Young, free and simply stupid; MrCF takes control!

atush

Do either of the loans and esp the car loan have any penalties for paying them off early?

I'd say, save 500 then whack Every spare penny to the car loan to pay it off early. Then save for furniture, then pay off loan 2 etc.

I understand your need to help the OH with furniture for the house I assume you will share. But if she is good with money, she will recognize that you should pay off debt before saving large amounts as it makes better financial sense. As you will free up money (ie you will have an extra 155 each month to save once you pay off the car loan for instance?

Bringing food in is a good idea, as would be giving up the gym until you have paid things off- there are other ways to get exercise for free. Are you sure your car insurance is as cheap as it could be? Are you sure your phone is the cheapest plan you could have etc? Got anything you could sell on ebay?

And I would really do a spending diary. It really will tell you where all the money goes.

head on over to the Debt Free wannabe forum and get the help you need.

MrCrimeFiction

Thanks atush. You've been a great help.

I've been checking out car insurance all day. At the moment I'm paying about £65 a month and have 5 months left to pay. £65x5=£325. I've been doing quotes today to see about a new policy and the cheapest I got was £375 for a full year of insurance. I'm like wow, although I'm paying monthly, I'm sure the total for my policy is over £650.

So the dilemma now is to cancel my current insurance with a £47.50 fee and take out a new policy or ride out the storm and pay the remaining months. It's not even a question, I'm going to do it once I can find my no claims bound before they ask for it. Even with the termination fee of £47.50 and the upfront costs of a new policy, it's cheaper than paying £65 a month. What does everyone think?

Also, although I put my monthly phone bill at £20, my contract is for £13 a month. I sometimes go over my usage and I have to regularly phone the work landline so my bill is usually around £20. I have 5 weeks left of the sim only contract so I'm going to give retention a call and either get a better deal or get more things thrown in as extras. If not a bundle sim from giffgaff will be getting ordered.

I am going to phone my car loan provider and nationwide to see if I can pay off the loans early or with say £500 at a time. Like overpayments with a mortgage.

The gym I won't cancel. I will starve before I cancel this. I love the gym and I go there to release my anger and frustration at the world. Plus I love free weights. Although I have cancelled Xbox live at £6.99 a month a and I may do the same with netflix.

Today I fuelled up with £42 and spend £18 in tescos on toiletries and food which I needed badly. There are all tescos own make and cost cheaper so I'm starting to save already. .

I hope everyone else is doing ok, love MRCF

MrCrimeFiction

Right, car insurance sorted. :T Cancelled my old policy with only a £28 charge . Happy with that as I thought it was £47.50. I checked the APR on the policy and it was 14% so I was paying lots of interest on it. I paid my years full insurance off in one go for £372. Delighted I haven't got to pay anything monthly now. AND :j I went via Top Cash Back and I should hopefully getting £21 back when it all goes through,

Checked my phone contract, it actually doesn't end until end of November so I'm stuck for a few more months.:cool:

There shouldn't be much other things to pay for the rest of this month other than the usual DD and SO coming out. I think I'm doing some overtime next week at work so that should be a nice earner. Going out for dinner tomorrow with the OH as it's the last day of our holidays before going back to work and working solid for months. However I think she is treating me :rotfl:

Going to cook something to take into work for the next week as il be dammed if I'm spending any money haha.

Until next time, goodbye.

MrCrimeFiction

No much of an update but it's going to be a busy weekend so thought today was the Perfect time to sit and and relax.

Today's my only day off in 10 days. Partly because I worked my day off yesterday ...however I did get overtime for it. A whole 13 hours. Should be. Decent little extra in the October wage.. :-) also did an extra 2 hours on Tuesday so that's a little more.

Haven't spend anything this week other than £5 on food. My day off today I'm at home relaxing so i won't spend anything.

Loan 1 came out of the bank today. This month is passing fast...

Hope everyone is ok.

atush

Ok, looks like you are making progress. have the lenders told you if you van over pay w/o penalty or not? And if a penalty like the Car ins maybe the penalty is worth paying?

And already you are saving- your car insurance was like half!! And do reduce the phone in nov. And i'll give you the gym since you've made so much progress.

But lets see one of those loans go pronto!

What does the other half think of the new money wiser you? Wont it feel nice to treat her once all the debt is gone?

PS, with that overtime coming in, have you joined your work pension? If not, do if they pay in. We call that Free Money in these here parts.

MrCrimeFiction

Hello everyone. I've been very busy the last 2 weeks hence no updates. I got paid today, also got £120 in overtime on top of my basic wage which is great.

I spent about £25 last week on food and another £50 on fuel. The cancellation for my car insurance can out today so that's also £27.

I spoke with Vodafone and got a great offer. I am now £3 a month dearer, yes I know silly but I was always going over my allowance and having a bill well over £20 it's it's actually going to benefit me. Now I have unlimited allowances for everything and it's a sim only contract for a year.

I have 4 birthdays in the next week, all family members. I have guessed about £100 for this so that's my overtime blown.

The other half and I are away for a little trip in 3 week for 2 days. Shouldn't cost us much but will have to pay for a few things.

Won't be spending any money at work as I've bought loads of food just for work so I shouldn't go hungry haha. Although we're not getting overtime anymore, which is sad.

I'm going to see what's in my account on the last day of the Month, then il class that as my September savings. I will do the same every month after I'm paid and then I can see down to the pound what I have saved.

Atush, I've been reading up on the overpayment of loans. From what I've read it's ok and I can it via a standing order aswell. I am prepared to do it after Christmas as I need to try get a little behind me for moving in. I will do it soon though. Also I already pay 12.5% into a pension so I'm well covered there.

Hope everyone is doing ok.
Finished another 2 books since my last update, this new one is amazing!!

MrCrimeFiction

Last update for September

Hello. Last day of the month so thought I would do my update.
Spent £36 on fuel today and another £15 on food. This will cover my lunches at work this week.

Paid £50 for 3 different presents and another £37 for a close family member. That should be all my big spending out the way.

No more overtime at works since my last batch. My end of October wage should be very good though. Although I have my other halfs birthday soon so that will be costly.

So my savings as of 30/09/14 is £2299.27.
This will obviously go down in the month as my S/O and DD come out, but my October wage will bump it back up nicely.

Sitting watching the football with a beer. Total bliss. Back to work tomorrow for a few days and then the weekend off.

Finished another crime book, it was excellent. :j

Hope everyone is well. MRCF

MrCrimeFiction

Well it's been over 2 weeks since I've been on. Things have been great this month. Works been busy and I've not really spent much.

All I've spent this month is £50 for various little spends, and £6.99 netflix bill. Loan 1 and car loans have come out along with rent and phone. I'm having a weekend away with my partner so it's going to cost a bit, but I don't mind we both deserve it. I will try to keep the cost down as much as I can but fuel, accommodation and entertainment is will probably be about £100 for me.

I can't wait for payday, i should hopefully get a decent wage this month. However it is my partners birthday in November so that's be an expense.

I will update next week after the trip away to report my spends.

I hope everyone is ok and well.

Need to read a bit more, I've been slacking recently.

MRCF

Rob_192

MRCF

Just read your thread and I just wanted to say well done for getting on top of things.

There are loads of little things you can do to save money, but you seem to have most of them covered for now. As Atush says, clear those debts ASAP, especially the car loan. No savings account is going to get anywhere near what you're paying out in interest, so it doesn't make much sense to be putting money into a savings acct, whilst you have debts.

Fundamentally the secret is just make sure you live within you means.

R

kangoora

Best of luck, I wish I'd seriously started saving/investing in my early twenties.

I left the army at 27 with just month's wage in my bank account but at least no debts however. Got to admit I enjoyed spending all that money though :beer:

Even though I've always made sure I contributed the max to pensions I didn't start really getting serious about savings until my mid 40's and that meant an awful lot of catching up to do to retire early - all my own fault :mad: