Confused with my money situation...

Hannah111

I've been reading these boards for months, but have finally joined as a member. I'm only 18 and have £6000 debt, this in a way scares me as i'm not at uni.... and dont have my own house or anything :-(

I'm £5000 in debt through a loan as i bought my own car. but then i got stupid and managed to spend £1000 on a credit card.... with nothing to show for it!!

I take home just over £800 a month from my job, and am left with £50 a week dispoable income after paying board, car ins, car loan, min payment on cc and £20 saving for any car issues.

I'm going to uni in September, i'd still have about the same amount of money coming in as will be working part-time and wont be paying board, etc, and i'll be living at home, but i'd really like to sort my money out before i go so i have no extra worries....

i know i can cut down my weekly spending as i've just given up smoking :j

Sorry if i've posted something that people ask a lot, but i would really appreciate any advice.

sgx.saint

Post up your SOA. There is a sticky at the tope of this board which will explain what that is and how to do it.

It's basically a full list of your income and expenditure. Then we can have a look at it and see if we can save you any money anywhere.

How much are your repayments onto your loan and card?

Cara79

Hello Hannah!

Well you've made the first step by joining and recognising the problem. What you need to do is post a full SOA (Statement of Affairs) so we can all look to see where any savings can be made.

Might it be possible to transfer your balance over to another credit card, maybe 0%?

There'll be loads more people along soon with some good advice!

P.s. Well done on the giving up smoking - fantastic achievement!

xx

CAFCGirl

Just to double check?

You're paying board at the moment but when you go to uni you'll be living at home and not paying board?

Are you currently living at home and paying board because you're working?
Maybe, if this is the case, you could speak to your folks (if they know about the debt etc) and explain you're trying to get yourself sorted before uni, or if they dont know about the debt, tell them you're trying to get some savings together for uni and could you re-negotiate your board costs?

Hannah111

ok... just done a SOA and worked out that maybe i'm a little bit better off than i thought...

My salary £796.72 (not as good as i thought) i get paid weekly so have to work all this out montly due to bills going out monthly...

All outgoings....

Board £130.00
Car Loan £162.32
Petrol £45.00
Car Ins £33.23
Mobile Phone £50.00 (on average)
Credit card £20.00
Laptop ins £8.00
Spend £215.00 (50 a week)
Save £86.00 (20 a week)
Leaving £45.00 ish, therfore maybe i'm spending sometimes a bit more than i'd thought.

My loan is £5000 (i've only just taken it out) at
My credit card balance is:
£445.32 at 15.9% and
£500.00 at 0% until sept 07.

And you can tell, i'm not experienced with money and i just feel like i'm messing things up even more.

Hannah x

P.s, thanks Cara79, i'm really proud of myself.

CAFCgirl... my mum is a single parent and i coudlnt ask her to reduce my board, she's offered to nopt take it when i go to uni so she can support me, but i dont feel like she should have to do it now :-/ n it looks like i can afford it now, but i've just got myself all muddled up. lol. x

bommer

The three main areas are
mobile phone bill - £50 per month is a lot
Spending £215.00 per month you should be able to reduce this what are you spending it on? You need to write it down
Savings £20 per week - How much have you got? could you not use this to reduce your highest credit card first. If you did this you would have enough to pay the credit cards off in a few months.

beanielou

Hi Hannah & welcome to MSE
Can you try to reduce your phone a wee bit?
Do u really need the laptop ins?
Try to throw as much as u can at the mo to the credit card.
Hope this helps(HTH) & well done on trying to get sorted out at the mo.

Hannah111

'Every little helps'. Ok... so cut down my phone bill to as low as poss... should be quite easy as i have a lot of texts and mins so if i keep them to the limit then i wouldnt go over my tariff. Get rid of my laptop insurance... i've had it a year and havent had to claim :-) cut my spending allownce down... then throw the money at my credit cards....

Fingers crossed.
Thanks guys. x

Tustastic

Hannah111 wrote:

i know i can cut down my weekly spending as i've just given up smoking :j

Well done for giving up smoking, but it can be harder than you think to stay off the fags. Did you know you can do a stop-smoking course on the NHS for free, including one kind of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) such as patches or gum? Your local chemists shop will have more info. I did the NHS course twice before I managed to give up.

Also, is it absolutely essential for you to have a car? If the answer is yes, my next question is, is it absolutely essential for you to have one that cost £5K? You could have a few months fun driving it around, then flog it and get a reliable little ole Japanese car. You don't have to be a DIY garage mechanic to drive an old car, just a sensible driver with a decent garage. It just seems a shame for you to be coughing up over £160 per month on the loan.:) HTH

CLAPTON

in addition to the 'ordinary ' monthly expenses, you also need to work out all the other costs...annual and one offs. so everything you will spend over the next 12 months needs to be saved for on a monthly basis so that when the expense occurs you will have saved the money and wont need to put in on the credit cards..
so over the next year will you spend anything on car tax, servicing, repairs, clothes, holidays, xmas, presents, dental/optical/medical, books, printer cartridges/paper etc etc...all these ..divide the annual cost by 12 and add a line to your budget.

also a comment on the car...if you add up the costs of the car and add tax, servicing, likely repairs you are spending close to a third of your income on the car... do you really need it..its a terrible drain on your finances...will you need it when at college?

there is no point in saving at (say) 5% when you are paying 15.9% on the CC use the money to pay this off asap.

Millionare

Hi Hannah, My Tips would be:

£5000 car is quite expensive. Do you really need a car that expensive? When i was around 21 (not that long ago) i brought a £7500 car, and trust me when i say, looking back it was a waste of money and its not worth getting in to debt for a car at your age. You can get some really nice cars for under £2500 easy.

I agree that £50 for mobile is high, you can get some amazing tariffs these days for that amount. What you need to do is if you on contract is work out what your using each month on landlines, mobile, and national numbers (minutes)+texts each month then find a tariff to suit.

i knocked my bill of approx £40 a month to £24-£25 :j by going over my bills, wont take you long.

Laptop Insurance, if it covers accidental damage and theft etc then i would recommend keeping this IF your taking your laptop to uni. have a good read through the T&C's of the insurance. if it dosent then cancel it.