Newlifeahead - Debt Diary

LilDevil

Firstly well done on clearing so much debt, you must be so proud of yourself.

I would recommend getting fruit/veg from your local greengrocer or farmers market, it saves a huge amount of money - I can usually get £40 worth of stuff for about £15!!

newlifeahead

I have just spoken to Npower and arranged to make monthly payments of £138 to clear the debt and for future payments. This seems very high but I hope to clear the outstanding debt once my car payment has finished and arrange to get the monthly payment reduced. I am sure my next bill will be much less because I have hardly had the heating on. My son complained again that it was really cold this morning, but it will just have to be that way for sometime until I can get it under control.

Hi, loopylu36,
Thanks for your comment. A cca is a the Consumer Credit agreement you sign when you take out a loan or credit card. I had found out about it on the consumeractiongroup website. Most of my debts were passed to debt collectors. I had sent them a requested for the credit agreement I had signed when given the credit cards. There was a fee of only £1 for this. They then have a certain amount of time to send it to you. Two of the debt collection agencies didn't have it. The credit card compaines also didn't keep it and so they wrote to say they would write the debt off because they couldn't enforce the debt without it. It doesn't work all the time because a few creditors had the agreements and so I continue to pay them what I can through Payplan.

I had to include all my debts in the dmp. The only thing that wasn't included was the hire purchase on my car. I think this is because the company would take the car away if I couldn't pay it.
I have to say now 2yrs down the line I am glad that I included all the debts in the plan. I too thought I would be able to include a few and keep paying the rest but I now see I wouldn't have been able to manage the repayments. Payplan say that you cannot favour any creditor over the others and this is why they may have said to you that you cannot leave any out.

They also helped by getting the creditors to stop the interest payments which of course is a big help. I don't think I would have been able to do that if I had asked the companies myself. I would have paid 2 of my loans off by now if I continued with the monthly repayments but I hope to save a lump sum and offer them a reduced settlement figure on the amount owing.

Good luck to you I hope you decide on what you would prefer to do. Think about if something happens eg big money expense would you be able to cope with it. For me I couldn't even afford a £20 expense as I had used up all my savings and had nothing left. Things can change, please make sure you have enough left for you to live on as I know how stressful things can get.

Been there and I refuse to go back.....

Thanks LilDevil - I will be seeking out the marketplace. I must say I never go to the market but I also remember when I was younger going to the market with my mom. She did get a lot of fruit and veg. I think there was more to choose from. I am going to try and see it as a challenge and something fun than a chore. I hope this works..

alcol

Hi NLA

Wow! I can't believe how well you've done, you really are an inspiration.

I'm trying to cut my shopping bills and am doing quite well but I know I could do much better.

I did most of my shopping at Tesco for the points (getting an almost free holiday out of it this year), but I've decided that the money saved by shopping at Aldi / Farmfoods would far outweigh the points.

I went to Farmfoods yesterday and spent 46.94 (after using my £5 voucher). I've just done a comparison on Mysupermarket.com and the best price it came up with was £84.30 - almost double!:eek:

My freezer is bursting at the seams - I even had to take out some things to defrost cos there just wasn't room to fit it all. I didn't just get frozen food but cupboard food and tea, coffee, biscuits, etc.

I just need to buy fresh things like bread, milk, potatoes, etc from the local shop.

Give it a try you'll save loads.

Good luck & keep trying.

Al

loopylu36

Thanks NLA

It certainly seems worthwhile asking for the CCA's. Whilst i want to be responsible in paying my debt back, if the loan company's don't keep their paperwork up to date, that's their problem isn't it? And most of them have had so many thousands out of me over the years, I won;t lose any sleep over one or two them not getting their money back.

I do want to do a DMP - I just keep waivering depending on whose posts i read! If they are success stories for DMP's i say "right i'm doing it" then i read someone else's nightmare experience and think "no i can't do it!"

I know tho that I don't really have a choice, so maybe I should just stay away from the boards for a few days until I have actually set the DMP up - just need to send statements and agreement back to CCCS.

Thanks for your help

newlifeahead

I can't wait for this week to end. I can't belive I am ending this week on a low note. I was feeling so positive.
I had been so good managing my debts and for some reason it all went wrong.
I took the kids to the cinema. This was the first treat in about 2 years. I also took my younger brother and sister. For a start it cost £22 for the tickets, £19 for the popcorn and drinks. OMG then I had a parking notice on my car. So I am now waiting on the £45 parking fine:mad: . This was a free car park which was full. I parked at the side as there were no spaces and I didn't want to park in one of the disabled spaces. Other cars were parked the same and no one was blocking any cars in or causing any obstruction. This was at 19:45. Total cost for going to the cinema was £86 :eek: . Now it looks like I will not be going out for another 3 years.

2nd problem. I thought I managed to get away with being overdrawn. Long story, but I found out yesterday that Smile bank had not paid my direct debt of £19 because it would have made me £8 overdrawn. When I checked my account that morning the balance did not reflect this and my account looked as though it had cleared. But I checked on Saturday morning to find that the direct debit had changed to failed and then they applied the £30 fee which then made me £19 overdrawn. I will also get charged £5 per a day for being over my overdraft so this will be another £10 as I get paid on Monday.
So for the £8 I have been charged £40 which is twice the amount of the original direct debit. The thing that makes me so bad is I tried to sort it out the day before and If I knew at the time that this would happen I would have paid in £8 into the account. What was the point in trying to sort this out before it happend. I will be calling them monday morning that's for sure. I am praying that they will refund me the £30 but I doubt it. I have been running my account smoothly for the past 18months but I bet that will not count for nothing.

Total cost for 5 days is £126 . This will never happen again I will make sure of it.

Last and final thing. Hasn't got anything to do with money but I have found out today that my ex had his new girlfriend over to say on Saturday night while the kids were there. I don't have a problem with whoever she is but the fact that he allowed her to stay there overnight when my kids age 6yrs and 3yrs was there makes me feel sick. He has always pointed out that he doesn't want me to have a new partner around my kids (I don't have one anyway) and it is something that I wouldn't want to do at this early stage as we have recently split up but he asked me to get back with him a few weeks ago. I almost fell for it. What a creep. We had been together for 9years. What a waste of my time. Love really is blind.
I just can't wait for a new week. I am trying to keep it together right now without screaming.

A new week, a little less debt and no controling bloke :beer:

newlifeahead

Wow, there is a God.

I am on a high again. I called Smile internet bank this morning to speak about the direct debit charges and how I tried to resolve it by contacting them first and they are going to reverse the £40 charge on my account.
I didn't have to argue and I was very calm. The lady was very nice and she just said she would refund me and I hadn't got round to asking her yet.

Felt more positive after that phone call. Then went to withdrawn my shopping money for this week and my petrol money. Then went to buy £20 of Bio-diesel. This was £1 a litre instead of the £1.18 I pay at the local Tesco petrol station. Not a great deal of saving at first but I am sure it will all add up quite quickly.

I will do my meal plan for this week and try not to purchase things I don't need. I am planning to only use the cash for shopping instead of using my debit card. If I have anything left over I will save it for emergencies use only.

Not long left now. Less then 24 hours to last car payment, then I can remove one rope from around my neck after 5years of having it there.:D

Verbatim

great news that the last car payment is nearly done. And well done on the refund.

newlifeahead

Yes I have finally made it. :j :j :j :j :j

I have checked my bank account online and my last car payment has gone through. I thought it would be for £203.74 but it was £213.74. I had been paying £174.74 for the last 5years.

I took the kids to Nursey and out of school club this morning and I couldn't help repeating to myself that the car is now all mine and no one can take it away from me. I can't belive that I now own a car with no finance attached to it.
I would really like them to send me a certificate or something to say that I am free. (I know that sounds really sad.):o

It will be a few months before I can see the benefit of not making this payment as I now need to clear my gas/electricty bill £435.48 - storecard £195.57 and then my overdraft £500.

I think I need to put in for a lot of overtime if I want to clear this lot quickly.

Verbatim

Congratulations.

Car Owner!!

You'll soon have the other stuff done and dusted.

peb

HIya; only thing that came to mind was hte about of your energy bills -are these estimated or real? I ask coz I get bills up to £100/200 every so often but when the meter is read the next bill is usually £3/5! Do read your meter to check.

Congratulatoins on the car - life will be easier now Imm sure