debt help :-(!!

HGLTsuperstar

poststudentblues wrote:

as for the £150 socialising thats only about 4 nights out! i live in cambridge and tyhe pubs/clubs are stupidly expensive! anyway it must get cut back!
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I know its tough love but you spend over half the week going out and wonder why you're skint. Need a major change of perspective methinks

skintchick

Not half the week - one night a week!

But sadly, like the rest of us, you'll have to cut down to about once a month, or do something cheaper than drinking - I do salsa dancing and a ngiht out doing that will typically cost me a tenner - fiver entrance and another fiver on a couple of beers, which is all I can drink when dancing and driving.

Or go to the cinema and take your own snacks.

Or go bowling?

Or round a mate's with a bottle of wine.

Or I hear Casualty's storylines can be quite gripping.....

Murtle

complete a proper budget!! Where is the repayment for the credit card???!!

You need to know exactly what you are spending your money on.....

£150 socialising - too much!!! Organise some funny evening in with your mates and get them to provide the beer!! You can provide the chilli and chips and DVD or split the stuff between you.

Quite often you'll find your mates are as strapped for cash as you are. Talk to them!!!

Good luck

black-saturn

I ditto all the advice from above but also you should pay off the debts with the highest interest first as they are the ones which are costing you the most money.

dinkylou

Poststudentblues,

I can understand how easy it is to spend £150 per month on going out and thats not too extravagant really (4 x saturday nights @ £37.50)

But you need to find ways to cut this down.

Either dont go out on the town every weekend, try different evenings out such as the ones suggested above or drink a bit at home before you go out and only take £25 cash or something and dont take a cash card.

You could also try planning ahead and get on guest lists? which can get you free/cheap entry into clubs. Oh and I know Cambridge has some nice expensive bars and so avoid them and do a pub crawl of the cheaper 'old mans pubs' instead first.

Maybe you could go out later and then dont go round the bars as much or go out earlier and dont go to a club?

I understand that its not easy to give up your weekend night out when all your friends are doing it but you need to do something or you ll be stuck in this sitution for a long time.

skintchick

Can I just say, from bitter experience DON'T drink at home before going out.

In theroy it's a great idea - you'll buy less drinks, save money, hurrah.

In practice - you are !!!!!! when you get there or soon after, your reason is shot, you buy more drinks, you get more drunk, you spend a fortune, and can't remember half the night till the texts come in asking if you meant to show everyone your 'special move'.

Don't do it.

Sparklemonkey

Can I highly recommend Wetherspoons? I go out about once a month with my mates, we only spend about £20 each (including food) and get quite happy on that!

Their pitchers are the stuff of legend and their food is great-often two meals for the price of one!

HGLTsuperstar

OK so its 4 nights per month, but my sentiment is still the same. Using the words "Its only 4 nights...", well its 4 nights more than you can afford at the moment, and how about getting a second job?

Annie_Fanny

Sorry to take the moral high ground but I agree with HGLT superstar, (not that I am perfect by any means!). £150 for nights out whether frivolous or frugal - that's not the point. The point is while you are in debt you CANNOT afford to go out. Your budget for nights out is ZERO PENCE. Think of that £150 going to your debts - that is a handsome sum. I am not attacking you just trying to reinforce the point. I think people under a certain age group (myself included) have grown up with a mind set of debt is Ok, it's manageable, "I don't have any money but well I'll just use my credit card". I am having to change my own outlook now - when I was at uni that's when I got used to my world being "everyone I know is in debt, but we still have nights out and buy nice clothes etc".

Ofcourse you can have nights out - if you didn't you would probably go mad! But just consider where the money is coming from and where it could be going to. Telling your friends could be hard - some people don't want to know and some people don't want you to change - but just think of the time when you are debt free and your pay packet each month is YOURS - not the credit cards or the banks or the student loans etc.

Annie - Good luck - you can do it!