Repaying my loan from The Bank of Mum and Dad

jaffacakegal

Well after months of procrastination, I’ve finally decided to start a diary ! I have been doing the NSD challenge, and lurking on various other diaries, but I think it’s time to start seriously re-thinking some of my attitudes towards money and life!


A bit of info about me –

• I’m 26
• I’m single – most of the time this doesn’t bother me but I’m starting to think it may be time to change this .
• I work in accounts – it’s not particularly well paid at the moment, but I am studying at college and hope that by the time I am 30 my work will have paid off and I will be qualified and on a much higher salary.
• I live alone in my own house – more about that in a minute...
• I don’t have any credit cards etc – but they are staring to look very tempting .
• I can’t seem to get out of my overdraft :mad:.

So my “own” house?! Well I bought my house two years ago with A LOT of help from my parents. The house was cheap but needed lots doing to it, so my parents generously paid for the deposit and the work that needed doing. I think if they hadn’t been able to do this for me then I would be living at home until well into my 30s (think they are just happy to be rid of me! ). I now owe them the same as I owe on my mortgage, but can’t afford to pay them back as fast as I would want to.


Since I moved in just over a year ago, I seem to be struggling to live within my income. It’s ok until something comes along like car insurance or college fees, then I just end up further in my overdraft! I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a 0% credit card and lumping all my spending for the next few months on it to clear my overdraft down, but then I read peoples stories on here and I realise how dangerous this would be!

I know that I am very fortunate as my debts are contained to my overdraft and a huge interest free loan from my parents, but I am desparate to start living within my means and hope I can give myself a huge kick up the backside from keeping this diary! If anyone else wants to give me a kick then you are very welcome!

JCG x

Emzilla

Hi JCG :wave:

Welcome to DFW Diary-land. Oh, and consider yourself kicked

Good luck, best to avoid the credit card idea and cut back on your spending where you can instead.

I'm off to subscribe .

Emz xx

WelshWoofer

Good luck!
I've found keeping a diary helps keep me focussed and reminds me what to do next!
Will be popping in for a nose!

Tuesday_Tenor

Do you have room to take in a lodger?

I know some mortgages won't allow it, but when I was young (couple of decades ago) those of us who could afford to buy a house at all always had to have a lodger to make sense of the finances.

If you don't want a permanent lodger or the spare room's rather small then consider whether you could get several short-term lodgers per year; this can boost your income a bit while allowing times to yourself or for other freinds to stay. Try through places that are looking for short-term accommodation for people underatking 'placements' at schools or hospitals - try language schools, or the teacher training departments or healthcare departments of universities.

jaffacakegal

Hi to the postees on my diary :hello:

Hopefully not expecting too much of me - I'm not sure I have much interesting to say

Tuesday - I do have a spare room, it is very very small! And also a complete mess, along with my living room! I have no where to sit down there! Its a joke, how disorganised I am! I think, even when everywhere is habitable, I don't like the idea of a lodger. I am out of my house a lot during the week and I feel like it would end up feeling as tho I was the lodger when I came home, if they were in all evening - if you see what I mean?! Maybe will look into the short term idea, not sure if anyone would want to visit near me but you never know!

Right I really will need to have a stern talk with myself on the morrow and come up with some kinda plan to post on here :think:

JCG xx

clippy_girl

hi JCG!

like you i also owe my parents lots but this is now coming down each month

the first thing i did was to set myself a budget. there is a tool called soa on here (think at top of main dfw board) but tbh i found it a bit overly complicated as theres only me and my debts are 0% with no fixed payments. so what i did was list all my direct debits to get an idea.
i then included everything else such as i worked out the cost of how much i spent on presents each year exc. xmas and divided by 12 and transfer it to a 'present account'. i get my hair cut for £40 every two months so transfer half to the present account each month and then pay for there. i also pay my council tax and water over 12 months. this means my outgoings stay the same every month to make it easier to budget. i then give myself £80 a month to buy food, £60 a month for petrol and allow £40 week for me to spend on clothes, make up, drinks, cinema etc...

perhaps you could do similar with your car and work out how much tax, insurance, mot etc... costs each month and put it in a car account. obv if you have payments due soon you might no have built up enough but at least by next year.

i save any change from my weekly spends in my piggy banks to use for xmas.

you then know exactly how much you spend each month. if ots more than you earn then you will need to tyry and cut stuff or make more. my salary pays for all of the above luckily then i use money made from mystery shopping and my lodgers rent to pay my parents back as much as i can afford each month (i use a seperate account for that so i dont spend it!)

i have found if i didnt give myself a weekly spend amount or if it was too low i would just go mad and buy loads anyway so at least this way i only spend what i can afford also with food i have found by batch cooking pots of chilli, curry, caseroles etc... then freezing portions it is much much cheaper and keeps my food cists low.

i have a lodger and whilst like you i would like to have my whole house to myself, it is a sacrifice i am prepared to make at the moment as it would take far too long to pay off my debt if i didnt. perhaps you could do it short term to bring in some money to help get you on your way whilst you try other ways of cutting back/making more money? the way i see it is that its free money for little effort- i would have to do A LOT of mystery shops to earn that much each month! you could advertise for a monday to friday let so at least you have your weekends to yourself

wow i have written a lot! :rotfl::o

kramark46

Good luck with sorting your finances out. I wish I had your insight when I was 26! I'm sure you will manage to getout of debt- very good advice from clippygirl btw!

Mike x

jaffacakegal

Hi Clippy!

Thanks for your post. I have been keeping a record of my spends etc and trying to stick to a budget since January - it's not exactly working but I'm getting better!

I have been considering posting my SOA on here, but I'm not sure how much help I would get as I know I spend too much on food - I think this is the major issue! I already do the bulk freeze thing - I have soooo much chilli in there it's beyond a joke! I think I just eat too much! I would dread to see my tube on Supersize V Superskinny :rotfl:

One thing I do want to do, like you suggested, is start putting money aside monthly for the big things. I just need to pay my overdraft off 1st, and with Christmas (sorry I know it's only August but I'm already panicking!) on the way I want to do this asap!

At the moment I pay my dad by standing order on the 1st, like majority of my other D/Ds. If I continue to pay him $100 (my pound sign doesn't work on my netbook!) a month it will take me roughly 40 years to pay off my debt :eek: I'm not sure he will still be around then, as much as I would like him to be!

Once my overdraft is gone, and I know what I am putting aside, I would like to increase this to $125. Fingers crossed if I ever get a pay rise at work/move jobs somewhere better paid I can start asap paying him the same as my mortgage which is currently $250 a month fixed till 2014 (sooo glad I got 5 years fixed!).


Right so I need to make some targets. I have made some lists already but they are not exactly being completed quickly! The money type items still outstanding on my to-do in July/August lists are:

• compare gas and elec prices
• check re phone contract
• reduce overdraft to $500
• collect charity money

I think I will be wasting my time trying to wriggle out of my phone contract but this runs out in January so not long til the big decision as to whether I should get a snazzy new phone or keep my own ok but not fantastic phone and go PAYG to save money!

Gas and electric I am so annoyed with myself that I haven't sorted this already. BG told me I would be paying off my arrears til October (I was on quarterly til Apr then changed to monthly DD after big winter bill I couldn't afford) but after supplying meter reading 2 weeks ago I seem to be just about paid off, so def time to shop about!

Overdraft I'm working on! I am $430 o/d at the mo with $40 in my purse. I don't want to spend any more money from my bank account, but I have collected majority of the money from a charity thing I did last month and put in my bank so that I can send a cheque asap to the charity - although may look at bank transfer to them so I am not waiting for them to bank cheque - it gives me false hope! Only 3 more people to collect from so will get this sorted this week. Will def mean that I will be over my $500 overdrawn target when I get paid tho!

Anyway I've rabbited enough for one post!

JCG x

jaffacakegal

Hi all!



Right so at least I have managed to cross one thing off my list...

• compare gas and elec prices
• check re phone contract
• reduce overdraft to $500
• [STRIKE]collect charity money[/STRIKE]

Definitely want to get this to them asap - it makes me feel guilty that I have it.

My plan to not spend any more out of my account didn't last long when I went and booked cinema tickets online yesterday :rotfl: In my defence they are half price and I will get the majority of it back from the other people.

Went to the gym yesterday. I know this is money I could be saving every month but I do actually go at least twice a week, and its a student membership so only £30 (work keyboard lets me use £ sign) rather than the extortinate £40 :eek: Treated myself to a weigh in for a £1 whilst I was there as I find I never trust my scales. I weighed myself on the same scales a year ago and in that year I have put on a stone

I really need to sort out my food issues as the majority of my money is wasted on food. We have dinners provided at work (will do once the bosses finish Ramadan!) so I am thinking the way forward would be for me to stop thinking that I need to have a big meal every evening, as I am eating a proper meal in the daytime as well. Thinking eating mainly cereal at home will help both my waistline and my purse. Although I'm not sure I could give up my jaffa cakes!

JCG x

moneypuddle

Hello Jaffacakegal, I'm here to give you a little kick! No, no, no to the credit cards. Don't do it. I had £3k on them, am now down to £1776, but still find it so majorly depressing to be paying them off every month, when my money could go elsewhere! So my one tip is to do whatever you can to avoid them! Consider yourself ticked off

I also need to stop wasting money on food too. I shall join you in that pursuit!! :T

moneypuddle

Oh and definitely post a SOA if you want to. All the helpful people on here are very good at telling you how to cut down on things you might not have even thought of!