Please Help, And Be Gentle.

brad26

OK, heres the state of affairs

I'm a 28 yr old single guy and am currently living at my own place and am in a real Hole, I'm constantly teetering on the very limit of my overdraft which is £1,800 overdrawn. I desperately want to change my mortgage to a capital repayment one by the time i'm 30 but because of the £384 payments on one of my loans i just can't see a way of doing it. I'm not the best for keeping an eye on my finances which i know i need to address. I'm pretty sure i could get about £135,000 for my house and am toying with the idea of selling it paying off the two loans, then renting a place so i can have a breather but as i don't have a very good credit rating am worried i wouldn't be able to get another mortgage. I'm just fed up of being a pauper around my mates when i have to constantly miss out on doing things cos i have no money. All advice would be very much appreciated.

Monthly income

Just the one salary of

£1770.00

Monthly outgoings

£10.54 tv licence
£7.99 PC insurance
£15.00 water
£35.19 car insurance
£74.00 council tax
£28.16 mortgage payment protection plan
£17.68 home insurance
£35.00 mobile phone
£27.00 and £12.00 gas and electricity (not sure which is which)
£10.99 cinema card
£25.00 NTL internet and TV
£7.99 mobile phone insurance
£80.00 petrol
£150.00 food shopping
£20.00 Football subs. (fee's for playing for my local football club)
£40.00 Bank charges.


MORTGAGE....... £480.00 5.09% interest only variable rate for 2 years borrowed about £109000, redemtion is around £112692 but thats without the fee's which i'm having sent to me in the next few days and i only just got this deal back in May.

LOAN........£384.OO at 8% on a £20,000 loan. £15,342 redemption or £19,666 if i carry on as normal. Don't ask how got it i just kept adding to it over the years.

LOAN.....£140.00 at 11.13% on a £6,000 loan secured on the house. I didn't want to do this but my previous car died on me and i was fed up of all the unexpected repair costs for it so got a new HYUNDAI GETZ because it was small cheap to run, and insurance wise but mainly because of the 5 yrs warranty.

TOTAL OUTGOINGS

£1588.54

summerday

Firstly a big welcome to the DFW board!

I don't know so much as the regulars who will be along shortly, but one thing I noticed on your SOA is that you spend a lot on food. Me and my boyf only spend £20 a week on food for both of us, so £80 or so a month. If you look on the old style board indexed threads (there is a link at the top of the old style board) you will get loads of info on saving money on groceries.

Some may say that you should get rid of your cinema card - I have one of these too and I think there's a minimum 12 month subscription so yuo're stuck with it for at least that long anyway. But if you go to the flicks a lot it can work out quite cost effective and good value (as long as you don't waste money by buying the rip-off sweets and popcorn at the cinema). But if you don't go much and you've passed the byear it may be worth cancelling.

Good luck, you'll get lots more advice I'm sure,

sarah x

gettingitsorted

Hi Brad and welcome ,well done for taking the first and hardest step and posting.

Have made comments next to your SOA if thats ok .more expert people will be along shortly to help you .

Monthly income

Just the one salary of

£1770.00

Monthly outgoings

£10.54 tv licence
£7.99 PC insurance
£15.00 water
£35.19 car insurance
£74.00 council tax
£28.16 mortgage payment protection plan
£17.68 home insurance(THIS SEEMS HIGH DID YOU SHOP AROUND)
£35.00 mobile phone(CAN U DOWNGRADE IF ITS A CONTRACT OR USE PAYG?)
£27.00 and £12.00 gas and electricity (not sure which is which)
£10.99 cinema card(DO YOU NEED THIS?)
£25.00 NTL internet and TV(SWITCH TO A LOWER PACKAGE OR CANCEL?)
£7.99 mobile phone insurance(DO YOU NEED THIS)
£80.00 petrol(SEEMS HIGH HOW FAR DO YOU TRAVEL)
£150.00 food shopping(THIS CAN BE REDUCED SEE MONEY SAVING OLD STYLE)
£20.00 Football subs. (fee's for playing for my local football club)
£40.00 Bank charges.(YOU CAN RECLAIM THESE)


Hope these comments are ok
like i said the real experts will be along shortly



MORTGAGE....... £480.00 5.09% interest only variable rate for 2 years borrowed about £109000, redemtion is around £112692 but thats without the fee's which i'm having sent to me in the next few days and i only just got this deal back in May.

LOAN........£384.OO at 8% on a £20,000 loan. £15,342 redemption or £19,666 if i carry on as normal. Don't ask how got it i just kept adding to it over the years.

LOAN.....£140.00 at 11.13% on a £6,000 loan secured on the house. I didn't want to do this but my previous car died on me and i was fed up of all the unexpected repair costs for it so got a new HYUNDAI GETZ because it was small cheap to run, and insurance wise but mainly because of the 5 yrs warranty.

TOTAL OUTGOINGS

£1588.54[/QUOTE]

angelavdavis

After a quick review, I think you have some areas you could tighten:

Mobile phone - check your bills - is this a contract? Is it worth switching to a pay as you go which can be cheaper?

Mobile phone insurance - is the phone new or can you get your contents insurance extended to cover your mobile phone? Worth checking if you are already covered on the contents insurance.

PC insurance - is this really essential - I don't know what this covers, but it might be worth shopping around and also checking that your contents doesn't cover it.

Food shopping - I spend less than £200 per month for two adults so I would have said you could easily shave off £50 per month! Check out the Moneysaving oldstyle section of this site for tips. Keep a note of how much you are throwing away, avoid expensive ready meals - try to buy pasta and spend some time making sauces (recipes in Old Style and also bbc.co.uk/food/recipes is useful as you can enter ingredients for ideas.).

Water - do you have a meter? I pay £15 per month for a 7 bedroomed house (there are only three adults living in it!)

Bank Charges - what is this for? If you are going overdrawn due to poorly timed direct debits coming out for bills, you are throwing money down the drain that you could have in your pocket! Review when your dd's are coming out of your account and contact your suppliers to move them to a better time when you are less likely to have an empty bank account. Though I haven't done it myself, there are some threads about getting bank charges back from banks, if these charges are a regular occurrence, why not give that a try - its only the cost of a stamp or phone call!

Do you take sandwiches to work? Its amazing how much money is wasted in the canteen or buying lunch. I saved £70 per month when I started making my own.

Now onto money earning opportunities:

Do you have a spare room you could rent to a friend?

Could you get a bar job in the evening - it would mean you could socialise but still earn money.

Do you have any gadgets you have bought but don't use or unwanted presents? Sell them on eBay -popular this time of year for Xmas! Other stuff, see if you can get up early and do a boot sale.

If you have your old mobile phone, you might be able to get some money for it by selling it to mobipay or a similar company (MSE did a feature on this).

Check Uswitch and other comparison sites to see if you are paying over the odds for insurances. Even switching part way through the year might help you save. Don't forget to register with quidco or another money back site and use this to switch services (some pay cash for switching suppliers via quidco).

What about other job opportunities? Are you getting paid the right level for your job? Check out other advertisements and if it appears you are being under-paid, ask for a rise (at worst, you get told no!)

I hope that helps!

fatpigeon_2

Hi there

I think your idea about selling and repaying the loans/OD is a good one. Once you've rented and stayed in the black for a while your credit rating will improve. Also, the weight of worrying about it will be lifted.

Just my opinion, of course!

lynzpower

brilliant advice there from Angelavdavis
Nothing more to add from me, aside from saying you say oyu have 1770 coming in nad outgoings of 1588 - there should be 212 left every month, is there?

Start a spending diary, literally every penny you spend should be written, be it a newspaper, bag of crisps a pint, anything. Youll soon see where you can cut back.

Another thing is do a storecupbaord challenge, go through your cupbapord & use up as much as you can and try adn avoid going to the shops for any food until you have a bare cupbaord. If you dont know why you bought something, someone on Old Style will be able to help you with a yum & easy recipe to use it up

Big welcome :wave:

david_hellier

Hi Brad and thanks for the SOA.

According to my figures you have £66.80 per week to spend on anything including food, clothes, going out, etc. I suggest you write this amount in a little book on a Monday and keep a record of what you spend by subtraction. This will stop immediate overspend. I've included a figure of £50 towards the od payoff, so ignore your bank balance.

You may wish to consider a lodger to increase the amount of spare cash. Your petrol bill is high. I note no mention of other car costs other than insurance?

Good luck, the figures are as follows:

income weekly monthly
self 1770.00
partner







total 0.00 1770.00 divide by 4.33
£408.46

£408.46 total weekly income

spend weekly monthly
rent/mortgage 480.00
council tax 74.00
elec 12.00
gas 27.00
water 15.00
secured loans 140.00
TV licence 10.54
fines
pc ins 7.99
car ins 35.19
mort ppp 28.16
house ins 17.68
mobile 35.00
ntl 25.00
mob ins 7.99
petrol 80.00
bank 40.00
od pay off 50.00
cinema 10.99
loan 384.00










total 0.00 1480.54 divide by 4.33
£341.66

£341.66 total weekly spend

Start= income - spend = £66.80 per week

brad26

Thanks everyone,

CINEMA CARD....I do need the cinema card because i do go often and it stops me from renting out vid's, games or going out when i'm bored.

HOME INSURANCE......I will look into this...er how do i get a better deal?

PHONE INSURANCE....I will get rid of it, but whats the betting i lose it next week. lol

PETROL....I work down in london but travel to colchester in the mornings from Ipswich (20 miles) to get the train which is free for my line of work but do have to drive there once a month which is just under half a tank.

PC INSURANCE....this is actually for if the unit breaks down and with all the spy and ad ware i've already had it in the shop twice in less than a year thus avoiding the repair bills. So i think i need to keep this.

BANK CHARGES, I know part of it is paying for "advantage gold account" i have with natwest, and i think about £30 worth is the interest for always being £1,800 overdrawn. I would love to do the reclaiming of all the charges because i would be very rich but as theyr'e still in charge of my loan and mortgage i'll hold off for now. I've heard some horror stories about doing that.

FOOD SHOPPING.....My fault i labelled it wrongly, this includes all my bathroom stuff detergents washing powder etc basic household stuff. I would love to do proper cooking but i work a 12 hour shift in London and travel from IPSWICH, so i get up at 3.30 in the morning and don't get home till about 21.00 at night so IT HAS TO BE QUICK FOOD.

As for the spare money....Its got to the point now where i'm running out of money on the run up to payday and need to fill up with petrol or get some groceries just to get me through the week so i use the cheque book knowing it'll come out after payday, so i'm playing contstant catch up.

Again thanks to everyone here, and where is this old style board a few of you have mentioned?

Brad

Storm

Hi Brad & welcome!

I've just read about the commute you do and I'm sitting here with my mouth hanging open! Aside from paying off your debts I think moving might be a good plan so you don't have the horrendous journey everyday - I know London itself is very expensive, but if you could get your commute down to a 2 hour train journey that would surely be a lot better?

If you're trying to cut the food bill down all I can suggest is that you have a big 'cook in' at the weekend for a couple of hours & pop things in the fridge & freezer that you can just pop in the microwave.

Just wondering what you actually do for living as it's a decent wage you've got and especially as they pay your train fare each day, which can't be cheap! Are there equivalent jobs locally?

Storm

gerretl

Look at the chat headings, and click Money sving Old Style. It is brilliant.
Can you get expenses for driving from Ipswich to Colchester? If it is regular, have you thought about getting or recieving a liftshare?
Are you paying parking? See if there is cheaper parking in Colchester.
Have you thought about renting nearer London. May sound crazy, but it may offset the commuting costs, and all you need is a room for weekdays.

brad26

I can't get expenses for travelling in my car and i lived in London for the first two yrs of my job and hated it so i moved back to Ipswich at the first opportunity. I'm a policeman down there and am stuck working there because it work be a severe drop in money if i tranfered up here. I work a 12 hr shift so the days and hours are not regular at all i'm afraid. I don't pay for any parking as i park in a nearby retail car park and the job does'nt really pay for the train its just an agreement between them and the train companies.

I'm not that good at cooking but am open to suggestions on the big cook in???? something thats easy to do and def not sea food of any kind....yuk. lol