Finally reaching out for some help...

kerri_dfw

I've been a member of MSE for a few months now, but have changed my name for anonymity. I came to these forums when I was £6k in debt and feeling quite swamped. I never seemed to have any money for myself, and wondered where it was all disappearing to.

Over the past few months I've changed my spending habits, but not enough. I'm still scared of my bank account and still seem to spend all my wages. So I'm putting together a diary to keep track of my ins and outs, every last penny. I'm going to need support because my debts aren't something I talk to my family/friends about as it's embarrassing.

I work a 9-5 job in London and am on a reasonably good salary of £35k at the moment, more than enough for one small 25 yr old to live on. My take home is about £1900 a month, yet at the end of the month I have pennies left.

I got myself into a lot of debt when I was a teenager, I didn't think about my actions and the consequences are only just hitting me now when I see my credit rating. The stupidest mistake I made was to take out a payday loan in 2008 that I've only just paid off this month, interest was about £100 so that's a ridiculous amount of money lost. I also took out an additional pay day loan with a different company that cost me £45 a month without paying it off.

Anyway, they're paid off now, mistakes learnt from. My current debts are as follows:

Freemans: about £900
Vanquis: about £500
Lloyds: £446 overdrawn (£400 limit)
Wescott: £2000 ish

I have about £85 in my HSBC 4% savings account and £25 comes out of my a/c each month for this at the moment. I have set this up as I was really worried about never having any "emergency money".

I started a £2 pot, which has 11 of the lovely shiny things in there. I refuse to use them to buy things and would rather break a note so I can get more of them. My sealed pot has £15.54 in at the moment. Both of these funds will be used to buy the christmas food. My Mum doesn't currently work and my Dad doesn't earn a lot of money so times are tough for them. Really pleased I have over £30 to spend on the turkey, veg, etc.

I've already finished my christmas shopping. My sister is a single Mum so I offered to do my nephews santa sack for him. He's 2 in January so it's the first year he'll appreciate the sparkles and presents. His stocking is handmade from a lady I tweet with as I try to buy from small businesses where possible. Most of his presents were discounted, or handmade, although I did have 3 impulse buys. My Mum bought her own present, and Dad has ales 4 for 3 in Waitrose although my OH has drunk a few of these so need to replace. My sister I made a terramundi pot from papier mache = free, and bought a handmade bag. My OH's Mum I have made a toiletry bag from Cath Kidston fabric and will make some handmade soap & bath bombs. The OH is going to get a kindle which I'll use some vouchers from surveys to buy.

Sorry this is a long opening post. But as you may see I do spend quite a lot of my money on other people. This month I also ordered food from amazon in bulk, but gave away half of it to my family. I don't live with my family by the way.

Anyway, I have £4.5k to kill and I need help and encouragement to do it. I'm reserving the next two posts for a list of money saving ideas I spot, and the other for an accurate account of my finances (when I'm brave enough to check my bank account).

Thanks for stopping by, and here's hoping I can get better at this malarky I'd really like to stop worrying about money all the time.

Kerri x

kerri_dfw

This post will be used to keep track of my finances and I will update it regulary, whenever I spend, so I know exactly where my money is going. Or that's the aim anyway. Debts will be struck out with new figures, anything else will be updated.

Debts:
Wescott:
[STRIKE]November: £2012.50[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]December: £1942.50[/STRIKE]
2012
[STRIKE]January: £1850.00[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]February: £1760.00[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]March: £1670.00[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]April: £1580.00[/STRIKE]
£1490.00

Vanquis (£500 limit, interest = 41.2% APR):
[STRIKE]November: £522.55[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]December: £526.86[/STRIKE]
2012
[STRIKE]January: £500.00[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]February: £500.00[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]March: £500.00[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]April: £500.00[/STRIKE]
£319.00

HSBC OD (current account overdraft):
£600

Freemans (£950 limit, interest = 2.837% month ):
[STRIKE]November: £916.17[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]December: £884.80[/STRIKE]
2012
[STRIKE]January: £600.00[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]February: £447.47[/STRIKE]
Paid in full 18/02/2012 £0.00 :j

Lloyds overdraft (£400 limit they charge £5/mnth for using the overdraft + interest):
[STRIKE]November: £446[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]December: £400[/STRIKE]
2012
[STRIKE]January: £400[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]February: £390 <-- phoned and asked for 0% interest on a payment plan they agreed for 6 months paying £12[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]March: £387.17[/STRIKE]
Paid in full March 2012: £0 :j

PDUK:
[STRIKE]October: £281[/STRIKE]
Paid in full November 2011: £0 :j
Total debt:
[STRIKE]Oct 2011: £5030.00[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Nov 2011: £4497.72[/STRIKE] 532.28 paid off
[STRIKE]Dec 2011: £4314.80[/STRIKE] 182.92 paid off
[STRIKE]Jan 2012: £3940.00[/STRIKE] 374.80 paid off
[STRIKE]Feb 2012: £3673.29[/STRIKE] 266.71 paid off
[STRIKE]Mar 2012: £2680.00[/STRIKE] 993.29 paid off
:eek:£2409.00 :eek: 2621.00 paid off not inc interest

Monthly Outgoings:
£811.00: Rent
£100.00: Food
£100.00: Spending money
£100.00: Petrol
£ 90.00: Wescott
£34.34 car insurance
£158.75 expected expenses pot (car tax, service, insurance, contact lenses, mot, birthdays, xmas)
£ 49.99: Mobile
£ 26.07: Vet Insurance (parents cats but I offered to pay for this)
£ 25.00: Emergency Fund (savings)
£ 5.30: Website

Incomings:
Wages: £1913.02/month

Savings: (Christmas food and emergency money)
£0.00: £2 pot
£0.00: SPC
£00.00: Expected Expenses Pot
£0.00 Emergency Fund
Total saved: £0.00

NSD's:

Additional Money from Surveys & Fleabay etc...:
£31 global test meerkat
£5 amazon voucher justtheanswer
£30 amazon voucher mysurvey
£20 SB
Rango blu-ray

kerri_dfw

This post will be used for keeping track on ways I save money, hopefully this will help others too.

snowball

#1. Bulk buy groceries on Amazon. I buy organic, fair trade from Suma with free delivery. It works out about the same price as shop brand own, but it's better for me and the environment.

#2. Keep track of the grabbit forum

#3. Make gifts using a sewing machine, glitter, glue, etc...

#4. Complete surveys for points = vouchers

#5. I've started an allotment (half plot), the onions have just gone in and my OH has helped me turn over half the plot already. We've only had the plot a few weeks.

Accurate Monthly Expenditure:

05/01/2012: £21.09 Lloyds TSB
05/01/2012: £14.80 Riverford Veg box + butter
06/01/2012: £39.00 Clinique gift set (Mums birthday present)
06/01/2012: £10.98 12sqm glazing film
06/01/2012: £0.48 4 x rolls
06/01/2012: £0.32 cupcake
06/01/2012: £0.59 loaf of bread
10/01/2012: £2.18 veggie pasta microwave meal
10/01/2012: £12.00 rock climbing
11/01/2012: £2.10 veggie lasagne microwave meal
13/01/2012: £14.50 megabus cardiff - london for OH
13/01/2012: £27.01 petrol (20 ltr)
14/01/2012: £10.00 lunch out with sister (lemonade and falafel burger with chips)
16/01/2012: £6.99 24 x cushelle loo roll
16/01/2012: £20.00 petrol (14.96 ltr)
16/01/2012: £0.70 daim bar
17/01/2012: £6.99 24 x cushelle loo roll
17/01/2012: £1.50 ambrosia custard large
18/01/2012: £6.45 falafel wrap meal from Leon
19/01/2012: £2.98 12 x branston baked beans
21/01/2012: £10.00 drinks and cake ingredients as friends coming over
21/01/2012: £10.00 amaretto
22/01/2012: £16.99 pizza takeaway (2 sides free)
23/01/2012: £3.96 16 x branston baked beans
26/01/2012: £28.48 e-reader (£51.51 of rainforest vouchers)
26/01/2012: £110 contact lenses
26/01/2012: £0.98 4 x bread rolls
26/01/2012: £0.60 2 x rolls
26/01/2012: £10.00 dine in for 2
26/01/2012: £0.99 gingerbread man

Stockpile:
5 Nutella 400g @ £0.95/£1.90
8 Pasta 500g @ £0.99/£1.33
8 tomato puree 200g @ £1.35
12 chopped toms 400g @ £0.75/£0.79
9 baked beans 410g @ £0.32/£0.64
12 baked beans 410g @ £0.25/£0.64
washing powder 10kg @ £34.39
fabric conditioner 5ltr @ £9.69
30 fairy liquid 433ml @ £0.47/£1.80
24 cushelle loo roll @ £0.29/£0.42

jtr2803

Hi Kerri, hope you don't mind me jumping in but thought I would make some observations....

What other deductions do you have taken from your salary as your take home seems very low to me...I earn £30k and take home £1,830 but thats with a 2% salary deduction for pension and £28 paid into a company share scheme. Do check you tax code as I would expect you to be taking home over £2k.

Personally - ditch Credit Expert (you don't need to check it every month), ditch the savings temporarily as you will never earn the interest you are paying on other debts and if you aren't already, keep a spending diary EVERY day. Even with your debts you have more surplus income than I do.

I hope that doesn't come across as blunt but if your outgoings are right (no food, heating bills or council tax?) then you should be able to clear your debts within a year!

kerri_dfw

Hi jtr2803, my travel card (about £110) and student loan (£150) come out each month which is why my take home is lower.

I'm going to go on and find out how to cancel credit expert now, you're right I don't need to check it every month no idea why I think I do. I would like to keep the savings though as it's my emergency money (in case the car breaks or I lose my purse). I'm not interested in the interest on it, just the security of it. It'll currently pay for my road tax which is due at the end of the month and I hadn't planned for.

My outgoings don't take into account utilities and food at the moment as I'm moving house on the 4th December, so this diary is probably going to go a bit wonky then unless Lloyds TSB pay me the £1900 they owe me for PPI. I've been waiting 14 weeks from their calculations letter and counting. The deposit for that is £1200 and I need to buy a cheap bed & mattress. I will have to contribute towards utilities when I move, but don't know the figures yet (I'm moving in with a good friend of mine ). I am clueless on what I spend on food, I hate my kitchen in this shared house so never cook, but will cook in my lovely new kitchen at my friends when I move. Sorry bit of a messy start, but I am aiming for debt free before the end of 2012.

kerri_dfw

15th November 2011

Bit the bullet last night and looked at my bank balance. I have £246 less the Tesco shop I have being delivered to my boyfriend this evening. He's a student with about £200 to last him until January, I'd seen the £5 off veg code on the forum and had £7.50 in vouchers. I put together a small shop for him on Sunday night which meant only paying £1.89 for about £12 worth of food. Although since then I added his favourite coffee as it was 2 for £6 and his smoothie as it was 2 for £4. So I'm going to end up paying about £10 for this. I did have my money saving head on when I ordered though, I picked loose veg over packed as it's less packaging and cheaper. I don't feel guilty about this shop as I have a cupboard full of food so don't need to buy anymore food myself, and it's only £10 which to him we worked out as being about £100.

I don't have any direct debits coming out of my account until payday, 26th, although my monthly interest on my account is due on the 23rd which is £5.21.

My minimum payment on my Vanquis credit card is £26.12, but I want to pay off more than this as I still have money leftover from payday and my sister is paying me back £50 on Friday. So I have decided to pay £150 onto the credit card today, this is due on the 21st with the new statement arriving on the 26th. I'd ideally like to be using my credit card as my spending money, but I haven't got into the hang of paying it off in full each month yet. This is something I need to learn. I am currently in two minds with my c/c, my road tax is due on the 30th and the payment doesn't normally go through for 3 days. So should I pay off some of my freemans account with this money, or should I pay my £90 for six months road tax? Or just leave it to clear some of the c/c debt. I'll have to think on this one, the interest on freemans is the same as the c/c. If I can put the money on the cc to clear the balance when I get paid = 0 interest, then I could use this money to pay freemans.

My minimum payment with freemans is £45.82 but I'd like to pay off more than this ideally. The interest is about £24 a month, which is ridiculous. This and c/c need to be cleared asap, but would like c/c to help build credit report again.

The reason my sister owes me £50 is that back in June 2010 I was made redundant. I was paid £22k as redundancy money and offered to pay off my sisters debts to the tune of £2.5k as she had a 6 month old baby and was out of her depth. This was meant to pay off my lloyds tsb loan, but I am foolish and put others first. It all backfired anyway, my sister went and got her breasts done getting herself a further £5k in debt and didn't care that I'd bailed her out. She started paying me back £100 a month, but this went down to £50 as she decided that's all she could afford and broke the agreement. As there's no contract I let her pay this amount back to me, as something is better than nothing although I don't charge her interest. She currently owes me about £1650 which would sort my debts out but she can't afford to pay me any quicker.

I have listed 31 items at £0.99 each on ebay with no reserve and feel quite pleased that I've finally got round to sorting that out.

However, I have slipped today. My sister found out yesterday that my nephew has mild allergies to milk, egg whites and wheat so I suggested the babycakes vegan book for my sister to still be able to bake cake for my little nephew (at 22 mnths it's his favourite). I accidentally ended up on the grabbit board where I spotted a code for 10% discount on The Book People, and a code for free delivery for one book. I ended up spending £4.50 on the book for my sister as her christmas present. Slapped wrist for me, but that's all of the presents for my sister paid for now and at least I used codes.

I'm going to aim for a NSD tomorrow and hopefully chuck some things on "that auction site" today. It needs to go on there I'm fed up of looking at the mountain in the corner of the room. Loads of bras if anyone needs any 34a's!

beanielou

Your priority needs to be to bring the Lloyds account under its OD limit or credit limit.

kerri_dfw

Beanielou - Ok I have looked at my HSBC account and my cupboards and I think I can afford to bring Lloyds back into it's limit. I had £74.26 in my HSBC account, this has taken into account Tesco and my TBP spend earlier. So I have transferred £46.54 to my Lloyds account leaving me with £27.72 less £5.21 which will be taken on the 23rd November. All I need to buy until next Friday (payday) is some onions, some mushrooms and some cream cheese.

I can take £150 off the total for Vanquis and the money my sister gives me will pay for Freemans payment this month. I just need to not spend anything else this month other than on the veg, I don't actually need to buy anything anyway.

kerri_dfw

I've just been eating my pasta in a panic about not having any money left after paying Vanquis and Lloyds.... I must be the jammiest person ever though. As when I got back to my room with my bowl of pasta I had an email from Lloyds TSB telling me that they are going to be paying my PPI refund to me within the next few hours, interest calculated up until todays date. £1900+ of lovely refund, that's £1200 for my deposit when I move in with my friend at the end of the month and I can pay off Vanquis in full.. I am soooo relieved!

Now I need to decide how to conquer the rest. I have £700 left after Lloyds pay me and deposit taken out. I need to buy a bed & mattress with my wages, but this can wait until the January sale (2 pay packets to share the expense).

This money is not to go on luxuries, it is to go on becoming debt free. I think the next highest interest is Freemans and with my wages I should be able to clear that. I won't count my chickens just yet though, will see what happens in the morning.

beanielou

Great news on Lloyds :j
Use it wisely

charleyroo

What a lovely bonus to add to your debt free antics!