-£99,152 net worth - scary figure

adg89 wrote: »

Hi charliedavis
Been catching up on your diary - regarding DS' driving - do you pay for all his lessons or is the first block you are looking at paying for?
If it's the first, I would let him organise and find a driving instructor who is reputable among his social circle so you can ensure you are paying for someone who will be effective.


Also, this is a solution to help you with your funds, but when I started to learn how to drive (and my siblings - my youngest sibling having just passed this year at 18), my parents only paid for the first block of lessons, first theory and first practical, with any extra being paid for by ourselves by part-time work. Would this be an option for you? Then you would have a fixed expenditure on DS' driving, but will also be helping him out to start, and also helping him to learn how to manage his own finances in terms of raising funds for the things he wants.


You don't need to do this if you feel it isn't right for you, but it is another option for you.

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

It looks like you base your spending on your best months income which is of course variable. You also make the common mistake of not putting money away in the good income earning months to cover the bad months.

Firstly you need emergency savings to stop you relying on credit when you don't have enough income coming in so I don't think you should be throwing all available money towards repaying the debt or you will have a boom and bust situation. The best way to reduce debt is to live within budget and stop spending on credit cold turkey so get rid of the credit cards and definitely don't consolidate. Was the Zopa loan a consolidation? It makes your situation so much worse.

Your rent is way way too high and consequently the council tax and presumably your utilities so presumably you have over guestimated your income and rented way above your financial capabilities. There are other areas for savings like groceries, entertainment, holidays, gifts, mobiles, cable tv, electricity and oil. They could all be halved for a family of your size. I am puzzled how you have such high HP but no assets for it to be secured on as presumably it is not the £6000 cars?


While I think overpaying the debt is certainly a priority especially as you have fairly high interest rates being charged and presumably no option to move to 0% I think saving an emergency fund is every bit as important. I also don't think you are sending a particularly good lesson to your DS in paying for all his driving lessons when you obviously cannot afford it. We paid for the first block of lessons for our two daughters and then they paid their own by getting jobs to fit around school/university. Made them appreciate money and they learnt how to budget. They are now fiscally responsible adults with no debts apart from mortgages simply because we drummed into them that credit was not an option, living within a budget was crucial and saving for things was paramount. Learning to say no, I cannot afford that is the first lesson but it will be a good one for your DS to learn so he does not follow the same path.


If I were you I would be tackling this by using the spare income to initially save £1000 emergency fund then direct it all to the debt. Stop using credit full stop.

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

I have just read the posts above and see you have already answered about the Zopa loan. Putting money aside for tax/NI is also critical when you are self employed. Do you have an accountant? Good to see you have already put some economy measures in place.