Hi everyone! It seems like ages since I last posted - and, indeed, it is!! Well, we have just had our first year review and everything is fine. We have made our payments (well over £9k in a year) - and had two I&E reviews - in that time and am looking forward to the next four years flying by like th...

Well, have spoken witn IP now and we can have a month's payment holiday from husb's IVA(£432) as long as that payment is in the fund by the first anniversary of our IVA in May. Result!! Should be do-able as we both have that £60 tax payment - plus we should be able to cream off a little bit here and...

Thanks for all the advice guys. Well, after much thinking, I have emailed IP and asked if we can miss husb's payment and £100 off mine next month in order to get the work done. Have been through the list again with the garage and whittled out anything which isn't going to cause a major problem, and ...

At least you've found them now! In my 'money isn't worth anything' past I lost nearly £200 of high street shopping vouchers and thought nothing of it. When I think about it now, I could cry! Never again will I be so complancent about money. Still not sure whether to ask the IP for a break. I feel so...

Hi! Well, just tried to get the car through its MOT and it needed a full service too. £250 down and it needs another £270 to get it through its MOT too. Plus they've given us an advisory list as long as my arm - and £2k's worth of work. Needless to say we don't have that sort of cash. I've whittled ...

Hi DM, We had NEXT as creditors. Owed them about £2k. As far as I can remember, they didn't even bother voting. They sent us one statement just after the IVA went through but I think that was because the computer generated it before and the post held it up. I have to say, that apart from Egg who hav...

This is why this site is invaluable. Husband has family in France and offered us a free holiday (apart from flights and car) next year. Thought if we started saving now, should be able to scrape enough together. But I was unsure how to get a hire car as I remember last time they wanted a CC as a dep...

Ours was four weeks too. We had our meeting on April 4 and our IVA agreed on May 1.

I know we were really lucky but I think having an IP that was only 8 miles away helped as we could just pick up docs that needed signing rather than having to rely on snail mail!

Thanks Jan. I have to laugh about it or I'll cry!

Not sure if claiming off the car insurance would actually make us worse off in the long run with the payments increase when it comes to renewal. Plus have not protected the no claims bonus to keep things as cheap as poss!

We have £65 each for gas and electric with British Gas and the month after our IVA was approved, they put the gas up to £85 to make sure we didn't have huge bills arriving - typical! Hopefully when we hit our year review in April next year, this will be taken into account and we'll be allowed to hav...

I have just got a week's holiday for the family (four of us) at a Haven Hols camp for £180!!

Ok, so it's the last week in September but it's better than nothing - plus my mum has offered some money towards it too, so even cheaper!!

As you have probably realised - saving is not my strong point either! Probably why I thought as everyone talks about ISAs that it was probably the best thing for me.

Maybe if I was able to save/ knew about banking then we wouldn't have found ourself in this mess!

Wow. Great news, but I also had no idea about receipts.

As we're only two months in, it shouldn't be a problem. But it just goes to show how vital a forum like this is. Other people's experiences really do help yours go a lot smoother.

Thanks Andy. That's good to hear. All income etc disclosed.

I was a bit worried that I may be doing something wrong.

Thanks jpj and plasticdraft. Some good points. I'd hate to lose my emergency money and may well need access to it in the same year as depositing. So may think about a high interest account - or just leaving it where it is as it's not doing any harm!