Girl About Town - Perhaps not so worldly wise!!! (I'm New!)

girl-about-town_2

Hello everybody!

Firstly I am very new to all of this and think this site is the best thing on the internet by far! It is very comforting to know that there are plenty of people out there willing to offer help and advice to those in a similar position.

A little about me....

Have just had my LBW :eek: ! oh my! It has been creeping up on me for the past few months and I have finally accepted the fact that I finished uni a whole year ago and all I have to show for it is an overdraft that has not shrunk in the slightest, a fairly large credit card bill and approximately £15,000 of student loans. Oh dear god!

Couple this with the fact that I am currently in an employment drought and so have no income coming in to sort me out! I am a teensy bit stressed! Obviously the student loans are not really a problem at the moment because I am not earning over the threshold to have to pay them back but I don't like having them hanging over me! At the moment, I think ebaying could be the way forwards until I find a job and I have just put a couple of things on amazon following the advice of some other members on here!

Any more suggestions???? Please be kind!

Thank you in advance!

Girl About Town

RAS

welcome

look for Southern scouser's stickie at the top of the page, get your paperwork togetther and put together a SOA, then lovely people can help you reduce your expenditure.

The other things to do is to start a spending diary, with everthing you spend written down and then have a look at the Saving Old Stlye Board for ways of reducing the cost of everything you do.

CAFCGirl

Hey G.A.T,

Welcome to the boards!

You'll get tons of great advice on this forum and it may all seem a bit overwhelming when it starts coming thick and fast.

My best suggestions first of all, is to take a deep breath and congratulate yourself on the lightbulb finally flickering on... mine had a slow warm up too, I like to think of it as having an energy saving lightbulb!

Like RAS said, get as much of your paperwork together as possible and read through the sticky at the top of the forum. This will help you get your head around the numbers.

I think your two debts, overdraft and credit card can be easily taken care of, as soon as you start earning. It might be worthwhile posting what kind of work you're looking for, or what your qualification is in, that way people can put forward suggestions about where to look out for job vancancies. I had a lot of great suggestions, some that I would never have thought of!

But again welcome to the boards and to the mad mad world of money saving!!

taxi73

Hi there and welcome...just was going to say the same as above

pinkshoes

Graduates finding jobs nowadays seems to becoming quite a problem, given that the government are trying to push 50% of young people through higher education. I'm not sure where the government go the average grad start salary as £22k from, because most jobs i see advertised are around £13k - £16k!!!

I come from a small town, and had to move 160 miles away for my graduate job, and leave behind all my friends and family. Maybe look at some of the company graduate schemes which have good starting salaries (£23k+), although most of them require you to be flexible in location.

Maybe get someone to look over your CV to check you have the best possible chance at getting a job. 100s of graduates apply for each job, so make sure there's something on your CV that makes you stand out from the crowd, and also list any relevant work experience.

girl-about-town_2

Thanks RAS, CAFC Girl, taxi73 and Pinkshoes!!!,

Its great to have some very useable advice so quickly! I'm going to try and put together an SOA tonight and I am definitely starting a spending diary tomorrow! Its far too easy to think you haven't spent much on clothes/food/going out and then nearly have a heart attack when you read your bank statements! (I seem to do that a lot!).

As for the whole 'graduate job' thing, I think the government need to get a clue! I seem to have dug myself a nice little whole with my choice of degree which is infuriating to say the least! (My degree is in fashion design - they don't tell you how few jobs there are when you start the course!) Unfortunately, lack of funds mean I am back living at home in Devon where there are no industry jobs for me!! :mad: And a lot of employers don't seem to take my degree seriously either! But I shall soldier on! If anybody knows of any opportunities anywhere though please do let me know!! (Cheeky I know!)

Anyway, I don't want to scare everybody away with my moaning! SOA tomorrow promise!! Thanks everyone!!:D

lynzpower

You have my sympathies, my best mate has done fashion design and has found it tremendously difficult to find paid work ( although no shortage of illegal unpaid internships :mad: )

Have you considered moving away in due course to follow your career?

One thing my freind has done is made items and sold them through boutiques. She is an accesories designer so has done belts, purses, bags etc. Is there anything like that you could do ( i know materials can be expensive) Another thing my mate has done, more as a hobby ( altohugh I tohught she should sell them) is work with second hand items and redesign them into more saleable modern peices. Certainly worth thinking about using some coppers to go to a jumble sale and picking up the best bits?

Additionally, we both have bought bits from jumble sales ( vintage) and sold them on ebay.

What about taking in alterations? With a bit off basic patterncutting experience Im sure you have this should be a doddle? its never going to make you a millionaire, but it will get you known and you dont know if there are any bigger commissions around the next corner

have you signed on for JSA?

Welshlassie

What about getting a temping job for the time being, means you'll have some funds coming in that you can use to start reducing some of your debts and also get you some experience to show you are willing to work, (looks good on your CV), even if its for 2/3 days a week to give you chance to attend interviews look for your ideal job.

System

Hi GAT, you;re in a good place. Lenny

Gemmzie

Arcadia and Debenhams have some graduate jobs that will be available shortly. My store is getting a new visual merchandiser but it's nationwide and they have lots of different ones.

girl-about-town_2

Hey everybody,

back again, but still haven't got a final SOA sorted. Working on it though!

Thanks for all the advice Lynzpower, Welshlassie and Gemmzie. I definitely know what you mean about the unpaid internships - I had one lined up with a big designer but had to cancel because I couldn't afford to move to London for 3 months and completely fund my living expenses myself! And a friend of mine is working for one of the designers of the moment - in Vogue every month etc and is being paid below minimum wage! The cheek!

I am definitely considering moving away to develop my career but think I want to get the credit card and overdraft down first so that I won't be borrowing for the first few months while I get myself sorted. Also definitely going to head to the car boot looking for stuff to put on ebay! I definitely want to start making my own stuff and selling it to boutiques, especially when I see some of the stuff they sell - i know I could do so much better! :rotfl: Need to get some cash together for materials first!

Have been into a few temping agencies recently and apparently they have nothing for me - all the students are coming back from uni and stealing them!! Grrr! :mad: Have filled in all the forms online for JSA and I'm waiting for them to call me back! Should be useful until I find something else!

Thats very interesting to hear about Arcadia and Debenhams Gemmzie, I will definitely keep checking the website etc for that one! Just about to apply for a job as a Visual Merchandiser now which would be good! Fingers crossed! :T

Anyway, thanks for all the help everyone, SOA tomorrow I promise. Now off to see if ebay has made me a millionaire! (I can dream!):D