Newbie to the board

Damita

Hi, I'm Damita and I would love to pay off all my dedt in the next 5 years minus my student loan, here is me and my partners list of our bills, any ideas on how to reduce them?

Basic

I am a full-time student and work part-time, I earn £400 - £500 a month
My partner works full-time as a duty manager and earns £1100 - £1300 a month

Bills

Payment Protection - £31.82
Mortgage - £459.79 (Fixed for the next 5 years)
Council Tax - £90.00 (This will be less when I hand in my full-time student letter and get 25% discount)
TV License - £11.61
House Insurance - £9.99
BT - £20 - 35
Life Insurance - £10.02
Car Insurance - £22.00
Savings -£30.00 (this is the money going into saving account every month)
Water -£11.60
Elec -£32.00
Sky & Internet -£32.00
Petrol -£50.00
Food - £160
Partner's CD Deck debt - £33.71

Total Bills - £1,004

Savings

Together we have a savings of 2,500 we want to save 6 months worth of my partner wage so £6,600.

Debt

I have a debt of £5,761.95 on a loan and £476.25 on a credit card, I am not including my student loan as I have just started this year, I don't want my partner to pay off my debt for me so I want to learn and manage it myself, out of my wage I pay my loan £150 and credit card £50.

We are worried about money as my partner wants to get a new job and this might include a paycut..

Any ideas? We are going to sell our car and buy one that uses less petrol... sell for a grand and spend £300 on a new car and put the rest in savings..

milliemonster

If you have £2.5k savings already, it may be useful to use some of this to reduce your debts, you can pay off your ccard immediately and then continue to save to pay the loan off in full.

I fully understand you wanting to save loads of dosh and this is very commendable but your priority should be to pay off the debts then that will free up more to save

from your sig, you have done really well so far!

Damita

I am really thinking about this and asking him but I don't know if he will think it is a good idea...I do have a £1,000 from my student loan which I got on Monday, I don't know if I should use this as I want to pay for driving lessons and my train fare.

Thank you

We are also paying off our wedding which is in 8 months and we have 2 grand left on that...

dancingfairy

Hi. I've got a few comments which I hope you find useful.
Payment Protection - £31.82 for what?
Mortgage - £459.79 (Fixed for the next 5 years)
Council Tax - £90.00 (This will be less when I hand in my full-time student letter and get 25% discount) maybe pay over 12 months as well to make
budgetting easier?
TV License - £11.61
House Insurance - £9.99
BT - £20 - 35
Life Insurance - £10.02
Car Insurance - £22.00
Savings -£30.00 (this is the money going into saving account every month)
Water -£11.60
Elec -£32.00
Sky & Internet -£32.00 do you NEED sky? maybe consider downgrading this or cancelling for a while?
Petrol -£50.00
Food - £160 not too bad - you may be able to cut this down further if you wanted. Head over to Moneysavingoldstyle for hints and tips on this.
Partner's CD Deck dedt - £33.71

The other thing I would note is that you don't have any money for clothes, haircuts, car tax/mot/repairs etc, going out, presents etc. Check out Martin's guide to see what else you may have missed.
I would keep a spening diary to see what you are spending here, there and everywhere - you may well find that you spend quite a bit on meals out/vending machines/pints at work/uni/magazines/clothes/cd's/dvd's/makeup/cigaretts/bottled water etc and it all adds up.

Good Luck.
df

dancingfairy

What apr is you credit card? you may be able to apply for another one with a lower interest if your credit rating is o.k and shift the debt thereby being able to pay your debt off quicker.

Damita

dancingfairy wrote: »

Hi. I've got a few comments which I hope you find useful.
Payment Protection - £31.82 for what?
Mortgage - £459.79 (Fixed for the next 5 years)
Council Tax - £90.00 (This will be less when I hand in my full-time student letter and get 25% discount) maybe pay over 12 months as well to make
budgetting easier?
TV License - £11.61
House Insurance - £9.99
BT - £20 - 35
Life Insurance - £10.02
Car Insurance - £22.00
Savings -£30.00 (this is the money going into saving account every month)
Water -£11.60
Elec -£32.00
Sky & Internet -£32.00 do you NEED sky? maybe consider downgrading this or cancelling for a while?
Petrol -£50.00
Food - £160 not too bad - you may be able to cut this down further if you wanted. Head over to Moneysavingoldstyle for hints and tips on this.
Partner's CD Deck dedt - £33.71

The other thing I would note is that you don't have any money for clothes, haircuts, car tax/mot/repairs etc, going out, presents etc. Check out Martin's guide to see what else you may have missed.
I would keep a spening diary to see what you are spending here, there and everywhere - you may well find that you spend quite a bit on meals out/vending machines/pints at work/uni/magazines/clothes/cd's/dvd's/makeup/cigaretts/bottled water etc and it all adds up.

Good Luck.
df

Sky is my only thing I spend on myself...

The food one is a guess we don't normally figure out what our budget is on it but this month I am going to write it all down..this includes the cat food.. we have two kittens and two hamsters

Payment Protection for our mortgage we had to take it out..

Clothes - I buy on ebay and charity shops so I don't buy clothes every month maybe once every 3/4 months even then it's only £20

Haircuts - My hairdresser friend does it for free

car tax/mot/repairs - This month we had to pay out £100 for Car Tax and MOT was £500 but my partner parents paid that for us

going out - My partner dosn't go out but I only go out once a month sometimes not even that and even then I only spend £20

presents - Probably £20 maybe less.. xmas is coming up and I have been buying presents from sept till dec

I will look into the council tax thing

Damita

dancingfairy wrote: »

What apr is you credit card? you may be able to apply for another one with a lower interest if your credit rating is o.k and shift the debt thereby being able to pay your debt off quicker.

Where would I find this? All I know is that it is a Standard Halifax Credit Card, I haven't checked out the APR for years...

ajaney

£476.25 - Left on the Credit Card (down from 5,000!)

Well done you! However, if you have savings & you are being charged interest on this amount, then you are losing money & the most sensible thing to do would be to pay this off asap.

Verbatim

You seem very well organized to me. I'd suggest menu planning at least a week in advance and even a month ahead if you can. If you know what you'll be having it's easier to swap meal 16 for meal 30 if unforseen events (eg extra mouths to feed) occur and if you've got more of one thing than another. The idea is to plan nutritious but cheap meals, using up what you've already got in and any leftovers, then write a shopping list for what else is needed for the meals you've decided on and stick to it. Saves unnecessary and impulse buying and helps prevent wasting food.

Sorry if this is too obvious and basic!

Damita

ajaney wrote: »

£476.25 - Left on the Credit Card (down from 5,000!)

Well done you! However, if you have savings & you are being charged interest on this amount, then you are losing money & the most sensible thing to do would be to pay this off asap.

I willhave to bring it with my partner and see if he will let me use our savings.. do you think I should use my student loan?

ajaney

Only you can decide whether to use your student loan - can you manage without this money or not? Driving lessons, unless you need to drive for work/studies, can be put back but you will need to pay your train fares.

Perhaps you could use your joint savings to pay the Credit card off & then pay a slightly higher amount per week or month back into the savings account out of your loan. You should not make yourself short as this will just mean problems later.