Live on £4000 for a Year, 2009 Challenge, part 2

slowlyfading

Oh my goodness, I've just checked my student loans thingy online and I am NOT impressed :eek: the interest alone since August is over £1000?! Its insane. And technically I wouldn't be starting to pay any off for another 2 years as I won't be earning enough until then. Well, GOD KNOWS what it would be upto by then?! So, I've sent off a payment for £60. I know its not much, but its a start. I can see a challenge coming on...

slowlyfading

Skint_Lynne wrote: »

How exciting slowlayfading, I'll bet that you will have a fantastic holiday, however, don't overdo the overtime, you've been working lots. The money is always tempting though.

Thanks, I'm so excited! I need all the overtime I can get now - see above post! xx

Skint_Lynne

This country is a nightmare (reaction to SF's loan interest). How do the government expect people to go on into the world of work when they have lumped god knows how much debt onto people?

I can see it going back to olden times when going to uni was a rich man's thing.

It's a good job that both yourself and andromache are sensible people, but not everyone is the same unfortunately............................

That's me, rant over!!

slowlyfading

I'm in such a mood now - its a huge amount of money i owe. I'm going to try and send regular payments to them, so it doesn't go too much higher, but still. its really overwhelming...

Skint_Lynne

The best thing to do is to try and be positive. It is a lot of money, but, you have had the good sense to look at it now, and not at the end of your course. By that time, you might have it paid off, or at least you will not have an even higher loan to pay, (ie, you will not have buried your head in the sand). The government have a lot to answer for, they don't call this place rip off britain for nothing, (even ripping off students with high interest loans:mad:).

slowlyfading

thanks that's made me feel better xx

Skint_Lynne

slowlyfading wrote: »

thanks that's made me feel better xx

good, I'm glad to help, now I'm off to bed cause I'm up early tomorrow, speak tomorrow. xx

cw18

Still not much to report from me....

No joy so far in getting a bookcase from Freecycle (and someone else has now asked for one too!), but I am getting some "moving boxes" to help with the declutter/temporary relocation of belongings to storage -- and in some respects that suits me as I've been scrabbling around for boxes as I didn't want to pay for something that I only needed on a temporary basis (these were offered up a few days ago, and I heard back last night), but don't mind paying for a bookcase which will be a pretty permanent fixture.

The declutter didn't go particularly well over the Easter holidays, so I've been forcing myself to spend several hours a day at it this week (while GDs are at school and later in the evening), and I'm starting to feel that I'm getting somewhere. I've spent the last couple of days going through boxes of toys my boys have thrown together over the years - and I'm finally being pretty ruthless about what gets thrown out much to the stunned disbelief of DS!! Plans for today are to get a few more boxes packed for the storage unit (to fill the car and make the most of the petrol to get there/back), and then come back and spend a couple of hours doing general h/work before getting stuck back into the dejunking.

The combination of S/flds closing and the dejunking is keeping me out of the shops though :T Still need to update my s/sheet for this month, but I know I've not spent anywhere near as much on groceries as my purse isn't bulging with receipts :rolleyes2 I do have a second A/Foods order to add to it, but I think I'd normally have spent much more in the local shops


Today is the one day in a year I shell out for a 'decent' newspaper (and actually read sections of it!) - I find it's the only way I can properly figure out how the governments budget is going to impact me, and I like to write notes down the side so can't do it at the library

Having a quick look on the 'net, I think the clause I want to check out most is

Mr Deputy Speaker, increasingly grandparents play a big role in family life and in looking after their grandchildren. To reflect this, we will, for the first time, ensure these caring responsibilities for grandparents of working age will count towards their entitlement for the basic state pension.

At the moment I get credit as I receive child-benefit, but that stops in the Summer of 2010. At first glance it looks like I could get a little part-time job outside the home instead of taking up child-minding, but also get credit for having my grand-daughters round school - but I need to do some digging and see if there's a minimum number of hours in a week/month/year that I need to have them (given I don't have them during school holidays). It would obviously also depend on whether I could afford to pay the bills on a part-time salary, but it does potentially open up other options for me

MrDT

slowlyfading wrote: »

I'm in such a mood now - its a huge amount of money i owe. I'm going to try and send regular payments to them, so it doesn't go too much higher, but still. its really overwhelming...

Hi SF, I think you're around my age and will probably have a post 1998 style loan. The interest rate is set each September to whatever RPI was in March the same year. The only exception is when the average bank base rate plus 1% is lower than this figure, in which case that's what the interest rate is set to.

From September to December the interest rate was 3.8% (RPI for March 2008), since then it has been steadily dropping inline with base rate drops, currently the interest rate is set at 1.5% (as of March this year).

I would expect the student loan interest rate to be -0.4% from September, as that's what RPI was in March 2009. If the student loans company / government don't stick to this I can imagine a huge stink being kicked up. The 'deflation' being bandied about is already beyond a joke when CPI is one and a half times the BoE target, wriggling out of the loan interest rate clause would be unforgivable given RPI is suddenly in favour (since house prices dropping keeps it low, and low means the goverment can justify pursuing inflationary policies that hurt us all in the wallet).

Anyway, gone off on one a bit, but if the rules hold true come September you should actually see your student loan reduce by 0.4% per month without having paid a penny towards it.

Couple this with the fact it's likely the cheapest loan you'll get in your life, and over the life of the loan (not neccessarily right now!) you can probably make more in interest by having the extra in a savings account than paying down your student loan, I'd never really consider paying it down sooner than you have to. Oh, and the repayments never get out of hand, it's an extra tax really, only gets deducted when you earn enough, and even then as a percentage of what is thought afforable. A student loan won't really cripple you. Oh, and when you hit 65 the debt is wiped clean. And it's invisible on credit scores...

Up to you of course!

£1000 interest between August and now would suggest that you have a loan of 40k plus, is this all SLC loans? Seems high. All the above applies only to SLC loans, not any other debt that may have been taken on as a student if you see what I mean. If it IS all student loan company debt, get in touch with them if your loan is well below 40k, as I'm almost certain there's a mistake in there somewhere!!

slowlyfading

MrDT, thanks for that information - my loan is well below that! I'm 22, if that helps lol I just don't understand it really, though I think the rate from August to a while ago was about 5.5% ? Thanks for all that information, I do feel a bit better about it this morning - hopefully having a degree is worth it in the long run xx