Newbie wanting to be debt free!!

CLAPTON

first thing to do is to find out where all your money is going.

at the moment you identify your spending at just under 700 and your income at 1,100... i'm sure in practice you dont actually have over 400 a month to repay debts.

you have left out lots of things out of your spending... start looking at all the yearly or one off spends....with these you need to divide by 12 to get a monthly figure and save this each month so when you need the money you use your savings rather than need to borrow.... so what about car tax, MOT, servicing, allowance for repairs, RAC/AA, any clothes, holidays, weekends away, present, xmas costs.

for your normal monthly costs start keeping a spending diary to see how much you actually spend on DVD/CDc, haircuts, and medical/optical/dental costs, magazines/newspapers, gadgets/boystoys

also break down lunches and food etc...what does this actually cover
what about socialising / takeways etc.

once you have kept your spending diary for a month or so and worked out all the annual and oneoff costs that you're likely to spend over the next 12 months, you will be able to see what you can reduce so free up money to clear your debts.

deanchilds1

Mot just done, Tax 4 months left, Serviced April, GreenFlag with Bank.

3 Days in Paris for My Birthday paid for, 2 weeks In Florida in September £440 left to pay + spending money, Families Birthday Presents brought most of these in the sales yesterday, Xmas presents im going to buy when in America also along with Clothes for myself as they are so much cheaper then over here.

Dvds and Cds about £50-£100 each month, Haircuts £10pm, Medical and Optical £0 as quite healthly and just got 2 pairs of new specs, Dentist once every 6 months £35, newspapers and Milk at work £20pm, Lunches and Snacks at work £25 pw, Takeways £40pm, Going out maybe Cinema once a month and Myabe a music gig also. Gadgets would like a new surround sound for my Bedroom and a mp4 achos player. But no rush.

duncans-mum_2

If you budget for things like the MOT, tax, dentist etc over every month and put them aside so you don't have 1 month with a bigger unexpected bill. Use Martins budget planner and fill in ALL the relevant categories, then you can work out what money you really have left over each month.

If you plan like this, you should be able to feel more in control of your money, and know what you are dealing with.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1089226742,17582,#planner

deanchilds1

Thanks Thats really useful. Just filled it out and will have a closer look later on.

hypno06

Hi, I would suggest that you get a notebook and make a note of absolutely EVERYTHING that you spend in the next month to see where your money goes.

The only thing is that you must be really honest with yourself and put down everything, even the odd packet of polos etc. It really is an eye-opener and once it is written down you will be able to really focus on where you are able to cut back. This will make the reality of it much easier to deal with.

Good luck!

deanchilds1

Thnkas you, got a dairy and will keep a note of what i spend. I am going to put a load of stuff on ebay tonight.

mustafa_say_ving

deanchilds1 wrote:

Thnkas you, got a dairy and will keep a note of what i spend. I am going to put a load of stuff on ebay tonight.

You may want to waut until the 29th to list on eBay as it's a 10p listing day ,especially if you have some bit's you want to put a higher start price on

deanchilds1

Planned to do that, shame it aint 5p lisiting day!! Im going to have a sort out tonight and picture what im going to sell over the next 2days and then Friday list as much as i can. Want to put my car on too and get something a little bit more practical.

deanchilds1

Taken 75 pics of items to put on ebay on 10p listing day. Hopefully will make some money from these.

And my plan for this months wages is to pay:
Dentist £35
Dad £110
Brother £100
Fiancee £370
Credit Cards £150
T Mobile £65
Mum £300 (inc £150 rent + £150 what i owe)

That will leave me dry, But next month will need to borrow £200 for paris and then will owe:

£3.4k BarclayCard
£1.35k Virgin
£650 Mum (inc next months rent)
£35 T Mobile
£210 O2
£10 Sky HD

From next months (FEB) wages will pay.

£650 Mum
£200 Credit Cards
£200 Paris Money
£35 T Mobile
£10 Sky HD

Will leave £100 will use this for the month petrol and haircut etc.

robnye

whats the O2 debt? and why arent you budgeting to pay anything during the next 2 months? (or have i missed something?)

you spend £50 to £100 on dvds/cd per month?
you must have wall to wall storage units full of them......! why dont you try some of the dvd rental trials....... using one of the cashback sites as well