Pay by £4500 in 3 months

DomTom

I have to pay my overdrafts and by parents £4500 in total in the next 3 months (by 1st july)

I've worked out the following

expenses per week

• rent £87.50
• food £20.00
• travel £50.00
• drinks £10.00
• misc £20.00
• total £187.50

• ---

• pay £514.00
• left over £326.50 --- monthly (*4) £1,306.00
• short of target by £194.00 per month

unfortunately the big spender here is travelling, which I can't do much about, and rent, which I definitely can't do anything about.

as for food and drinks and misc... i'm being very optimistic, those will definitely go above what i've put down on some weeks, but for the "average week" i could bring bring the cost of drink and misc down to 0, however on other weeks it may be £40-£50.

some weeks i might not travel on the weekend bringing travelling cost down to about £20, but other weeks i go much further potentially bringing the cost to over £60, so i figured £50 was going to be the average.


so my question to everyone is.... how do you grow a money tree?

currently i have £200 "available" in my accounts.

Faye449

erm.............
2nd job?
Sell things on ebay?

whats the travel for? to work or something you could avoid?
Also as its only 3 months can't you just not go out?
You could probably cut your food expenses by half or more, there is a board somewhere on batch cooking and freezing with recipes I think? Hopefully someone will post a link for you if we ask nicely :-)

barbarawright

Faye449 wrote: »

erm.............
2nd job?
Sell things on ebay?

whats the travel for? to work or something you could avoid?
Also as its only 3 months can't you just not go out?
You could probably cut your food expenses by half or more, there is a board somewhere on batch cooking and freezing with recipes I think? Hopefully someone will post a link for you if we ask nicely :-)

£20 a week for food could be cut by more than half? :eek:

DomTom

i buy sub-of-the-day salads as i find the really nice for £2. so thats £10 in 5 working days. i work long hours already (7.30 to 6pm) and go to the gym (already paid for) so second job wouldnt be possible. as for in the evenings, i eat pasta + tuna + tin tomato or pasta + quorn chicken + tin tomato + garlic. occasionally i'll go out with collegues or cook myself a steak/fish.

travelling is essential, i stay locally week days and its 16miles per day, and on the weekends i go home which is 300 mile round trip. some weekends i could not go home, but then some weekends i see my friends in cardiff which is a good 5 hour drive each way. trains are cheap sometimes but very inconvenient.

Butti

DomTom wrote: »

i buy sub-of-the-day salads as i find the really nice for £2. so thats £10 in 5 working days..

I think that could be at least part of your answer. Could you at least limit this to a couple of times a week and make sandwiches / pasta salad for the other days.

If its not too much prying why do you have to pay your parents in the next three months? Are you off on a space mission at the end of that time? Could they stretch it to 6 months?

B

p.s. The money tree option doesn't work. I offered it to my employer as an alternative to making me redundant!

DomTom

did they not accept that? sorry to about your redundancy.

My job ends in 3 months and 2 weeks. After that I have no income and i am back to university. I want to at least pay back my overdrafts which make up the bulk of the debt (£3000), and i promised my parents I'd pay them back by then.

i cant get a summer job either as im traveling (paid for already, left the extra 2 weeks to fund part of it)

hermum

Certainly dropping the £10 a week for subs would make a huge difference. You're talking of 3 months not a life time. Get a weekend job, not only will you be earning but won't be spending on travelling. That's £70 a week saved already. You could easily eat well on £20 a week for 1 person for all meals including lunch. £20 misc?? write down exactly what this is & don't buy it if you don't need it, halve it. Now it's £80 a week saved. Ebay anything that you have that you no longer use, everybody has stuff, unless they move every few months & dump everything. Clothes that you won't wear again, books, dvd's cd's old mobiles.
That's over £1k just on savings. Get a job for 10 hours over the weekend even if NMW & you should do it.
Good luck

Faye449

barbarawright wrote: »

£20 a week for food could be cut by more than half? :eek:

What? Do you not think?

Faye449

DomTom wrote: »

travelling is essential, i stay locally week days and its 16miles per day, and on the weekends i go home which is 300 mile round trip. some weekends i could not go home, but then some weekends i see my friends in cardiff which is a good 5 hour drive each way. trains are cheap sometimes but very inconvenient.

I'm not being rude (you know how hard it is to hear the 'tone' of things when you read them!) but I don't see why you have to do this?

Butti

Tom

It seems to me that you have a choice.

You could cut some of the nicer things in your life (subs, free weekends), eat a bit more frugally and get a second job for part of the weekend. You accept in this instance that you are going to suffer a bit but clear your debts.

or

You accept that you are not going to clear all of your debts (no disgrace - you are a student) pay your parents off and do your best to clear your overdraft. In this instance you get to keep your weekends and your subs!

B

p.s. Thanks for your kind words on my redundancy but money trees don't exist (and I didn't really like the ethos of the organisation! - not too distressed!)

pinkie_pie

Agreed.

The only way to save money is to make cutbacks. Ie, the subs, the nights of drinks, the weekends seeing friends in cardiff.

I know it seems harsh but it IS only for three months. Ask them to come see you.

You save that money AND get a job on the weekends to keep you busy and you'll do really well.