Silly student debt diary

greensalad

Well today is going better than yesterday at least!

Got paid £65, final payment from one job completed.
Got paid £112, deposit for another job I now need to start.
Got one more job, which I'll complete by Friday, for £120.

I've stashed the whole lot into my tax savings account for now as I am a little behind with what I've been saving towards my tax bill. But I've got until January to get it all done so I should be fine. £345 in the savings account and I need about £1000 by January. So I'll be able to withdraw a little of this for debt repayment at some point.

greensalad

So I'm going to try and come back here and update this with my regular savings, rather than all my debt repayment.

I have spent a silly amount of money this month, but I'm done. This includes a few things on my credit card as they were over £100 so I wanted protection, but I now have 0% on spends. I have worked out the months at which I will repay so I don't fall into debt again.

We are also buying a car within the next week probably. It's getting ridiculous without a car and we are both getting so frustrated. For example, just after Christmas we had to take a 7 hour journey to see my family, it would have been a 45 minute drive each way. This weekend I went home for Mother's Day and had to spend 2 hours walking round town waiting for my Mum to finish work, and then I had to travel to a completely different town and get a replacement bus to get home. My BF is now working regularly a week away in Milton Keynes and he had to get a replacement bus half of his journey, travel through London, and then get another replacement bus. Then every morning he has to get a taxi to site. It's just getting stupid. He gets a bonus this week, so that will determine how much we spend on a car. I may be tasked up with paying the tax, insurance and servicing as my contribution and plan to use my 0% spend to purchase annual insurance in advance rather than paying monthly. So I will have credit card debt but I will have a solid plan of when I'll be paying it off.

Also I pay off my bicycle, which I'll still use for commuting, next month so that's nice! It'll be 100% mine and save me £44 a month (which will be how much the insurance for the car costs me).

I've also set aside events over the year I need to save for, such as birthday, Christmas, and summer holidays. I'm putting aside money every month for those events.

Next month is going to be an expensive one as we are away in Jersey for 4 days. I will transfer some money to my old Natwest account and use that for my spending so I stay on budget (usually I would use a pre-paid cashcard but because it's still the pound I can't!)

So my plan going forward is:

Every month get paid £1493 on the 28th, set for the month ahead.
£810 pays all my bills and rent
£160 pays for groceries, household etc. We may add extra for petrol
£100 goes to my overdraft, my last remaining debt

Leaves me with £423 which is my money for the month to spend on hobbies, social, clothes, holidays or trips etc. I probably won't need this much so I'll see how it goes.

Then when second job pays (anything from 4-14 days after payday), they pay £500 and I get the following:

£100 goes into tax savings pot
£100 goes to credit card payment (I still have some on there form big purchases)
£300 goes to savings for holiday, BF's birthday, Christmas etc. I will keep a tally of what savings mean what, but I'll stash it all in my ISA together with my tax bill savings.

greensalad

Ugh I so need to get back onto posting here to get me back on track!

So things have happened. I was given money by my Dad and was able to pay off a fair chunk of stuff, yay!

I paid off my Mum's CC which I'd borrowed on, which was the highest debt with the worst interest rate. I also paid off the SLC, however I'm still arguing with the debt collectors over a missing payment. I hope to have it sorted soon as I now have proof from the bank it was paid. So that's gone.

I still have debts left though. I have my student overdraft (£1800) and my current account overdraft (£500) and also my own credit card. The credit card has been increased, which seems silly I know, but I used it to buy a car (0% though). Me and my partner both paid half on a £2k car and honestly I don't regret it at all. It's made our lives so much easier. It's in excellent condition and we're being careful with our money for it. The amount of hours I would've spent wasting on public transport getting half across the country is worth it for me. We're tucking away money each month so that we have MOT and servicing money saved (I'm saving £38 a month) so there shouldn't be any big financial surprises.

At the moment, my main aim is to pay my tax bill (£778) and pay off my current-account OD of £500. I want to get both done in the next 3 months so I can focus on the credit card before the 0% period ends next Spring.

I'm also getting my student loan deducted, £36 a month. Shame but it'll be a while before I pay all that off!

greensalad

Attempting to get back on the horse!

This morning I've looked at my bank balance and it's healthier than normal. I'm owed £100 from a friend for an order we did together, so I should be able to stay out of my overdraft until payday! That's the plan anyway, and then I'll be able to clear that £500 OD with my next paycheque!

I've moved the cards around in my purse so my old student account is at the front. I've transferred £12 into it, which will buy me lunch until the end of the week. Next week I'll transfer £20 and so-on.

I'm going to see the boyfriend's Mum this weekend. Will need to put £10 petrol in the car and probably take £20 to put towards lunch in the shopping centre and towards a takeaway dinner as that's what we usually do. Hopefully a fairly cheap weekend!

My aim this month is to just stay above my overdraft limit.

greensalad

Trying my hardest to get back into this again like I used to! I used to be so disciplined!

I've recently ordered a pre-paid mastercard and am planning to use it for all general spending on a weekly basis, transferring money across from my current account.

I've laid out my plans for the whole of June, including getting paid tomorrow, detailing exactly how much I'll be spending on everything. This includes transferring spending money across weekly and keeping money aside for online shopping too.

I've got a web client at the moment, if they pay on the scheduled date then I will be able to pay off my £500 overdraft by the end of June! That would be so fab. As soon as it's cleared and I've made it to the next payday I want to close it and have a zeroed bank balance, would be so nice to see my full salary going into my account without a third of it falling in the hole!

I've also been more realistic on my budget sheet. I had been allocating repayments to get me paid off by January 2016. But It wasn't realistic because I know there are expensive things like Christmas that I need to save for. I've now created new lines (and new web-saver accounts) for very specific categories (Christmas, holiday money, motoring expenses) and am planning to siphon off a regular amount every month to these accounts. This has pushed my DFD to April 2016 but I don't mind, it's much more realistic.

greensalad

Plans for this month, payday from first job tomorrow!

Payday:

£810 to bills/rent/utilities account (now moved to Santander to earn us some cashback!)
£175 for groceries/fuel/entertainment account
£560 into the general spending (including travel, going to visit family TWICE this month) all planned out

Then when second job pays:

£74 into tax savings
£38 into car savings
£293 to credit card
£193 into Barclays overdraft repayment
£79 into phone savings

Then when client pays:

£307 into barclays overdraft repayment

I've got it all planned out, quite pleased about it. Am still waiting for Orange pre-paid credit card to arrive so I can move my weekly spending money over to it. I don't think it'll arrive in time to be used for the first week so I'll just have to be good But only got the hairdresser and work lunches to buy. It will really help keep me in check when I visit Manchester in three weeks time as that's when I'll need to restrain my spending, and if I've only got £80 on a card that's all I can spend!

greensalad

Had a freakout this morning when I got paid, thinking I was £500 down. I misread the text as saying "you have £1650 in your account" to be INCLUDING £500 overdraft. So I thought I somehow only had a balance of £1150 and was beside myself with worry!

All sorted now, I actually had £1650 PLUS the overdraft on account of my partner giving me his share of the bills.

Paid today:
£1724 utilities and rent
£175 groceries and fuel

Purchased:
£120 clothes, furniture, birthday present
£18 t-shirt
£15 car charger and cradle (going on a long trip need a sat nav!)
£25 Mum's birthday present on Wish

So a bit of a spend this month, but really not too bad as I had budgeted for it. Won't need any clothes for a long time and good to get the living room sorted.

My Orange Cashcard has yet to arrive, so I'm transferring this week's budget to my credit card and will use that up to a value of £80. At least it is easy to check the balance with my Barclaycard app so I can make sure I don't go over the £80. Then next Thursday I can transfer the next weekly amount over (which is only £25!)

Credit repayment to come when second job pays me

greensalad

Managed to get £5 reimbursed from Three mobile for a bill they did me over on, so that's good!

Got lots of plans this weekend, mainly all money free!

- Get the hang of using my overlocker
- Sew up some shorts I'm working on
- Go to Sainsbury's to do a weekly shop, just an interim one as we have enough meat to last until next week when I will do a big shop
- Sort out my charity payment account and my Santander online banking
- Go and get a haircut! Will be my last haircut with this salon as I'm in contact with a mobile hairdresser who I'll be using from now on.

Good all round

greensalad

Yesterday

Cycled to work, so that felt good! Resisted going out to Costa at lunch and instead had pasta salad and smoothie from Asda. Had a really tasty dinner but then ruined it by craving a milkshake in the evening! Must stop going out to buy naughty things.

New bra arrived, got it on discount. Disappointed though as it seems smaller than the last one I bought - need to compare them. Hermes man still hasn't picked up my return order which is annoying. I need the money back (£30)

Today

Yay it's Friday! Going to Costa today as I had budgeted for it.

When I get home I will be washing some fabric and cutting it up for a quilt I'm making. I'll take me a few months to make so I can spread the cost of the other bits across the month.

Tomorrow

My local sewing shop is closing down tomorrow, their last day. I'm so tempted to go in and buy some things. I hadn't budgeted for it as I hadn't really thought about it, but they're currently doing half price. And tomorrow I wonder if they might drop it even more? I buy sewing stuff regularly, and I mean consumable things like thread, buttons and basics fabrics that will always always get used. I'm tempted to allow myself a little over £30 to go in and do a big shop of necessaries to last a few months. It would save me money in the long run as I'd get a very good discount (these shops all tend to price around the same price) but I didn't budget it this month so I'm not sure what to do! I'm just thinking, I could get a few patterns already on my shopping list, a few zips, some spools of thread and some cheap cottons for a really excellent price.

Haircut tomorrow. Cut and dye actually, using a 50% off colour voucher and then a 25% off the haircut. She told me it was £55 I think but I'm not 100%. It will be nice to get it done, and I can then maintain it myself. In touch with a mobile hairdresser for the next haircut though so that will be cheaper and easier.

Got lots on my to-do list for tomorrow. Need to get BF to put me on the Sky account so I can watch out for our renewal and try to haggle a discount. I think we got Sky in July, so I'm at about the right time, but I'm not 100% sure.

Need to go and get some interim groceries. Will write a list. We have a lot of meat in the freezer and sauces etc, just need some vegetables. Hoping to do it for £20. And no wine buying!

Also need to go to Natwest to get my card unblocked as I can't use it in cashpoints! Very annoying.

greensalad

Trying to keep track of my grocery spend. I'm running the "month" from 22nd - 21st as that's when BF gets paid.

26th - £60.17 Sainsbury's
27th - £6.76 Asda
28th - £13.27 Sainsbury's

Total so far: £80.20
Monthly budget: £160
Remaining: £79.80

So I really need to keep in check now. Tomorrow, maximum spend £20 and that should stretch until next weekend.