Elfen's DFD/Daily Spends

elfen

Right, I'm Elfen, I'm 26 and I've just about finished my first month of my first year at Uni (Southampton Solent, BA (Hons) Film and Television Studies)

I've also been making an effort to start paying my debts, so far I've been on at three of them, but I know there's at least one more, and so far I've had no communcation so I don't know who has them, how much, but when the letters come, I'll do as I have done and set up the plans to sort them out (£5 per month per debt, paying extra when I can) I can't wort right now, as it frightens the life out of me, however I am trying to keep my imnd active (as this helps me greatly) by going to university (I was in college before, and have a grand total of 2 AS levels; B and C, one A level; A and one BTEC NA; Distinction.

I haven't done an SOA, however my income and outgoings are:

IN:
£420 Incapacity Benefit
£263 DLA (this I mainly use for transport and prescriptions, and anything to do with my disability)
TOTAL: £683

OUT:
£280 rent (all bills included)
£25 mobile bill (slightly over this month due to holiday spend - only £2.83 over!)
£10 mobile insurance - I NEED my phone, so this is an essential as it keeps me connected
£100-140 p/m food (I pay towards it with my partner, and pay for my gluten/lactose free foods)
£80 train tickets (essential to get to university)
£5 Red for one debt (mobile bill) - depending on amount from SFE, may be able to pay off
£5 Hamptons for C1 debt - depending on amount from SFE, may be able to pay off
£5 Hamptons for Halifax debt - depending on amount from SFE, may be able to pay off
£30 prescriptions (this IS essential, as it keeps me alive)
£4 LoveFilm subscription (is the cheapest, and does me for films)
£4 Total film Subscription (paid every 3 months)
£5 print credit for uni (in case I have no ink at home)
£15? for ink cartridge and paper (cheaper than uni, but not by much! And yes, I print out about 80 pages of readings a week, and NEED cheaper cartridges)
TOTAL: £608

Ins - Outs = £75 (I never see this money, think it goes on misc. spending etc)

Current debts:
£1000 Overdraft (Student account, is interest free for 3 years, but will lower it when SFE sort my money out)
£65 :Red (old Three) contract - am trying to pay this off
£188 - Hamptons - Capital One
£180 - Hamptons - Halifax
£280 - Rent - will be paid when SFE pay me

I SHOULD have £75 left, but rarely see this due to misc. spending I can't pin down, but I want that to change, so if the £75 stays in my account, then it'll start to bring down the overdraft slowly. I am planning to pay off either two or all of the debts when my loan payments come in, maybe two this time and then one in January. Am predicting getting at least £2k every 4 months..although the last payment will need to cover til September. I already have another account, and plan to either use this one, or to open a secondary one, to transfer the majority of my loan over to it and to set up an S.O to my main account monthly to budget the money.

Ok, so now to the spends. I know I have £80-85 currently sat in my account, and want to try not to touch it, as part of it is my phone bill. The rest I would want to use the next two weeks for train tickets.
Spends today:
£4.98 shopping
£3.56 - cigarettes and sweets....

*sigh* Think I know where some of it goes then!

chevalier

Good luck with your debt busting. And you just know we are going to tell you to give up smoking and put the money you save in a jar, so you can see it mount up.....

chev

elfen

You do know I'm just going to tell you I wont, as both me and my psych have agreed until I'm significantly better that giving up smoking is more stress than good. And I'm working my way through 4 pouches of baccy I brought back from Spain (should last til New Year maybe) so it's not part of my spends as of right now

elfen

Right, just an update for the week. SFE have sent me the notification letters for my loan, grant and bursary, so I know how much money I'll have coming in for the next few months (until next summer I believe) So hopefully I'll be able to pay off the £280, and maybe the 3 debt as well.

Also received a letter from the Halifax saying they're going to repay my PPI with interest and offset it against the debt. I'm going to send both them and Capital One a charges recliam letter, showing I am in hardship with an SoA to hopefully get them reclaimed. I'm also hoping Halifax will let me pay off my CC debt with them direct as Westcot are just pushy and insensitive.

So, a good and a bad week. Have been on dooyoo and done another review (may do more as the week goes on - am elfen09 if you want to read what I've done ) also got a Quidco payout of £11 in a few days, it's not a massive amount but it means I can get through the next few weeks until SFE pay out.

Whew, all this and I've got presentations to write. I will get there!

Katy83

Hi Elfen,

Just found your diary - I remember reading your other thread about the awful way the student financial support people had treated you. Sounds like you are managing to get in control of things a bit anyway,

I would definitely second the giving up smoking thing, when you feel able to anyway. Have you thought of taking up a hobby like walking or swimming, something gentle and cheap which is good for stress relief?

Was also thinking, what about trying some voluntary work? Although I think you are very brave for going to uni, that has to be tough! There are all kinds of volunteer opportunites out there, maybe try and find something you enjoy doing?

Do you get a prepaid prescription certificate? Do you get your ink cartridges refilled and print double sided, two sheets to a page?

For the sweets/shopping thing, doing food diaries and planning are invaluable for cutting your spends. If you know you are likely to buy sweets why not either bake sweet treats (flapjacks and brownies are my favourites) or buy the bigger multipacks from the supermarket (like haribo or own brand equivalent) and keep them in your bag?

If you sign up for your free month's trial with experian your credit file should show where your debts are and how much you owe...just remember to cancel it!

Good luck with getting the student finance people sorted xx

elfen

I've done the credit thing with experian....and now am paying off 3 of my debts, I know who the others are with, but until they get in contact, I can't sort it out

I walk a lot, to the train station, then to uni, and then back when I go home. Used a stepper, and it averages out at about 18,000 steps 3 days a week. I don't usually go out a lot on my days off, as I find it tricky going out on my own.

Uni is pretty tough, and I'm trying to get a HC1 form to see if that helps me cut costs. Of course, if I can't get one, then I'll go pre-pay. I have no idea where would refill cartridges, and as I mark a lot of my readings, doing them double sided would make it harder to work out where I am.

Have started meal planning, but it doesn't help when OH doesn't go shopping and I have to pick up bits I'm tryingto lower what I buy at uni, I think it's now down to a drink, but I've been buying fruit juice and reusing a bottle, so I think I've bought one with my points.

Weekly spends:
£18 train tickets
£4.00 in boots (paid for by boots points)
£4.52 shopping
£2.00 at uni - need to stop this.

elfen

I now have a reason to stop the extra spends: I've just booked my first lot of driving lessons! 45 quid for the first four, then 175 for the next ten hours, which is a dam good deal!

elfen

Ok, have looked at student finance site so I can better budget, and have found that it has been fully "Approved". Now it's time to wait for the payments to come from them to me and I can set a budget off of that. The main thing to do is to pay my back rent of £280, and set up the budget and savings account to work out a new SoA taking into account the loan and grant, which is happy days for me!

I am dithering over lowering my overdraft, but am considering keeping it at this level, as it is interest free for 3 years, and nowhere else will I get a better deal. So I'm thinking; keep it, and open an e-savings account to put in loan and grant money I don't need to touch, and then use other money I have coming in to try and start paying back the O/D. If I do go back into it, I am going to aim for £500 limit out of the £1000, then I have emergency money for anything that could go wrong.

Right now, after talking to Pint, we've cleaned the majority of the house, with all the hard floors left for him as I'm useless at it, and meaning before his parents come home we can reclean it and it won't take as long. Bedroom is a moot point, but needs sorting. Maybe when SFE pay I can start listing on eBay and get rid of a ton of my old clothes that don't fit.

elfen

Morning peeps on this chilly Monday morning. Checked the bank and I have a fiver I can put towards my weekly spends. If I can't find my gloves I'll be using a coupla quid to buy some as it's chilly chilly chilly!

Have to go into uni, mainly to do filming. Think it's a shame we have to as otherwise I could save 6 quid and put it towards the car fund. Need to open up an e-savings account when next online, to shuttle over any money that is left out of my weekly spends. As I'm also trying to lose about 3 and a half stone, may also put a food diary in here too.

Breakfast: 40g ready brek

elfen

Out the woodwork they all come. Two more DCA letters, one for a phone I can't remember having, one for the barstewards Provy. They're getting £5 and the phone gets £1 til the other is paid off. And they can keep ti, or shove it, I have stopped caring right now. Just feels anytime I make headway, it gets swallowed back up