www.iva.co.uk

My IVA was approved before Christmas and my 1st payment went out in January. Fantastic releif!!
Things are very tight financially, but am I allowed to try and save the odd £5/£10 towards an "emergency fund"? If I am, am I allowed to open a building society account for this purpose, or am I better off putting the odd £5/£10 in a hiding place in the house?
DMB 42

Yes - go for the savings route it is an excellent idea. There is no need to hide the existence of such modest savings to your IP - they will be glad that you are putting aside a sum of money each month for a "rainy day". I always build in a miscellaneous fund of £50 per month into all of my clients IVA's to cover this.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.
View my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

Thanks for this Melanie.
No more hiding money in the house!!!
DMB 42

Hello

I agree with Melanie, if you can put something away and save an emergency fund this is a really good idea and no need to hide it in the house!

Good luck - I hope your IVA is a success.





AccumaGroup - A large insolvency practitioner service based in Manchester.
www.accumagroup.com

Saving monies to put into a Contingency fund is an excellent idea and should be actively encouraged.

Well done and good luck with everything.



Best Regards
Oliver

Thomas Charles and Co Ltd.
Experts in personal debt solutions.
Read customer feedback at: www.thomascharles.com/about_us.asp

I have an e savings account which I didn't know I could use until this post - thanks!

I am planning on keeping my car maintainence, car tax, clothing and medical allowance in there - will I have to provide a statement at my review? Will I have to justify what I have used the money for? I am worried that if I use the money for say a haircut instead of clothes it will be frowned upon. I am also concerned about the amount that I am putting in may be less than allowed for on my expenditure form - the figures on my expenditure form were a bit skewy, so I have had to jiggle the money around (eg spend less on one thing to allow for something else), although the end figure remains the same. Will that cause a problem?

Three down, fifty seven to go until freedom!

Hello Skippy

No you will not have to account for these monies. As long as you stick within your budgets then this is fine. Some weeks you may not spend your whole budget on food but may need to spend more on clothes etc... this is fine. If you have any spare money at the end of the month put this in a savings account for a rainy day.



Best Regards
Oliver

Thomas Charles and Co Ltd.
Experts in personal debt solutions.
Read customer feedback at: www.thomascharles.com/about_us.asp

I thought I wasn't allowed to save money - I'm not sure that I could - I've been frantically trying to spend the "right" amount in case anyone checked up on me. All goes to show - you should be more careful when starting out and talk more to your IP. Panic is a terrible thing!