why are we always skint?!

TheFarnmeister

Its a toughy. I do think that really tight budgeting helps, though for me one of the problems is simply often we're not paid enough. Maybe invite the friends round, get them to bring their own booze and dance on the carpets

Dammam

I think that the safest way of budgeting is by having seperate accounts. My wife smokes and tends to go on mad spending sprees. When I confront her about the spending she gets angry and we end up both sulking like a couple of kids.
Conversely, I DO tend to look at the money as mine as I'm the wage earner and spend on what I want pretty much when I want - so I'm as bad as she is in a different way.
Her spending habits come from her upbringing - her parents always spend like there's no tomorrow. Caught up with them 3 or 4 years ago when the business went bust and they went bankrupt. They haven't learned their lesson though, and still spend money like water - I haven't a clue where it all comes from, but I'm pretty sure it'll end in disaster again.
I really like the idea of putting an equivalent amount of money away every time she buys fags - maybe at the end of the year, the amount of cash I've saved will finally convince her to quit.

Oh, in case it looks like I'm being mr critical we've agreed to giving ourselves weekly pocket money - as I need to keep to budget too.

fruityslh

I agree with Dammam, my DH and I have a joint bills account so we don't touch any of that by mistake, but we also have seperate accounts which we can spend our "pocket money" without the other person being too bothered.
However, my DH was constantly Ovedrawn and building up charges on his own account that ran out of money really quickly, so he asked me to help, I now tell him after the money is transferred to the Bills Account how much money is left for him to spend every month, he then very dilligently puts everything he spends into a policemans notebook, hasn't been overdrawn since, he's also admitted it makes him think twice about whether he actually "needs or wants" something. It's taken me 12 months to get to this point though as he just thought I was a nag, go slowly and don't let it create too many arguments, if you can let them come to you

ms_london

What an interesting post - I love reading about budgets & things (yep im sad!!!).

Since January I have been saving £900 a month in order to pay off my debt (stood at £10K in Jan) this year, ive 3 more payments left.

Come December payday I will have that £900 a month for me. I could move to a nicer/more expensive flat, I could go mad & buy lots of clothes that I dont need, but I dont want to do that - budgeting for the last few years, because Ive HAD to has made me realise whats important & what I do/dont want to spend my money on.

I hardly eat out (perhaps a lunch with a friend), go out drinking once or twice a month, havent bought any new clothes in a while, but im happy, happier than I ever was before.

I couldnt imagine having an "other half" to try and organise financially, it annoys me when friends complain about being skint, but still go out 3-4 times a week etc etc

Ms_London xx

emma_b_4

hiya..wow i never expected to start such a post!! what a discussion!
we have 2 accounts, well 4 actually
1- bills and direct debits, my wage pays them (altho only for another month then his wage will)
2 - his wage, our spend, for food, petrol, savings etc
3- and old account that we pay into for a rainy day , currenlty spend for our hol
4 - another old account for a rainy day

one of these will now be replaced with student account

we had £3k on credit cards in feb, we now owe £800 and have just transferred that to virgin, no fee for BT, and interest free for 9mths or something.
we had a party the other night, well a bottle of wine and a cheap asda bday cake between four of us.. and we had a chat about having more house get togethers, aparently people prefer to do that so my house will no douibt be turning into a nightclub pretty soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!

worry is tho, how do you stop them emptying your cupboards when the beer muchies kick in? or things like the coke and lemonade, mixers etc being used cos no1 ever brings that with them.....or extra cleaning costs.........

badgermonkey

I would stop this by not having anything worth eating in the house! Make it a rule everyone brings drink and something to snack on with them - even big bags of crisps etc are not expensive. Or maybe the person whose house it is could cook curry/pasta/chilli, then you won't be hungry and it will still only cost about a fiver to feed everyone. Loads of garlic bread and everyone's happy! You will be stuffed and have plenty to drink and it will still cost loads less than going out.

jumbo123

ok thinking about this post ive come to a few conclusions


first i would sell the car
even though it wont cover the full debt, i think your right in wanting to sell it.
if another car is esential well you can pick up decent run arounds for about 500 pounds


the amout your paying in car insurance says to me your buying fully comprehensive


you wont need this with a run around 3rd party fire and theft will do, this will straight away save you about 350 pounds in insurance costs.

on the ciggie front, well im sure you know someone that dont smoke that takes a holiday abroad to a country they can buy and bring you back cigs, personaly i smoke roll ups and i get then by 3 sleeves a year cost 75 pounds and thats enough for me for the whole year, thats all my smoking per year costs.I would look into something like this.

next point is you insurances, i would dump right away the mortgage protection insurance, these are quite the con to be honest, and are where your broker gets his highest bonuses from.take control of your own destiny, theres nothing quite like having a mortgae to pay and losing your job to motivate you to get another job fast.they mortgage protection insurance items only pay for a set period anyway, and are full of clauses, ie if you leave your job it wont pay out, if your self employed it wont pay out, it will have a max months it will pay out on usualy 12 months, it will usually only pay the intrest on the loan not the capital, your paying 300 year for this, way to much to cover a couple of months at most before you sort stuff out, instead stick the amount in a bank account let it gain intrest and if you need it then youve insured yourself.


next would have a set amout per month for treats and stick to it

when you become a student you need to also get yourself a pt job, sure its not nice but then i bet most of your class will be envious you have your own house while there paying rent.

next you credit card
first thing to do with that is hunt out a 0% intrest rate, there are providers that will let you transfer the balance and give you 6 months intrest free on it, remember to chop up and close the old one when you transfer.then pay the thing right off in the 6 months.


i reckon doing this stuff will give you and extra 200 month at the very least, which you should put into an account till its built up sufficient to pay off the car loan.


Once you got that car loan milestone from around your neck life will be a lot sweeter for you.

when i was a student i got myself into a mess, this ruined any chances i had of any credit for realy 8 years cause it took some of the eventual bad credits a couple years after the first to default, i realy wish i had defaulted the lot togetheras trying to do the right thing just delayed the agony.thus ive sat and watched my friends get mortgages and thus earn loads from the property rises ect while i couldnt.

i live by my means now, and save like mad, its kinda sickening watching your labourer by a house while his boss ie me cant get a mortgage and thus quite frankly they can stick there credit now where the sun dont shine.


rule one: there giving you it to benifit them not you

JanCee

[QUOTE=ms_london
Since January I have been saving £900 a month in order to pay off my debt (stood at £10K in Jan) this year, ive 3 more payments left.

Come December payday I will have that £900 a month for me. I could move to a nicer/more expensive flat, I could go mad & buy lots of clothes that I dont need, but I dont want to do that - budgeting for the last few years, because Ive HAD to has made me realise whats important & what I do/dont want to spend my money on.
Ms_London xx[/QUOTE]

Congratulations - That is quite an achievement you must be really pleased with yourself! It sounds as though you have not only paid off a huge debt but also learned a valuable lesson into the bargain.