I want to be debt free too!

DD265

Hi all, I'm new to this forum.

I just started reading through the MSE website a couple of nights ago feeling a bit desperate, and decided to sign up here as well.

The gist of it is I'm 22, graduated in July (Business & Management Studies) and looking for a career but I'll settle for a job! It seems that I'm either over qualified or under experienced and I'm starting to get rather worried.

My debt isn't huge but I'm still feeling a bit like I'm up the creek without a paddle.

Student Loan - £20k upwards (waiting on an annual statement)

Student grant - £3,000 - amount paid £30. (£10 per month, it's interest free)

Overdraft - £2,000 limit (interest free), £1985 into it.

Credit card - £1,000 limit (), £920 into it.

Personal loan - £3,000 initially, currently £3109.49. I've made one payment of £100.76 at the start of this month (october) as it was a deferred payment scheme. I don't intend on letting it run the full term.

I also have £152 in one account* and £20 in a savings account. I also have £48 in my paypal account from things I've sold, that I'll transfer to my bank account later this week, hopefully when it's built up a bit.

*I'm a horse owner. I won't sell him, let anybody else pay to ride him or any such business. This is "his" bank account. It's also a paid-for account (Silver by LloydsTSB at £7.95 pm) because it was almost £20 cheaper on breakdown cover - one of the account perks.

Income - aside from the £140 Mom contributes a month to the horse, nothing. I have been trying to sell things online and need a big ebay drive this week. I'm trying to balance my time between that and job hunting.

Expenses - obviously more than is coming in...

Horse - £300 to £500 a month

Car - £200 a month (starting Nov. with insurance renewal) plus MOT/Tax due before 1st Jan
Fitness - circa £10 per week
Visiting OH - £40 a month (we're in a distance relationship right now so it costs in train fare & food when I'm at his)
Supermarket - £15-20 a week

The last one is my undoing. I'll go into the supermarket to get parsnips and carrots for the horse, usually around £4 total, and spend a lot more.

The major downer for me right now is that I booked a few days away 21st-23rd October to meet some friends at a convention. Things were looking a lot better when I booked it! The hotel is non-cancellable/non-refundable and the convention tickets are booked. I will need to pay for the hotel when we leave and gonna cost me a tank of petrol too. It's £58 for the room for two nights which isn't a bad deal, but I could do without it full stop. I have offered a lift there & back to somebody though so if they take me up on it, they can contribute to petrol.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm expecting you guys to say, but sometimes it's just good to get it out. My OH knows, but my parents don't. My aim is to get it all paid off before they find out too. I have all these plans and know what I'd like to be doing with my finances, but without a job it seems impossible.

PARIS_5000

DD265 wrote: »

Hi all, I'm new to this forum.

I just started reading through the MSE website a couple of nights ago feeling a bit desperate, and decided to sign up here as well.

The gist of it is I'm 22, graduated in July (Business & Management Studies) and looking for a career but I'll settle for a job! It seems that I'm either over qualified or under experienced and I'm starting to get rather worried.

My debt isn't huge but I'm still feeling a bit like I'm up the creek without a paddle.

Student Loan - £20k upwards (waiting on an annual statement)

Student grant - £3,000 - amount paid £30. (£10 per month, it's interest free)

Overdraft - £2,000 limit (interest free), £1985 into it.

Credit card - £1,000 limit (), £920 into it.

Personal loan - £3,000 initially, currently £3109.49. I've made one payment of £100.76 at the start of this month (october) as it was a deferred payment scheme. I don't intend on letting it run the full term.

I also have £152 in one account* and £20 in a savings account. I also have £48 in my paypal account from things I've sold, that I'll transfer to my bank account later this week, hopefully when it's built up a bit.

*I'm a horse owner. I won't sell him, let anybody else pay to ride him or any such business. This is "his" bank account. It's also a paid-for account (Silver by LloydsTSB at £7.95 pm) because it was almost £20 cheaper on breakdown cover - one of the account perks.

Income - aside from the £140 Mom contributes a month to the horse, nothing. I have been trying to sell things online and need a big ebay drive this week. I'm trying to balance my time between that and job hunting.

Expenses - obviously more than is coming in...

Horse - £300 to £500 a month

Car - £200 a month (starting Nov. with insurance renewal) plus MOT/Tax due before 1st Jan
Fitness - circa £10 per week
Visiting OH - £40 a month (we're in a distance relationship right now so it costs in train fare & food when I'm at his)
Supermarket - £15-20 a week

The last one is my undoing. I'll go into the supermarket to get parsnips and carrots for the horse, usually around £4 total, and spend a lot more.

The major downer for me right now is that I booked a few days away 21st-23rd October to meet some friends at a convention. Things were looking a lot better when I booked it! The hotel is non-cancellable/non-refundable and the convention tickets are booked. I will need to pay for the hotel when we leave and gonna cost me a tank of petrol too. It's £58 for the room for two nights which isn't a bad deal, but I could do without it full stop. I have offered a lift there & back to somebody though so if they take me up on it, they can contribute to petrol.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm expecting you guys to say, but sometimes it's just good to get it out. My OH knows, but my parents don't. My aim is to get it all paid off before they find out too. I have all these plans and know what I'd like to be doing with my finances, but without a job it seems impossible.

I am a recent graduate too so know that it is hard out there have you looked on the graduate jobsites.While you are looking for your graduate job try Gumtree website for a job to tide you over.

Tixy

Hi and welcome

You are right its going to be very tough to find anyway out without an income. Are you trying everything? even things like bar work etc - I know its not what you want to do but anything is better than nothing, what about looking out for seasonal xmas jobs as well to tide you over.

With regards to the paid for account at £7.95 per month - are you referring to car breakdown cover? if so its possible to get this for around £30per year with cashback which is far less the £95 you are paying.

Do you own your car outright? Could you consider either selling it, or taking it off the road short term to save yourself insurance, tax & fuel?

Have a look for idea on the up your income board as well Up Your Income , these are not going to make you big money but if you have some spare time every little helps, if you can get signed up for things like survey sites some pay in vouchers (which you could then use for the horse's supermarket shopping). You'll often find things like short term jobs in relation to the census listed on that board. And the make £10 a day thread may have some things you think you could use - ~October Make £10 a day challenge ~ 3rd Year Running!!

As to not telling you parents - presumably they must know about a lot of your student debt? and that you are not earning? Are you back living with them currently?

DD265

In terms of work I have been (more recently) looking at graduate positions. I don't particularly want to do a placement having done an undergraduate one but it's looking like it might be a necessity. I am on the mailing list for prospects.ac.uk, and I'm also looking (for graduate and non-graduate positions) on the likes of Reed, Monster, Salestarget and a local site, as well as others. I'm not averse to doing bar work or waitressing but I have no experience and although I haven't applied for any, I think I'd definitely come under the "overqualified" banner. But it might be worth a shot.

I have been trying for seasonal work but nothing but rejection so far. I think my CV might be too good - it was written with help from a HR director of a world leading multinational so it's awesome and it does smack of drive and ambition. I usually just change the opening paragraph but maybe I need to tone the entire thing down slightly. *shrug*

I'd be interested in learning more about the even cheaper breakdown - that is what I pay the account fees for. There are other benefits, but I can't remember them and really I only wanted to save the money on the breakdown.

I do own the car outright, but selling it isn't an option - for me, anyway. Dad has thought of changing to something newer and worth £1500-2000 as opposed to my £500 car so I have a vehicle worth insuring, but I'm not actually sure how much the insurance would drop by and I'm pretty sure that Dad doesn't have a spare few grand lying around either. We have the option of putting me on Mom's insurance - £125 until January (renewal for her) but it's the Freelander and not as economical with fuel, plus diesel is more expensive, so day to day costs would be higher and I'd only really save £150ish in December, if that makes sense. We'd take my car off the road until I had a job to fund it basically. We have three cars between us so it's not really an issue, but I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be driving such a big car around country lanes.. It's an option though, I think once I get final quotes we need to discuss it as a family. Either way, I need to find some money for it and I do need access to a car for interviews when I get some more.

I'll look at the Up Your Income board and see if I can find anything to help.

I have never lived away from home (stayed there throughout university) and they do know about the student loan and grant repayments. They don't know about the overdraft, bank loan or credit card and I don't intend on letting them either! They don't need the financial stress - they have their own problems. Plus it's very much my mess (the last three, anyway) and I intend to get myself out of it. I literally have responsibility for myself and the horse so it's not dire-dire. I may have a word with the yard owner and see if he'll let me make a smaller payment on Daffy's rent, then catch up later.

I think the thing that worries me most is that I have no income and don't know when I next will. I've worked since I was 14 part time, all the way through school and university, full time on a placement and then part time up until the end of July. Yes I went paycheck to paycheck through all of that, but I always knew that I had X money coming on Y date.

Tixy

Hi

regarding the breakdown cover http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/roadside-recovery

DD265

That's great. I've bookmarked the cheapest for me and when I have £30 to do it I'll switch over.

Tixy

With regards to your car insurance then do have a look at the tips on this site - and if you are insuring you might as well see if you can earn some cashback on the deal - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/compare-cheap-car-insurance
This is all about earning cashback on online shopping etc http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/cashback-websites

Also with regards to fuel costs etc have a look here - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheaper-fuel it about saving money by driving efficently (that probably means slowly and boring but it suggests savings of up to a third are possible - though I think 15% is probably more realistic).

I appreciate none of these will make a huge difference but when your finances are tight (or near impossible) then every saving you can make is worthwhile.

happihorse

Hi,

I am a long-time lurker on here but your post has hit a chord with me because my situation is similar to yours in terms of living at home and being a horse owner.

I am a little older than you however and have been working since leaving university 7 (!) years ago.

With regards to the job search, have you joined a recruitment agency? I know they charge but I'm sure they would be able to find you something. Don't disregard admin work - that I how I got my current job because they were so impressed with me they offered me a permanent job at a much higher level!

You say your horse is costing you £300 to £500 per month. This seems like quite a bit. Is he on DIY, part or full livery? Is there anything you can cut down on? Are you getting the best possible price for feed, bedding, haylage, etc?

Would you be able to get a job doing yard work at a local stables? Even if it was just a couple of hours a day until you get a 'proper' job or could do a few hours at the weekend on a longer term basis, this would really help. Or perhaps on the yard at which you keep your horse - would they let you work to pay for your horse?

Once you have a job, providing that you don't mind living at home for a few years, you will easily clear your debts - it's just about making compromises. I really don't want to live at home now, but I am almost ready to buy my first house with a deposit that is big enough to allow me to continue to fund my horse! It has taken quite a while to get to this point but it is definately worth the wait!

happihorse

Just thought of something else too, as a fellow horse owner! Have you got loads of tack and equipment at home which you hardly ever use? Why not give it all a really good clean and sell the lot? I made close to £1,000 when I did this a few years age. I know of a couple of really good equestrian websites who provide free tack and equipment advertising. Let me know if you are interested.

DD265

He's on full livery. It's cheaper than DIY when you take everything into account and with the current situation (major field injury) I couldn't give the same standard of care myself and devote time to finding a job. Yard owner is great though and we could work something out on the rent if I had too.

I have applied to some admin roles, but again I've never had an "administration" job title. Fingers crossed though! As for working at a local stables, no. I am keeping an eye out at local saddleries though as I used to work in one. I got offered a job in the one I used to work at (all mail order now) but they offered me minimum wage and I said no way, make it £6.50 an hour. Never had a response so I've just emailed to chase it. This was just after I left the 2 weeks in sales job, and I didn't anticipate this much trouble getting interviews as I was booking in two a day, 4-5 days a week in my first round of applications.

I am selling some horsey stuff but it's mostly low value now. I do have some more expensive things I can list if needs be, but that's getting into the items I actually want to keep and use.

eyeopener2

Why did you turn down the minimum wage job when you have no income at all? Its always better to have something than nothing