HELP - Moving away from home and standing on own two feet!!!!

gemma1585

On the 1st of August I will be starting a years industrial placement with a pharmaceutical company whilst I take a year out of university.

I am extremely worried that I will not be able to cope with my finances during this time.

At the moment I live at home and own my own car. I don't pay rent so any money I ear from my part time job goes towards my car and other essential student expenses.

I have just started a new job until I move away where I earn around £400 per month.

My monthly outgoings include:

£113.00 on car payments
£50 on car insurance
£10 car tax
£70 on petrol
£25 on mobile phone

and the rest I spend on me and paying off my credit card to which I owe £350. I also have an overdraft debt of £1400.

When I move away to undertake my placement I will earn £14,800. I will have all the costs listed above as well as an estimated £400 per month on rent. This price should include bills. I am not entirely sure of what other expenses I will have during this time.

I would appreciate any advice on managing my money up to and during the time in which I am away. I'm moving from Scotland to outside London so would appreciate flight fares to be included in my budget. I do not know how much I will be taxed etc so am unsure of my monthly income.

Please please help!

jen_jen_2

Well the fact that you are here is a good sign that you will be okay to manage your money yourself.

Other expensed, you will also need to pay Council Tax and food expenses, will your petrol be cheaper or more expensive, will you need to pay parking, do you need to buy clothes for work? do you need furniture for your flat?

my first bit of advice is do your budget and start trying to put some emergency savings away, have you looked at martins budget there are ideas of what you will spend your money on there.

is the overdraft or credit card fee free or cheap? YOu could look at moving them onto one 0% credit card for 6 or 9 months and slowly use that time to save up and get used to your budget, this will also stop the debt from increasing with interest.

for food and housekeeping check out the old style board, they know how to make a £1 stretch

and well done you on your new job :T

dag_2

Other expensed, you will also need to pay Council Tax

Full-time undergraduates usually don't have to pay council tax, provided that they don't take in any lodgers. I might be wrong, but I think the student council tax exclusion probably applies during your industrial placement year. Check this.

However - if you're living in a bedsit or flatshare, and you share your kitchen or bathroom with other tenants in the same building, then you're in a "house in multiple occupation" - and therefore you don't pay any council tax anyway, regardless of whether you're a student or not. Council tax would be your landlord's responsibility, and will be covered by your rent.

And if you're only paying £400 per month for accommodation near London - chances are, it's a bedsit!

Have you actually found accommodation yet? If not, I'd suggest you try http://www.findaproperty.com or http://www.gumtree.com - you can fly with ryanair or easyjet. I think you'll find that the air fares you pay to get there will pale into insignificance beside the rent you pay to stay there. Do you plan to bring the car with you? If not, then think about selling it. You can always get another one.

I don't mean to put you off, though. Best of luck.

paint

gemma1585 wrote:

I do not know how much I will be taxed etc so am unsure of my monthly income.

I think you should bring in about £950 per calendar month on just short of £15,000pa.

Other expenses I'd budget for are (approximate):-

Home insurance (contents) £5 -£10
TV licence £10
Telephone £20 (talktalk, plus bt line rental)
Utilities £40

Good luck and have a brilliant time!

gemma1585

My accomodation will have to be near Stevenage in Hertfordshire and I have checked a few sites and £400 pm seems average for a house share! This will be including all bills excluding telephone and I have my own mobile contract so won't be using a landline.

My credit card is with tesco and the interest isn't too bad, not actually paid any yet but it's only a quid or two estimated for next month. My overdraft is 0% and I checked with the bank so that it won't change whilst I'm on industrial placement.

Thank you very much for all your supportive comments. No doubt I'll be glued to this site all through the year whilst trying to keep on top of my cash flow!