Graduate, Teacher, desperate for help!

tlc678910

The OP is suggesting they currently spend:
£340 a month on rent and bills,
£42 a week on fuel - say £160 approx
£14.56 *2 a week on the bus = roughly 30 *4 = 120

So if they could live close enough to work to not pay for a car or transport they could save more like £620 rather than the £340 towards a new place/bills/food (and they will be sharing so splitting bills). Obviously might go to see family a few times a month and the other weeks they come to see you?
Tlc

zippygeorgeandben

As a teacher myself and speaking to the OP and non teachers here, that first year of teaching is THE hardest year. There is so much extra work you have to do as part of your NQT year that if you don't recharge your batteries (and by this I mean doing low cost activities) then you won't feel ready to tackle the new year in September.
It's concerning that you book flights without knowing whether you can afford them or not but you're on the DFW so you've realised you need to sort it out.

I make it that you are £124 light on your salary? I presume you are contributing 7.4% towards your pension? (0-£24999 salary) Your take-home pay should be around £1415 (give or take).
Ditch the graze.
Can you not have a dinner at school? Quite a few of us do (and for those old enough to remember, I'm not talking custard with a layer of skin on top!) and they'll make jacket potatoes, wraps or just have a school dinner. It's subsidised. I actually don't stop for lunch at school most days due to working but I take a couple of laughing cow/ryvitas in case I do.
Last point - huge congrats on nailing down a permanent position at school, especially with doing that commute before Christmas. You have to be pretty strong as a character to do that. Any chance next year you taking on another responsibility and increasing your pay?

cms-help

Your salary looks far too low.

£22467 per annum should (I think) be a take-home as follows:

£1872.25 gross

£ 134.80 pension contribution
£ 155.82 tax
£ 143.03 national insurance
£ 11.00 student loan

Take home should be about £1425. Unless you've got other deductions you haven't mentioned, sounds like you need to speak to whoever looks after Payroll at your school.

Presumably when you go back in September you'll move to the next level on the payscale too which will give you an extra £80 a month take-home.

marliepanda

zippygeorgeandben wrote: »

As a teacher myself and speaking to the OP and non teachers here, that first year of teaching is THE hardest year. There is so much extra work you have to do as part of your NQT year that if you don't recharge your batteries (and by this I mean doing low cost activities) then you won't feel ready to tackle the new year in September.
It's concerning that you book flights without knowing whether you can afford them or not but you're on the DFW so you've realised you need to sort it out.

I make it that you are £124 light on your salary? I presume you are contributing 7.4% towards your pension? (0-£24999 salary) Your take-home pay should be around £1415 (give or take).
Ditch the graze.
Can you not have a dinner at school? Quite a few of us do (and for those old enough to remember, I'm not talking custard with a layer of skin on top!) and they'll make jacket potatoes, wraps or just have a school dinner. It's subsidised. I actually don't stop for lunch at school most days due to working but I take a couple of laughing cow/ryvitas in case I do.
Last point - huge congrats on nailing down a permanent position at school, especially with doing that commute before Christmas. You have to be pretty strong as a character to do that. Any chance next year you taking on another responsibility and increasing your pay?

She is having school lunches. That's the £10 a week/ £40 a month. You can get lunch much cheaper taking a pack up.

TonyMMM

Forget the summer trip you can't afford it.

Get a paid job (ANY job) over the summer and reduce spending to absolute necessities only - save all the income you can.

In Sept you will be in a much better financial place.

If you go ahead with the trip - you are just going to increase your debt and make sorting out a move/rental much more difficult.

Make sure your pay/deductions are correct and don't even think about not paying into your pension ... that is the best investment you can make.

kelpie35

Hope OP is not teaching maths.

You need to start a proper. budget and live within your means

cms-help

Your expenses appear to be around £700 per month. I take it you don't have almost £600 left over every month (based on your stated take-home figure)?

To clear your credit card before the 0% expires then you'll need to repay about £130 per month.

As for what you can afford rental wise, you're currently spending about £625 on paying your parents and travel costs. You will need to factor in what your new commuting costs will be and look at the rental prices where you are looking to live.

System

For info. Teacher's pensions can be extremely expensive BUT they are usually the best type of pension. I'm paying over 9%.

zippygeorgeandben

I think I pay just over 10% Andy.