Help!!

bluesdevil

andys15 wrote: »

This is what I do to the penny. Today is payday, I have £5422.17 coming in, and all my outgoings equal £4614.66. Outgoings include £2000 debt repayment, £550 holiday in 99 days, 1 month car tax (put away 1/12th each month). Anyway I am then left with £807.51, which I beak down into weeks and thats to get food,petrol etc etc. It can be quite depressing seeing £5422 going in and sometimes eating 9p noodles, but thats life and there is an end in sight. 99 days will be sat on beach in barbados in £8000 less debt.

Sounds like bliss.

We've basically thrown money away by being unorganised....

Its gotta stop.

My pay ( 2k ) hits the bank on the 15th of everymonth, the loan comes out on the 16th.

Would i be better sticking with the current loan agreement and putting away the surplus and in 15 months i just pay the loan off or should i go in and sort out the loan to a lesser term now?

bluesdevil

pixiechick wrote: »

That's the trouble with 'popping' to the shop...you went in for a t-shirt and came out with the video game & DVD!! Especially if they were on 'Special Offer'.

Joking aside, the good thing about all this is that it seems like you've had your 'light bulb moment'. Learn from the experiences and advice of others on here. You're certainly in a stronger financial position that a lot of us, so now you need to learn to plan and do a spending diary - find out where that tenner went that you got out of the ATM this morning.

Cheers, I feel much better.

Whats made me feel worse is, my partner is really looking forward to the new car moment and ive spent the last two days unable to eat/sleep because of this brick wall i hit, we will enjoy the new car and most of all we are going to clear this debt quicker than 7 years.

Whats the best guides to look at here to sort us out?

EDIT - forgot to point out on my soa i had nowt in the car insurance column as its paid, we have some cash saved that was for a holiday which we had to cancel so i paid it off in one hit.

gonzo127

bluesdevil wrote: »

the problem is ... for days that i dont take homemade meals to work, maybe 3 out of the 5 for example, I nip into tesco en route to work and buy paper ( quid ) bag of salad ( 1.19 ) pack of turky ( 1.59 ) roll ( .30p ) mints ( .52p ) and... probably a magazine one of those days ( about 3 quid ) ... so in a week eating at work will cost me... £16.80... thats just madness.

Thats actually the first time ive totted up the cost of my 'healthy' lunch.

thats the wonder of a spending diary it will actually help you tot up every little thing that you currently spend that you dont realise how much it is costing you (sorry to keep banging on it one but they really are very very helpful)

andys15

bluesdevil wrote: »

Sounds like bliss.

We've basically thrown money away by being unorganised....

Its gotta stop.

My pay ( 2k ) hits the bank on the 15th of everymonth, the loan comes out on the 16th.

Would i be better sticking with the current loan agreement and putting away the surplus and in 15 months i just pay the loan off or should i go in and sort out the loan to a lesser term now?

look at the website whatsthecost. The figure of £9000 i quoted of you saving is not at how I personally would look at it. in your example your loan right now is costing you about £230 per month in interest and it doesn't go below £100 until 2015, that is a lot of wastage. You really need to pay more capital of your loan quicker. it might be a depressing year but you will benefit, plus it will stop you wasting money as you wont be able to.

bluesdevil

andys15 wrote: »

look at the website whatsthecost. The figure of £9000 i quoted of you saving is not at how I personally would look at it. in your example your loan right now is costing you about £230 per month in interest and it doesn't go below £100 until 2015, that is a lot of wastage. You really need to pay more capital of your loan quicker. it might be a depressing year but you will benefit, plus it will stop you wasting money as you wont be able to.

I would far rather have tough year/year of planning every penny of our spending than continue on with this mountain of debt.

Cheers for not sugar coating it, ive spoken to the bank in the past about this kind of thing and its always all sugary and ' sure, you can afford this' unfortunately in the past I've been sucked into this crap.

gonzo127

guides are not really something that can be made for this since EVERY situation is different, the basic advice is to get more knowledgeable about your money

you have started very well with a SOA - now you need to share it with your other half, as these savings can only be made when both of you are working towards it

on the site with the SOA there is also a snowball calculator which shows you your debt free date as and when you change your payments etc - havbe a play with this

start a spending diary - really you cant start to make cuts untill you know what you are spending on - the amount of junk you probably spend on will probably be an eye opener, such as your healthy lunch

just try to keep in mind that you SHOULD have over £1200 a month left over after all of your normal living espense's and this is WITHOUT making any further cuts to your SOA (which can be made) with some cuts to your SOA you could have around £1500 a month surplus!

andys15

bluesdevil wrote: »

I would far rather have tough year/year of planning every penny of our spending than continue on with this mountain of debt.

Cheers for not sugar coating it, ive spoken to the bank in the past about this kind of thing and its always all sugary and ' sure, you can afford this' unfortunately in the past I've been sucked into this crap.

The banks will always try and get you to go for 5 6 7 year loans. My logic is if on paper you can afford the repayment then go for it. if not you will waste the money. I am absolutely desperate for an Apple IMAC, if I had my loans over 7 years like you, I could buy one right now., but because my direct debits come out on the 1st for £2000, I cannot afford one, therefore I dont even have the temptation. Aslong as you budget properly you shouldn't have massive bills, eg my car tax this month was £245, but I put money away for that each month, so it didn't feel like a £245 bill. You must be strict though. I have 9 bank accounts for all likely bills etc etc. oh and you can still have a life, if i want a pint, i might take it from money next week, and do without something else.

dancingfairy

I agree with Andy in some respects - 245 is a lot of money to find to tax his car but 'cos he's put away a bit every month he will have it to hand.
Why not open a bank account and designate it your 'car account' (or whatever) and set up a standing order from your main account for a cetain amount each month then you will be able to pay the insurance next year and any maintenance without reaching for the credit cards.
df