Can Edinburgher be debt free and a mortgage holder by 30?

edinburgher

Hey all - I'm a long time lurker on these excellent forums, so let's see if you can all help me on the route to financial stability!

As a result of some pretty poor decisions as a student, I ended up £7-8k in debt. After graduating (with an Arts degree!) I spent a few years in awful jobs before taking a postgraduate course in Library and Information Studies. Now I still have an awful job, but enough money to start tackling my debts! Just kidding, being a librarian has its moments

I'd like to pay off my debts and have a mortgage by my 30th birthday (markets allowing). March 2013.

Here is my SOA:

Monthly Income (after tax): £1396.40

Monthly expenditure:

Rent £400
Council Tax £64 This will go down slightly soon as we moved house
Electricity £15
Gas £15
Water rates £10
Telephone £6
Mobile £10
TV licence £14
Internet £5
Food £140 Both gf and I love to cook, it's our main weakness!
Clothing £20
Travel £100
Medical £20 Toiletries
Pet insurance £13.68 I adopted a cat with an ex some years ago, still pay for this.
Contents insurance £7
Life insurance £25 Fixed term savings bond with a friendly society. Not worth cancelling as I'd lose money.
Presents £50 I come from a family of five kids, various other relations etc. etc.
Haircuts £10
Entertainment £20 Wine, meals out and the odd cinema trip.
Holiday £60 We typically go away to Europe for a good week once a year
Savings £125 Good interest account, fixed 'til November. Gf is on a fixed term contract, so this is non-negotiable for our future stability.
Gym £53.95 Can cancel this in July
Prepaid credit card £25 I pay £20 a month to Virgin as part of a wine club. I bet you try and make me give this up!
Charity £2

Unsecured debts:

Overdraft £1053.44 (must pay £24/mth - maybe 1% APR?)
Credit card £3670.17 (must pay £60/mth - 0% APR/account closed)
Bank of girlfriend £137.39 (£1/mth min (varies depending upon what I have spare). (Ps. I'm not a moocher, but she does have a credit card!)

Assets:

Cash savings £70

Income, expense and surplus:

Income £1396.40
Expenses £1210.63
Debt repayments £84
Surplus £100.77

I have to say that I'm mortified it looks this bad! I admit to not allowing for things such as presents, holidays etc. on a monthly basis and largely rely that these will pay for themselves My girlfriend often purchases things for us for the house and I pay her back over a month or two, so I suppose I didn't realise how little spare I seem to have... I can see that my approach to budgeting is way off.

Help me trim the fat!

clearmydebts

Hi,

Just wanted to day best of luck on your journey and welcome to the board!

edinburgher

Thanks for that clearmydebts - good to see you've made a healthy dent in your total, too!

sillylittlejill

hi just thought id say good luck. Cant give you any suggestions as I'm in a worse situation than you. Less debt but much less income atm!! Did you enjoy your studies? I'm hoping to start college to gain some qualifications to study photography at uni
Maybe instead of your gf buying things for the house (i do the same as her!!) ask for them for xmas from people and the money you don't spend on them put towards your debt?

edinburgher

Hi sillylittlejill

I loved University (four years of reading the best books ever written!) Unfortunately for me, according to prospects.ac.uk, graduating as a man with an Art degree actually takes off 4% from my average lifetime earnings!

I can't recommend it enough, but only if you have a clear idea of what you want to do long term. If I was a parent I'd advise exactly the same - student numbers rise every year and there aren't enough graduate jobs for all. That sort of thinking is part of why I ended up a debtor at such a tender age!

Re. household goods - that's certainly an idea, although my parents live in Scotland, so bringing home lamps etc. can be hard. Have spoken to my gf, who assures me that she'll buy any more soft furnishing-type things from now on from her own pocket (she earns more than me anyway and I don't go quite as mad for candles as she does!)

edinburgher

Did a good round of voucher printing at work, so this should save some cash on prezzies! Also spoke to the gf and she fully supports my new money saving policy of only buying things once I have the cash for them (come January). I'm also starting a new job then, so should be a good time to turn over a new leaf..

A little sad I've had no suggestions on the SOA guys

edinburgher

Christmas shopping today - quite well behaved! Things started off well with our very tasty free burgers from Walkabout and a few reasonably priced sides :beer:

Then off to the shops - not so much to buy, as much of my shopping has been done online this year. Got some very good deals (fiver off here, bogof there), so not feeling guilty. Some especially good deals on wine at Sainsbury's too, with the highlight being a *very* tasty looking St Emilion Bordeaux for £5.99 (half price).

Paid a few quid into my online savings account and managed to take the correct money out of the ATM for shopping to within £2.

Also got a new Council Tax bill today (good news). We've gone down a band and the remaining direct debits are being taken Jan-Mar, saving us £128 for the festive season. Also, it's like another £10 a month each off the bill come the new year.

Feeling good - although still on the hunt for comments on my SOA :rotfl:

halight

Hi,
id just like to wish you all the best in becomming debt free.

Good luck,

doodledo_2

:T Well done on the Xmas shopping sounds like you had a good day and even better news about the council tax :T

Just looked through your SOA and a few things spring out to me:

- Gym membership is very high especially if only for one person.
- Savings is high - I assume you are doing this as the interest is high and your debt is 0%. How long is your 0% for?
- Holidays - this is quiet a chunk of cash as well which could be used for debt, but I am a holiday freak so I know this is an area some people won't compromise on.

To be honest everything else seems pretty good to me.

Maybe an area to look at for you is to bring in more money rather than saving on your SOA. Have you got anything you could sell? Have you joined in the make £10 a day a challenge as lots of ideas on there.

Good luck with your journey to being debt free

edinburgher

Thanks for the comments doodledo!

It's a very nice gym, but I will be quitting (in July)

Savings can't be changed (as mentioned in OP). We're getting 6.55% on them and my girlfriend's contract of employment ends in August. Confident she'll be kept on/get something else, but the £25k she brings in would be sorely missed if not!

Holidays - these tie in to not wanting my money silliness to impact upon my gf too much. She humours me very well, is generally understanding and doesn't pester me for constant nights out, gifts etc.! At the same time, a weeks holiday once a year seems churlish to refuse. I could maybe reduce the figure slightly, but I wanted to be realistic. At the mo I pretty much allow her to book holidays on a credit card and pay her back later - a trend that stops come 01/01/2009!

*Edit: I should add that the SOA as it stands just now is my budget as I see it from Jan 2009 - just now it's settling down after two consecutive house moves, moving from Scotland to England and furnishing a flat

edinburgher

Signed up for some of the daily scratchcards (this should up my Quidco daily clicks income). Got an e-mail from Quidco too, saying that £65.20 is winging its way to my current account.

I'd be interested in some more daily click type things, but I don't want to spend my entire life on the Internet (seven hours a day at work, for starters!)

Have decided to use my Council Tax rebate for some sitting room curtains (save money on heating) and will still have some cash left, which will go to the gf! It's looking like I'm about £50 ahead of budget for Christmas so far, so all good for tonight.

Off for dinner (roast lamb shoulder with dauphinoise potatoes)