Where do I start?!

Puddingpennies

Hi Everyone
I’ve been lurking around here for a little while now and can see that there is some great advice and guidance that hopefully I’ll be able to benefit from! I had a sort of light bulb moment about 3 weeks ago, since then I’ve managed to stick to spending £20 a week, I’ve been moving money from my current account into an instant savings account daily (honestly it’s a miniscule amount but all I can really afford) but I’m hoping to accumulate enough to pay off what I owe to the Next Directory in one go- £13 down £164 to go :rolleyes:
Anyway, I’ve done a SOA and have apparently got spare money at the end of the month, if anybody would care to point me in the direction that this money is hiding I’d be eternally grateful, or perhaps I’ve been subconsciously putting this money into a super high interest savings account and have a fortune stowed away. I have my sneaking suspicions that it’s neither hiding nor saved but has infact been frittered away along with the money that is now my mountain of debt, sometimes I don’t have money left at the end of the month to eat nevermind pay extra to debts!! I’m absolutely DESPERATE to pay off these debts ASAP, I feel like they’re an anchor around my neck and I’d like to be free from them and the worry they bring.
A teeny bit about me and my finances, the household figures on my SOA are my half of the bills, rent etc. I share a house with a friend and our finances are in no way linked, we both put our half of the outgoings into a ‘pot’ and pay them directly from that. I’ve gotten into so much debt at such a young age (23) by my own reckless disregard for money and living WAY beyond my means, champagne lifestyle on a beer budget springs to mind!
I would really appreciate any advice on where to start, how to start, will it ever be over?! :eek:
Sorry about the long post and thanks for any input!
PP
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 0
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1072.6
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1072.6
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 300
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 45
Electricity............................. 15
Gas..................................... 15
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 20
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 45
TV Licence.............................. 6
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 20.5
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 50
Clothing................................ 15
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 48
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 7
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 15
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 661.5

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Lloyds Consolidation ..........7500......150.......4
HSBC Loan......................710.......50........5
Next Directory.................178.......17........6
Total unsecured debts..........8388......217.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,072.6
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 661.5
Available for debt repayments........... 411.1
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 217
Amount left after debt repayments....... 194.1
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -8,388
Net Assets.............................. -8,388
Created using the SOA calculator
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

Tixy

Hi puddingpennies

The best way to find your missing money is to start a spending diary (if you haven't already). Keep one for a couple of months and write down everything you spend (if its 50p on choccy, the odd quid on the lottery or £20 on a takeaway). Looking at your SOA I would think some might be going on top-up grocery shopping. It is definatley possible to have groceries of £50 but most people who are new to budgeting are usually paying out quite a bit more than that.

You haven't mentioned any contents insurance (have you missed it off or do you not have any?)

Looking at your figures is your rent 'reasonable' compared to similar properties on the market near you at the moment. Its worth checking what else is out there. In some areas there is an oversupply of property (particluarly flats) and you may be able to negotiate a reduction with your landlord - if not you could both consider moving if you found somewhere substanstially cheaper.

Your water is reasonably high - is it metered or unmeasured? If unmeasured see if a meter would work out cheaper and ask your LL if you can switch. If metered check you don't have a leak or a dripping tap. Also don't leave taps running unnecessarily (e.g when cleaning teeth, washing up etc).

You could ask your mobile provider to drop you to a lower tariff or about other ways to reduce your bills (usually they will run through your usage and suggest cheaper alternatives).

What sort of travel is the other travel? Bus? Train? - are you buying by the cheapest method - eg monthly passes/season tickets save a lot compared to buying daily.

Any chance you can up your income from more hours at work? Have you considered a second part time job?

All that said if you could find your missing £194 each month and, providing most can be used for debt repayments, you will be able to make substantial inroads into your debt and better still your debt free date.

The extra money should (as you probably know) be paid towards the debt with the highest APR that allows overpayments - obviously for you thats your Next debt.

Good luck.

Still-in-debt

Hi puddingpennies (love the name btw!!)

Would agree with keeping a spending diary. When I did my soa, I had quite a bit left apparently.....my purse didn't agree!! I kept a spending diary with almost ocd tendancies! Found where literally £'s were going.

Maybe, you couls start a diary on this site too. Go to the diaries board and have a look at other peoples, they are so inspirational and seeing all you are doing in black and white can really help. I am about to start one of my own.
Good luck
S-i-D.

ps posts like sammysallyspuds are not helpful.

Puddingpennies

Ooh I have replies already!

Hi Tixy- thanks for all your tips and advice, I don’t have contents insurance, the last quote I got was somewhere in the region of £45 p/m plus an initial one off payment of £250 which at the time was money I just didn’t have (still don’t!) Our rent is reasonable as we live right in the city centre, we have got someone who would like to move into the spare room, fingers crossed that all goes to plan which will give me an extra £150 (my half) to put towards the debts :T. As for getting a second job, I’ve known for ages that it’s something I should really consider, I’m just too lazy to do anything about it, plus the job I’m in at the moment is flexi so I have to stay late at short notice, and I’m in university part time 2 evenings a week!

Hi S-i-D- Thanks! I’m def starting my spending diary in the morning; I’ll be logging every penny! I’ll keep an eye out for your diary on here, I’d love to do one but think my writing skills leave a lot to be desired and I’m afraid I’d just bore everyone including myself.

I think I may have gotten a little confused in the APR section on my SOA, I’m sure on second thoughts those rates look a little optimistic! I’m not very financially savvy considering I work in finance :rolleyes: note to self... double check interest rates!

Thanks again
PP

Tixy

Hi
Oh my thats a scary high quote for contents insurance - I'm shocked. Is there any reason why it was so high (that you know of)?

An extra lodger certainly sounds like it would help you out.

Understand about the 2nd job if you are already busy with a full time job and uni. Perhaps you would be better suited to look at earning some extra money in more ad-hoc ways. There is a whole MSE board called 'up your income' to look out but some popular tips are to do mystery shopping and write online reviews and surveys. These won't earn a fortune but can contribute towards buying extras or presents (some of the review/survey sites pay in vouchers which is good for saving for christmas).

Do you have any items you could sell on ebay/amazon/gumtree/ car boot sale? Especially if your spare room is full of possesions this could be a good time for a clearout!
Some people on here have set themselves a challenge to only spend money on clothes that they have earnt by selling old clothes, (I couldn't do it personally, clothes are one of my weaknesses!)

Definatley check interest rates out, need to know what they are to really start tackling the debts right. Well done on facing up to things though - its not easy to admit that things are a little out of control.

Keep posting!

fatbelly

Hi

If you try buying an Asda contents policy through Quidco, and don't insure a huge value of stuff, you may find the cashback is about the same as the premium. I just got £30k of cover for £47.50, and £49.50 cashback!

I may be missing something but are you trying to save into an ISA in order to then pay your Next account in one hit? You wil be getting about 3% interest in the ISA and paying 30% to Next. Probably better to pay Next on a monthly basis. And check those APRs - Next will almost certainly be the highest.

If you can stick to your budget, Next can be cleared in one month!

The mobile cost looks high but I'm not an expert. Suggest you post on the mobiles board and see what the guys come up with.

Fire_Fox

Puddingpennies wrote: »

Hi S-i-D- Thanks! I’m def starting my spending diary in the morning; I’ll be logging every penny! I’ll keep an eye out for your diary on here, I’d love to do one but think my writing skills leave a lot to be desired and I’m afraid I’d just bore everyone including myself.

Thanks again
PP

My debt-free diary is not interesting or amusing, I use it as a spending diary, to total everything up at the end of each month and to think about how best to make more money or spend less on food. Some of the other diaries are funny or addictive or evocative or motivating but I don't think it matters how many readers you have as long as the diary helps you stay on track.

tealady

Hi. Once you have checked out the APR's use the snowballer to suss out which to clear 1st.
I find it helps to have a weekly budget, I take the money out of the bank the same day each week. Then at the end of the week you could pay any money left over to a debt. It might only be pennies but as Mr T says "Every little helps"

Puddingpennies

I had no idea that insurance quote was high, I just presumed that was the going rate and decided against it, this being the first time I’ve lived fully independently from my parents (uni halls don’t exactly count) I’m still not really sure about these kinds of things, maybe I’ll do some more research into that then, and I’ll see if I can work out this quidco thing that’s been suggested (thanks fatbelly). Tixy- I have so much rubbish around the house you wouldn’t believe it, and I was thinking about selling some of it, would people really want to buy my old tat though? I have A LOT of books that I could sell, would eBay be the best place for them? I’ve just registered with GAPbuster to do mystery shopping, and have read loads about matched betting (?) lots of people on here seem to be doing well with that so maybe I could give it a go.


Fatbelly- its not an ISA just a standard instant savings account with A&L, I’m really only moving it because I know if its not in my current a/c I absolutely cant spend it, then when the Next bill comes at the end of the month, I’ll have that extra money set aside to put towards it, as for long term savings in an ISA or high interest savings a/c… I wish!!! My mobile probably is too high come to think of it, maybe I should ring Orange, I think I saw a thread somewhere about Orange changing their rates, will look into that and see if I can get a better deal, thanks!


Checked the APR’s the Lloyds one is low, I remember now I rang them last year and told them I was really struggling to pay my credit cards (which were with Lloyds) and overdraft (also with Lloyds) and they said they’d put it all into one low interest management loan not really sure what it meant, she did say it would affect my credit rating for 3 years, but at the time, I was just glad for a way out of the credit card payments which were getting to almost £70 minimum a month! Same again with HSBC, that was just a loan I took out a while ago to clear my overdraft from when I was at uni, which was interest free whilst I was at uni, the day I left they started piling the interest on, late payments, overdraft useage fees etc, that ended up out of control so I put it into a lower interest loan, and yes, the lovely Next Directory… 26.59% :eek:OH MY LORD!:eek: I’m glad this is nearly gone, this time last year I owed them £2000 but have been really hammering it to get rid, my credit limit was £3000 and as soon as I got down to £500 they reduced my credit limit to £50 which I suspect is putting a mark on my file every month that I’m over my limit?:mad: Looks like the sooner I get rid of next the better!


Firefox- the way I’m going with this post I may aswell be writing a diary! Maybe I’ll give it a go tonight, I’m sure I could waffle about something!

PP

Katie-Kat-Kins

Well done for facing up to it!

Orange will definitely lower your tarriff if you ask nicely, they do a best plan review every six months anyway but if you phone and tell them that you are experiencing financial difficulties they may drop you a tarriff anyway. If you are out of contract just go PAYG for a while.

I'd ditch the sky/cable too, it is an unnecessary luxury and you can go onto freeview/freesat and still have most of the good channels. If you are still in contract again phone them and ask if you can get them to drop you a package or two to make it cheaper.

Renting the room is great news, it won't just be some extra cash it will also be a third person to contribute to the bills!

Do get a spending diary going, it will really help, and if you don't fancy posting a formal diary on here you could always just put an update on this thread every day or so to keep you focussed and to discuss what you can be doing with people following you.

Numpty_Monkey

Have you checked Martins thing:eek:;)
about insurance http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/

To go along with what Fatbelly said about casback, there are some other sites that can match or better quidco at the moment quidco seem to be having problems with larger CB claims and insurance type things:o

With APR's if you have any statements they will put the APR on it , usually just to confuse people they have it as Monthlyif thats the casea rule of thumb is to multiply it by 13
or just post the monthly APR and we can work it out , I'm sure next is more than 6%:rolleyes:

The spending diary is a great thing to keep, but scarey when you add it up at the end of the week:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::A