hello... a plan in progress.

Jonbvn

stewby,

A quick google shows that your "juicy" Next storecard has an APR of 26%!!! http://www.next.co.uk/WinTC.asp

It is complete madness to even think about overpaying the mortgage when you have much higher interest debts elsewhere. I would recommend that you proceed step by step as follows:

1. Pay off your Next card.
2. Pay off your CC.
3. Accumulate at least 3 months outgoings as an emergency fund.
4. Start OPing your mortgage.

And learn to control your spending!

originalmiscellany

Ouch!
http://www.whatsthecost.com/creditCard.aspx

It's not cheap is it!

argomatt

When I have done training for work in the past, I had a "Return of Service" agreement, where they paid for the college, and kept me on full pay while I was there but if I left their employment within a certain number of years, I would have to pay them back their costs of sending me on the course.

Is this how the bond works too? if your partner continues to work there does he still have to pay it back?

Weird_Nev

argomatt wrote: »

When I have done training for work in the past, I had a "Return of Service" agreement, where they paid for the college, and kept me on full pay while I was there but if I left their employment within a certain number of years, I would have to pay them back their costs of sending me on the course.

Is this how the bond works too? if your partner continues to work there does he still have to pay it back?

From another thread, Stewbys partner has completed a commercial pilots licence. He has paid his training costs up front, and it sounds like there are "partner airlines" to the training provider. If he gets a job with a partner airline, they pay the bond off as part of his wages. If not, he pays it back himself.
Stewby hasn't been able to clarify the exact terms of the bond, and says her partner doesn't know exactly either.
I think it's sensible that she regards her finances as her own, and his finances as his for the time being. Especially if they're not married and he's not a joint mortgage holder with her.

stewby

i think this plan is going on the back-burner for a wee while. judging by my current situation (and people's suggestions), i will head back on to the debt-free wannabe section and start my journey there.

this is not a sign of defeat and i will be back. i just didn't realise that my debts were that bad (in terms of interest and stuff). seeing it written down is a real eye-opener.


my dad is the joint mortgage holder and is nearing retirement age so i cannot do anything to increase my mortgage as they want him off. (my dad owns 25% of my house as he gave me money to use as a desposit).

my partner has no financial obligations to the house at present. he only moved in in august (prior to that he was in his training school's accommodation). he occassionally pays some money towards the shopping but it is restricted as he has no income.

thank you all for your advice. i have spoken to my dad and we have agreed that i can overpay my mortgage to £400 (an extra £58.90) but any extra money i have at the end of month has to go to the credit card until it is paid off.

he also said that i don't owe him as much as i thought. i actually owe him £423. which he has said can wait until i have paid off the debts that have charges attached.
the plan is to use the extra £100 from my living allowance to pay off next. so that should be done in 4 months. i had no idea that i was paying that amount of interest.

thank you very very much for all your help and i hope to see you in the near future for attempt number 2 at being mortgage free. (i will still come in for a nosey though. it's quite addictive seeing how other people are getting on).

Happier_Me

Hi Stewby

I started to post a reply in your diary, timed myself out and then read you latest post about joining the DFW board. I have decided to post my reply anyway as this is advice you can use no matter where you keep a diary.

So I think you need to do some more work on understanding your monthly spend. Before you can decide what you can afford to use for debt repayments, savings or mortgage payments you need to know exactly what is left after all your spend has been accounted for each month.

A few things I would do:

1. Set yourself a monthly budget for fuel, food, clothing and entertainment - these seem to be the main budgets 'missing' and are no doubt lumped into your allowance/card spend. Understanding exactly what you spend your allowance on and what you put on the credit card may help. You could start a spend diary if you're not sure where this goes.
2. Food Budget - set yourself a strict but sensible budget for food. Use a food plan, make a shopping list and take packed lunches to work. Monitor your spend against this budget. Food budgets range on here - I think mine is generous for a family of 4 at £100 per week but that is because we are currently on a strict 'no meals out, no takeaways, packed lunch to work every day but lots of nice wine to compensate for being so frugal' food budget
3. Fuel Budget - your mileage is quite high so I think you will see a big saving here when you change jobs.
4. Be sensible with your entertainment and clothing budgets. How much are you prepared to sacrifice in terms of your lifestyle to become debt and mortgage free? If you cut this too fine you won't stick to the budget and this can be very frustrating, you may even fall back into your old spending ways. If you're too generous you will still be spending on your credit card in three months time though.

Some questions: Your income appears higher than your spend. Do you have any spare money left at the end of each month in your current account after your allowance? Or is this because you are moving jobs and you expect to earn more? You have put in a post elsewhere that your dad is really good at budgeting. Can you ask him for help to clarify your monthly budget? Is it possible he has been saving some of your earnings already if you do earn more than your outgoings?



I don't think your debts are that high and with careful budgeting you could clear them very quickly so please don't get disheartened. Wherever you decide to keep your diary I'm sure you will find help and support and hopefully you haven't been scared away but how enthusiastic some of us are on this board:)


Well, that was a long post, hopefully you're still awake . If you do decide to create a DFW diary then it would be good to tell us - I will certainly look in on you to see how you're getting on.

Good luck

stewby

basically, i will be honest (best way to be really).

i did work 37.5 hours a week, 11.25 hour shifts. (not including a one hour break). i was on nightshifts pretty much constantly from november until now. i started feeling like i couldn't do my job properly and i became stressed. just goes to show that you should't read certain newspapers (or their websites).

as a result i reduced my hours to 22.5 hours a week. (two shifts instead of 3 or 4). if i hadn't, i think i would have burnt out and gone off sick.

my dad already had charge of my finances but instead of getting £2,000 a month (nightshifts and weekend pay), i dropped down to £1,250 a month. my dad has been brilliant and has used up all my savings (which he created) to keep me going the past six months.

like i said, before i came on to this website, i knew nothing about finances, i didn't know that people could pay their mortgage off early or overpay them. i was pretty naive to be honest.

anyways... that is why my finances have changed. my new job is 33 hours a week (three shifts) so my incomings will be higher.

i have put my diary in here on hold cause i didn't know if it would be too confusing having a debt-free diary in the mortgage section. i don't want to upset people by having stuff in the wrong place.
i am very grateful for the advice happierme. i am pretty sure i read your diary in here last night. (i have a really bad memory which i am putting down to the stress).


i get a buzz from achieving something, anything. today was cleaning downstairs thoroughly and yesterday was clearing out my paperwork box. these little things make me very happy. so i am hoping sorting out my finances will give me the same buzz. especially if i manage to keep part of my £400 living allowance longer than the 15th of october.

Weird_Nev

Don't worry about upsetting anyone, but I agree I think you need to get a handle on your basic monthly finances before you "shoot for the moon" and start working on your mortgage. You have a very healthy income, the ability to increase it, and a low set of fixed costs (small mortgage). No reason at all why you can clear your debts, and then make an inroads into the mortgage.

First things first though, I'd head over to Debt free wanabe, and really get to grips with what you spend and where so that you're in control of everything.

your dad sounds like a useful source of knowledge. Don't forget to discuss things with him. Having an open discussion with parents about finances is very important (I.e. discussing them with him, not just asking him for money!) and I'm sure he'll be proud that you want to be in control and be responsible for looking after yourself.

Beckyy

Hey stewby,

It takes a lot to get your head around everything.

I still think you'd be better off using the £60 each month to pay off your Next storecard because OPing your mortgage with it is costing you money, not saving you money. Don't look at your mortgage any differently to another debt, just look at the interest rates.

Do you have DVDs and games which you no longer watch or want? You could think about selling some of these on eBay or similar, and putting the money towards payments.

Personally, I would give your Dad your Next store card. Tell him to keep hold of it until the account is paid off then close it.

I also wonder if it would be a good idea for you to gradually start taking control of your finances from your Dad? If you make a mistake then you'll learn from it, and it's not the end of the world, but it's something you need to have control over yourself.

If you do continue to let your Dad have control over your account for now, then why not ask him to give you £200 of your spending money at the beginning of the month, then the other £200 half way through. Make it clear to him that he can't let you have the rest until then, and it will help you to budget better and be more aware of where it's going.

I totally agree with having a sense of achievement when you get something done, and there's nothing better. Wishing you the best of luck