NEW MEMBER - Turning over a new leaf

sKiTz-0

Hi All,

Just wanted to introduce myself as I have been getting stressed for a long while now with debt, but have decided to pay it all off and turn over a new leaf. I'm aiming to be debt free as soon as possible.

I am 25 and currently live at home with my Dad. Graduated with a HND in music tech about 2 years ago, but work a job I hate for £15,600 a year. I don't understand how people manage to afford a house on this kind of money and need some help to realise where I am going wrong! Is it just the cost of living nowadays or am I doing something drastically wrong that I can change?

I currently owe around £7800 on my student loan (least of my prioroties) I have owed my Mum now £4500 which has been increasing since I was 17, and I had a loan of which £1800 still needed paying back.

My Mum has been a Godsend, part of the money I owe her is for a credit card I owed £900 on which I was stuck paying the minimum payments. She is dooing a bit of stoozing and has used one of the credit cards to pay off my loan (saving me £300) so I now owe her the £1800.

I'll post my budget below, and looking at it you would think that my debts are easily paid off, but I seem to always end the month struggling to eat and find petrol with which to get to work.

I took a good look at my finances and found my main outgoing was food. I was eating out all the time, buying all the expensive stuff. So I decided to cut back. Now I only shop at Aldi, and don't eat anything extravagant. And to be honest it's boring me to death, i am so sick of beans and pasta - food is one of my main loves in life and I love eating lots of delicious flavours. unfortunately, until I'm debt free, or find some cheap recipes this is the way it is. I have applied for an allotment, but there seems to be a massive waiting list in my area. I haven't posted an amount I spend on food below, as I'm just honestly not sure. I will make an effort from the start of next month to save all my receipts (food and otherwise) to see where I am going wrong.

As a plus point, I now buy rice/sauces/frozen chicken in bulk from Aldi, and cook once a month and freeze it for work. i have worked out the cost to be around 0.50 per meal, so I effectively feed myself at work (not including snacks) for around £10 a month. So I don't think I can make any cutbacks there! I'm considering doing this for my evening meals too, but am already getting bored with the same meals after around 9/10 months of doing this.

Any help/support/tips/advice/ideas are all welcome, and I will be searching through the boards too to help out.

Summary

Monthly Budget SummaryAmount(£)
Total monthly income1,034
Monthly expenses (incl. secured loans)473.5
Available for debt repayments560.5
UNsecured debt repayments0
Surplus560.5
Personal Balance Sheet SummaryAmount(£)
Total Assets (things you own)500
Total Secured Debt-0
Total Unsecured Debt-14,100
Net Assets-13,600

Thanks

sKiTz

P.S. - sorry for the essay!!

Nomad25

Hello sKiTz - welcome to MSE

Just giving you a - hopefully one of the regular DFWs will be along to help you soon. Good luck.

sKiTz-0

Thanks!

I know 14,000 isn't as much debt as some people on here. But for a single person who pays towards my daughter and earns 15k it's very hard work to pay it off.

I just can't wait until the day I'm debt free!!

moo842

could you do a break down of exactly what you pay out each month?

Numpty_Monkey

Hi skitz

If you do an SOA the great people can and will help
use this link
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

and don't worry about the essay:p

frazzmunch

hi skitz-o...well done for starting the process!!!:D

can i suggest that you check out the 'money saving old style' forum as they have loads of ideas for cheap meals etc...

i know you can get in a rut with food, especially if you love lots of different stuff (love food myself....wish all i had to do with my life was eat!!:rotfl: ), why don't you grow yourself some herbs...may not sound like the most impressive move but...don't need much room (pots on a windowsill), really cheap (packet of seeds will cost less than £2 and will produce more than you can imagine!!) and totally transforms your grub....CHEAPLY!!!

Oven roasted tomatoes for instance taste totally different if you do them with thyme rather than basil: coriander , garlic, olive oil, red wine vinegar and a green pepper whizzed up in a blender will give you an amazing pungent green sauce which goes brilliantly with potatoes, pasta, and rice....there are lots of options for cheap meals and no need to sacrifice flavour...just takes a bit of thinking about!!

getting hungry now! off to eat breakfast....:D

sKiTz-0

Ahhh - only just seen the MSE bit on the SOA!

Please see below - I have made what cutbacks I can where I can (i.e food etc) travel costs I cannot get any lower. I pay child support to my ex for our daughter. And I haven't included minimum payments as mentioned above I owe most of the money to my Mum so there are no minimum payments as such. I just have a standing order for £130 a month, then pay off whatever extra I can.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1034
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1034

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 100
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 7.5
Groceries etc. ......................... 120
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 120
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 50
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 156
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 15
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 618.5

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 500

No Secured Debt

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................1800......0.........0
Ex.............................1500......0.........0
Mum............................3000......0.........0
Student Loan...................7800......0.........5
Total unsecured debts..........14100.....0.........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,034
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 618.5
Available for debt repayments........... 415.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 415.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 500
Total Secured debt...................... -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -14,100


Thanks guys!

sKiTz-0

I think keeping my receipts for a month would be a big step - that way I can work out where all the extra money disappears to!!!

Nomad25

.................................

Bowski_1011

sKiTz-0 wrote: »

I think keeping my receipts for a month would be a big step - that way I can work out where all the extra money disappears to!!!

Yes that will definately help. Also try and keep a spending diary, write down every penny you spend. How about joining in some of the challenges too, like the NSD (no spend day) challenge. That one is great for me. but everyone is different. Maybe you can try look at ways to make some more money thru ebay/opinion polls etc.
Have a good look through the forum and you'll find it all. It's taken me a while to get used to it but I got there in the end. Good luck on becoming debt free.

Horace

Hi Skitz - keep a spending diary so you can see where you are frittering your money away.

Get yourself over to the Moneysaving Oldstyle board for meal planning, they're fantastic over there and if you post a list of ingredients that you have then they will reply with lots of ideas.

When you go shopping, make a list of what you need, buy some of it in Aldi or Lidl, go to a local butcher for meat (the best butcher usually has a queue outside). If you have a local butcher like mine, you can buy meat cheaply, e.g. mine sells packs of 6 NZ lamb chops for £2.99, 8 chicken thighs for the same amount etc. I have even bought rib eye steak on occasion too for about £1.80:D