Ex student, Trying to shift student debt!

christopherpostill

OK,

So I have found myself in a bit of a tight situation, and I'm trying to work myself out of it.

A few months ago, I started full time employment within the public sector after finishing my 3 year BA degree at University, and of course racking up the obligatory horrendous amounts of debt that comes with student-hood.

To cut a long story short, I have taken out a loan to try and manage my finances a bit better.

My debts are as follows....

£2,750 on a Halifax Student Account Overdraft
£1,000 on a Halifax Current Account Overdraft
£4,500 on a loan (albeit in my parents name) that I bought my car with.

The loan is with Tesco over 2 years at 8.3%. I have made 4 payments on it - at £227 per month.

I have taken out an £8500 loan with the Halifax at 8.9% over 3 years and instead of paying £227 per month, I will pay £272 per month which will pay for the car and pay off both of my overdrafts by the end of the 3 year term. I applied for the Sainsbury's 7.9% APR with Double Nectar Points, but bizarrely I got declined. My credit score was in the high 900's so not sure why.

Tesco want £4507 to settle the car loan early. I have paid £908 of it, and the total amount was £5448.

Taking into account the fact that Halifax now charge £1 per day on an overdraft, I will only be putting £15 per month more onto a loan than before, but paying more things off.

My income is at the moment £1250 per month after all deductions (soon to be £1350ish hopefully) , and my (half of) outgoings are as below:

Rent £400.00
Gas £30.00 (Sainsburys)
Electric £30.00 (Sainsburys)
Water £10.00
Council Tax £60.00
Mobile Phone £35.00
Sky £20.00 (Covers TV, Sky, Phone and Line rental)
Camera Insurance £10.00 (Photoguard)
Contents Insurance £10.00 (Endsleigh)
Bank Loan £272.00 (Halifax 8.9% APR)
Food £125.00
Petrol £50.00
Car Tax £20.00 (Budgeted for monthly)
Gym £20.00 (JJB off peak membership)
Tv Licence £6.00
Mot £10.00
Car insurance £50.00 (Budgeted for monthly for next years)

= £1158.

Obviously thats pretty tight and theres no buffer for emergencies etc. The loan will be deferred for 2 months so I can get on top of things - such as car repairs (silly alarm keeps going off) and build a bit of a buffer.

I *think* I've gone about this in the right way after much calculating and deliberating, but has anyone else got any cunning money saving idea's?

All my outgoings seem to be on pretty basic things - utilities etc.

Cheers!

katsu

Can you clarify - is this half of every bill or do you pay some bills entirely?

How many people are in your house? We'd find a full SOA easier to look at - see the sticky thread for instructions and link.

For example - £30 gas and £30 electric. How much is the full bill, for how many people? Without that info we can't tell if it is too high.

Why do you have camera insurance that costs £120pa? Could you not cover it cheaper in your contents insurance?

christopherpostill

Thanks for the reply.

It is just my girlfriend and I in our 2 bed maisonette. Rent is high as it's in the city - we need to be here at the moment though as we both work here - There is no parking for me at work, and my girlfriend doesn't drive.

See the below for clarification:

Rent £400.00 This is my HALF
Gas £30.00 (Sainsburys)
Electric £30.00 (Sainsburys) Gas and electric total approx £120 per month dual fuel
Water £10.00 My HALF - Total is £20
Council Tax £60.00 My HALF - Total is £116
Mobile Phone £35.00 Just Mine
Sky £20.00 (Covers TV, Sky, Phone and Line rental) My Half
Camera Insurance £10.00 (Photoguard) Just Mine
Contents Insurance £10.00 (Endsleigh) My HALF
Bank Loan £272.00 (Halifax 8.9% APR) Just Mine
Food £125.00 My HALF we budget approx £50 per week for both of us
Petrol £50.00 Just mine
Car Tax £20.00 (Budgeted for monthly) Just mine
Gym £20.00 (JJB off peak membership) Just Mine
Tv Licence £6.00 My Half - £12 per month
Mot £10.00 Just Mine
Car insurance £50.00 (Budgeted for monthly for next years) Just Mine

The camera insurance at the time seemed like a good deal - I have 2x DSLR's and Lenses so they would all have to be listed as specific items on the contents insurance as they are worth a fair amount. I pay monthly on the camera insurance - I did ask about cancelling it, but cannot do this until the 12 months is up they said. It's also a zero excess policy.

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Edit:

I knocked this up just quickly from the link - I've not included my partners outgoings that are hers and only hers, I don't know them all exactly, but know she had lots of debt also that she needs to sort out. I have included MY bills and our SHARED bills.

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.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1250
Partners monthly income after tax....... 950
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2200

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 795
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 115
Electricity............................. 80
Gas..................................... 40
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 20
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 50
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 37
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 50
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 60
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1554


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 4500

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Student Account................2750......0.........0
Current Account................1000......0.........0
Car Loan.......................4500......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........8250......0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,200
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,554
Available for debt repayments........... 646
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 646

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 4,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -8,250
Net Assets.............................. -3,750

Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Opera browser.

christopherpostill

Apologies - contents insurance is only £11.85 per month in total.

katsu

£120 per month dual fuel for a maisonette :eek: Just for comparison...I have gas heating, an electric cooker and washing machine. No tumble dryer, no TV. I was paying around half what you pay to british gas and local electricity board. I've just switched and my monthly DD is down to just over 1/3 of your bill. I'm heating a semi.

Get some meter readings in, check your bills. If your consumption is so crazy - block draughts, hang curtains, line curtains, turn down heating, wear thermals, turn things off at the wall, turn off lights when you are not in the room.

Council tax paid over 10 months (so you get a 2 month break?). Have you used a 12th or 10th?

Full SOA template is helpful as it points out you never pay for a haircut, never buy presents, spend nothing on entertainment. I suspect you may be spending money on these sort of things?

HTH

christopherpostill

It is ridiculous - a portion of the £120 is because we underpaid last year at £105 per month for both.

I think this place is stupidly inefficient - The only thing that is gas is our central heating. BUT, the boiler is from 1988 when the house was built and its the "modairflow" warm air vented type. Apparently the hot water function died a few years ago before we moved in, so our water is heated by immersion which is probably expensive.

Our curtains are lined and quite thick, and ALL of our light bulbs throughout the house are energy saving. We have a tumble dryer, but NEVER use it (well, a washer drier)

It's a crippling amount to be honest. I think a new boiler that is efficient, and also heats water would half the bill - but why would a landlord replace it if he doesn't have to pay the bills? He's already just had the place re-decorated with new carpets throughout for us!

I never pay for a haircut - the Girlfriend is quite handy with the clippers.

I don't spend too much on entertainment at all - I don't really drink as I prefer to drive (plus it's expensive!!) so when I go out, a pint of blackcurrant squash is all of about 50p

Presents - good point. Mum, Dad and Sister - for Christmas and Birthday maybe £120 a year for them. The GF - I ruin her generally, so let say for arguments sake the same again without looking through receipts and stuff. £240 per year probably takes care of it.

Council tax - good point about the 10 months. Not sure about the amounts - as we were exempt due to student status for part of this period. It does however, say Band C - Annual charge for the year £1245.17 (1st April 09- 31st March 10). First installment due on 5th July 2009 1x £115.30 Seven other installments due on 5th August 2009 - 5th Feb 2010 7x £115.60. Exemption - occupied by students 1st April 2009 - 3rd July 2009 -£320.67.

Confuses me to be honest!

Idiophreak

katsu wrote: »

£120 per month dual fuel for a maisonette :eek: Just for comparison...I have gas heating, an electric cooker and washing machine. No tumble dryer, no TV. I was paying around half what you pay to british gas and local electricity board. I've just switched and my monthly DD is down to just over 1/3 of your bill. I'm heating a semi.

Seems high to me, too - I live in a 2 bed flat, am far from what you'd call tight, keep the place heated to 20', have a whole bunch of halogen lights, use the tumble dryer quite a bit as we've nowhere to hang clothes to dry. We pay £60/month dual-fuel on eon...

katsu

christopherpostill wrote: »

It is ridiculous - a portion of the £120 is because we underpaid last year at £105 per month for both.

I think this place is stupidly inefficient - The only thing that is gas is our central heating. BUT, the boiler is from 1988 when the house was built and its the "modairflow" warm air vented type. Apparently the hot water function died a few years ago before we moved in, so our water is heated by immersion which is probably expensive.

Use your immersion as little as possible. 20 mins use should heat the tank for you (experiment) turn the temp on front down to 60. Check tank has a jacket. The hot water should last for hours. If only doing a single bowl of washing up - boil the kettle!

christopherpostill

Interesting - I assumed it would take an hour minimum to heat a full tank.

Our immersion heater comes on for an hour in the morning so that both of us have enough hot water to shower with.... and then for half an hour or so in the evening to do washing up with.

You reckon 20 minutes? I'll have to have a play with it...

There is no temp control though - it goes straight to a cheapy timer thing so that you can have it set to be on at certain times. It also has a 1/2/3 hour boost button.

christopherpostill

Presumably the £8500 loan from the Halifax is the way to go to sort the car loan and overdrafts out though, right?