Welcome to the forum TryinHard.

You can save if you are able to free up the cash from your allowances. It's a good idea to have a little emergency cash ready if possible.

With pay increases it's always best to let your trustee know as soon as possible. Let them know about any increases in your expenditure at the same time.

Thank you - have I done something wrong in not telling them immediately about pay increase in April? Really scared I've done something wrong!

Hi TryinHard.

Given the timescale and amounts involved please please please don't worry too much about this.

Let them know when you next get the chance. I very much doubt there will be a problem.

It is always worth letting your td firm know of any changes right away but don't panic that you havent. As for savings its a great idea. We have a post office budget card to save for road tax,you just pay onto the card at any post office.

Paul

It would really have to be a material change in circumstances before an increase would be considered. In my experience any increase in income tends to be balanced out by the increase in food, gas, electricity, petrol etc etc

Mark

Thank you all so much, you've put my mind at rest. Ultimately, I made decisions which put my finances in a mess and I do want to pay back what I can, but I do want to get in the habit now of putting something away each month, even if it's only £3, and it would be nice to have the odd tenner to take my husband out to the cinema on a Wednesday! I sent an email detailing the changes and also advised I'd be working overtime soon (this is to allow me to pay a dentist's bill), hopefully they will allow me to keep this. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply, I appreciate it more than you know.

We always found Tenon happy to just be kept in the loop and it takes no time to fire off an email confirming anything and then you have a record of things too.

Saving is all part of normality and an important part of surviving life without credit. For ten years plus whenever we had any problems with cars,fridges etc etc we just got the plastic out. Nowadays we are managing to get by using the small amount of savings we have got together since our discharge. We now have 2 tesco savings accounts,2 post office savings(harder to access),and a main savings account with the yorkshire bank(all done online),and believe me its much nicer juggling savings than juggling balances on credit cards!!!

Paul

Thanks paul, so your td company lets you have savings? That's good to know.

As long as it is within reason then it is something to be encouraged - it reduces the chance of problems happening whenever something out of the ordinary comes along.

Agree both Mark and Kevin regarding it needs to be a material change and a degree of flexibility is always good for those "out of the ordinary expenses".