Just an orange socked girl in a cold cold world

orange-sox

Getting to know you, getting know allllll about youuuuuuu! (Well getting to know me, but you get the idea!)

Name: orange-sox

Age: 21

Occupation: Errr, a tough one, I'm an administrator by day, and a nursing assistant on a very very busy psychiatric intensive care ward by night - like batman, but badly paid and nearly always getting injured by the badies!

Why I'm here: Well, I'm in debt and at risk of sounding a bit stupid, it's almost kinda in a roundabout way not even my fault! Okay, so I do sound stupid, I guess I should explain a lot better.

My parents divorced about 7 years ago, it was very messy, expensive and most of all left my mum in a hell of a lot of debt, yet she carried on paying for my school fees etc. I then left school due to illness, but because of her earnings, we weren't entitled to any benefits etc - of course that wouldn't have been too bad, if it weren't for the fact that all her earnings were going on her debts, so we were getting further and further into debt.

Fast forward to about May last year, past a consolidation loan and further spiraling debts brings you to me taking out a loan and a credit card - at this point I had just had my hours cut at my last job, we were struggling to make minimum payments on everything and well, lets face it I was just a little bit naive about debt etc.

Fast forward to 18/12/09 - my lightbulb moment, a very good friend of mine pointed me towards MSE, oh my goodness, what's a dmp? How do I get my mum one? How do I tackle my own debts? I was in debt free wannabe heaven!

So, the present day! I am trying to get myself on my own two feet, while still supporting my mum through her dmp - she's finding it very hard to adjust, I've tried to get her to visit MSE, but it's not happening... you can only lead a horse to water hey

It's been a tough few months for me, my mum really wasn't all that interested in the dmp, thought I was going to financially carry her for the rest of her life or something, i dunno really. At times I want to bang my head against the wall.... I mean why on earth would you worry about your credit history when you are so far into debt?!?!? It's going to take her almost 10 years to clear her debt so obviously that doesn't exactly motivate her much!

As you can see it's a very emotionally charged, complicated situation, my mum seems to think it's all my fault my dad left, she's in debt etc. So money I could be using every month to pay for my own debts, it going to her and her debts.... frugal living here I come!

Here's my kinda SOA - it's a bit warped due to my situation! I know certain things will seem like insane expenditure (£58 for virgin media anyone?) but boyfriend works at home, so he needs the broadband for that, and I pay reduced rent to my mum because of the extra household expenditure I took on - so if I got rid of the virgin, and gave away the dog, I'd still lose all the money because it'd go to her :rotfl:

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 630
Never below this, but sometimes more for extra shifts when I can get them!
Rent + Food money from boyfriend........ 250
Total monthly income.................... 880
Monthly Expense Details
Rent.................................... 200
Mobile phone............................ 45
Believe it or not I do get massive benefit from it, mobile is the only way of contacting my dad so I do use all the minutes. I take it with me when escorting patients also, and have any calls reimbursed, so can usually bring my phone bill down by about a tenner each month!
Virgin Media (Phone, TV, Broadband)..... 58
Groceries etc. ......................... 150
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 50
I buy mum and boyfriend £25 of fuel each a month, because 9/10 shifts they will drop me off, or pick me up from work
Other travel............................ 20
Normally less than this, but I have to budget for the worse, I can't really walk the 20odd miles to work at 5am!
Pet medication + food................... 40
Has homeopathic medication for epilepsy which isn't covered by insurance :rolleyes:
British Gas Boiler Cover................ 18
PPC and contact lenses.................. 16
Emergency Fund.......................... 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 638

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 Payment
HSBC Loan.............3302.46......78.63 (Fixed 42 payments left :rolleyes:)
HSBC Credit Card......1480.66......40 minimum payment! approx
HSBC Overdraft........900..........101.22 (Fixed for 9 months then it's gone)
Total.................5682..........219.85

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 880
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 638
Available for debt repayments........... 262
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 219.85
Amount left after debt repayments....... 22.15

My Plan of Action:

1. Will be using any money left over each month to pay extra off my credit card.

2. Will be taking on extra shifts to increase the money I can pay off the dratted thing - it went in the confidential waste shredder at work months ago, so fear not, I will never ever use the sodding thing!

3. Will be as frugal as possible, and try to shave money off the shopping bill.

4. Stop feeling so f-ing guilty about my mothers debt, she was the adult in the equation for a lot of years, I'm doing my best to help, and I can't physically or financially do anymore!

Phew, if you read this to the end you deserve a flipping medal!

honeybear_2

Hello Orange Sox :hello:

Sounds like you've been through the mill at bit but hurrah for the fact you've made it to the world of MSE! And well done for facing up to your debts & posting on here, it's not always easy but there's a wealth of experience & support on here that will help you

As regards your plan to use leftover money to pay off your credit card you might want to check out the Payment A Day thread on this board - i've found it's a really useful way of paying towards debt on a regular basis. I don't do it every day but some do so it might help

Best of luck

Swinstie73

Wow orange-sox, what alot to put up with over the years! Can't make much comments on your SOA, as I'm still trying to bring mines down, but can sympathise with the Virgin Media, I pay around £55 per month including calls (don't even make much), but my sister gets her for £35, and believe me I have tried to reduce it, ain't working!

orange-sox

Thanks honeybear! I have trundled over and make my mark on the PAD thread.

I think I will most likely be making extra payments once per month after the 25th (when the wages come in, and mostly disappear :rolleyes:), but will be shoving any spare change into a pot each month for the extra payments!

So £1.46 to the pot for me today so far!

Tete_en_l'Air

Hi Orange Sox, gosh what a situation, I feel for you. I'm not normally one to pick over SOAs but the things that leap out at me here are:

Clothes - only £20 a month but can you knock this on the head for at least six months or so, that's £120?
Emergency fund - as everyone always says, this IS an emergency. If something else comes up, you have your overdraft, or you could pay the minimum that month - do you have anything in this emergency pot at the moment that could go straight off the debts?
Mobile phone - I know you say you need it but that's a very exepnsive contract. Can you not find a cheaper contract and have your dad call you instead? Obviously I don't know a lot about the situation but it sounds as though your Dad has upped and left and he's getting on fine whilst you and your mum struggle - surely he could grant you some phonecalls?

I think you are thinking along these lines already, but I'd urge you definitely to sort your own debt before even thinking about helping your mum out - as you say she doesn't seem to want to get debt free and until she does you'll be throwing good money after bad.

Wishing you luck with it all!

ETA - you mention your boyfriend needing broadband to work from home - is he living with you? Is he making any contributions? Surely he should be paying half the broadband costs at least?

orange-sox

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

Hi Orange Sox, gosh what a situation, I feel for you. I'm not normally one to pick over SOAs but the things that leap out at me here are:

Clothes - only £20 a month but can you knock this on the head for at least six months or so, that's £120? Can't knock this on the head, I need to constantly replace ruined clothes from work - working on a PICU most of my work clothes are damaged beyond repair within weeks - i get them from charity shops anyway, so I don't feel too hard done by, and I always make the effort to replace them. I'm currently in a pair of trousers with three different colours of patches :rotfl:OOO, also, our wages do include a "mufti" allowance, so if we had uniforms, we'd be just paid less!

Emergency fund - as everyone always says, this IS an emergency. If something else comes up, you have your overdraft, or you could pay the minimum that month - do you have anything in this emergency pot at the moment that could go straight off the debts? I have no emergency money at all, it's already gone off my debts.

Mobile phone - I know you say you need it but that's a very exepnsive contract. Can you not find a cheaper contract and have your dad call you instead? Obviously I don't know a lot about the situation but it sounds as though your Dad has upped and left and he's getting on fine whilst you and your mum struggle - surely he could grant you some phonecalls? My dad isn't getting on fine at all, and he can't afford a mobile phone or landline at all but I can call him on his works phone. Also, I can't get a cheaper contract, because I'm still tied in this one for the best part of another 18 months.

I think you are thinking along these lines already, but I'd urge you definitely to sort your own debt before even thinking about helping your mum out - as you say she doesn't seem to want to get debt free and until she does you'll be throwing good money after bad.

Wishing you luck with it all!

ETA - you mention your boyfriend needing broadband to work from home - is he living with you? Is he making any contributions? Surely he should be paying half the broadband costs at least? He is indeed, that's what the £250 a month is for, his half of the rent, plus his part of the broadband etc.

Thanks for all your input, you definately tried, but what can I say... I'm a bit of a hard nut to crack!

Tete_en_l'Air

orange-sox wrote: »

I'm a bit of a hard nut to crack!

You are! I didn't see the part about your boyfriend's rent there. Apologies for making assumptions about your dad, I just wondered is all - if he'd left and you were still under 18 I'd have thought he'd need to pay maintenance or something - but don't know much at all about these matters.

Looking again at your debts - two of them are fixed - does this mean you can't overpay? If that's the case then it seems the bast thing you can do is pay off the CC as fast as you can and then plod along with the others. You need to start working on your mum - I know it's not your debt but it must be very stressful knowing she's in so much trouble

orange-sox

Wahay! There are many reasons I am happy today!

1. I am working overtime on Sunday afternoon - time + 1/2

2. Sunday is also free listings day on ebay - that's my morning taken care of!

3. I have taken sandwiches to work EVERY day this week - go me!

4. I found over £8 in change tidying my bedroom - will add it up later for my extra payment pot!

5. I get to try out my brand new slow cooker that I purchased with Xmas vouchers this weekend!

This is most irregular for me to be so happy! I think I'm finally getting into the swing of this DFW thing, woohoo!