Never have money - want to cry

Pal

skintchick wrote:

HAve just found out what stoozing is, but don;t understand why you think I am doing that? I am not making money - I just bought things on credit card which I am trying to pay off, and have been a rate tart because surely better to pay 0% than standard rate?

Unless I misunderstood, you said that you had savings that you could use to pay the loans off if required, but it is better to earn interest on the savings instead. Doing this deliberately to make money is called stoozing (no idea why). I completely agree with your position on this (better to earn interest than not).

But, my point is that if you have enough savings to pay off the debt, then the monthly payments should come out of that money rather than your monthly income, particularly for the credit card. Doing this would effectively mean that you had already paid the halifax CC off and have extra money to spend each month.

Apologies if this is too obvious but an example:

Borrow £3k on a credit card at 0%. Got £3k in a savings account. Minimum payment is £100 - take it out of savings and pay off CC. Balances now £2.9K on CC and £2.9k in bank. Extra £100 in pocket as not using monthly earnings to pay the £100.

If you are not doing this then you are effectively going short each month and not enjoying yourself just in order to save £100 (in my example), which doesn't make sense.

Apologies if not explained very well but in a hurry today!

skintchick

Now I see what you mean - don't pay it off in one go, but use savings for regular payments.

What I think I will do is carry on as I am, but when things are tight at the end of the month, when I usually just eat bread and mouldy things from the fridge :rolleyes: I will use a bit of my savings to buy some food, which should be less than the full monthly payment but means I am not quite so badly off.

Must stop thinking I am not allowed ot touch savings. Keep telling myself they are for a rainy day - but I guess it's raining now!

OH! I wish I had a rich husband

robindunne1

The "Gift" in Gift Aid referres to the gift you give to the charity. You can only pay through Gift Aid if you pay enough tax for the rebate. So the extra money the charity receives is directly from your pay packet and the tax you have paid and none of it is from the government. It's simply a way of not paying income tax on money given to charity.

It's only slightly different from the old Deed of Covenant policy. I personally pay tithing on monies when the benefit is realised.

aloiseb

skintchick wrote:

OH! I wish I had a rich husband

I used to wish that - I got him and now we've got two kids and are poorer than ever....but only financially, I like to think.

Moral: make sure your rich husband has not just bought a flat which turns out to have negative equity on it.....! :mad:

Ember999

I know what I am going to say is going to upset a lot of you and I don't mean it what way, I am just giving my opinion, so go easy on me

I personally think you are daft giving away 10% of your income when you can not afford to (also think it's daft if you can afford it!) to be part of a religion. 10% is a lot of money, what you are paying now is bad enough (ie: £75!) if you put that in to a savings account permanently (ISA Index Tracker) you would end up fairly rich one day. If you over-paid that on your mortgage you would reduce the term and save potentially thousands in interest payments. You would stop being a skintchick and become a happy, solvent, well off chick!

I have never understood any religion that tells you to be part of it you have to pay them. You are not paying God to say you love him, you are paying men, real life men your hard earned money and it's bloomin' silly if you ask me. What exactly are you paying for? To be a part of something? To feel valued? To feel you belong? that you will go to heaven one day? It's hard to say what I am saying because you 'believe' in what you are doing and that has to be admired, but do you really need to waste so much money paying someone else for doing absolutely nothing for you? It's no wonder religious organisations are so rich. I feel sad that there are so many out there having money taken from them that they can not afford to be a part of an organisation that does that to them.

Sorry if I have hurt anyone's feelings, it's just my opinion and I imagine the opinion of thousands of us out here in this world we live in where we have to pay out for everything just to exist!

margaretclare

skintchick wrote:

Ten per cent is Biblical. That's it really.

If you believe, you are called to obey God's rules, and one of those is tithing. I can't do ten per cent right now, but I do what I can and then a little bit more. That way, the theory goes, He will bless my faithfulness.

I know it sounds ridiculous if you don't believe, but it's part of my faith, and although I still struggle with the concept of giving my money away, I have committed to do it, otherwise I am just picking the bits of my religion that I want to follow, and that isn't right.

You can't have the nice bits of blessings and heaven if you don't do the nastier bits like tithing and no sex!!

Oh come on. We live in the 21st century. And before you say anything, I'm a religious woman too. I'm a practising member of the Methodist Church and so is my husband - he converted from Judaism, was baptised and confirmed in his 70th year. That said....

There are a lot of rules and prescriptions laid down in Deuteronomy and similar books - I don't know many people who stick to them nowadays. Like dietary laws, you name it. Jesus said 'I am giving you a new commandment - that you love one another'. And that's it. That's what we try to do. We give to charity, but only as we can afford to. It could be argued that if you owe money to someone else and don't pay it in order to pay your tithe, then you are robbing the person you owe money to. That can't be right either.

Please give me book, chapter and verse where it states in black and white: 'you must give 10% of your income to the church'.

Aunty Margaret

Kevicho

Ive just read this all the way through and have never heard of this "tething" thing

To be honest im not really religious, but i do try to lead my life the best i can, i did until recently, give money to charities monthly DD, which i have had to stop because i simply cant afford it (and i did feel bad but at the end of the day i have to look after myself first)

I cant understand why any god would want his children (ok im talkin in bibly speak) to suffer through life like this, i mean we already pay a HUGE lump of our wages to taxes and living anyways

Does this 10% kick in there or before tax?

Either way im sure god would prefer you to be happy in life, and sort you money out first before you give "what you can", either in time or money when you can afford it.

mummytofour

I feel the same, alto we are a family of 6 im sick and tired of making ends meet or not as it seems, everything is so expensive, paying the bills I guess is the main thing, but its tough whne there is nothing left over to buy new clothes or for a holiday.

rubytuesday

I have recently split up with my boyfriend after nearly six years and am now finding it easier to make ends meet for some reason. We didn't officially live together so responsible for own bills, although he was here most days but I have really cut down on the food shopping, making do with what I've got etc. I'm really surprised because he always used to help me out with the food bills and I thought I'd be struggling even more!MONEY SAVING TIP get rid off your boyfriend!I do really miss him though!!

jobbingmusician

Have only just found this post, which originally was about only just surviving on what people thought of as a 'good' income. I had reason to think this through about 5 years ago, following a trip to Sri Lanka.

In SL I met a young woman who was working for a charity out there. Her dream was to come and work in the UK for a while, as this would be a tremendous boost to her CV and future career. I was impressed by this. She wanted to come and work for the charity I ran then as a volunteer - all we would have to do would be to pay her return fare and living expenses.

I thought and thought about this. It really made me realise that just about everyone working in the 'front line' (i.e. not senior management) in the voluntary sector - and in most other jobs of course! - receive wages which simply pay for their board and lodging. There would be no saving in having someone who worked for free, if you had to meet these expenses. :eek: Even having her stay in someone's house would mean that the 'someone' was being deprived of the potential rent of that room through the rent-a-room scheme - and quite frankly no-one I know has a spare room!

So the idea never became reality, and I learnt that feeling skint all these years wasn't just poor money management on my part!