Help please guys...

tryingmybest_3

Hi guys I am new and I was wondering if you could help me out here?

I earn £1025 per month

My costs p/m are as follows:

£190- Car
£130- Insurance
£80- Petrol (Way Too Much I reckon as I have a 5mile all round drive to work)
£80- Dad for rent
£30- Mobile
£90- Roughly on food

I don't drink, smoke or anything else. I don't go out very often. Maybe head up town with friends on friday and saturday night.

I have a Visa Debit Card and I have £100 overdraft on it and from I went on holiday in august I haven't been able to save a penny! I mean I just can't save... I Tried giving my cards to my brother but I still managed to get them and spend money... Wether it was clothes, cd's, a psp (180 quid)!! I normally tend to go for long drives and I find I use up ALOT of petrol... I am in serious need for some advice on what too do guys. Cheers. I know I have answered all my questions myself for exsample dont do the long drives dont buy the things I dont need but I cant help it...

Help me please guys! I am looking to buy a house in the next 4-5 years after my car is paid off and I need to save some serious cash!

Btw, I will give you another exsample of my mad spending addiction. I had an ebay account and I spent in about 3months £700 quid on rubbish! My worst thing was a bag with sea air from spain in it for £3.25! I didn't even recieve it. :rolleyes: I recently cancelled the account so I dont use it anymore.

Entrepreneur_en_faillite

Cut up the credit and debit cards, that'll do it

purplepixi

Hi,

You're insurance - is that for your car?

It seems very high if it is. Myself and my husband have a car on finance (£160 per month),(wish we didn't - but needed it at the time), he only passed his test last year, and I have 3 points, 1 claim and am under 25 and we still only pay £60, so I would look into that. The car is a limited edition (Honda twin cam engine) Rover 25 1.6 petrol - goes like the wind.

To pay that sort of money on car insurance it must be some car.

We earn £700 after tax and rent.

I make sure we save at least 10% every month, so at least £70 and I put it into a savings account, so its not readily available.

There are 3 of us - myself, husband and daughter, with a household income of £700 per month (after tax and rent & council tax), and we pay out a lot, and still manage to save:

Our out goings are:

Car £160
Car Insurance £60
Loan £140
Mobile £40
Home Phone £40 (trying to get BT to change the DD)
Petrol £60
Food £70
AA £6
Savings £70
Child Bond £10
Credit Cards £40
Utilities £30

Which leaves us with about £20 left for the rest of the month.

I tend to sell things I pick up from charity shops and carboot sales on ebay for extra cash, and always save 10% of what I make.

So really if you are earning over £1000 per month and there is just you, you really need to re-evaluated your priorities.

I don't mean to sound harsh - but people tend to live up to their income, which means no matter what you earn you'll never have enough. What if you got married? And had kids, and only one of you was working (like my family), you'd seriously have to cut back on the spending, so if you start now, you'll be prepared if it happens.

Before I had my daughter I had £1000 in my savings account - I had to spend it on baby equipment, since then I've never been able to save that much without something cropping up, as the family needs the money. So if you start now, you'll be able to cope better should something happen.


Just some food for thought - hope its useful

Laura

tryingmybest_3

Thanks Laura, I am going to ring right now this minute and price insurance else where. I am only insured 3rd party and its a 2004 car 1.4 engine.

innovate

Open a Regular Savers account (see Martin's article) and put the money you save on not going on your long drives into it. Plus any other money you do not desperately need. It will be rewarding to see the interest and your little nest egg accumulating - and you will need the money when you buy your house.

ms_london

tryingmybest wrote:

Hi guys I am new and I was wondering if you could help me out here?

I earn £1025 per month

My costs p/m are as follows:

£190- Car
£130- Insurance
£80- Petrol (Way Too Much I reckon as I have a 5mile all round drive to work)
£80- Dad for rent
£30- Mobile
£90- Roughly on food

I don't drink, smoke or anything else. I don't go out very often. Maybe head up town with friends on friday and saturday night.

I have a Visa Debit Card and I have £100 overdraft on it and from I went on holiday in august I haven't been able to save a penny! I mean I just can't save... I Tried giving my cards to my brother but I still managed to get them and spend money... Wether it was clothes, cd's, a psp (180 quid)!! I normally tend to go for long drives and I find I use up ALOT of petrol... I am in serious need for some advice on what too do guys. Cheers. I know I have answered all my questions myself for exsample dont do the long drives dont buy the things I dont need but I cant help it...

Help me please guys! I am looking to buy a house in the next 4-5 years after my car is paid off and I need to save some serious cash!

Btw, I will give you another exsample of my mad spending addiction. I had an ebay account and I spent in about 3months £700 quid on rubbish! My worst thing was a bag with sea air from spain in it for £3.25! I didn't even recieve it. :rolleyes: I recently cancelled the account so I dont use it anymore.

Hello & welcome to MSE.com - you have definately come to the right place!!

After your outgoings listed above, you have £505 a month "spare", and although it seems you have no debt (apart from your car) you have problems managing your money and saving?

Firstly is the £190 a month for your car, HP or the equivalent - how many repayments do you have left? whats the interest rate? Can you overpay each month? Is there an early repayment penalty?

You say you dont go out very often but head to town with friends on a friday and saturday night? This is often to me :0) (as someone who could only afford to go out once a month when I was repaying my debt...).. But then it depends on how much you spend each night, if you're talking £50 a night, then thats too much - although its easily done!!

I understand the long drives part, especially if you are living at home - I used to do that, just to get out.

Its a tough one learning how not to be a spendaholic, unless you have to (i.e. you HAVE To repay your debt therefore you CANT waste money on rubbish). But as soon as you start to save, it will be a motivation in itself seeing the money adding up, knowing that thats yours!!!

Ms_London

Jen_Jen_5

set up a direct debit straight into savings account so its gone before you see it.

cut up the cards as mentioned

get a life - this may sound harsh but are you spending money on things for a reason, you are bored, lonely etc etc. Get out and about meet new people or take your old friends out for a cheap day or night, think about voluntering at weekends, i know this is easier said than done but work out why you cant stop spending are you trying to make yourself feel better??

look at the bigger picture, you want a house in four to five years, what kind of deposit do you need, dont forget to add on solicitors costs and fees, how much do you have to put away to meet this target in 4 years.

when you buy anything or are tempted tell yourself its this or another month added to the house wait?

keep a spending diary and look at what you spend little bits of money on (i have never been able to do this) but if you can i think it will really help you work out whats important you seem to be on your way there by cancelling ebay.

GreenFingers_2

Hello TryingMyBest….

If you’re shopping around for car insurance I would suggest you try the AA as one of your contacts. They will do a lot of the leg work for you in that they phone around for the cheapest and/or best quotes for your particular circumstances. I’ve been with them for some years and personally I think they are the best. They have a web site at https://www.theaa.com or telephone 0870 5332211.

Hope this helps

PS – Destroy your credit cards – they are the work of the Devil – lol.

Entrepreneur_en_faillite

https://www.confused.com ia also a great site to try.

tryingmybest_3

ms_london wrote:

Hello & welcome to MSE.com - you have definately come to the right place!!

After your outgoings listed above, you have £505 a month "spare", and although it seems you have no debt (apart from your car) you have problems managing your money and saving?

Firstly is the £190 a month for your car, HP or the equivalent - how many repayments do you have left? whats the interest rate? Can you overpay each month? Is there an early repayment penalty?

You say you dont go out very often but head to town with friends on a friday and saturday night? This is often to me :0) (as someone who could only afford to go out once a month when I was repaying my debt...).. But then it depends on how much you spend each night, if you're talking £50 a night, then thats too much - although its easily done!!

I understand the long drives part, especially if you are living at home - I used to do that, just to get out.

Its a tough one learning how not to be a spendaholic, unless you have to (i.e. you HAVE To repay your debt therefore you CANT waste money on rubbish). But as soon as you start to save, it will be a motivation in itself seeing the money adding up, knowing that thats yours!!!

Ms_London

Thanks for advice guys! I didn't mean I 'go out with friends' we go up the town in our cars and sit and chat thats all... doesn't cost anything at all only petrol which I've included in my budget. I have only made my first payment on the car. I've got 31 payments left... I cannot pay any extra as stated in my contract. I don't have any credit cards either I only have a debit card with 100 overdraft I can spend if I need. I always tend to dip into it though lol. But cheers guys. Any more Ideas keep them coming! I am between phoning insurance companies now lol.

skintchick

Shame you can't change the car - I think you must be pretty young which is why oyur insurance is so high, am I right?

I won't repeat what others have said, but I will mention food - I spend £60 a month on food including packed lunches, so you can definitely save there.

But the main thing is to have a budget and stick to it. When I was first working aged 19 I took home £615 a month and paid £250 in rent. I had to pay all bills as well, as I lived alone, and I wrote a budget and simply took my week's cash out on a set day each week and when it was gone, it was gone.

Why don't you try this? Don't use your bank balance as a guide to how much you have as then you will spend it all - write down your allowance on a piece of paper, and make spending dedecutions from that figure. That way, you should end up with cash left over at the end of the month.

Also, set up an internet savings account and set up a standing order into it from your account for the day after payday - you'll be more reluctant to spend it if you have saved it and have to transfer it back to your current account.