Just Been Paid Already Skint. Think I Might Need Some Help!

pinkydinkydo

Hey, have you tried mystery shopping might just help a little or maybe add in a few free perks you know like a free meal, you could maybe do some at the airport? Also was the holiday allowance maybe a bit too high? Maybe you should cancel the hols until you have a bit more free money. Best of luck i know it can be hard.

Also do you take packed lunches to work? Just anither way to cut down spending

LancsMacca

pinkydinkydo wrote: »

Hey, have you tried mystery shopping might just help a little or maybe add in a few free perks you know like a free meal, you could maybe do some at the airport? Also was the holiday allowance maybe a bit too high? Maybe you should cancel the hols until you have a bit more free money. Best of luck i know it can be hard.

Also do you take packed lunches to work? Just anither way to cut down spending

Hey there, nah never done any mystery shopping before, does it pay well? how do I get into it?

Won't be having any holidays until I'm more comfortable financially! Last holiday I had was supposed to be a cheap break but ended up costing a fortune!

Yeah I take my own lunches to work, the prices are scandalous there!

Thanks for wishing me luck I think I'll need it, everyone is out tomorrow night and I just can't afford to get out!

FunBrum

Hiya,

There are lots of ideas on cutting back, on the Moneysaving Old-Style on this site. Pop over and have a look. I'm sure you will find something there for you.

Also, have you thought about a hobby that will cost less than your Sky package?

Think possitive, and turn it into a game, rather than a chore, and I'm sure you will find it easier to cut back and move forward.

Good luck, and I'll be watching to see your progress! x;)

LancsMacca

Hey! Yeah I'll have a look at that board shortly, must be plenty of stuff on there to help me cut back.

I'm wanting to go back to the gym but I guess that's not really going to save me any money is it?! Could just go running somewhere and some of my mates are interested in doing that as well. Might need something else to do as well.

Thanks, I'm sure it will help me knowing people are encouraging me to reduce my debt.

chocolatechipcookies

LancsMacca wrote: »

Hi everyone, as the title above suggest I'm struggling at the moment with my finances, well I say at the moment it's been quite a while! Last few months in particular have been a struggle. I need to be more moneywise and get my finances organised!

I've spent pretty much all day finding out what I owe and I've done my SOA as below...

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 975
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 975

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 139.53
Rent.................................... 150
Management charge (leasehold flat)...... 0
Council tax............................. 0 How are you not paying council tax?
Electricity............................. 0 Do you not pay your own electricity?
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0 Do you pay this?
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 55 Reduce this
TV Licence.............................. 0 How can you have tv but not pay this?
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 36 Get freeview until you can afford Sky again
Internet Services....................... 3.99
Groceries etc. ......................... 50
Clothing................................ 50 Cut down on this
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 0 How can you drive with no road tax?
Car Insurance........................... 89.25 See if you can reduce this
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0 You need some sort of contents insurance.......
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25 Cut down on this a bit
Haircuts................................ 15
Entertainment........................... 60 You need to find free/cheaper ways of entertaining yourself, you can't really afford this
Holiday................................. 50 Cut down or get rid of
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 838.77

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 5500

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Secured Debt.................. 7000.....(139.53)...0
Total secured debts........... 7000......-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
MBNA...........................2499......50........26.5
Capital One....................1048.89...14........21.6
NatWest........................1573.11...0.........0
Alliance & Leceister...........248.79....10........3.5
Barclays.......................500.68....7.........3.5
Total unsecured debts..........5870.47...81........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 975
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 838.77
Available for debt repayments........... 136.23
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 81
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 55.23

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 5,500
Total Secured debt...................... -7,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,870.47
Personal net worth...................... -7,370.47

There we go! Might not be completely accurate as I've had to make a rough guess on a few items. All of my payments have been paid for the month now but with every little money left at all and not getting paid again until the 26th things are really tight for me now.

I've browsed through the website before and it's helped me on a few things, hopefully now it'll get my debt sorted out as well, feels like a noose around my neck at the moment, I'm in a situation where I feel I can't do anything.

Any hints and suggestions welcome!

There you go.

bank_of_slate

Hi Lancs and a huge welcome!
Mystery shopping - I'm with Retail Eyes and they have quite a lot of restaurant related missions!

Also join Toluna, Yougov and Valued opinions to do paid surveys!

Keep checking on this site at the Freebies - no spend required thread for lots of free samples and free cinema tickets when you join https://www.seefilmfirst.com
...Linda xx

pinkshoes

LancsMacca wrote: »

Thanks pinkshoes.

I know the joys of living at home still! Although I would like the chance to be able to move out one day!

My mobile contract runs out in December, not sure if I can do anything about it now, perhaps get it down to a cheaper deal until then.

I do spend a bit too much on clothes, might be an idea to try the places you've mentioned!

My car is a big drain on my finances. I bought a new Citroen C1 last year, was a bit of a hurried decision suddenly was without a car and needed to get one asap. With hindsight perhaps a cheaper used car would have been a better choice!

I work at Manchester Airport so it's a 50 mile round-trip 4 days a week which is a lot but the car is very good with fuel. Insurance is so high because someone decided they wanted to smash some of my windows and bust the lock last year.

I owe £6,288 on the car and it's only worth £5,500 so selling isn't an option really, I work various hours as well, some very early starts and very late finishes so public transport is out of the question really. Would take an age as well to get there and back.

Personally I would take the £788 hit on the car, sell it, then buy a public transport pass for a month. The public transport route to Manchester Airport is pretty impressive, so it shouldn't be a problem, and yearly public transport tickets are often good value in comparison to daily ones. You may be "losing" £788 on the car, but I'm quite sure the interest payments on your loan will be much more than that, so technically it's saving you money in the long run. This will also save you SO much money on petrol and insurance. I know that owning your own car is great, but for the sake of paying off all your debts, it's a small sacrifice to make for a couple of years! With the amount of money you'll save, you'll be able to buy a reasonable car with cash in a couple of years!

It's quite easy not to spend money on clothes! List everything you have, and sell anything that you haven't worn in the last few months. When you get the urge to buy something, ask yourself if you really NEED it. 99% of the time I think you'll find the answer is no!

To get a cheap mobile deal, you need to ring up your contract people 2 months before it expires, and tell then you want to leave, and you want your PAK code as you're changing to another network. They'll put you through to a hard sell team, and offer you something much better!! Stand your ground, set a budget, and don't let their sales team such you in. If you want 500 anytime xnet minutes for £20 a month, ASK! Don't fall for free gimmicks either, like half price line rental, free phones, or free games consoles! Just demand a cheap line rental and plenty of minutes.

LancsMacca

Thanks for the feedback chocolatechipcookies & Linda.

At the moment I'm not paying any council tax, electricity, water etc. Just paying a rent of £150 a month to my grandad.

I've just reduced my mobile contract to £25 a month so a saving of £30 a month starting next month.

The TV Licence is free because my grandad is entitled to a free licence.

I'm currently not paying any road tax, it was paid for by the company who I bought my car from. From July I will have to pay £35 a year to tax the car.

Contents insurance has already been sorted with my grandad.

I'll check out that mystery shopping company, sounds good having my meals paid for me!

the paid surveys sound great as well as free cinema tickets, will be looking at that, cheers!

Just got a letter from the car company where I got my car from, the car is due it's first service! They say it'll cost £99 including vat before any work that might need doing to it. Just what I need!

bank_of_slate

LancsMacca wrote: »

I've had a look at the mobile tariffs for O2, strangely very hard to find if you've already got a contract with them, wonder why that might be?!

Anyways think I might go for the Online 25 they've got. 200 mins and 400 texts for £25. Should be enough for me for a month. They're shut now though for the night so I'll give them a call in the morning.

Been looking around to see if there's anything I can put on ebay, got a few things to list. I'll get that done tomorrow when I'm not so tired!

Have a look at Martin's page on mobiles http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/#Mobiles

Lots of advice about getting your current provider to reduce the tariff, normally you threaten to leave to another provider
...Linda xx

LancsMacca

pinkshoes wrote: »

Personally I would take the £788 hit on the car, sell it, then buy a public transport pass for a month. The public transport route to Manchester Airport is pretty impressive, so it shouldn't be a problem, and yearly public transport tickets are often good value in comparison to daily ones. You may be "losing" £788 on the car, but I'm quite sure the interest payments on your loan will be much more than that, so technically it's saving you money in the long run. This will also save you SO much money on petrol and insurance. I know that owning your own car is great, but for the sake of paying off all your debts, it's a small sacrifice to make for a couple of years! With the amount of money you'll save, you'll be able to buy a reasonable car with cash in a couple of years!

It's quite easy not to spend money on clothes! List everything you have, and sell anything that you haven't worn in the last few months. When you get the urge to buy something, ask yourself if you really NEED it. 99% of the time I think you'll find the answer is no!

To get a cheap mobile deal, you need to ring up your contract people 2 months before it expires, and tell then you want to leave, and you want your PAK code as you're changing to another network. They'll put you through to a hard sell team, and offer you something much better!! Stand your ground, set a budget, and don't let their sales team such you in. If you want 500 anytime xnet minutes for £20 a month, ASK! Don't fall for free gimmicks either, like half price line rental, free phones, or free games consoles! Just demand a cheap line rental and plenty of minutes.

I'll have to have a big think about this. I love having a car and the freedom it gives me but what you are saying makes a lot of sense!

I'm gonna go through my clothes later and see if there's anything I can sell.

I've just changed my mobile tariff to £25 a month which will start mid-June. My contract runs out in December so I'll wait for a bit before a threaten to quit to another provider.