My SOA... so many outgoings

Paragon

Hi folks,

I've got a moderate debt which I am desperate to get rid of once and for all. I'm good with money and spreadsheets - I always know how much I've spent, how much I've got and how much I'll have next month, but I always seem to overspend, or underbudget, same thing really. There just seem to be so many bills in life...

I owe £12,350 now - down from £21k last year.

Income:
About £2100 per month

Outgoings:
Rent £530
Council tax £160
Food £200
Motoring £215
Clothes £32
Travel £50
Gas & elec £60
TV license currently £16
Mobile £15
Home phone & internet £30
Student loan £110
Main debt interest £40
Odd? £209
Total £1667

and I try to pay off £650 (no min repayment) from my main debt (2 debts: Student loand ~£5k and parents £12k) but £1400 every month just on living!!! I used to survive months on that ammount - ok I rent my own place and have a car but it is a crap one, and I don't have foreign hols, and no expensive hols, I don't eat out, buy magazines, etc

I suppose its all a bit rhetorical really because I track my spending in detail but somehow I can't seem to answer my own question. It just makes me sick with stress and brain worry when I think "in the next 12 months work will pay me £24,000 and if all goes to plan and I don't overspend a penny and my car doesn't break I will at best manage to pay £7800 towards my main debt - not a bad ammount I know, but why can't it be higher...!#

Oh well, rant over for now, any comments / advice gladly received!

Welshlassie

Hi
You don't seem to include amounts for Christmas, birthdays, clothes, house insurance, going out etc. This is probably why you're not actually paying off as much as you think.

Why is your TV licence £16, mine is only £11.77?

good luck

Keeping_Positive

Youve done really well already. Can you see from your records times in the month your resolve breaks or something in particular triggers an overspend?

If you stress out does that trigger it? As long as the debt is decreasing then I personally wouldnt stress. Life is too short to be sad/frustrated. Dont mean to be patronising its something Ive learnt from experience.

You do need to factor in holidays, going out, birthdays etc these can be the things that catch me out on my budget.

ms_london

Hiya.

Welcome to MSE!!

With the list above - you seem to spend a lot on your car? Could you reduce this, or go without a car for a while? (not always possible I know!). Could you move into a cheaper place? Rent out a room?.

200 for food, which is heaps for 1 person, you could probably cut that in half.

Do you only have your student loan & 1 other debt? What is the interest rate like? Could you call your creditor and ask them to lower your APR, or perhaps try refinancing the loan/credit card to get a cheaper rate? Are there any early repayment penalties to consider?

Your normal outgoings do seem extremely high, so you need to look at if you can cut these first - as you are already paying a fair amount to your debt each month, and you need a proper budget to live on - youve allowed for food and fashion, what about everything else? The usual day to day expenses?

Could you move into a flat share, not necessarily with someone you dont know - a friend maybe? Move to a different area? Have you shopped around for cheaper utlities and car insurance etc? Phone plan? Could you stop your student loan for a few months (with their agreement obviously!)?

I guess once you are debt free - you still need to think about whether you are happy paying out that much on the basics and if you can live on what you have left long term.

Sorry to go on. Let us know what you think xx

Paragon

Edited my first post to add "Odd expenses £209"
This is the one that covers presents, camping trips, haircuts, books, stuff... I guess this is where most of the cutting down can be done but this is an average from last year that inlcudes going to 3 weddings last year all at least 500 miles away.

Welshlassie,
Thanks for comments, I've only just started paying my TV licence monthly so it takes a while for it to settle down to your sort of figure. Clothes are in the list at £32 average and going out is... hmmm... just looking at my figures again - its all so complicated! Ok, what I've done is kept a record of spending and totalled it up each month then I get a monthly average for each thing over time - hence a figure of £215 for motoring which covers tax, insurance, MOT, repairs, petrol, oil ie everything car related. That is the average my car has cost me over the last 15 months. And its comlicated because Ive just realised for example food - yes it may appear high but I feed my girlfriend too out of that, plus it is warped by hotel food which I buy when away with work (2/3 days some months - but I get paid a bit extra that easily covers it). Its just hard to break it all down.

Wendy - I just wonder actually if I already do as much as I can financially when in fact I need to concentrate more on de-stressing and enjoying life.

Ms London, thanks also for the ideas, but alas car is essential for commuting. No spare room to rent. Cheaper rent - yes possible but not for a few months till contract runs out. Debt is student loan but that can't be stopped because I earn over the threshold. Other debt is to parents who need it back but, fortunately only charge 4%!
Car insurance just renewed for £117 so can't really beat that.

Damm life is expensive isn't it?!

ms_london

Paragon wrote: »

Edited my first post to add "Odd expenses £209"
This is the one that covers presents, camping trips, haircuts, books, stuff... I guess this is where most of the cutting down can be done but this is an average from last year that inlcudes going to 3 weddings last year all at least 500 miles away.

Welshlassie,
Thanks for comments, I've only just started paying my TV licence monthly so it takes a while for it to settle down to your sort of figure. Clothes are in the list at £32 average and going out is... hmmm... just looking at my figures again - its all so complicated! Ok, what I've done is kept a record of spending and totalled it up each month then I get a monthly average for each thing over time - hence a figure of £215 for motoring which covers tax, insurance, MOT, repairs, petrol, oil ie everything car related. That is the average my car has cost me over the last 15 months. And its comlicated because Ive just realised for example food - yes it may appear high but I feed my girlfriend too out of that, plus it is warped by hotel food which I buy when away with work (2/3 days some months - but I get paid a bit extra that easily covers it). Its just hard to break it all down.

Wendy - I just wonder actually if I already do as much as I can financially when in fact I need to concentrate more on de-stressing and enjoying life.

Ms London, thanks also for the ideas, but alas car is essential for commuting. No spare room to rent. Cheaper rent - yes possible but not for a few months till contract runs out. Debt is student loan but that can't be stopped because I earn over the threshold. Other debt is to parents who need it back but, fortunately only charge 4%!
Car insurance just renewed for £117 so can't really beat that.

Damm life is expensive isn't it?!

Hiya.

Definately agree that life is expensive, I was living in London when I realised how bad my debt was, and when I decided to be debt free - not the best place to be when you have no money, but I managed!

You are lucky your debt has low interest rates (fair play to your parents for charging you interest, haha, that made me laugh!).

Does your girlfriend live with you? Can she feed herself? Or at least pay half? I am not buying the expensive hotel food excuse if work pay you money to cover it .

You dont want finances to consume your every waking thought - and destressing and enjoying life is great, but money plays a huge part in that, and its depressing when you dont have the money to do what you want.

Organise all of your payments so that each month you put money aside, and for those yearly expenses, set aside a bit each month, so you dont have to fork out say all of your insurance money out of one payday.

And give yourself a budget to live on and stick to it. Factor in trips to weddings, and cut back one month in order to have an expensive next month without overspending (if that makes any sense at all, does in my head!) :rolleyes:

My outgoings were minimal when I was in debt, and I had 2 jobs, I was earning a lot less than you, I appreciate you have your own place and have added expenses that I didnt. I used to have 50 pounds a week to live on, including food - for everything - I managed. It was hard sometimes and I sacrified a lot, but I dont now sit here thinking, oh, I really wish I had gone to the pub on the night of 14th March 2005 when all my friends were there and I had to sit at home because I have no money -it hasnt scarred me (I think! Or maybe I am still a bit bitter?). Just kidding.

Do you have a date you want to be debt free by? Do you have any bigger goals that you want to achieve? Buy a house etc etc?

Keeping_Positive

Destressing and money management can be tough to balance. This is where I initailly went wrong (see sig). Had some crap things happened and thought Im going to enjoy life and try not to care about other stuff. Realised now that it will just lead to more sadness in the long run.

You budgeting is good just as you say that you cant stick to it which is why I thught to think of trigger times. You know whats needed to be done.

I do think though that your debt is coming down at a reasonable pace so no need to overworry about it.

Paragon

Ms London, nice one for getting debt free! I am indeed very lucky about low interest rates - its just a pity my folks actually want the dosh back! At least I sent the money on getting a well paid job.

Yes girlfriend does live with me but she doesn't have any job or income, however she is very cheap to run but not quite zero. It would be awesome if she could pay anything but its complicated, but we are working on her getting some work...

I was in debt once before (after a year long round the world trip) and managed to get out of it on a much lower income, but that was living with a friend and hardly paying any bills - its a different story isn't it?
I don't really have a budget as such but just try to spend as little as possible, and whenever I'm tempted by things, I try hard to wait a few days by which time I'll have realised life will go on if I don't buy it!
The trouble with a weekly budget is sometimes you run out of food and petrol at the end of the week so you end up going shopping and buying petrol twice in 7 days so the budget is wonky then, but I suppose its an aim.

My debt free date is ASAP! but I think it is achievable by end Jun 2009 and there is a small incentive to pay off quickly according to my folks but they won't go into details!! In the future I just don't want to have to think about money anymore and maybe get a mortgage going, and also I'm just sick of debt and seeing hundreds and thousands of pounds of my money going to someone else every month!!

ms_london

Paragon wrote: »

Ms London, nice one for getting debt free! I am indeed very lucky about low interest rates - its just a pity my folks actually want the dosh back! At least I sent the money on getting a well paid job.

Yes girlfriend does live with me but she doesn't have any job or income, however she is very cheap to run but not quite zero. It would be awesome if she could pay anything but its complicated, but we are working on her getting some work...

I was in debt once before (after a year long round the world trip) and managed to get out of it on a much lower income, but that was living with a friend and hardly paying any bills - its a different story isn't it?
I don't really have a budget as such but just try to spend as little as possible, and whenever I'm tempted by things, I try hard to wait a few days by which time I'll have realised life will go on if I don't buy it!
The trouble with a weekly budget is sometimes you run out of food and petrol at the end of the week so you end up going shopping and buying petrol twice in 7 days so the budget is wonky then, but I suppose its an aim.

My debt free date is ASAP! but I think it is achievable by end Jun 2009 and there is a small incentive to pay off quickly according to my folks but they won't go into details!! In the future I just don't want to have to think about money anymore and maybe get a mortgage going, and also I'm just sick of debt and seeing hundreds and thousands of pounds of my money going to someone else every month!!

Hiya!

If repaying your debts are important to you you need to find the money, it seems you have leeway (spelling??!!) in your budget to repay your debts and still live comfortably, food can def be cut down even if there are still 2 of you!

2009? Are you prepared to live like this until then when you dont necessarily have to? Dont mean to sound harsh. Just curious. If you tightened your belt you could still be debt free within 18months ish? THEN start spending the money on what you like etc...

Would you consider moving into a shared property? You say you dont have holidays etc etc - have you really thought about where your money is going? Its obviously going somewhere. Could you keep a spending diary for a while? Until you find out where your money is going, you cant do much to stop it.

Fair enough you may not be having a holiday but that cappuccino every day (for example), would probably cost the same over a year as would a holiday. Little amounts do add up, its quite suprising actually.

xx

ms_london

Paragon wrote: »

I was in debt once before (after a year long round the world trip)

That is sooooooo not happening to me I have to say!!

I think if I hadnt been in debt already this would be the time I would spend the money, but since I have been, its not worth it! Eeeeeeek, I perish the thought!

Shelley84

If you spend £215 on your car each month what is the £50 travel for??