Silly student debt diary

greensalad

Ha, I actually need to update that as well!

So I am currently at my second contract,but I had an interview before starting here for a really excellent company. "The best" you could say, they begin with a G and you might be using their browser

They offered me a 6 month contract and it's just an offer I can't turn down. It's very good company, one of the biggest tech companies in the world and I'm so looking forward to it.

So we have decided to put plans to move away on hold indefinitely, and stay where we are until we decide we might want to move again... our goal at the moment is to pay off debt (I have far more than my partner, at about £6000) and then start saving for a house. Because the job is good money there is a good chance we can afford to buy here and not just away from London.

So, we shall see! Bring on January.

Bobarella

Wow all change again then

greensalad

Oh dear, where did it go wrong!

Updated sig to reflect my shame. New job = loadsa money = massive overspend at Christmas / burying my head in the sand again.

My debt has gone UP. I do have some nice stuff and nice experiences to show for it, but this is the last time.

Projected pay off August 2016!

monz

We all have set backs dont worry about it xx

greensalad

I have managed to get my life together a BIT!

Contracting is hard, so much to juggle and so many people pay you late! Current place seems to pay on time though so that's nice, and I'm here for six months.

I've written out a budget and have given myself ~£300 a week to pay off debts, which is a really healthy sum.

I've also managed to balance transfer all previous cards to MBNA 0% until Feb 2018. And the rate on that card is 17% way better than rate on my old Barclaycard.

Would love to get a 0% on spend for living expenses. I know I shouldn't spend on CC but being paid weekly means I have to or I struggle to make bigger necessary purchases (e.g travel) because I don't have the monthly lump sum.

Dream is to get to a point where I've got a 1 month buffer so I've always got my full monthly salary in the bank.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. My 25th birthday at the end of the month and I'm in Paris. Eurostar tickes bought in the sales and apartment all paid for so we can cook at home. Dad is paying for a meal for us for my birthday present and the only other thing we have booked is brunch (I figured a nice brunch is cheaper than a nice dinner). We're there 3 nights. And I will have accrued holiday so I'll still get paid!

greensalad

Getting my affairs organised. I've updated my spreadsheet with my debt repayment plans and have balanced everything out to work out a date of end of July 2016 to pay everything off.

I've not actually been paid yet and I don't think I'll get paid this week (it would've only been 2 days anyway) but I should get paid 7 days of work next week which is good.

I've worked out an amount I need to drip-feed our bills account to ensure rent etc is met.

I've worked out my weekly budget for general spending (toiletries, work lunches etc) and I'm going to get back into the habit of using my optimum card, loading my budget onto the card each week so I can spend only that amount.

Now I just need to get paid!

greensalad

Determined to have a NSD today!

Going to view a new house tomorrow, hopefully it's good. If we like it we'll need to put down a deposit sharpish which will probably see me filling up the credit card, but when we get our deposit back a month later we can at least pay it straight off. I guess that's the advantage of credit!

Just got into the free trial of the new YNAB. It's so confusing! And so different! But it has an online version which is nice...

chocolatepiggybank

Best of luck, you can do it!

greensalad

Added this nifty little bit to my spreadsheet which shows me what percentage of my income I'm putting to each category each week:

Debt repayment 29.35%
Bills 27.19%
Holiday 7.62%
Travel 5.78%
Living 12.71%

Pretty interesting! "Living" is like general spends (haircuts, drinks, snacks, clothing, toiletries etc). "Travel" is strictly commuting, not like trips away which comes under "Holiday"

Holiday is quite high now because we just booked our October trip to Salzburg + Munich, but it means we'll have it all paid off by the time we get there which is nice.

greensalad

Back on it on nYNAB today! Happy Monday everyone.

I must admit I'm having a tough Monday. It was all dark and gloomy when I got up this morning and as I walked down from my flat I read the news that David Bowie had died. It hit me like a tonne of bricks. I've never felt all that affected by a celebrity death before, but Bowie is my favourite musician and I've loved him for so long that just thinking about him not existing has made me feel so devastated. Ugh. I can't explain it. I was welling up on the train trying to keep myself from sobbing and then I got to work and had to run to the loos because I was tearing up too much. I'm shocked that I've been hit so hard by it, I didn't expect the death of a "stranger" to hurt so bad.

Anyway, onto money things.

I haven't been paid since pre-Christmas (I get paid weekly) but I should get a payment for 7 days work this Thursday which is nice, and then get back into a stream of weekly income. For this reason my credit card bill has jumped a bit because I've been paying lots from it since I have no cash...

But I've updated my spreadsheet to reflect how much I need to pay in and I'm working my way there... contracting is tough on the budget because there is no real schedule.