How much for personal spend - can someone help?

hieveryone

Hi everyone...

I'm a student at the moment and to be honest my finances are a bit of a mess! I've got stuck in the mindset that when I finish uni I'll be earning x amount and so it doesn't really matter what I spend now. I admire anyone who can sit and go through their bank statement with a fine tooth comb - I have so many 'debits' from DD's, switch payments etc that it's murder, and uses a small rainforest to print the statement!

Anyway, my question here is - I want to withdraw a certain amount at the start of the month so that I only carry CASH on me. I find it so easy to switch something at £50 because I'm not seeing the money - if that makes sense?

Here's what I have coming in and going out - how much do you think I should 'lift' for the month?

Coming in -

Wages : £463.56
Student Loan: £119
Bursary: £258
Total : £840.56

Payments Out:

Car payment: £146.61
MBNA CC: £25.00
Barclaycard CC: £32.00
Citi CC: £31.46
Phone bill: £25.80


I think that's all I pay out by DD. I pay money to my mum and dad, and have to put petrol in my car etc. My overdraft (that I get all my wages paid into etc) is around -£1350 at the moment.

Do you think I should 'even out' my payments to round numbers i.e £150 for car payment, £50 for each cc?

Thanks in advance

Horace

If you could put up an SOA stating everything that you spend - e.g. groceries, entertainment, the APRS on the credit cards we can see where you can save.

https://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

There is a button on it for MSE so that it can configure it to this board, just copy and paste.

PasturesNew

I think you're seriously underestimating your costs.

You've not mentioned car insurance, car tax, car MOT.
Nor Xmas presents, birthday presents you probably have to buy.
And clothes.

What I'd do is add all of those in, then round it up to the next £50 and set that much aside each month.

hieveryone

Yeh, I get that, I just meant that's whats coming out by DD every month, everything else can really be paid cash.

My insurance has been paid until March next year, around £150.

Car tax is due in March too - £112 for 6 mnths or £220 for 12.


MOT and service just done in October there.

I'll try do an SOA but I think part of the problem is that I dont know how much I spend - I fritter my money away on rubbish!

Also, I have a bit of an overdraft (£250) with A+L - this is in dispute with the charges thing going on, but they have written to me asking me to repay the o/d within 30 days. Should I just pay it and wait for the ruling to come back about the charges?

Thanks for your help so far

betti911

What about keeping a diary of every spend you make for a week? That way you are identifying potentially what you are overspending on and where you can make savings.

I see that you have already paid your MOT for this year but maybe it would be a good idea to put money towards MOT and insuarance next year and also examine how you are placed financially for Xmas?

I would also check that you are getting the best deal possibly as to your credit cards.

What also helped me was to sit down and figure out exactly how much I owed. It was really scary at first but once I'd braved seeing my total dept and I developed a strategy as to how I would tackle it I felt much more in control.

And lastly, congratulations for trying to tackle your debt. I wish I'd done so while I was a student instead of getting myself in such a pickle (see my sig)

Good luck and keep us up to date as to how you are getting on.

Betti x

hieveryone

Hi Betti

Thanks for your post!

I do know exactly how much I owe, I think it's just looking at the bank statement with all the DD's and switch card payments that makes me think...'where did it go?!'

To be honest someone could be rifling my account every month or a dd could be set up and I wouldn't know, which is quite scary.!

I think I will keep a spending diary, that's a good idea... will probably look extremely scary!

Also, forgot to mention, I'm pretty much set for xmas, got most of my presents in and just need to make some gifts for some family, but will get paid again before Christmas anyway.

I don't think I would get any better deals on cc's to be honest, I was away for a while there and came back and Lloyds TSB had added on nearly £400 of charges for being £1.57 overdrawn. I think I have roughly £200 left to pay now.

So I have £250 on A+L overdraft which they want repaying (which is also made up of charges) and £200 from Lloyds TSB - do you think I should just pay these and get them out of the way?

Thanks

becky_rtw

Hi hieveryone,

Try spendingdiary.com - its pretty good and does graphs etc

Jesthar

hieveryone wrote: »

I'll try do an SOA but I think part of the problem is that I dont know how much I spend - I fritter my money away on rubbish!

Also, I have a bit of an overdraft (£250) with A+L - this is in dispute with the charges thing going on, but they have written to me asking me to repay the o/d within 30 days. Should I just pay it and wait for the ruling to come back about the charges?

Ahh, frittering - all adds up, desn't it? Fortunately, it's an easy one to solve both for the last few months and in the future - get out all your statements and go through absolutely EVERYTHING to see what you've been spending. You might well find a spreadsheet is a good idea, it's what I do! I have a custom spreadsheet of my own design (which needs a serious overhaul for next year:rolleyes:), and I catagorise everything I spend into things like Supermarket Shopping, Mortgage, Utilities, Going Out, Telecoms etc. Then, when you have done that, keep it going as a spending diary - I update mine every week at least, and it soon helps me to spot where I've been wasting the pennies.

As to the overdraft, not my specialist subject so I'll leave that for others to advise on. But you should definitely be reclaiming those charges, and also any credit card charges you have been hit with.

~Jes

hieveryone

Thanks

The charges are in the process of being reclaimed, and A+L keep sending me letters updating on the court cases etc, but they have now sent a letter saying I need to pay it back within 30 days?

Also, Lloyds TSB had sent my account to some other dept and I have set up a payment plan paying £10 a month into it - I *think* this shows as a default every month on my credit report - would that be right? That's why I'm tempted just to pay it off...

Thanks again everyone

betti911

My spending diary was terrible when I started too. I used to spend £15 per week on celeb magazines!

I know it works for some people taking a certain amount of money out per month but it doesn't personally for me as if I have money in my purse for the month I would just spend it. Instead I work on a weekly budget and I use my spending diary to work out how much I've got left.

I didn't used to look at my bank statements either but now I'm on internet banking which is so much easier. I thought it would be a pain to set up but its actually okay.

Sharon87

I'd definetely pay the A&L overdraft off, otherwise you'll probably be hit with even more charges!