Small but unwanted debt

Onetirednurse

Hi guys,

After graduating I've now got the difficult task to pay off my student overdraft that was £2000 and credit cards that were £1000

I decided to merge it all, extend the OD and now only have a £3000 overdraft to be paying. It wasn't ideal but for me meant I could SEE the debt rather than it being spread around.

I'm a nurse and earn £21176pa and around £1500 home monthly from doing weekends/nights etc. I've made a SOA for you all:


Monthly Income: £1500
BILLS (based on last month)
Rent: £330
Council Tax: £80
Gas/Lecky: 22
Water: £18
Virgin media (tv & internet): £40
Mobile phone: £40
Tv Licence (paid quarterly): £36 or £12
Union: £16
Car MOT/TAX (pay monthly amount to save for it): £20
Cat healthcare plan: £10
Cat insurance: £15
Car Insurance: £80
Gym: £27.95
Cinema card: £15
Weightwatchers: £16
Overdraft interest/Bank charges: £50
Debt Pay off: £125
Holiday savings: 100
House deposit savings: 100

Petrol allowance: 45
Groceries (£45 per week): 180
Lunches: £40
Eating out (£10 a week): £40
'Clothes/spa days/hair & beauty treats): £50


Total...

£18.05 left out of a total £1500..


I'm considering selling my car to cut costs and getting a bike as I live 1-2 miles from work, however my boyfriend does live 5 miles away and it's useful to have a car for night shifts as It's not a nice area to walk through at night. Plus my family are in bristol and it's been essential/cheaper than train to see them!



I've made a budget. I think my problem is STICKING to said budget. Any advice on willpower? I'd also like to be getting some small savings behind me for the big emergencies too-but would it be easier to be paying off the debt before even thinking about savings?


Help? How does my budget look? I'd like to have paid off half the debt in 12 months time and will be signing up to nursing bank, although won't be able to do as MUCH work as I'd like to have a bit of a life!!

heartbreak_star

Onetirednurse wrote: »

Hi guys,

After graduating I've now got the difficult task to pay off my student overdraft that was £2000 and credit cards that were £1000

I decided to merge it all, extend the OD and now only have a £3000 overdraft to be paying. It wasn't ideal but for me meant I could SEE the debt rather than it being spread around.

I'm a nurse and earn £21176pa and around £1500 home monthly from doing weekends/nights etc. I've made a SOA for you all:


Monthly Income: £1500
BILLS (based on last month)
Rent: £330
Council Tax: £80
Gas/Lecky: 22
Water: £18
Virgin media (tv & internet): £40
Mobile phone: £40
Tv Licence (paid quarterly): £36 or £12
Union: £16
Car MOT/TAX (pay monthly amount to save for it): £20
Cat healthcare plan: £10 - why both this and insurance?
Cat insurance: £15
Car Insurance: £80 - high - have you shopped around?
Gym: £27.95
Cinema card: £15
Weightwatchers: £16 - if you have all the knowledge, do it at home?
Overdraft interest/Bank charges: £50
Debt Pay off: £125
Holiday savings: 100 too much per month - lower your sights
House deposit savings: 100

Petrol allowance: 45
Groceries (£45 per week): 180
Lunches: £40
Eating out (£10 a week): £40 - halve this
'Clothes/spa days/hair & beauty treats): £50 - you could easily halve this - offset new stuff by ebaying old stuff and only have a spa before a big occasion


Total...

£18.05 left out of a total £1500..


I'm considering selling my car to cut costs and getting a bike as I live 1-2 miles from work, however my boyfriend does live 5 miles away and it's useful to have a car for night shifts as It's not a nice area to walk through at night. Plus my family are in bristol and it's been essential/cheaper than train to see them!



I've made a budget. I think my problem is STICKING to said budget. Any advice on willpower? I'd also like to be getting some small savings behind me for the big emergencies too-but would it be easier to be paying off the debt before even thinking about savings?


Help? How does my budget look? I'd like to have paid off half the debt in 12 months time and will be signing up to nursing bank, although won't be able to do as MUCH work as I'd like to have a bit of a life!!

Some tips from me in purple - good luck :T

HBS x

Daedalus

I would personally cut the deposit and holiday money. That alone will bump up repayments to £325 a month.

meeshpeesh

Teeny tiny tip about the cinema card, I'm assuming it's a Cineworld one?

They're brilliant value if you go alot! You can use them with orange wednesdays too so a friend can go for free with you 4 times a month!

You could ask them to chip in a few quid to contribute to the monthly cost or have them get the snacks to cut the cost of the nights out.

My sister had a similar arrangement when she had her card!

Onetirednurse

Good idea about the cineworld card- I do go 1-2 times a week so I get my moneys worth IMO! I might start asking the boyfriend to start chipping in if we go together lol


Just thinking, can you cut a debt AND save at the same time? I might reduce my holiday savings to £50? However I really want to start getting some savings for the future....

Onetirednurse

Ooo and I've just made a small dfw 'saving'- Instead of getting my old iphone 3gs recycled for £60- sold it on ebay for £130!!!!!

19lottie82

Onetirednurse wrote: »

Just thinking, can you cut a debt AND save at the same time? I might reduce my holiday savings to £50? However I really want to start getting some savings for the future....

Unless the interest paid on your savings is more than the interest you pay on your debts (which I doubt!), this is totally pointless and counter productive. Focus on paying off your debts and THEN start saving!

Onetirednurse

heartbreak_star wrote: »

Some tips from me in purple - good luck :T

HBS x

Hi thats a good idea,

The thing is I don't know if anyone would buy all my old clothes? lol. I was going to go through some things but I tend to have mostly cheap end clothes from george, primark etc which won't fetch for much on ebay right? I tend to donate to charity shops in summer/winter....

Oh and the healthcare includes my cat to get defleaed, dewormed, free check ups/xrays and examinations and jabs etc. Which I've found when you have an excess of £60....which don't include £60 jabs yearly, money gets saved!

heartbreak_star

Gotcha - that makes sense for the healthcare!

Try just bagging stuff up - "carrier bag of size 14 tops" etc. Even if you only get a tenner or so, better in your pocket than the bin

HBS x

dktreesea

If the clothes are not really good enough anymore for Ebay, how about bagging them up and selling them to Cash for Clothes or a similar business for 50p a kilo? They usually have high street shops to take in the clothes and pay you on the spot. Plus, there are other ones who will pay more for clothes in good condition. Our local shop pays 80p a kilo for undamagied clothes. The balance we just sell off to a 50p a kilo shop.

And they don't just take clothes. Some of them take stuff like belts/hangbags/shoes.

dktreesea

I would recommend paying off your credit card in full each month, and then just using it for things like groceries, petrol and the like, plus any online payments you make. that way at least you wouldn't be paying interest on the outstanding balance each month, even though it might only go down over time by around £50 a month.