The Ultimate Incentive to get debt free… again. Dinah & NIM go head to head!

Dinah93

We usually spend around £250 a month for 2 of us so I'd love £350! However as you say, being single can be more expensive. If and when we pay off the debt we'd have about £800 a month (excluding if I pay off student loan) and that would be absolutely lovely.

Oooh just realised thats to include food - Which we spend about £160 on (although aim for £100). I still think you could do it okay though.

Tete_en_l'Air

Someone said to me when I posted about this a few weeks ago to that being single you have to allow extra money for getting out and about. It's one thing to not leave the house all weekend when you have someone to talk to/cosy up with, quite another if you're on your own I think! £800 a month would be amazing - I don't even have that much spare living at home!

Flower08

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

Looks like I could be left with about £350 per month for (weekend) petrol, food and any spends - so any train tickets to London to see the girls, or new clothes or nights in the pub... How does this measure up to you lot?

Thats about what we have between the two of us. Depending on how much overtime OH manages to get we sometimes have a bit more, but thats usually the minimum. It is do-able but can also be slightly depressing sometimes!
Have you checked to see if you are entitled to Working Tax Credits at all? And dont forget you would get a discount on your council tax - not much but it all helps!

Tete_en_l'Air

Thanks Flower - yes the council tax reducation has already been taken off!! I doubt it with the working tax credits as I don't actually earn that little, it's just the expense of everything. I've whinged about it before and I'll whinge about it again - it's totally wrong that a one bedroom flat is only like £100-200 pm less than a three bedroomed house

Yeah I just did the calculator thing and it says "You are entitled to: £0.00" Wonderful.

Flower08

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

I've whinged about it before and I'll whinge about it again - it's totally wrong that a one bedroom flat is only like £100-200 pm less than a three bedroomed house

I agree completely!

When we had our first flat it was tiny and not that much cheaper than our two bedroom house we have now!

Tete_en_l'Air

My point is though that if you're renting a one bedroom flat it's more than likely you're alone so have half the income of the people who would be renting a bigger place ... yet the rent is well over half what it is for the bigger place. And why is it you only get a 25% reduction on council tax?! for a single person in a studio flat it's 75% of what a massive eight-bedroom house share will pay - when it should be like 12.5%. Grrrr, I'm going to lie down and listen to some soothing music!

(Please don't suggest I get a house share, I don't want to! Yeah I know I should suck it up and get on with it...)

Dinah93

I was actually going to say the single 1 bed flat in our area may have cost £120,000 where the 3 bed house cost £160,000 so the rent is not that dissimilar simply because the purchase price isn't that dissimilar so there is a direct correlation to morgage costs - as much as that sucks. When NIM and I were looking to sell quickly and move to the next house we were considering renting in Darlington West End where there seems to be a glut of flats in a fanastic location at cheap prices, for £300 a month we could save a fortune and be out of debt/have a much smaller morgage in a few years. Now we're staying put though and hoping just to finish the house and enjoy it. Council tax is outdated and drives me up the wall so I won't comment on it!

Tete_en_l'Air

I've never looked at Darlington prices - it's a nice place but a long way from work. There are some nice flats in Sedgefield, much cheaper than any of the places I'm looking at but traffic to work is horrible and so petrol's expensive. If I could just win this Euromillions....

Lara44

Hi All

Zig, so sorry to hear that about your OH. I think NIM's advice is great. I am friends with one ex, and we didn't talk at all for most of a year, but became good friends again anyway. In fact, he and one of my other exes (who he met while we were going out) decided to start a company together which is now very successful. Although at company parties it's definitely a bit weird

I second the chat that graduation should be enjoyed 110%. It's all about celebrating you. Hopefully your family and friends will be so busy spoiling you that your OH will be out of your thoughts. Never mind that they are being a bit insensitive now, they still care for you so much.

Nice clothes Dinah, isn't Dotty P's great these days? They seem to be having a bit of a resurgence. I splurged a few weeks ago.

Cinny - it's brilliant your prize money is so big!! It's just the right time to be getting that little help, I hope you get be frivolous with a little bit of it anyway

Things still hectic here - just holding on in there. Roll on September!! (Honeymoon)

L xx

Dinah93

I think it was only the red dress tunic thing that was dotty Ps, the red blouse was Miss Selfridge and the rest was Next. Dotty Ps is the only ladies clothes shop in the town where I work, so I get most of my clothes there! I was really annoyed in Warehouse - of the 6 dresses I tried on 5 had broken zips. I didn't get the 6th as while it looked nice I thought it was only going to break like all the rest if thats the quality of their clothing.

Hope things are going smoothly if hecticly Lara x