Preparing for adult life ..

bma14

Hello,

I am a trainee lawyer approaching the end of my training. As of September I will be fully qualified and a (legitimate) adult :o

So at the turn of the year it got me thinking about trying to get my debts in order. I have student debts which come out of my wage monthly, but I also had around £2,000 worth of overdrafts used whilst I was at University. This overdraft makes me feel nervous and so I have set myself the challenge of clearing it before I qualify (1 September 2016).

I also do not know if I will be able to obtain a job automatically when I qualify, and so the less debt on my hands the better I think, in case the worst does happen!

At the end of January I tallied the total up and I have £2,001 to repay.

During February I was very good. I set up a piggy-banking structure and kept a forensic eye on my spending through the month to make sure it works. I own my own flat which I bought last year and so I made sure all of my bills were on the cheapest tariff I could find.

Throughout the month I managed to save £303 to put towards my overdraft repayment. That means I now have £1,698 left to repay!

For this time next month, I am aiming for a similar figure and hoping to be around £1,430.

I am quite happy with this as this is the repayment I am managing even whilst putting some savings away for Xmas and a wedding which I have during the summer so that these big events don't catch me out further down the line! :j

bma14

Oh also forgot that I should probably add my inc/exp!

I bring in around £1,400 pm from my job.

My bills for the house (mortgage, council tax, utilities, broadband, phone etc) are £615 of which my OH pays £300 of (so I pay £315).

My travel to work is £162. My car repayments/insurance are £45. My gym is £18.99.

For food/petrol/household supplies myself and my OH each put £230 into a joint account which gives us a budget of around £80-90 a week between us.

I save £20 per month for xmas, £50 per month for wedding expenses for a wedding I have in July (this is to cover the hen etc and all expenses towards the wedding). I also have around £60 in a savings account with leftover winnings from a good bingo win I got on a night out! After my overdraft is re-paid I plan to put the excess into that account for a rainy day.

The only other expense I have on a monthly basis is £25 per month towards my OH's Argos card which we used to purchase some items when we first moved into our house. That is due to be finished being paid by May. I also pay around £15 a month to Very on a card I have with them which I use to buy the workout clothes they have usually on sale. That will also be paid off by I think May.

So after all of this is taken off I usually budget around £240 for 'personal spend' thoughout the month which includes things like dinners out, birthday presents, and other personal spends like clothes and toiletries. Aything leftover from it at the end of the month gets added to the overdraft repayment.

This then leaves around £280 towards my overdraft repayments. I then add any leftover from my personal spend to it.

I think this is a fair enough calculation and I try to then be frugal within the individual budgets to save money which then all goes towards the overdraft. I feel like this is a less mentally punnishing way than setting myself lower budgets in the first place if that makes sense! I do work long and hard days at work so I like to know I have some money to be able to make the most of the time I am not there, if that makes sense!

Any tips from anyone who's been there, done that very welcome!!

bma14

2 weeks now into my next month of MoneySaving and I'm feeling really positive today!

Back at the beginning of my journey I created a number of spreadsheets to help me and my OH keep a track of our spending. I think that part of my problem beforehand was that I would always be conscious of the money I was spending but it was smaller bits and bobs which were catching me out. For example I would totally forget small spends (under £15) and then at the end of the month would wonder where all my money had gone! I feel like keeping track of every transaction and splitting it up into weekly budgets rather than monthly has really been helping. Above everything else, I think having a weekly budget in mind helps to make me really think every time I make a spend, rather than just impulse buying which past-me would have had no problem with !

I was updating the spreadsheets this morning now that we are coming close to the end of Week 2 of 4 and was pleasantly surprised to see that our joint budget is a whole £75 under budget so far! This is really exciting and means that we should end up with that to put into our joint savings at the end of the month (assuming that there won't be any emergency spending required over the rest of the month). We have a joint savings account which we put our 2 free months of council tax into alongside any excess from our joint account at the end of each month. We then use this to pay for our season passes for the international rugby games which we pay off in September. After we add this months' savings into it we should have enough to cover the whole cost for next year, and potentially a seat upgrade !

My personal spend this month is unlikely to have any leftover (MIL's 60th, Godmother's 50th and mother's day all this month plus Hen party due to be paid by end of month!) but I am confident that I will not have to over-spend (apart from around £50 to pay off the rest of the hen do which will be covered by my savings once I get paid in March).

I am hoping that this means I will be able to save around £300 towards my over-draft, bringing it down another chunk! Once I manage to get the total borrowing below £1000 I will also not have to pay any interest. The interest is low just now (around £8 per month including usage fees) but every little helps right?

I have also been getting back into the gym every lunchtime, which is helping me to stay motivated in other aspects, such as MS!

timetobefrugal

I just wanted to pop in and say hello! I'm studying law through the open uni with the aim of being a solicitor. Not currently in that field of work though as any job in that sector with no qualification would be a pay-drop for me. Something I can't afford with my level of debt :rotfl: but intrigued by anyone in that field

Your budget looks pretty good and you have a low level of debt. I'm sure you'll have that quashed in no time and will soon get those savings up, good luck

bma14

Thanks! I'm feeling better now seeing it come down the shadow of the student over-draft has haunted me throughout my training but feeling motivated to get it paid off before the inevitable 'qualification time' looms around.


That's awesome that you are doing it through the OU. My OH is working on a business degree through the OU so I know how hard it is to juggle alongside full time work! Your hard work will definitely pay off in the long run. Law is a long slog but you will get there in the end if you just stick at it. If I can be of any help in that regard let me know!

bma14

Have had a few NSDs this week now so am feeling quite positive about my approach to spending having re-adjusted. The surpluss that me and my OH worked up earlier is getting eaten into slightly with petrol taking up a bigger chunk than I thought this month due to some family emergencies. Oh well - I guess that's what surplusses are for!

Today is the last day of out budgeting week although both were a tad unprepared last night and so will need to buy lunches today. I think that will be around £5 though so hopefully nothing major and hoping I will be able to make something from the cupboards for dinner tonight - will just need to be creative!

On the plus side I got £26 back from ScotRail for a mistake they made about my train ticket for my travel to work. It's in the form of a rail voucher but that will mean that next month my travel will only cost £135 rather than £161 and that money can go towards the debt repayment - every little helps!

bma14

This weekend was a spendy one for me!

On the good side it turns out that the rail voucher could be exchanged for cash so I did that and put that straight towards the overdraft repayment

I had well and truly ransacked our food supplies since payday in order to use all the stuff up so we were well and truly out come Saturday! So we needed to do quite a big food shop. I made a meal planner though, making sure to use up what we do still have left. We had OH's sister staying with us over the weekend too and friends over on Saturday so had a few more mouths to feed than expected. All in all it truly wiped out our surpluss and the budget for this week, but should see us through for the rest of the month as I did a bulk-buy from the butchers. We should only need some bits and bobs next week, hoping only around £20-30.

I did some calculations this morning though to put everything into perspective and I should hopefully be able to put around £330 towards my overdraft repayment this month once everything is paid off! Exciting

Littlebirdie

Hey, just popping by to say hello. Seems like you are doing a great job. I'll be here reading Good luck x

bma14

Thank you! :beer:

bma14

Had a bit of a panic today (as I usually do on a post-rugby-weekend Monday!!) but seems like finances are all on track

I have developed really bad shin splints from my old trainers (I go to the gym 4 days a week plus 1 rugby training session and games on Sundays) so really needed a new pair. Normally I would have thrown it onto my credit card and thought nothing of it but this time I made a conscious effort to get a good pair in the sale and paid for it with my bingo winnings. £32 spent on them still leaves me with another £30 left in that fund. Even though it was spending money it was interesting because it let me see the plus side of having small savings pots for 'emergencies' like this. I think once my overdraft is paid off I will start different savings pots for different things - starting with a real life emergency fund!

My training comes to an end at the end of August and musings from my firm at the moment seem like there won't be money to keep anyone on in my department (and having trained solely here there's unlikely to be many options for me elsewhere internally .... ) so I will be applying for other things for the next few months. Fingers crossed I get something - can't even begin to contemplate the potential financial stress that would flow from NOT having a job come then!

On the positive side my spending for the month is now done. All bills have been paid and pay day is on Friday! That means I was able to put money towards my overdraft which will now stand at £1370! That means I've paid off a total of £328 this month and £630 since I started saving at the end of January now there's something to be positive about!

bma14

Of course the old mantra goes - it's when you're on a run that things will hit you! Our dishwasher broke this week which means we do have to get a new one. When we bought the house it already had the dishwasher and it is really, really old. I knew we would need a new one but I was hoping to have the debt cleared first. Oh well. I am going to get it on finance and will add another £15 to our bills for the next 2 years. Hoping it shouldn't break the bank too much but will slow my progress re the overdraft a tad.