*wave*

Blue_Elephant

Hi all,

I've been lurking round these forums for a bit, and taking some advice and getting all excited that I'm "sorting things" then fall off the wagon. I'm not *massively* in debt, but I'd rather not be in debt at all if you see what I mean.

I have a low income, but I'm back living with parents after travelling, have no children, no mortgage/secured debts but was a bit reckless when I was younger. Instead of sorting it all out quickly I addressed the most serious (loan/CC arrears) and then settled into making the required payments instead of keeping up paying the extra. I pay over the minimum amount off my CC every month but keep using it and never pay the full amount off. I also have a £1000 overdraft left over from my student days. And everytime i see the light at the end of the tunnel i do something stupid - like spending £1000 on a new bed - I could have just bought a new mattress for £200. *sigh*

I just needed to rant. Sorry.

I also have a partner, but as I live in Manchester and he lives in London, the travel costs to see each other are really high. I don't know how to incorporate this into my budget and I feel so disappointed in myself as i know many people manage entire households and families on my wage yet i can't even look after myself. I do pay board to parents, but this is nothing close to what it would cost to run a household by myself. in the meantime my friends are buying their own houses/getting married/having families and I feel like such a failure, and though I'm happy for the joy in their lives, I'm, as much as I hate to admit this, envious.

Actually writing this out has made me feel a bit better. There are other issues, but I am GOING to sort myself out if it kills me.

Thanks for listening folks.

archersluck

Hi Elephant, don't let the above poster put you off. They seem to be talking (occasionally amusing but not in this case) rubbish all over the boards

ETA - think their posts been deleted now!

Doubtful_Guest

Maybe if you post an SOA, people might be able to give you some pointers on where to save money. Also, have you seen the snowballing calculator online ? It's really helpful for calculating the most efficient way of paying off your debts to minimise the interest.

Also, it sounds a bit like motivation is a problem for you. That is, you are maybe having difficulty focusing on long-term goals instead of just immediate gratification, like a new bed ? I used to be exactly like that. It's easier to give in to a takeaway when you're knackered than to save the money for some abstract, intangible future. This might sound stupid but it really helped me to print out pictures of our longterm goals and stuck them up above our dresser over our terramundi pot. It's got photos of the type of house we'd like to have, our fantasy garden, the dog we'd like to have one day etc etc. It makes it easier to see the choice, you know ? It makes it easier to listen to the little angel on your should instead of the devil, and more likely that you'll put that tenner into the pot instead of being tempted to nip out for chocolate and a bottle of wine.

miss_t_2

Hi Blue Elephant.

I too was a long time lurker on this forum before I plucked up the courage to post and get involved. It's taken me a while but I have finally gotten to the point, like you, where things need to be sorted. Have wanted to do this for a while, but like many other people experience, things go wrong and you need to pay out to get stuff sorted. My latest thing was an accident in which I almost died, however it was the push I needed to get myself sorted (so cliche I know!).

Through years of just not managing our budget properly I am now trying to clear not only my debts but also OH's. I do have a mortgage but I don't really class that as a debt I can deal with as yet. Thankfully, we have never missed a payment, but we are not in a situation to overpay due to having loans and credit card debts which need to be gotten rid off :mad:. After sitting down this week and looking at our financial situation I worked out that we could be credit card free in 10 months max. During this time I will have also paid off my loan. We can look at OH's loan then (taking the debt on 1 at a time as you can see!).

This can only happen if we manage money differently so not only do we now have a budget for everything, we have agreed on how our wages will be spent in dealing with reducing our debt. I also spent time making up my own Snowball spreadsheet so I could deal with the most expensive debt first (I know there are ones I could use already, but this made me actually come to terms with what I am dealing with). Luckily for us out of the 3 cards we owe on 2 are 0% and I am going to apply for another 0% to BT the money that we are paying interest on before closing that card (that way I won't be tempted to use it! )

I know it's hard, but the fact that you want to deal with it and you know where you have gone astray shows that the problem can be solved! I tried many a time to deal with the debt but either temptation got in the way or OH wasn't as supportive as he could have been so it made things difficult. However this time he has no choice, I have put my foot down! :rotfl:

I know on the outside it may look like your friends have it all but a lot of them are probably paddling away frantically to keep themselves above water! I know from my experience and that of my friends now, but no-one would ever guess from looking at us!

Believe me, you are not a failure and you definately shouldn't feel disappointed with yourself. You've made a few mistakes (as have many others like myself) BUT you have had the courage to not only deal with it but admit that there have been times you've given into evil spending temptation when there are people out there who will continue to bury their heads in the sand!

I am sure you will get there and hopefully taking it one step at a time you will see your debt shrinking as each day passes.

Hope this has helped as opposed to being a long rambling post about nothing much! :rotfl:

timefortea

How do you travel to see your partner in London? Have you looked into Megabus? It's not glamorous, but they're so cheap. Especially if you can travel at unpopular times, like *gulp* 4am.

Superbiatch

Hey don't see yourself as a failure because you're not married off and mortgaged up to the hilt, I was at 25 and I'd have given my right arm to have gone off travelling (where did you go btw?). You just chose a different route to other people, as for your debt I'm sure with posting an SOA the helpful people on here can advise you on making savings which in turn you can throw at your debts

Blue_Elephant

hey

Archersluck - I didn't see the post so ah well. Thank you for the heads up though.

Doubtful Guest It is definitely a motivational problem. There are so many things I want to do, but put off due to finances and then berate myself as I know I could get there faster if I wasn't so stupid with money. That seems to be a good idea though, thank you.

Miss_t Thank you for your story. It makes me feel that perhaps the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a train coming towards me after all!

Timefortea I usually get the train which takes 2 hours each way, (and try to get cheap tix, though not always possible) I have looked at megabus, but because I only see him at weekends, the amount of time I get to spend with him is pretty limited anyway, and Megabus takes 5 hours ish each way. That and I live just out of Manchester, so I have to be able to get to Manchester on public transport at the given times, and I can't at 4am. I have taken the afternoon off work on Friday sometimes and Megabussed that way, but it's not viable to do everytime. Plus that meant it cut short our Sunday as I had to get back to Manc in time to be able to get a train back home. Hope that makes sense.

Superbiatch Thank you! And I spent a year in Australia - I don't regret that for a moment, I just wish I'd dealt with the money side a bit differently. I'm more envious that I'm not in a position to be thinking about mortgages rather than actually doing it if that makes sense?

Anyway, here's my SOA. Please be gentle!!

I live with my parents, but as finances are separate I've done this as though it is a 1 adult H/H. I know I'm not paying them much but as they've paid off their mortgage they only want me to help cover council tax/bills and I help out with groceries.

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1036
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1036

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 173.33
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. (inc in board)
Electricity............................. (inc in board)
Gas..................................... (inc in board)
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. (inc in board)
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 25
TV Licence.............................. (inc in board)
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 7.50
Groceries etc. ......................... 50
Clothing................................ I don’t know
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 200
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... (inc in board)
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 25 for Gym, other stuff I don’t know.
Cigarettes .............................104
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 584.83

Assets
Cash.................................... 50
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 200
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 250

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description..................Debt........... Monthly.. .APR
Natwest loan............... 1531.76...... 160.68...... .7.9 Fixed payment
Natwest Overdraft 1500 (£3000 limit) 100 18.9 No minimum payment
Barclaycard 635.17 (1600 limit) 150 29.9 Min pmnt 2.25% or £5
Ikano FS 900 30 0 fixed payment
Total unsecured debts..4566.93….... 440.68.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1036
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 584.83
Available for debt repayments........... 451.17
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 440.68
Amount left after debt repayments....... 10.49

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 250
Total HP & Secured debt................. 0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -4566.93
Net Assets.............................. -4316.93

Clothes/entertainment etc I have no idea how much I spend bc I "stick it on the CC and worry about it later" ::headdesk::

The gym membership was got deliberately to give me something to do other than "I know I'll go shopping" and that seems to be working. Even If I only go once a week I still spend less on it that I was doing "window shopping".

*gibbers*

Dharma_Bunny

Hello Blue Elephant.

How much of that £200 for travel is travelling to London to see your boyfriend?
Does he come up to see you?

Cigs are rather expensive, that's 10% of your income you're burning every month. If you can't quit, swap to roll-ups. A big 50g pack of tobacco is around £13 and one of those used to last me all week even when I was chain smoking. I could never roll by hand, but you can buy a little rolling machine, making it dead easy.

Other than that it would seem a spending diary is in order so you can find out what you're actually spending on entertainment and clothes etc.

Googlewhacker

do a spending diary for a month to see where exactly the money goes and stop smoking would be the two main things.

Doubtful_Guest

£200 for transport is an awful lot. Manc to London return is only about £70. Is the other £130 for commuting to work ? How often are you going to London and how often is he/she coming to visit you ? Perhaps you need to make visits a bit less frequent until you get on top of your debts.

Does your 'board' include food or is £50 for all your food for the month ?

Doubtful_Guest

Also, maybe I'm misunderstanding your SOA but you seem to be paying £100 per month towards your overdraft which has no minimum repayment and an interest rate of 18.9%. You would be far better using that to pay off your Barclaycard which has interest of 29.9%.

You need to snowball. Pay off the highest interest rates first. Plus it would give you a psychological boost to pay off one of your debts completely.