DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 4)

sarriep

Kudox I'm waiting for the calls too. Hoping none of them try and phone me at work! All the advice here is to just quote your ref number, ask them to contact you by post not phone and refuse to give them any more money to keep them quiet!

sarriep

No no don't pay more off any debt than the other. If you can save some, put it away fro full and final offers in the future. If you start paying any extra, the banks may think your SOA is not accurate and demand more money! One of the terms of your agreement is that you treat all of your creditors equally too. I think.

Kudox

I know what you mean sarriep, at least they cant phone me at work I have just started a new job so at least they wont have that number. They have started phoning my mobile God knows how they got the number but at least you can safely ignore that if you don't recognise the number. I don't know about you but my head is spinning with it all .:mad:

Althea

sarriep wrote: »

No no don't pay more off any debt than the other. If you can save some, put it away fro full and final offers in the future. If you start paying any extra, the banks may think your SOA is not accurate and demand more money! One of the terms of your agreement is that you treat all of your creditors equally too. I think.

Ah, ok, thanks, I'll fight my natural inclination then and will squirrel away any extra money I may be lucky enough to get. Hmm, actually, now I come to think of it perhaps that's been my problem all along .. my natural inclination NOT to squirrel away money ... :rotfl:

sarriep

Well ours too. We're going to delay repayments until november or we won't have enough to pay for car tax/ mots. It is very scary and involves a whole new way of thinking about money. I'm embarassed to admit I will really miss the 'comfort' of knowing I can use a credit card if we're short one month. We're just now never allowed to be short! Scary!

Kudox

It is really scary but after being in debt (manageable till recently) for more than 20 years I am so looking forward to living my life without thinking about it, and not being afraid to answer the phone anymore of course

Althea

sarriep wrote: »

Well ours too. We're going to delay repayments until november or we won't have enough to pay for car tax/ mots. It is very scary and involves a whole new way of thinking about money. I'm embarassed to admit I will really miss the 'comfort' of knowing I can use a credit card if we're short one month. We're just now never allowed to be short! Scary!

Absolutely right! You've hit the nail on the head there, the "comfort buffer" won't be there any more and that's scary. But ultimately financially healthier, I suspect ...

sarriep

I agree. We've moved debt around for years and years, all of the time increasing it that bit more. Our wages have gone up, our house is bigger, our family is larger but the debts have increased at a much faster rate! Our repayments should be around £1100 (ish) a month and will hopefully go down to around £430 on the DMP. We're in it for the long haul though (about £49000 of it!) and it will take a very long time to be free again.
I'm actually really passionate now about helping my children manage their money and help them avoid the huge mistakes we have made!
Hmm. I must admit I am becoming a bit obsessed with this whole situation. Awaiting the inevitable calls is not nice at all.

sunshine38_2

Evening folks (old and new!)

I'm still checking in every day to see how you are all doing - pretty well by all accounts

I was interested in this quote by sarriep:

"It is very scary and involves a whole new way of thinking about money"

That is certainly very true!

We have been on our DMP with CCCS and made our first payment on 1 June 2008 and I promise to report back with an update of who has accepted etc soon but I just wanted to reflect on what has happened today.

It is my DS's 5th birthday and for the first time since he was born we have actually celebrated his birthday without using any credit whatsoever :T .

Okay, granted, I felt deflated this morning when he burst into the living room and said "is that all I got" but in the next second he happily ripped open the presents that he did have and he was a happy bunny with what he had - phew!

My point is ... yes I get there eventually ... is that we had to think very carefully about how to plan and achieve what we have done for his birthday and I am so proud to say that we did it without getting into any more debt :j

This time last year I had racked up something along the lines of £200 worth of gifts on credit because we thought he had to have a "big this or that" and although his gifts this year were on a much smaller scale he has still had a lovely day (or so he told me before drifting off into dreamland this evening) and the feeling of pride, I have to say, is priceless

We did the best we could with what we had and on my DMP journey I am learning to try and deal with one day at a time and do the best I can with what we've got.

Thanks for letting me share ... I just had to tell someone how I felt.

Sx

sarriep

How great to get satisfaction without having to over indulge! I do enjoy the simple pleasures in life. We go to the park, walking, cycling, off to the library but everything up til now has always been so expensive. So off to the park, maybe buy some drinks when we're there and possbly ice cream (at least £1 each - there's 5 of us). On the way home stop off at McDonalds..... it just goes on.
I am worried that DH will not find it as easy. Lots of our debt is down to him. I've stopped going out to our weekly pub visits with work, whilst he's kept setanta to watch the england games then gone out anyway with £20 to watch the match at the pub. He bought the kids cream cakes (89p for 2) and doesn't seem to have fully acknowledged what's going on.
When we have our new account I will be the only one with access to the money. We've opened 2 accounts so he can have a card and some money to shop with but only a limited amount. I just don't think he can do it . Hmm.