A student's debt free diary.

anothermoneysaver522

Hi all

A little about me to begin with.

I'm in my 5th (and final!) year of being a student. I have paid my own way through university by having part time jobs, student loans, and CC. I am getting a much larger bursary this year than I ever have before, so I feel like I finally can breathe a little. I have got quite a lot of debt on CC, and I have my student debt on top of that, but I won't worry about the student loan debt until I'm employed.

I only drink alcohol on special occasions, I don't have any expensive hobbies, I try and shop around and look for deals for clothing etc. I usually take my lunch in with me, and it is cheaper for me to drive every day than to take public transport.

My largest CC debt is on a 15 month 0%, and the other CC debt is on a student credit card at about 18%. My car is on a PCP plan, where the initial cost was £8000, and I pay £148 every month for 4 years, and then pay the final amount at the end of the 4 years. I have been paying it for about a year and 4 months. I recently was in an accident and had a breakdown the week before that, and so about £500 of the debt on CC2 is due to that mishap.


I'm just looking for anyone that can give me some pointers on how I can make the most of my money and try and pay off as much debt as I can. And now with my debt free diary I can hopefully stay on track and keep myself focussed.

I live with my partner (hereby known as Mr. AMS) and we split household costs, but we keep our finances otherwise separate. We have 2 cats but we feed them on our food budget. Litter is very cheaply available from B&M at £5 for a huge bag that lasts 3 weeks. Generally we do a £50 shop every fortnight, and pick up other bits and pieces at Home Bargains/Amazon etc. We eat a lot of organic food where possible, and cook from scratch.

I owe Mr. AMS about £300 from when I had a bit of difficulty last year, but there is no rush to pay that one until I am financially secure(according to him).

I lent £400 to a family member in need last Summer as well, which is on CC1 and is being paid back month by month.

I'm sure there are things I have forgotten to add or explain, but they'll probably be picked up on by you lovely lot.

Thanks for having a read of my new diary, hope you can stick with me.

Ms. AMS xx

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1275
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1275

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 148
Rent.................................... 247.5
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 15
Gas..................................... 15
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 40
TV Licence.............................. 6
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 80
Road tax................................ 2.5
Car Insurance........................... 55
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 7.5
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 4
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 13.99
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25
Haircuts................................ 15
Entertainment........................... 11
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Other................................... 35
Charity................................. 7.5
iPad Contract........................... 35
Gym..................................... 23
Total monthly expenses.................. 1015.99


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 8000.....(148)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 8000......-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
CC1............................3355.58...54.41.....0
CC2............................1088.69...29.21.....18
Total unsecured debts..........4444.27...83.62.....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,275
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,015.99
Available for debt repayments........... 259.01
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 83.62
Amount left after debt repayments....... 175.39

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -8,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -4,444.27
Net Assets.............................. -12,444.27

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

anothermoneysaver522

I've not officially taken part, but have decided to try and attempt the make £5 a day challenge and see how I get on!

I do OnePoll regularly and have recently signed up to another few, so will try. Had my payout from OnePoll come through yesterday! :j It took just under a month to process. (& 5 months to make it!) I made 90p on OnePoll yesterday, which is a far cry from £5!

Mr. AMS and I went to the cinema last night. I had managed to get free preview tickets of an upcoming film, and it was brilliant! One of the best films I've seen in ages. (Made even better by the fact that we didn't have to pay!) Mr. AMS bought some sweets at the cinema though..naughty! ( So maybe the money we saved on tickets can go towards my make £5 a day?)

Have taken the next couple of days off as one of my best friends is coming home after a year abroad, and am so excited to see her. I imagine she'll be very tired after the long journey, so I'm not expecting to have to spend any money on anything.

Looking forward to making some home made bread tonight for the first time. My body doesn't really like processed, artificial breads, and there are only a few that I can eat. So I'm hoping home made bread will suit me better.

Mr. AMS working tonight so it will be a quiet night in for me and the cats.

Have a lovely day!

Ms. AMS xx

twiggy86

Hi

Well done on starting a diary on here!

I did notice a couple of points in your SOA:-

* You said you do a £50 food shop every fortnight - but have put £200 in the SOA. Does Mr AMS pay towards this too? I.e. should it be half as you've seemed to half other bills I think!
* Phone - £15 for landline and £40 for mobile seems a lot - is there anyway to bring this down?
* Ipad contract - what is this?
* Gym - seems cheap for a gym membership (I think!) but is it necessary?

Is there a reason you pay twice the amount off the interest free CC compared to the one attracting interest? You may have just put the minimums here as appreciate there is more on the interest free one.

Hope that helps/gives you some things to think about!

anothermoneysaver522

Hi Twiggy

Thanks for the pointers!

* You said you do a £50 food shop every fortnight - but have put £200 in the SOA. Does Mr AMS pay towards this too? I.e. should it be half as you've seemed to half other bills I think!

The £200 shopping is a rough estimate actually, because it varies so much each month. We do two main food shops and then top up fresh food as needed. Our household costs like cleaning materials, cat food etc come from this too. Looking at it now though £400 a month seems like quite a lot! Will be monitoring this as of now. But you're right, we do half all our bills. We buy a lot of organic & local food when possible and when it doesn't break the bank, so this does lead to a slightly more expensive shop. I'm a big supporter of local and organic produce

* Phone - £15 for landline and £40 for mobile seems a lot - is there anyway to bring this down?

The £15 landline is inclusive of internet too, but it is currently at around £30 a month for internet and landline, which we then split. So there should only be one £15 in the SOA for that. Could probably get this down to £25 as we are currenly paying for voicemail and caller id, but we rarely get voicemails! I'm not sure actually if this is an ok price for phone & internet or whether it is expensive. It's as part of a package we have with our gas & elec.

The phone contract is too expensive. It was an iPhone contract I took out last year which, has about 14 months left to go. It's paying for the phone as well as my minutes etc. It is what I use for business as well as personal use in the placement I'm in just now - but that wasn't the original reason for it. Will not be doing this sort of contract again!

* Ipad contract - what is this?

Again, same as above. Will be completed this Summer though. I paid up an iPad rather than pay upfront.

* Gym - seems cheap for a gym membership (I think!) but is it necessary?

You're right, it is unnecessary. I do use it, but again unfortunately is a 12 month contract! Argh! I have learnt my lesson though. Will be finished this Summer.

Is there a reason you pay twice the amount off the interest free CC compared to the one attracting interest? You may have just put the minimums here as appreciate there is more on the interest free one.

Yes, these are just the minimum payments for these cards. I pay just over min on the 0% and I pay everything else I can into the other CC.

Thanks for the pointers!

I'm looking forward to Summer, where I'll have two less DD to pay, saving £58 a month!

greensalad

Recent grad here, I did 5 years a student too and it really hurt me! Financially ruined me in my final year, trying to scrape it back now. Subscribed and look forward to following.

anothermoneysaver522

I got a new handbag today. I was in need of one, as my previous one had broken, and it was also far too big for everyday use.

The one I got is a lot smaller, and I got it with a £15 off code, so it only cost £3 plus delivery! It looks quite sturdy too. I love it.

So I emptied my previous handbag and thought I would share, and see if anyone else has such a shameful amount of unnecessary things in their handbags...

So here it is:

- my purse
- my glasses
- work keys & house keys
- earphones
- cds/dvds x 3 (work related)
- 2 books
- several papers/leaflets
- work pass
- pencil case
- blister plasters
- mini moisturiser
- eye drops
- mini perfume sample
- eyeliner
- lip balm x2
- lipstick
- contact lenses
- sunglasses
- wipes
- bobbles (x6!!!)
- 1 hair grip
- vitamin c tablets
- body spray
- 2 halves of 2 separate chocolate oranges :embarasse
- 3 packets of dried fruit
- 1 packet of sweet chilli sauce... (you just never know)
- 1 mini chocolate bar
- heartburn tablets
- 1 peppermint teabag.
- £1.42 in change

That's even more shameful seeing it in a list! I am promising myself as of now to never let my bag get into such a clutter zone ever again.

I went to an experiment at one of the universities today and made £6. :j So I potted that along with the £1.42 and had 54p in my purse anyway. So that's £7.96 potted for today. I also made 45pence in OnePoll. I was screened out so often for not having any children, which is annoying.

So all in all a good day, and made more than my £5 goal, which is great!

Looking forward to seeing my friend tomorrow who has been abroad for the last year. So tomorrow's updates may not happen depending on how many glasses of wine we have! :rotfl: I'm looking forward to a good catch up.


Ms. AMS xx

anothermoneysaver522

Had such a lovely weekend catching up with my friend. Kept it fairly cheap as well, which is a bonus! We went for lunch, but we got a lunch buffet for £6 which kept it low cost and filling.

Up to £5.65 on OnePoll. I've been trying out other survey sites but I really just don't warm to them the way I did with OnePoll!

Hoping for a very cheap week this week. Petrol went in the car yesterday and did a small top up shop for milk and essentials yesterday so that will hopefully last until next week. We bought loo roll in a supermarket though, and although it was a cheap brand it's not as cheap as the one we normally get, but we figured it would cost more in fuel to go get the cheaper one...I think. I still resent paying any extra for loo roll though. :rotfl: I bought an 89p card for Valentine's day too, so that's one thing less to think about!

January has been a long month financially and am looking forward to payday!

Booked myself into another experiment at the university so I should make £12 there, which will go into my pot.

In other news, my partner and I have begun introducing one of our cats to the outside world. We rescued our two cats aged 6 and they have never been outdoors. We've kept them indoors since we got them about 3 months ago until they settled. But we took one out yesterday and she took her time and really enjoyed the scents and sights, and explored so bravely! It was a sheer pleasure to be able to offer her that after her never having been outside, and hopefully we can teach her to be out more, but she's still a scaredy cat and nervous being out in the big bad world!

Lots of work to be done this week, but I have prepared meals so cooking will not take too long, which should give me extra time to workout (!) and get the extra uni work done.

Got some beef casserole, a pepper chicken dish, stir fry, fish cakes and pasta for this week, and have a lovely homemade loaf and soup for lunches.


Ms. AMS xx

anothermoneysaver522

Having a good NSW this week. Have kept the £2 in my purse as emergency money and Mr AMS gave me £1.60 to pot yesterday from his spare change. Shopping has been ordered for Saturday, which Mr AMS is paying until I get paid on Tuesday. It can't come soon enough! So NSD every day this week!

Up to £6.35 on OnePoll. Have to pay something towards my CC in the next couple of days. I had paid £150 towards one earlier in the month but I'm always very paranoid about making the minimum payments before the end of the month as well, just in case.

Ms. AMS xx

anothermoneysaver522

I'm starting this week feeling quite down - and it's all finance related, as it usually is.

I completed a YNAB budget with their trial version, and it's just so depressing. I don't usually have any extra money to spare, and when you budget it all out it's all so clear as to why.

Once I put money aside for all my monthly expenses (rent, bills, groceries etc), all the rest of the money goes into paying off debt. And it just looks like a never ending pile of debt. It barely skims the surface off the debt and it's just so disappointing to see all your money paying off debts, but being nowhere near the finishing line. My finances break even once I've set aside money for my monthly things and my debts, and it's just such a rubbish feeling.

I have sent CVS and applied for a few part time jobs over the last two months and haven't heard back. A part time job on weekends, although it will exhaust me, it will help pay these debts that seem to be taking away my life. I can rarely afford to do things, and I hate being the one that can never afford to go out, especially when this is the time that we are meant to be young and free!

On a more positive note though, I potted £10 on the weekend after taking part in an experiment which gave me £12. Mr AMS and I went to Mr M'sons and got lots of yellow stickers which we have frozen and will last us a few weeks.

Have a couple of items on Ebay which will hopefully sell this week.

Up to £8.25 on OnePoll, and have around £20 waiting to become payable on cashback, which will give me £30 to withdraw...hopefully sooner rather than later!


Just feeling quite glum today. Money schmoney.