In debt! - Help!

DebtDiva_2

Hello, I'm new to this board. I have been coming on this website for a couple of months in order to sneak at a few peoples money saving techniques.
I am in debt by £2000 all on an overdraft that I obtained whilst being a student. I know £2000 isn't alot of money compared to what debt some of you are in but nevertheless it worries me sick! I used to spend whatever I liked regardless of my monthly income hense the reason why I max my overdraft out every month, but I had my lightbulb moment at the start of january and decided enough was enough and I needed to do something about it.
I have the spendaholic syndrome and thought I could live a luxurious lifestyle (Not true) So I would like some help and support with how I can make some extra money and would like some support to tell me that I really REALLY don't need the things that I bought!
I have started a diary to write down the items that I buy and hopefully it will make me realise what crap my money is wasted on.
Luckily I have the support from my OH and parents who have all agreed to sit down with me every payday and work out where my money needs to go on that month (it tends to vary) and hopefully start putting some money away to chip away at this blasted overdraft!!
I havent filled in a SOA as my spenditure is pretty basic, its what I do with the left over money which is a problem.

My monthy income fluctuates every month depending on what I work (I am a Nurse) but I roughly come out with £1500 pcm.

£600 goes in to my joint acount with the OH this covers the morgage, bills, food shopping and leaves a SMALL amount left over at the end of the month for saving. (and I stress SMALL)
£35 phone bill. I have the Iphone (not necessary I know, but I am in a two year contract with them)
£30 gym membership
£49 car insurance
£175 car loan
£150 (roughly depending on what the bill is) on Credit card. I pay this off in full every month. Most its ever been is £200.

= £1,039

which roughly leaves me £461 to live off for the month which I just spend as I so wished. Didnt put any into savings, spent on clothes, nights out, lunch out, petrol etc. I din't have a set amount of what I spent on each, I just bought whatever I could afford for that week.

I am aware that this needs to change and have started to save at least £100 of it to reduce my overdraft and I an working extra shifts at work.
My new moto is: spend only what I need, not what I want!
Cut my CC up so that will free up £150 a month, only reason I spent on it was because I was skint at the end of every month!

Does anyone have any other solutions to raise more cash or give me any advise that I need?
I feel much better for writting this down as I am worrying about my future!
Thanks!

DarkConvict

I would fill in the SOA here in MSE format, it will give some more details about the breakdown as there might be places to save you don't realise - http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

I think the best thing for you from what i read is a spending diary, buy a small notebook and write down everything you spend from 1p sweets to a new TV. It will give you an idea where you money goes on a day to day basis, this is a big area many people can can down in and the diary has been shown to help.

Tixy

Hi and welcome

Do you think it would help if you opened up a new bank account with no overdraft. You could then use this for your current account, move your salary & dds across and set up a standing order to repay (say) £100 each month off your old overdraft.

I know this helps some people to take more control over an overdraft debt.

Have you been through all the items that are paid out the joint account to see if they can be reduced by switching suppliers/dropping tariffs etc.

If you could make some savings here then you and OH could slightly reduce the amount you pay into that account (even a £10 saving helps!)

Try to write out a budget for that £461, if you break it down and give yourself a set budget for each area it may help you not go 'overboard' in one particular area (always clothes in my case!)