AAAAAARGH

manchesterbill

Hello!

I thought that I should set up a diary to hopefully hold myself accountable for my finances.

So to preface this I am 20 years old - yep… quite young. I’ve just set up a debt management plan with StepChange for my £7k consumer debt, with it costing about £170 for just shy of 4 years.

How did I get in this debt?

Well, I moved out when I was 18 and I was completing an apprenticeship doing computer coding on a salary of £19,000 a year. I moved to Manchester and I budgeted and worked my finances out and it all seemed great, but as the cost of things got more expensive, emergency expenses, poor financial management etc)

I was consistently in debt, maxed out every single month,  my overdraft maxed and my credit card maxed. This led me to be losing £800+ a month in credit repayments.

I was considering getting a DMP then, with my debt being at around £2,700 which included a UC Advance repayment and catalogue for furniture m. I used to receive Carer’s Allowance for a disabled family member as I would spend money on helping them, taking them places, appointments etc etc

I received £800 advance, but because I ‘earn too much’ (£1400 -.-) , I was never able to pay that back from the UC I was ‘awarded’ meaning I owed them money. Great.

Anyway, I thought instead of doing a DMP there and then I would get a debt consolidation loan, which I did. I did loads of research about how people just run those credit lines back up, and I thought I wouldn’t be like that (yeah right).

So, in November I got a debt consolidation loan for £3,000 from a credit union at 17% APR, way cheaper than the 40% APR my CC + OD were on EACH!

My credit was shot after this, so I didn’t get any credit and I was doing quite well after a time.

I finished my apprenticeship and got a full time job offer at another firm earning £30,000.

A huge increase.

But, in this transition period where I was looking for a job - I ran up a new credit line with a no interest offer for Barclays at 0% £1,500, even though my credit was banded as very poor ?

I also got offers from Monzo for Flex and Overdraft (again, even after I consolidated and closed)

So, all of my credit was maxed out - yet again and I was drowning in minimum payments.

Even though my Barclaycard payments were no interest, the offer was brief and my interest free period is due to expire soon.

So, now I have the previous consolidated debt which I have from earning too little and the new debt from not having a job…. great.

So, my current debt level is about £7,000

BC £1500
MO £500
MFLX £550
FD £250
CU £2800
UC £700

I’m paying like £800 a month towards this debt and it’s killing me, I’m constantly juggling payments and I just need a break.

So that’s why I’m doing a DMP. I am just not a credit person.

But what am I doing to fix it?

I was just recently diagnosed with ASD Level 1, which I got from my private healthcare scheme with my workplace.

I had always experienced symptoms but I couldn’t pinpoint what they were. They paid £5,000 for me to have an Autism and ADHD assessment, for which I was diagnosed with ASD but just missed diagnosis criteria for ADHD (but I still think I am)

Anyway, I applied for PIP. I want to use the money to pay for support with my autism as my private healthcare scheme will only pay for neurodiverse condition diagnosis, not treatment.

I don’t even know if I’ll get anything, I had an assessment yesterday and I’ll find out in 8 weeks about whether I’m awarded or not.

I feel a little bad for taking the money though, I can and do work although I have reasonable adjustments because of my autism - and I earn about £2,000 a month, but without that additional PIP payment, I can’t afford support with my autism and it’s not happening on the NHS lol.

Once my DMP is fully set in place, I’m going to aim to save some pots of money.

Emergency Fund: £2275 (just above monthly salary)

Savings Fund: £1500

Investments: £100 pcm

I could also benefit from a bonus from my workplace in a few months time, it could be anywhere from £0 to £3000 pretax.

And yes, I know what your thinking - why do a DMP when you could get multiple thousands of bonus… 

It’s not guaranteed. I don’t want to come to expect this huge windfall, then it doesn’t happen. I can’t classify this as income because right now, as it stands - I’m maxed out every month and it simply isn’t sustainable.

You may also be thinking, well what about your credit report? 

I thought about that too. Yes I will have defaults and may not be able to get a mortgage, but I don’t want one!

I’m planning to move to Spain after my DMP has finished as I am eligible under the Digital Nomad Visa.

I really want the defaults too, to be honest. The concept of credit just doesn’t click for me as it’s ‘free money’ - which could also be financial illiteracy but also autism.

I keep being offered credit and taking it just because, so atleast I won’t be able to do that anymore.

Here’s a breakdown of my bills, too:

RENT £925 - now this is expensive! I live in a 1bd 1ba flat in an affluent part of Manchester. I can’t live with other people, they really set me off - I must must be alone which is why this is so much. I also live in an affluent area as they’re so much quieter and my anxiety on going outside is much much less with fantastic green spaces nearby.

ENERGY £80 - this is with Octopus for gas + elec per month. I live by myself and use my air fryer and stuff so this is really affordable. I also referred my friends so I have some built up referral credit 

COUNCIL £112 - Band b council tax with single person discount, if I get PIP I could get this reduced to Band A at £88 ish a month.

WATER £35 - standard water cost for me.

WIFI £37 - this is 500mb wifi with Virgin media as I wfh, so it’s an investment in my work.

PHONE £41 - this is a contract with Vodafone which is due to finish April 2026 (can’t wait!) This was my first contract phone. Never again, absolute waste of money.

APPLECARE £10 - insurance for my iPhone, I want to cancel this but the second I do, my phone will break.

GYM £120 - before I get comments about this, my contract has just finished and I’m waiting for another luxury gym in the area to refurbish which will drop the price of my membership. I’m here literally everyday and I give myself nothing else, but yes this will be knocked down soon. 

REVOLUT £15 - this cost is for my Metal plan with Revolut, I was paying for Perplexity AI as it’s fantastic at assisting me with my work, so I see it as an investment, and the Revolut plan which included it was cheaper - so it’s saving me money + I use the ClassPass to go to a boxing gym I used to pay £30 a session for, which is included in the £15 Revolut plan #moneysavinglifehack

What do you guys think about it? Any changes you’d say with my plan?

Thank you!!!

Bill.. or whatever alias I put, I forgot..

Mark_d

£925 sounds expensive for Manchester.  I live in a nice area just West of Heathrow, and my mortgage on a 2 bed 2 bath penthouse flat is about £800.

I work from home too - often on video calls - but I pay around £25 for 250Mb.  TBH I think 100Mb would be plenty fast enough.
My phone is a second hand iphone, 3 years old.  I pay £5 per month on a SIM only deal.
My gym, a very smart but 24/7 gym, costs me around £550 per year.

Hopefully the above gives you some ideas where you might be able to reduce costs for home ownership, broadband,  mobile phone...

manchesterbill

Mark_d said:

£925 sounds expensive for Manchester.  I live in a nice area just West of Heathrow, and my mortgage on a 2 bed 2 bath penthouse flat is about £800.

I work from home too - often on video calls - but I pay around £25 for 250Mb.  TBH I think 100Mb would be plenty fast enough.
My phone is a second hand iphone, 3 years old.  I pay £5 per month on a SIM only deal.
My gym, a very smart but 24/7 gym, costs me around £550 per year.

Hopefully the above gives you some ideas where you might be able to reduce costs for home ownership, broadband,  mobile phone...

Yeah, £925 is atrocious, but rental prices in Manchester have absolutely skyrocketed recently - I think it’s become a bit trendy so demand is really really high, queues outside of viewings types of things 

I had to offer £25pcm above asking for this property, as I went to about 20 viewings and got rejected for every, single, one when I offered asking price 

I’ve got another 10 months on my tenancy, so I’ll probably try find somewhere cheaper in the area, the flat is lovely though - very modern

The gym I’m looking to move to is about £60 a month, so that’ll cut my
bill from £1,440 to £720 - which I think isn’t too bad