Single, six kids and going to be debt free!

wishingthemortgaheaway · 30 December 2017 at 10:07PM

Love the naming suggestions of the categories. Sounds like it would really work for you.

sounds like your daughter is a real credit to herself and you, not only getting a job, but also using it to fund her social life. When will you introduce her to the mse world and ynab?

Mumoffourkids · 30 December 2017 at 10:34PM

Yep the naming suggestions of the categories is a fantastic idea and helps me to see what's coming up in the next week so I can budget for it.

Yes the eldest just seems to have a great work ethic. She started just before she turned 15 and now she can work in two places at her work place so she is flexible.

She earnt about £500 over the summer and still has some of that money now. I have been speaking to her about saving and giving herself pocket money each week out of her wages so she doesn't spend it all at once. But to be fair to her, she did budget quite well with her money and decided to treat herself with a bit, then used some for birthday and Christmas presents for the other kids and the rest is either saved or has been her spending money if she wants to go out with her friends.

Ynab may take a little longer to introduce her to, but I will do it!

camz2017 · 31 December 2017 at 12:52AM

Can I suggest a category in YNAB for you, likely once you’ve paid the debts off. I know my parents had to help me a tonne throughout university, unless you’re on benefits entirely as a house the amounts student loan provide are nowhere near. When your kids head off you might start working more, and find it bties y

My parental income was £100k approx combined. My student loan was £4000 a year, my rent alone was £5800, so there was an expectation from student finance that my parents were filling the gaps.. I was approx 2k short before even living per year.

It was bank of mum and dad for quite a few thousand a year. When you think they had two properties and two kids to fund through uni they didn’t have a lot left over!

Over the 3 years I probably owe them around 10k total, which I will payback once I get this debt sorted (they aren't expecting it so it'll be a nice surprise).

Mumoffourkids · 31 December 2017 at 9:59AM

Thanks Camz for your suggestion, yes that will definitely have to be added once the debt has gone. Although my dad has put some money aside for the kids when they reach 18 to give them a bit of a boost but I definitely know the oldest is going to university as she wants to do forensic science.

Dd2 is not sure what she wants to do but will probably be something to do with kids. The rest of the kids who knows what they want to do but I do have some time to save up. And if they don't go to university then they can have the money I save for something else.

Spendless · 31 December 2017 at 1:14PM

Agree with camz. My eldest hopes to go to Uni next year. He will get the min maintainance loan of under £4K. The Uni we've looked round and he loves, the cheapest halls of residence for this year are £6,300. :eek:

Fortunately we have savings to support him, but we are going to have to work very hard to make sure they aren't depleted during his (and then his younger sister) student years.

I have no idea whether they would just take into account your salary or any other incomes you have coming in (we only have salary, so irrelevant to our situation) but definately worth looking into early on and making plans for.

camz2017 · 31 December 2017 at 2:03PM

It’s just crazy isn’t it, how short the student loan falls!

I don’t think anyone makes it clear that the parents need to support so much. I worked whilst studying also, up to 25 hours a week, you can work and study it just takes good time discipline.

University really is the start of debt, when I arrived Santander gave me a £2000 overdraft and a student credit card! Then Natwest were at the careers fair and told me they’d give me £200 if I switched to them instead of Santander, so I applied, it declined, and the bank manager came down and said “good job it declined we can manually give you a bigger overdraft.”

They also said I’d been pre approved a credit card.

I remember end of first year at uni having two overdrafts (thankfully interest free), but approx £3500 of debt and then some on the credit cards! I never dared tell my parents they thought I was managing my money well.

I went into Natwest in second year to get the overdraft reduced and they said they could offer me a student loan upto £2000! It’s amazing how much these banks will give 18 year olds with no income. When I got all this stuff I put my income as zero on the forms!!!

Definitely try and watch out what your kids get into, it was the beginning of my big mess for sure.

Peace out
Cameron

Spendless · 31 December 2017 at 5:05PM

camz2017 wrote: »

I don’t think anyone makes it clear that the parents need to support so much. I worked whilst studying also, up to 25 hours a week, you can work and study it just takes good time discipline.

Definitely try and watch out what your kids get into, it was the beginning of my big mess for sure.

Peace out
Cameron

They definately don't make it clear. Martin Lewis has asked for clarity over this very issue and the request has been refused by Jo Johnson

https://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2016/11/11/uni-minister-jo-johnson-says-no-letter-asking-please-honest-transparent-parental-contribution/

To me, parents should be told once the child goes up to Secondary school. That gives a minimum of 7 years notice and when you have a little bit more of an idea if your chid may be likely to want to continue into HE.

Amongst my close friends and relatives I know of people saying that their child can't go to Uni unless they go to a local one that they can commute to because their families can't afford to give them money.

Thanks for the heads up re cc. You can't control what your offspring do once they're legally an adult but you can support and advise.

camz2017 · 31 December 2017 at 6:41PM

That's so interesting, I wonder why they don't want to be transparent? Maybe because they fear more parents would cover the whole thing and less students taking a loan all together...

Wow, that really suck re having to stay home over uni. I'd have hated that one!

I remember there was basically a big fair where the banks rolled up and all tried to throw overdrafts, credit cards etc at us... Despite officially only being allowed 1 student account, I had friends who signed up to as many as 4 during the fair.

The whole things a joke, I have around 30k of student loan debts, and despite paying it for 4 years - I now owe them more than when I began paying due to the interest. I think it's gone up 2k! My repayments are now around £190 a month so finally think I'm paying it down.

Mumoffourkids · 1 January 2018 at 9:49AM

Thanks Camz and Spendless. It's not something I had thought of before but as soon as my debts are paid off I will be saving a bit to help the kids through university. I am lucky in that when my eldest goes off to university, my maintenance won't reduce but tax credits and other benefits will reduce so I need to be prepared.

I think my eldest is quite good with money and I am trying to teach her to give herself an amount each week to spend out of her wages. She does seem to understand and still has about £150 left from her wages in the summer.

Last night I also did something similar with my other kids. We went to the local rugby club for New Year. The four oldest all play rugby so we know lots of people there. I gave the four oldest kids £5 each at the start of the night and said that it was theirs to spend on what they wanted, so drinks, sweets, snacks, food. I said one it had gone, that was it. It seemed to work as three of them were drinking tap water and ice in order to save money for other stuff. It also meant I didn't have them asking constantly for things. And I didn't spend a load of money. So win win and it started to reach the kids that they can't buy everything. Think I might do that again.

camz2017 · 1 January 2018 at 10:00AM

£5 for drinks snacks sweet and food, how cheap is life where you are haha?

:D

Happy new year! “New year, same me.”

Single, six kids and going to be debt free!

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