Would love a car

MoneyWaster2007

Hi, I would really love to have a car. It has been nearly 2 years since i last had one and it would just really come in handy to have one again.

But there is a problem- im useless with money. i earn £920/ month after tax, of which i pay £120 housekeeping (live at home) and £174.20/ month loan repayments. this leaves me with £625.80 spare each month.

i look at this figure and wonder how i manage to blow the lot each month without fail- however i must note that i never borrow to get through to the next month, so i do live within my means, but don't save.

unfortunately, a car isn't going to buy itself so i need to cut back somehow. my entire wage goes on nites out on the town, cigarrettes, and any spare money goes on new clothes.

i have tried to stop smoking countless times so that isnt really an option. also i have limited my self to one night out a week, costing approximately £60/ night.

i have purchased my credit report from the three main credit agencies- equifax, experian and callcredit and they are showing that i have two defaults on my record- both unpaid mobile phone bills from 4 years ago which i had forgot about. so the plan is to pay these off to improve my credit, then switch my loan to a lower interest rate, thusly freeing up more spare cash each month which hopefully i can save. also i may ask to reduce the term on the loan as i have heard that the shorter the term, the less interest you end up paying back. the loan is for £10000 over 7 years, which i started in 2006 and currently stands at £8801 settlement figure.

anyway. . . . . whatever i do with my loan it isnt gonna get me a car which is what i would love to have, so can anyone suggest what i can do to raise cash fast?? or where i am going wrong. any advice much appreciated

gryster

Honestly, I think you should just start an account meant for car money and automatically transfer a set amount (try 100£ first) to that account so you can't spend it on stuff you don't need

kbw271186

If you feel that you might get the urge to dip into any money you save, why not give £100 a month for your parents to look after?

maninthestreet

Stop smoking, stop buying clothes, give up the booze completely - you can still go out, but don't buy any alcohol.

~Beanie~

It depends what kind of car you want. You could buy a cheapy for a few hundred quid - if you know someone who actually knows something about cars, they could make sure you don't get a dud. One of my mates bought a Rover last year off another mate and she only paid £100, it's still going strong.

I am cr*p with money (hence me being on here...) but have never had a large loan like yours until now (and CC's) but I already have a car :-) God help me if this one ever packs in... I couldn't give up drinking, crikey life would be grim with no new clothes, no smoking and no drinking. The first one has gone out the window, the second one I have managed (can't afford to smoke!) but the third is the only pleasure I get in life now! I'm not even going to suggest that you give up one night out a week - I would rather have no car at all if the alternative was never going out ever again.

At the end of the day, HOW badly do you need one? Do you really need it to get to work (like me) or do you just want one and it would be nice to not to have to catch the bus? If you NEED one then buy a cheapy, if you don't, save up.

If you want a newer car, you are going to get a loan. Either another loan to add to your existing one or a bigger one to pay off your existing one and leave enough to buy a car - not really a good idea when you admit yourself you can't afford it. Start small and cheap and work your way upwards.

CLAPTON

if you live at home with low outgoings but nevertheless have 10,000 worth of debts you need a car like a hole in the head.

get a parttime job.. maybe in a bar ... you can socialise without spending any money.

concentrate of clearling that debt... lets see of your current income say save up 400 per month and add to that your parttime income ..lets save 200 per month .. so you can clear the 10k debt in abut a year and half... then save up for a car or a houe or whatever.

Timmne

When do you plan to move out of home? If you're paying off a loan now and only £120 living expenses, you need a car like a hole in the head as said by Clapton.

Put some effort into paying loads off your loan or if it's not a flexible one, put the money away somewhere so you can pay it off in full asap.

I used to work 2 jobs when I lived at home because the spare time you have when you don't have any worries (like a house) is huge and wasted if you could be paying off debts.

My main salary was (I think) somewhere around £900 per month and after living expenses including running a car which I'd bought for £700, I was managing to save almost £1000 per month thanks to my pub job which I did 3 shifts through the week.

You should not be living at home with debts, it's just ludicrous. Don't get me wrong, I'd not trying to tell you you should have known better, it's just in 5 years time when you're still being supported by your parents you'll wish you'd have got a 2nd (or indeed 3rd!) job.

Having looked at your figures, all you'd need to do is get a job for £350 per month and within 2 years you should have paid off your debt - THEN you can look at getting a car!

Remember, a car's never an asset, only a liability. If you don't have lots of spare cash, even the cheapest car can cripple you when it breaks down!

MoneyWaster2007

Thankyou to you all for the helpful advice. Having read your replies to my post, I must agree that a car is the last thing I should be thinking of in my situation and as I don't need one to get to work (it takes me 10 minutes on my mountain bike) it really would only be a luxury as opposed to a necessity.

The idea of getting a part time bar job sounds interesting, however I enjoy my weekends going out for a few beers with my mates- its my only pleasure outside work. On the other hand, when I think that if I don't pay the loan off early, I will still be living at home when I am 29 years old, then getting a part- time job sounds very wise indeed. Its just that ever since I was of legal age to go to the pub, it is all i have done since- only on weekends mind.

I am trying to find some sort of compromise here, maybe if i set a target figure of £100 minimum per month savings, which will still leave me enough money to go out on the weekends??

Also, I have 2 defaults on my credit report, both unpaid mobile phone contracts of around £100 each. if i get these paid off then surely this will improve my chances of being accepted for a new loan to pay off my current one, but of a lower interest rate. if i could manage to do this, then perhaps i could also reduce the loan term, with only a small increase in my current monthly repayments due to a lower apr. any ideas on this??