fendi-bag-lady sorts out her life (hopefully!!)

fendi-bag-lady

Hi everyone hope you don't mind another diary on here...

My name is Laura and I am a shopaholic. There I have said it. :T I love to shop but I'm desperate to stop but find I can only last a few days then I find things I need to buy. I don't have a lot of confidence but always feel better when I'm wearing something new or when someone compliments something I have. I have always tried to please everyone and try as hard as possible not to disappoint anyone so if one of my friends ask me to the cinema/out for dinner/if I can give them a lift somewhere I never ever say no. I want to break away from the cycle but feel so overwhelemed and I don't know where to start.

I am 23, single and still live at home with my folks. I am at college and work part time (25 hours) in a horrible call centre. I've taken out overdrafts in the past to pay off credit cards then loans out to pay the overdrafts. At the moment I have an overdraft (£2500) and a loan. I want to pay these off asap and get my spending under control but I don't know where to start and I'm so scared I'll going to spend my entire life in this destructive cycle.

I would like to have a signature at the bottom of my posts so I can see exactly how much I owe. Would it be possible for someone to please tell me how to work out my loan? Do I just put down the amount I have borrowed then take away the amount I pay towards it each month? or do I work out the total including interest then take the repayments away from that?

Sorry for the rambling and thanks for reading if you've got this far!

Laura x

Lemon_Tree

welcome to the boards, you'll find lots of support here and people who completely understood.
As to your signature go to User CP at the top then on the left there's a tag for editing your signature.

It's very hard saying no to friends even if its just them wanting a lift somewhere. I used to always drive everywhere for everyone which saved my friends lots of money as we live in the sticks and it's £25 in a taxi to get anywhere. Strange thing is i did lose some friends when i first had to say sorry i can't come, i can't afford it, but the proper friends will stick around and help you through this.

beanielou

Welcome to the forum.
Look forward to seeing your SOA.
To get a siggy go up to the green bar across the top.
Theres a bit says 'user cp' ~ if you go in there you click on siggy & follow the instructions.

Tixy

Hi Fendi Bag Lady:hello:

Welcome to DFW, nice to have you here!
The way I found out my loan balance was when I requested my credit report. It showed the balance at the start of that month. Other than that you should be able to get it from the loan provider- probably by telephone. You do need to take into account the interest charged to get a proper idea what it is so just deducting the payments you have made will understate the amount still due.

With regard to your spending a great first step is to start a spending diary where you write down everything you spend. Its a real eye-opener and tells you where you money is currently disappearing. For me it also encourages me not to spend on things because writing it down makes me feel worse about it.

The usual advice on here is to post an SOA using this link. Obviously because you live at home you won't have a lot of the expenses mentioned. http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Then the lovely people on here will advise you where to cut down and how to get things cheaper (if you shop online sign up for quidco cashback site).

Guessing this from your shopaholic confession and your user name -if you've got clothes, bags, shoes you no longer wear sell them on ebay and use the extra money to pay more off your credit card (designer bags get good prices on ebay).

Wel done on taking the first step and posting.
Tixy

ms_london

Welcome to MSE.

What do you mean about working out your loan? How much was the loan for, and what is the APR? If you go to www.whatsthecost.com - you can enter the loan amount, interest and it will spit out the total amount you will pay over the term of the loan....

Do you have many other outgoings?

I was like you when I was your age, until I woke up to £19,000 of debt and had no choice but to pay it back (thank god the banks etc wouldnt lend me anymore money!), and owing that much and not earning the best salary, my shopping addiction had to go. I used to think nothing of 'popping into' Boots and coming out £50 lighter, and spent so much on clothes, hair, beauty treatments, treating friends to stuff, all in an attempt to make myself feel better, more confident etc.

My whole attitude changed, and because I didnt have the money to spend on the above, I started to realise what made me happy. Material posessions dont, well they may give you a quick buzz, but that soon wears off, and the friends that may be taking advantage of you because of your generiousity, arent real friends. I know its easy for me to say that, but you can be happy, and even be a shopaholic, but just on a smaller scale. (a much smaller scale, hehe!)

xx

fendi-bag-lady

OH MY GOODNESS...

I knew I was in debt but didn't realise just how much until now... £18,412.30 :eek: how did I get myself into this mess?

Lemon Tree, beanielou, Tixy and ms_london thank you all for your support now that I have this figure I will be able to get a signature. I'm in the process of filling out a statement of affairs so I'll get that up shortly. I set up an Ebay account on Saturday and slowly but surely I'm getting there. It took me the whole day just to put 9 things on as I don't really know what I'm doing!

Laura x

fendi-bag-lady

Here it is...

Income - £1023.35
£643.43 wages and £379.92 college bursary

Outgoings - £503.09
Board Money (To my folks) - £100
Loan Repayments - £204.26
Car Insurance - £20
Mobile Phone - £40.....contract finishes in March.
Petrol - £100.............will definately try to reduce this.
Loan Insurance - £4.59
Bank Account Fee - £6.25......only other account would be £31 a month
Gym - £17.99...........I do use this
Internet - £10

Currently have money going elsewhere at the moment:

1. £60 into a sharesave account through my mums work (HBOS) - should I cancel this? This is fairly new has £180 in it.
2. I pay money (average of £67.50) a month into a savings account, 7% interest, current balance £810. Should I close and put money towards overdraft?
3. I pay £100 a month into a Natwest savings account (they were offering a £50 bonus if you did this for a year). Not sure if I can take the money out

Laura x

TDQO

Hi Laura,

You said you're not so confident using Ebay etc well this site is the place to be! Both on the main site and these forums there is loads of info on Ebay and loans vs savings etc.

I would say empty your savings asap and pay off the highest interest debt (probably your loan?). This is because you will be paying more in interest on the debt then you will be earning from your savings account.

You earn a decent amount from your job and bursary so if you can curb your spending you'll find you can chuck a massive lump at your debts and clear them very quickly.

fendi-bag-lady

Hi TDQO thanks for your reply. I think I'll close my savings account down tomorrow and pay the money towards the overdraft! The loan has a slightly bigger apr (6.9% compared to 6.25% on the overdraft) but I think I'll clear the overdraft first as it's smaller and as I don't have my bursary or wages paid in I'm scared they'll take it away from me.

If I could close the 7% account and the share account and transfer most of the money from the Natwest account (I'll leave in £10 and carry on with the standing order but instead of leaving it in that account I'll transfer it back each month if this is possible) I could reduce my overdraft down to £970!!

I also have another savings account which has £50 in it. As I haven't account for things like birthdays, car repairs etc should I leave this open and transfer money in every month? If so how much?

Thanks for all your help everyone I really appeciate it

Laura x

TDQO

It could be handy to keep one account open for emergencies/car repairs etc so yeh do this but make sure it's the one with the highest interest rate! Any excess accounts can be closed.

I don't know if you're single or not but here's a shameless plug for the Single and in Debt thread to be found here...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1051319

TDQO

Oh I'm a 22yr old student/engineer so in a similar position to you so ask away