Joined 31.05.16

Poor_Single_lady

Hello Zippy. And thank you. Is it hard to be on budget. There are 3 weeks to payday. It feels like a long time.
At home watching DVD tonight.
£160 more of bills
A few outings
Lots of evenings at home

louby40

It's hard and boring trying to budget! But if you want the debt to go then it has to happen.

Don't know how people afford to do things in life, they must have massive inheritances or savings.

Poor_Single_lady

Hard and Boring yes. Very.

It also makes me very anxious and not sure about any of my decisions.
I got approved for another credit card for balance transfer of the mbna amount coming off 0%.
This will make 7 credit cards (but 1 cleared each month and 3 with low balances. But I think this is far too many and will mean even more grizzly paperwork. Will need to invest in a shredder to get rid of it all in case family members find the paperwork.
My mum and sister are 2 of the noisiest people on the planet.

At least it will mean everything is at 0% bar the overdraft (which I am trying to get out if) (and the credit card I pay off each month).

It is still so early in the month. 2 and half weeks to payday.

7th may tommorow. No spends
Mon-fri one lunch out, leg wax, possible London on sarurday 13th.

louby40

I used to be into my overdraft by about this time in the month. It was one of the reasons I found the MSE website- to look for ways out.

That's when I discovered YNAB and have a very specific budget. I've got just under £600 left in my account for the month today. I've also saved £200 and paid all my bills.

I also had to pay some prescription charges and went out with my friend for drinks on Friday - all worked out through YNAB and my budget.

enthusiasticsaver

Poor_Single_lady wrote: »

Hard and Boring yes. Very.

It also makes me very anxious and not sure about any of my decisions.
I got approved for another credit card for balance transfer of the mbna amount coming off 0%.
This will make 7 credit cards (but 1 cleared each month and 3 with low balances. But I think this is far too many and will mean even more grizzly paperwork. Will need to invest in a shredder to get rid of it all in case family members find the paperwork.
My mum and sister are 2 of the noisiest people on the planet.

At least it will mean everything is at 0% bar the overdraft (which I am trying to get out if) (and the credit card I pay off each month).

It is still so early in the month. 2 and half weeks to payday.

7th may tommorow. No spends
Mon-fri one lunch out, leg wax, possible London on sarurday 13th.

7 cards, an overdraft and a loan in addition to a mortgage are a lot of debts to maintain on what you say is a low salary PSL. Are you paying the minimum on them all? If not, is it worth targeting one of the smallest debts if they are all on 0% and trying to get rid of it?

I am concerned that as you said earlier you are just moving your debt around and not actually paying it off and I think this maybe because so much of your salary is now allocated to debt repayments that you are not managing to survive each month so are either going into overdraft or putting it on your monthly paid off credit card. This then means that the bill the following month is high so you have even less disposable income.

This will be a vicious circle which may be helped a little when your loan finishes in November but if you continue taking out more and more credit cards then that is another monthly payment to find. Personally I found when money was tight I did not use credit cards at all because they upset my monthly budgeting. I drew out cash weekly for food, fuel, other spends and when it was gone I had to eke out freezer and store cupboard bits and turn down socialising until my next weekly cash withdrawal. Doing it that way meant I did not run out of money mid way through the month. Would it be better to get rid of the one you clear each month and just survive on your salary once the bills and debt payments have been made? Emergency savings and Christmas savings are also essential. I know you say you cannot afford to save but if you don't you will struggle to ever get on top of your finances as without them you will be tempted to put unexpected expenses on a credit card or go further into your overdraft.

I also wonder if long term you can actually afford to live and work in the London area unless there are real prospects for wage increase once your exams are done. Many of us have moved away and even though wages are lower outside London, housing costs and living costs tend to be cheaper. A good diary to read is Another casualty who moved from Twickenham to Poole. His equity after buying his new flat was sufficient to cover his debts so he has been able to start again. Just a suggestion in case you have links to any other areas of country where you might be able to find work and find somewhere to live which is more affordable.

enthusiasticsaver

louby40 wrote: »

It's hard and boring trying to budget! But if you want the debt to go then it has to happen.

Don't know how people afford to do things in life, they must have massive inheritances or savings.

The thing is if you do not have any debt then all your money after bills is essentially yours to either spend or save. If you add up all the credit card repayments, loan payments etc that you make then this probably amounts to a tidy sum of debt, in PSLs case I think she said it was about £450 per month on top of a mortgage payment. That is probably a massive proportion of her salary and when you add council tax, utilities, food and travel etc on then there obviously is not much left for socialising, personal expenditure, holidays etc.

Debt kills quality of life because there is nothing more depressing than working hard all month then seeing 75% of your salary going towards debt repayments. Budgeting before you get into debt is the secret to why many people are able to afford to do or buy nice things. As a debt counsellor I saw this frequently and it did me the most massive favour as I had an antipathy of debt from my 20s and consequently shunned credit cards while my peers were spending wildly on theirs.

GoingToDoIt

Yes but I think PSL is using the new 0% cc to transfer a lump on to which was attracting interest. So she will be preventing the payments increasing. As I guess that even if she did want to"consolidate" a couple of cc's into one, she would be paying a transfer fee which again would add to the debt.

I'm going to suggest something controversial- if possible, reducing the payments on some of the cc's and having a bit more to live on. Get used to having a reasonable living amount that you can stick to, to avoid the overdraft/cc boom and bust situation.

enthusiasticsaver

I think she is transferring the MBNA balance which starts attracting interest in June so yes I understand that but there seems to be something going wrong as even though PSL only seems to be making 1% monthly payments on debts at 0% her debt now is approaching £17k whereas when she started her journey it was £14.5k. If the debt is going up instead of decreasing then the monthly payments are not enough even though she is obviously struggling. It is difficult to see how reducing the monthly payments will help that.

GoingToDoIt

ES we have been over this before on the thread - yes the debt did increase and PSL is trying really hard to deal with finances much better.
She 's only making 1% payments on two cards, she pays £100 to sainsbobs on around a 3k debt. I have the same debt on a Vrgin card and the minimum payment is £35, so I assume she could reduce that £100 at least a bit, just for 6 months or so (until loan payment finishes?) Yes this means paying the debt off more slowly, but if she can't manage on what's left after bills and cc's it might at least give some breathing space and cheer her up

Poor_Single_lady

So today was NSD.
I tried YNAB - I found it stressful and made me want to be in self destruct
Mode, to ignore everything and just live like it's not happening. I felt like a giant failure because I can't live on the tiny amount I am left with.
I know other people say when it's gone it's gone but I can't pretend that I have reached that point yet.
I won't re-try it. We are all different. I found is very frustrating and I tried very hard and then felt like throwing my laptop out tje window.
I know people rate it but I think you have to have money to allocate in the beginning.

I am doing my best.
I'm not defaulting.
I haven't had to tell my parents.
I'm actually less into my overdraft than I was this time last Month.
The improvements are happening but they are slow.
I live in a small town with poor job prospects and I don't drive. There are few finance jobs here although there are some. When I researched it the pay was about the same once the travel was excluded. But I think I would be so bored I would then have to pay to travel into London so would then be paying for this.

7 credit cards is a lot and I'm amazed that I qualify for any more on top of my current 6. But balance transferring the amount coming off does seem sensible.

I had some expenses I didn't/couldn't write about and this year has been better than the last year.

I know that ideally I should have a Christmas/emergency fund but Worst case scenario will most likely put this on my credit card and pay off in the new year and that will have to be OK.
I just think it's a good idea not to try to run before you can walk. I am just sorting out the basics and that will have to do.