Newly Single Life and Budgeting!

kittycomehome

Hi. I recently left a bad marriage, unfortunately we fell in to a lot of debt. I am for the first time in my 30 years, going to be living on my own. I have decided to declare myself bankrupt, so I can have a real fresh start. I currently earn £1600 and my monthly bills inc. rent, utilities, council tax, travel to work will come in at just under £1000 a month (I think!). As I have never lived on my own before, would £600 a month be feasible for a single woman (with cat) to live on? I seem to be a little out of touch as my husband was in control of finances, and we used to spend money willynilly!

My friends are trying to get me to go out loads, but I am worried I will end up back in a mess as I am so bad with money and getting used to live on a budget.

Batchy

kittycomehome wrote: »

Hi. I recently left a bad marriage, unfortunately we fell in to a lot of debt. I am for the first time in my 30 years, going to be living on my own. I have decided to declare myself bankrupt, so I can have a real fresh start. I currently earn £1600 and my monthly bills inc. rent, utilities, council tax, travel to work will come in at just under £1000 a month (I think!). As I have never lived on my own before, would £600 a month be feasible for a single woman (with cat) to live on? I seem to be a little out of touch as my husband was in control of finances, and we used to spend money willynilly!

My friends are trying to get me to go out loads, but I am worried I will end up back in a mess as I am so bad with money and getting used to live on a budget.

Simple answer yes... you will not have a problem

Unless u have a 100 per month phone bill
100 per month sky bill :mad:
and a 1000 per month clothes shopping bill

enjoy it! :-)

newcook

I live alone and my disposable is about £450 per month - this is for going out, getting to work and food and other treats if I want them. Its more than enough! The best word to learn is NO - if friends are pestering you to go out and you cant afford it tell them no but they are more than welcome to come over with wine!!

Do you need to go bankrupt or is it possible to pay the bills off over time? When my ex and I split I was left with the debts to pay and have just finished paying them off. I was tempted to go bankrupt but sat down and worked out my monies and chose to pay it off - I stayed in most weekends and if I did go out it was to cheap places (and I only allowed myself to go out max twice a month with a set amount of £20 each night).

Any

First things first - if you are going bankrupt, it would be very difficult to get yourself into a trouble.
One thing you have consider - if you go bankrupt, you have no chance of getting any debt for anything for some time. Once you clear this fact before you go for it, then fine.

Secondly - make sure that all your bills go out soon after you get paid. And I mean all of them.
Once they are out, then you can see how much money you have. I would also put at least small Standing order within those first few days to savings account and forget you've got it (so you don't touch this money willy nilly). Just to have SOME base in case something goes wrong. Mine is £25 a month, but by now there (was) £500 which helped me out when my car's exhaust fell off:-))

As I say, after all payments are out, then you know how much money you have got to SPEND. I have internet banking and when deciding whether I want to go shopping or out, I have a look and think:
Hmmm, £300 and 2 weeks to go to the payroll day. That is £150 a week. If I take out £50 for night out (and never go over this!!) that will still leave me with £125 a week....

Or - Hmmm, £35 and week to go. 5 days of work, so need work lunches... no no, I'll tell girls we will have a night in with bottle of wine;-))

You just constantly have to have an idea how much money you've got in your account and now how much is the basic spend a week
(bus to work, lunches to work, food..)

inamess200

I have recently split from a 15 year marriage and I live on a disposable income of £600 after monthly DD's - for me and 3 children (i pay for food clothes school trips run the car on that) so it can be done!! (we have huge debt which I am currently paying off myself under a DMP even though debts were jointly run up but hey ho )

Enjoy your single life!!