learnt to read at school....... that helped me on these boards....and my bum,lol

scrooge2008

Fantastic work chimp choker and LandyAndy. Love your quote from Benjamin Franklin, in2deep.

Sporter, you can do it. I'm turning it into a game, this money saving, and to be honest, it's quite good fun.

Chimp is right, all the tools are here to make a massive dent in any debt in a relatively short period of time.

chimp_choker

scrooge2008 wrote: »

Fantastic work chimp choker and LandyAndy. Love your quote from Benjamin Franklin, in2deep.

Sporter, you can do it. I'm turning it into a game, this money saving, and to be honest, it's quite good fun.

Chimp is right, all the tools are here to make a massive dent in any debt in a relatively short period of time.

Scrooge,

You are so, so, so, so, right about the game. I will miss it but then I could get into trouble again so I can have the game again..... on second thoughts I have plenty of freinds who I can help. I want to pay the last one off but at my lowest suicidal point they [ the creditors] had the power and the upper hand. Through this board, support from fellow strugglers and self belief I turned my problems into a game put simply they [ the creditors ] want my money and I don't want to give it to them.

Keep the chin up sporter and you will triumph in the end.

Bismarck

chimp_choker wrote: »

Scrooge,

You are so, so, so, so, right about the game. I will miss it but then I could get into trouble again so I can have the game again..... on second thoughts I have plenty of freinds who I can help. I want to pay the last one off but at my lowest suicidal point they [ the creditors] had the power and the upper hand. Through this board, support from fellow strugglers and self belief I turned my problems into a game put simply they [ the creditors ] want my money and I don't want to give it to them.

Keep the chin up sporter and you will triumph in the end.

hi chimp choker....I've probably missed this somewhere but when I last saw a load of your posts at Christmas time your debts were a lot higher than they are now...did you do anything special to get them to the level you're at now or was it a gradual slog? either way, well done!

sporter_2

I am so, so, so depressed and angry..........:mad:

I rang M&S and once again after holding for 10 minutes trying to put me through to the collection department, I was told that nothing can be done until my account is in arrears. He said my account was fine....tried to tell him yes it is fine now but not for long........he said I should call back in 2 weeks time......i must let the account get into arrears.:eek:

I then called MBNA............they told me that because I had used the card last week (I took £20 out to buy food shopping) that the card was still in use and they could not help me. I also used the card in May to pay DVLA. They told me I must wait until OCTOBER before they may be able to help me. In the meantime I should try and make minimum payments


What do I do

Please help me


Sporter

chimp_choker

sporter wrote: »

I am so, so, so depressed and angry..........:mad:

I rang M&S and once again after holding for 10 minutes trying to put me through to the collection department, I was told that nothing can be done until my account is in arrears. He said my account was fine....tried to tell him yes it is fine now but not for long........he said I should call back in 2 weeks time......i must let the account get into arrears.:eek:

I then called MBNA............they told me that because I had used the card last week (I took £20 out to buy food shopping) that the card was still in use and they could not help me. I also used the card in May to pay DVLA. They told me I must wait until OCTOBER before they may be able to help me. In the meantime I should try and make minimum payments


What do I do

Please help me


Sporter

make sure you have a fall back fund of £500 + tucked away under the bed in cash then cut up the cards on pay day. Send the cut up cards back to the companies with a letter explaining that you are in financial trouble and can only make a token payment of £5. Also ask them to stop charging interest and charges to help you get sorted.

chimp_choker

Bismarck wrote: »

hi chimp choker....I've probably missed this somewhere but when I last saw a load of your posts at Christmas time your debts were a lot higher than they are now...did you do anything special to get them to the level you're at now or was it a gradual slog? either way, well done!

It's always been a gradual slog but being on a self made dmp with the companies i was able to pay off whatever I had. For example that might be my nominal payment of £50 which was what we agreed but then I might have paid off 10 standing orders totalling say £101.55 or it might be 3 s/o's of £1.34 in total etc. I did try the sealed pot challenge putting all my loose change in a pot but I knew it was there and when I was hungry and couldn't be bothered to cook I would break open the pot and spend it on fish and chips so not only did I lose the money but gained the weight. So each night I'd check what D/D's, S/o's, payments were due out then make a S/O payment to one of the companies. Any copper or £1 coins went into the bank once a week and this was paid off. I started cutting back on the amount of power we use. Washing up in cold water....... try it first before you all shout. It works and it uses less washing up liquid, saves the electric for the boiler pump and also the gas for the heating. I take daily meter readings and recyle the grey water although we are not on a water meter it becomes habit.

Our mortgage fixed rate was up in Feb so we got a new cheaper mortgage so paid off the extra we had each week to the debts and also had 17k left in the re mortg so have used that to the debts. I wanted to buy a car and a holiday but I got a severe butt slapping from my wife.....quite enjoyed it really but she cottoned onto that one.
I've also hassled my creditors for a reduced settlement figure so that chopped off about 15k but things like selling a minging pair of doc martain 30 hole boots to a goth for £80 ( was told you couldn't get 30 hole boots anymore ) selling bits off my old downhill bike, books from my college days, making shopping bags.... that's a money spinner if ever there was one..... Made over £300 profit in one morning at the farmers market. Plus all the other bits on the boards like growing own food, spending little on food, not using car, questioning every penny... even to the extent of reading our local paper in the shop to save 40p and I even haggled for 35 minutes to get 5 p discount on a loaf of bread. Dominic little said it was possible to haggle for anything so I tried it... I reckon the shop keeper did it to get rid of me.

I'm concious that this is sporters thread and i seem to have hijacked it a bit, sorry sporter so if anyone else has questions can you pm me. Once i have paid this last one off i plan to do a post about it all in the near future in the hope of helping others.

sporter_2

£500? Where from?