HELP! i’m a student in debt and im overwhelmed!

NeverendingDMP

Just wanted to say hi and good luck and as someone who has officially been in debt since being a student and is now late forties it is brilliant that you are thinking uh oh what can I do right now as it will help you be more aware for years to come. 

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NeverendingDMP said:

Just wanted to say hi and good luck and as someone who has officially been in debt since being a student and is now late forties it is brilliant that you are thinking uh oh what can I do right now as it will help you be more aware for years to come. 

thankyou for this, I really appreciate your kind words xx

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easyasonetwothree said:

You've done a great first step in recognising the issue and wanting to make changes, well done! Your debt isn't huge and you've had your lightbulb moment at a good time before your debt gets unmanageable.
Your phone contract is quite high, can you get that down by talking to your provider? 
A part time job would be a great start, and maybe ask for as many hours as you can cope with if they do overtime. Your debt is definitely manageable and I bet you'll be in a great position by next Christmas!

Thankyou so much for your lovely kind words, they mean a lot to me. I will speak to my phone provider and see if I can get the price down. Thanks xx

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RAS said:

You do need to include the monthly payments to Very and Klarna in you SOA, even if that makes the final sums look even more difficult.

I'd assumed that you were living with your mum so were ignoring all the standard household costs. You need to have a good chat with her about the situation.

If your mum is on a low income and you are living with her, you need some joint rules, agreements about costs. Until you left school/college she received help with the cost of housing you, utilities, food, clothing etc. She no longer gets that money.  So ideally you need to sit down with her and her bills and work out a contribution that covers the cost of you living with her. I know that a lot of your fellow students just assume mum and dad will cover everything real and their loan/grant is spending money. But you may not want your mum getting into debt so you can buy clothes?

The whole SOA thing has been an eye opener to you, as to how much you've "blown" when you got some money for the first time. That's not unusual and it's not unknown for new students to spend their entire termly income in the first week.

Start by stabilising your situation. Work out what you can afford on your basic income? Does that leave you anything towards debt payments? If not use the job money to pay this down over time. And do put you car costs etc into an ISA at the beginning of every term.

Don't now rush headlong into paying off all your debts when your loan and bursary come in, as you'll then be unable to afford your essential costs later in the term. Use your part-time earnings to drive that down over time. And put the February, March and April minimum payments and rent into your ISA so they are protected. If you don't need the minimum payments, use the money towards your overdraft.

And talk to mum about living arrangements and about your financial epiphany. What bugs her and how can you change that? Think carefully about using the washing machine, long showers, heating, cooking together and menu planning. If you weren't living with her, you'd have to be very careful with all those things. And does she want a monthly payment, or would a lump sum each term help towards utility costs, for example?

Mean-time, well done for realising what was happening. There's a lot of people get into their thirties with more than that in £k of debt before it strikes home.

thanks very much for this, you are right it has definitely been an eye opener, but glad I did it. I also agree that I need to contribute more to mum to prevent her from struggling. Thanks for your advice, it is much appreciated x

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400ixl said:

What is the £250 a month in the holiday section? Is that committed (as in the holiday is booked) or something you can postpone and use the money elsewhere for now?

Your mobile phone bill is also very high, I assume it is for both a device loan and the network charge. When does the contract end? Shifting to a cheaper sim only deal as soon as you can could cut £60 a month there.

You have already recognised that you are over spending on clothes and gifts. People should not have expectations of getting expensive gifts from students, so don't set the expectation on yourself. Clothes you should really be spending a 10th of that in your current budget and if you have been spending £200 a month then hopefully your Vinted sale should give you a decent cash injection.

What do you include in entertainment? That along with your eating out needs to be addressed. Is eating out takeaways or just daily spending at Uni on lunch etc? If the latter look at making food at home and taking it in, if the former look at ways that will encourage you to do more home cooking with quick meals as appreciated it can be hard to find the will to do more.

Your car budget may also be too high. An MOT should be no more than £45 and servicing at an independent specialist should be no more than £200 for a minor service and £300 for a major service so something in the £25 to £35 range depending on the requirements of that year.

Selling the car and buying a cheap run around may be an option, but consider it carefully as it could be a false economy. You may not get £4k for it and then buying something cheaper is jumping into the unknown from a reliability point of view. Given it is essential as you like an hour from Uni I would try to cut costs elsewhere first and cross that bridge if you have to.

Hi, the £250 is what I have roughly spent a month during the last 12 months. I currently do not have a holiday booked and do not plan to book one until my finances are back on track. Thanks so much for all the advice, I will certainly look into everything you have suggested x

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kazwookie said:

Your car may be 0 tax currently, but most car tax rates are changing April 2025, you may want to consider this in your budgeting.

Good to know! thanks 

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teaselMay said:

I'd agree with RAS above that you should probably be helping your Mum a bit more towards the bills, and there is scope to do that within your budget if you drastically reduce the spending on things that aren't essential. In addition to being fair as the other adult in the house, paying more towards household costs will help in the long term because if you get used to having such low costs it'll be very hard when you're needing to find full rent and bills from a similar income.

Working as much as you can without impairing your course is a very good plan. I worked in a nursing home for the first few years at uni, it bought me my first car and each shift effectively paid for a week of food. (£2.90 an hour, and I felt rich, briefly!).

You can get this under control. Think about how numbers work in your head and try to make a spread sheet of some sort, or even just a big piece of paper with arrows on, so that you can visualise what is going where when. That'll help you see what you can stop escaping and what you need to pay more to, I'd include your Mum in the latter.

thanks so much for this, agreed, certainly realise I have been very selfish and could be helping my mum out more. this whole thing has been a big eye opener but your advice and support has really helped. thankyou x

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theoretica said:

Good progress - you are gathering the information you need to understand your situation and control it. 

Check with the small print of your bank for when the overdraft will start charging and make sure you have a plan for getting out of it before then. 

thankyou so much x

RAS

Blimey, whatever else has happened recently, plainly you've been brung up right! 

We've had some lovely young folks on here who live in difficult circumstances and some desperate parents on benefits whose income earning offspring think a tenner a week is generous, since if they eat out most days.

Rather off topic, but you've taken on board a lot to which others would bridle. 

And remember helping mum is not just brass, it's letting each other know if you're going to be home for dinner, helping cook and clean, being mindful about washing and showering and generally being kind to each other. You should be fine with the later it's just about adjusting from being the child to becoming two adults living together.

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RAS said:

Blimey, whatever else has happened recently, plainly you've been brung up right! 

We've had some lovely young folks on here who live in difficult circumstances and some desperate parents on benefits whose income earning offspring think a tenner a week is generous, since if they eat out most days.

Rather off topic, but you've taken on board a lot to which others would bridle. 

And remember helping mum is not just brass, it's letting each other know if you're going to be home for dinner, helping cook and clean, being mindful about washing and showering and generally being kind to each other. You should be fine with the later it's just about adjusting from being the child to becoming two adults living together.

Thankyou ❤️ My mum and dad have certainly done a good job of bringing me up, and I am quite ashamed to be in the situation I am as it is not something they would have wanted for me, however, by pulling my head out of the sand and the wonderful help from all on here, I have faith that I can get out of this. Your kind words and generosity have helped me a lot, so thankyou x