Advice to help me with a money problem/

team_sainsburys

Hello,

I hope this is the right place for a little financial advice, ok, I have two current accounts, a First Direct one with £500 overdraft, this has just become my main account that I hold, all my DD are paid out and my wage goes into this account.

I have a HSBC one that i am closing asap, however this has a £100 overdraft (I am £-190 on this account). Therefore once i get paid I need to pay off this balance (plus the charge of £25)..

I am currently O/D on the FD account by £-374, however I have paid off £150 of the Holland football tour that I am going on in April so the bulk of that has been paid off. I have outgoings of £55 a month on mobile and broadband plus a minimum payment for my laptop of £33.

I work at Sainsburys whilst studying at school, in a good month with lots of overtime I will earn around £400 - £550.

Additionally, I have the following big payments to pay:

£120 for Holland tour (Parents paying £80 of it) by Feb
£330 for Magaluf (By April) next year maybe earlier
£835 for Laptop (To be paid by July for Interest free year

++ I need around £130 for Holland and spending money, and christ knows how much for Magaluf,

I have a savings account with First Direct where £25 a month goes, I intend this to be for my Holland spending money because by April I should have around £150 in there. Also I have £75 in a High Interest Savings account, I intend to withdraw that giving notice.

I have £50 to come through sales of a phone and a dvd.

So advice, should I get another job? I am still at 6th form just finishing my A levels, (i'm 19) and it's not that im in debt that much really, its more the fact that Ive still got loads of things to pay off.

Any advice at all, would be greatly appreciated..

Milky_Mocha

Quite a few numbers to juggle there. Best thing to do is lay them all out in a way that is easy to analyse at a glance. download this:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1089226742,17582,

If that link does not take you straight to the right page then do a search for the budget planner on this site. It has fields for you to input regular payments and earnings allowing you to see how much leeway you have at glance. that way you know where you are heading financially.

Out of curiousity, what sort of job do you hope to do eventually - retail, finance, medicine, etc?

Martinslovechild

Milky,

Your link is incorrect - here's the right one:-

Click Here

MLC.

team_sainsburys

Certainly nothing in finance!

Seriously, once ive finished my A levels I am hoping to move onto Uni, and then train to become a teacher. Im a high potential employee at Sainsburys though so Retail may be my empire. I really am not sure, teaching is the aim though.

Crown

Ive worked in retail all my life and if you want to keep your weekends and your sanity I would stick to teaching lol.... Im sure some teachers would advise the same thing

westernpromise

I have a HSBC one that i am closing asap, however this has a £100 overdraft (I am £-190 on this account). Therefore once i get paid I need to pay off this balance (plus the charge of £25)..

Okey doke. So you are -£215 there, including the charge.

I am currently O/D on the FD account by £-374

Which makes a total of -£590 so far.

however I have paid off £150 of the Holland football tour that I am going on in April so the bulk of that has been paid off.

OK, so we don't need to worry about that, right?

I have outgoings of £55 a month on mobile and broadband plus a minimum payment for my laptop of £33.

What's the split between mobile and broadband? Wanadoo broadband is the cheapest game in town at £18 a month for 1.1Mbps. It is theoretically limited to 2 Gig a day, but they are in fact technically unable to meter it for now. OK, you'd have to change your email address, but it's probably a few quid less than you're paying now.

I work at Sainsburys whilst studying at school, in a good month with lots of overtime I will earn around £400 - £550.

Let's be pessimistic and say £400 a month, for now, allowing for the £88 a month you have to lay out on your phone, PC etc.

Additionally, I have the following big payments to pay:

£120 for Holland tour (Parents paying £80 of it) by Feb
£330 for Magaluf (By April) next year maybe earlier
£835 for Laptop (To be paid by July for Interest free year

++ I need around £130 for Holland and spending money, and christ knows how much for Magaluf,

So as well as your current debt position, you have to come up with £1,415 for the items above, plus Magaluf; let's say £1,550 in total. I'm assuming the £120 you mention for Holland is your piece and the £80 your folks are chipping in is on top. If not, i.e. if you're putting in another £40, knock £80 off that previous total.

If we add the extra £1,550 you need to your curent position of -£590, you need to raise £2,140 by July.

I have a savings account with First Direct where £25 a month goes, I intend this to be for my Holland spending money because by April I should have around £150 in there.

OK, so you actually need a bit more, for spending money in Holland, and it sounds like you've yet to start stashing your £25 a month, right? Let's say you need another £60. So you need to stash £2,200.

Also I have £75 in a High Interest Savings account, I intend to withdraw that giving notice.

I have £50 to come through sales of a phone and a dvd.

Good, so that's £125 to come in, leaving you to find £2,075.

So advice, should I get another job?

You have to get £2,075 together by July of next year to be clear of any debt and paid up on all your various trips and whatnot. Let's be pessimistic again and say you need to be in this happy position by the beginning of July rather than end. We're at the beginning of December, so you have 7 months to raise the cash. You'll earn £2,800 in that time, taking the pessimistic view of what you can make a month, so you should be there with about £700 to spare.

Word of caution though - if you are doing A-Levels, you are better off backing off the work a bit while those are going down. Getting the best grades you can will do far more for your long-term financial position than earning another £100 at Sainsbury's now, if the latter tires you out and results in you dropping grades.

Trust me, you do not want to be one of those poor sods you see in offices resitting their A-Levels in their spare time when they're 30. Friendly advice, not a lecture - OK? Anyway, on we go:

I am still at 6th form just finishing my A levels, (i'm 19) and it's not that im in debt that much really, its more the fact that Ive still got loads of things to pay off.

Any advice at all, would be greatly appreciated..

If you make £400 a month, then by the end of April your earnings will just about match your needs, as set out above. In those five months, you'll earn £2,000 and the above list only comes to £2,075.

The downside to this is that you're left with no pocket money over those 4 months. That's a bit unrealistic, so I'd suggest you set yourself a target of clearing the payments and building a little spending nest egg by the end of June. You'll then have £700 or so to spend between now and then, i.e. £100 a month. Is that enough? It's been...(calculates)...22 years since I was 19, so I lose track of what you need to buy and spend at that age.

If you make more than £400 on average, stash a bit more and spend some while you're away. It will go further than it does here and you're rewarding yourself for being disciplined.

Good luck.

johannamse

WesternPromise deserves an award for above answer. A* for effort.

Milky_Mocha

Phew! Westernpromise...

... will you marry me?

westernpromise

Phew! Westernpromise...

... will you marry me?

You're too young for me, but have you got a sister?

rags2riches_2

WESTERNPROMISE DOES IT AGAIN!!

Yeah, this guy is great and helped me out a while ago with my credit cards! So good I nominated him for a the forum role of honour prize!

Westernpromise, if ONLY I had followed your advice word for word I wouldn't be in this mess.....

http://forum.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Debt;action=display;num=1102376769

I'm calling on your help again!

Milky_Mocha

You're too young for me, but have you got a sister?

Age is nothing but a number. My only criteria are

high performance, low maintenance, good at moneysaving

;-)