I want to be debt free

GlasweJen

I want to be debt free. I have student loans that I'm not paying back because I'm a student but I also have an arranged overdraft and a credit card. I get a grant, the student loan, i have recently got a job and I might be getting tax credits because I get DLA middle care due to being disabled - funny that.

My goal is to get rid of the overdraft, wave bye bye to the credit card and get some money put away so that I can get rid of the student loans asap after graduating. My issue is that there's so much info on here I'm not sure where to start on my moneysaving journey or how to become debt free. Any advice from the more experienced moneysaving experts?

zx2011

Can you post a Statement of Affairs.

It's just a list of your income, outgoings etc.

You'll need a complete list of outstandng balances and interest rates too.

There's a tool at http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

weebit

first bit of advice, dont pay off your student loan with extra payments! you can make money by saving money in an ISA! just let the debt get paid off through the normal channels (i.e. when you're earning more than £15,000 a year) remember, it gets written off after a while anyway, so why worry about it? i dont even see it as money i need to pay back, mostly because i dont notice it coming out of my paycheck.

njk0327

Hi i started only on my debt free journey at the start of jan this year and am only a novice at this so i can only advise on what i have done, it may or may not help you hopefully the latter!
first thing to do is to join up to quidco, pigsback and greasypalms.
Next check out the unit price of your gas and electic charges and see if they can be beaten then check afore sites to see if you can sign up through them to get cash back or vouchers (use towards birthdays and christmas!)
then check all the daily clicks for above accounts (?p's per visit (just trawl through!))
Then i made sure i didient miss out on any offer if you recieve any magazine etc always send off the compitition coupon.
Check out your local tesco asda and sainsburys on how many vouchers they will take at a time (i have halved my shopping bill per month using vouchers! )most stores accept any vouchers for anything they sell you dont always have to buy the product! i.e I cut out 14 vouchers for free 6 packs of crisps from tesco because of my work theese are a bonus but usually they would have cost you 40p for 6 bags of walkers at tesco and a mirror newspaper.
then sign up for free bingo free catalogues posted etc (i shred mine for rabbit bedding once coupons have been removed!) just for the cash back!
if you are ok with gambeling and dont have an addiction or likely to have one quidco have a good offer on betfair bet £10 through quidco (bet on a certainty i.e man u against worksop town!) and you get £50 back from them with hopefully about £12 from quidco which makes you £52 from sat at the comp thats my kind of money!
check out the up your income board, register with paid oppinion poll sites theres loads out there i'm up to £1500 paid off in 3 months and were on benifits!
good luck (and theres no need to eat 9p noodles forever!)
lou xxx

GlasweJen

Thanks I'll work on my statement tonight after work. I will have to pay off the balance of my loan because I'm only 21 and it doesn't write off until you're 50 or something, I don't want it hanging over my head for the next 29 years. I already have an (empty) ISA so i'll start throwing money into that.

GlasweJen

Ok so sat down after work and here are the figures

Income:
Young Persons Bursary £256
Disabled Living Allowance £241
Student Loan £256 (is this technically income?)

Essential Outgoings:

Rent £300 (4 weekly)
Food £150
Contents Insurance £11
Travel £50 (plus £18 p/y for railcard)
Electric £25 (can't change provider due to tenancy agreement)
Gas £12 (same as above)
Landline/broadband/TV £25
Mobile £40 (inc £6/m insurance)
Prescriptions & health related costs £50 (private prescribed, can't get on NHS, my NHS ones are free)
Toiletries £12
Clothes £20 (on average, I usually don't buy every month then go out and get stuff twice a year)
Contact lenses £19.99

Debts:
bank account currently just shy of -£1400
credit card APR 12.8% balance -£250 (limit) min repay £5
store card (i know hoe stupid!) APR 28.5% balance -389.44 min repay £7

So how did it happen? In first year I managed without debt except student loan then I lost my part time job, a long term illness got worse and everything got on top of me. I got a new job recently and the anticipation of not having a maxed out overdraft made me realise that I'm in trouble. Yeah it's not huge debt but I don't know how to manage it, no one ever told me about how to get out of debt before, the bank just keep offering to extend the overdraft!

~Beanie~

You need to list exactly what the £695 essential outgoings (and the income) consists of, then people can help you identify areas where you could cut down or get it cheaper.

GlasweJen

done that's before my new job but I also need to save £1000 before June as I need to move house and fund a deposit plus advance rent.

ETA - the above doesn't count income from the part time job, it's just at weekends so I've been told to expect roughly £250 per month and the tax credit lady said that if I qualify (which she thinks I do) then I can expect money monthly but she didn't say how much.

GlasweJen

Sorry forgot to add my contact lenses on outgoings, not sure how I missed this! I've found other sites that offer the lenses for cheaper but I don't know how to tell you are buying the right stuff.