How can I stop living pay to pay cheque?

capital0ne wrote: »

My Advice - ditch the above - £500 ahead at the end of each month - simples

Taking more cash to save is not 'simples' if the therapy is useful and valuable to you (addressing a medical or psychological condition).

There is clearly some emotional value in the tithe also, although if financial well-being is a priority, it's perhaps something which any reasonable person would be happy for you to pay later in a larger amount if it takes you out of the hand-to-mouth rat-race. Due to fixed costs of life in general, it's way easier for someone on £100k to give 15% of their pay than someone on £50k to give 10% and there is a lot more for the beneficiaries if the £50k person cuts their 10% to 5% but then ups it to 15% when they are ten or twenty years further along in their career and on more money.

In practice of course living on the remaining £90-100 a month in London is tough if that is to cover all clothing, leisure and socialising etc beyond the basic bills and food for a person in their 20s. But clearly where the person is living paycheque-to-paycheque but part of the paycheque is actually £900 clearing a credit card and that credit card balance will be settled in four or five months with no further ongoing payments needed, the light at the end of four-or-five months' long tunnel is shining brightly when all of a sudden no credit card payments are needed.

So, there is no real problem. If looking to save money, the concept of nails probably 'helping for work' depends on what sense it helps. Is it a social thing, or do you really have better prospects (tips, bonuses, promotion prospects) by having a professional do your nails, rather than learning to do them yourself to a high standard? If it's an image thing, may be better to save on the nails to spend on clothes and shoes which are harder to DIY.

atush wrote: »

Being a Christian is great, but the bible has something to say about usury. God wouldnt want you to pay them.

Being only 24 but earning 45-50k+ a year (assumed from having £2,600 net pay a month after paying 7.5% pension contribs) might imply she is in an industry like financial services where the income is pretty much usury-driven! Not many other industries make that kind of salary available to relative youngsters, beyond perhaps commercial law or media/entertainment (the latter a possibility, given the nails are apparently career-enhancing).

ambitiouspanda wrote: »

I am going to call Barclays (my cc card) and see if they can extend my cc promotional period by 1-2 months. That should swerve any unexpected costs when repaying the loan.

Let us know how you get on, unlikely they will have much interest in doing that unless you are willing to pay them a fee for doing it. What's in it for them? You owe them £x and are not in financial hardship (£45-50k gross income, £4k owed) and they have the right to start charging you interest from next month. Why wouldn't they?

As jamesperret says, probably a better route is to find another credit company where for a small balance transfer fee you can transfer your balance for a decent amount of time at 0%. For example, this one from Virgin (https://uk.virginmoney.com/virgin/credit-cards/pre-apply/?product=bt-card) is 32 months at 0% in exchange for a 0.6% fee.

So for under £25 fee you could spread your £3700 debt over almost three years and reduce your £900+ per month payments to more like £100-£120 range, giving you plenty for living, saving, and investment.