Silly student debt diary

greensalad · 5 January 2015 at 10:21AM

Monday review

Going to start reviewing my transactions for this first sort of "half week" of January, and then every Monday.

Clothes £66.50 - still too much, but this was my dressing gown and one top. I am naughty. NO MORE.

Household goods £66.51 - new sofa cover and a shredder. Needed items.

Business/Admin £55.55 - a refund (so money taken from December) plus my regular software subscription. Not bad.

Household £32.92 - extra food for NYE plus my phone bill. Changing phone bill later this month. All fine.

Lifestyle £31.74 - Alcohol for NYE and some snacks last night. Shouldn't be having extra snacks.

Dining/Drinking £7.58 - Burger King in the shopping centre. Apart from my birthday this'll probably be the only time we go out this month. Not worried.

Personal care £12.63 - shampoo and conditioner. Won't buy any more for at least 2 months as I don't wash my hair that often. Got a 3 for 2 deal too.

Overall spend for this month is £379.14, so quite a lot but I think NYE having a party at ours plus buying a few things for the house made it grow.

Today

SD as I need to buy lunch. We've got dinner though (chicken and veg) and no need to buy anything else.

Tomorrow

Will try to make some soup with what we've got, might google some cheap recipes and I can pick ingredients up this evening. Hopefully then I can make it a NSD.

The future

Relatively cheap week, though we will need to do another shop as we're getting low on food in the freezer. Loads of cheese though, maybe I'll make a stilton soup!

Still not been paid from my second job. I'll follow up later this week. I can't pay my various debt repayments until they do.

We're also going to be buying a small TV for the bedroom, as when we have people over it'd be really nice to still watch TV. Boyfriend and his mates tend to hog the TV for football. Last night I was listening to the radio and painting my nails after getting out of the shower and it was so nice! I don't really spend enough time on self care I don't think. Aiming to make it a nice and regular Sunday night thing to spend some time on my own to relax.

greensalad · 5 January 2015 at 1:41PM

Just had a bit of news that has kinda upset me. It might not come true, I might be wrong in my assumptions but it's still upsetting.

Letting agents just called to ask if they can come round to view in order to do a sale valuation. Our landlord was trying to sell last year so I reckon he's trying again. This could spell the end for the lovely home we've furnished for ourselves.

Sorry if I'm going off on a rant here, but this is all so !!!!. I hate that so many people in this country cannot enjoy what it feels like to have a home without fear of it being pulled from beneath them at any time. Since I moved out at 18 I've never enjoyed having a pet. I've never enjoyed being able to pick a colour for a wall. I've not been able to put up pictures or family photographs without permission. I've not been able to see a future living anywhere because I know too well that I'm just living in someone elses house. And there is nothing I can do about it. I can't afford a property, I probably won't for 15 years or more, and even then who knows if the house prices will be so astronomically high that any planning I do now STILL won't help? Will I ever be able to have a cat? Will I ever be able to put up a curtain pole? Probably not.

I hate it. And so many people are going through the same thing. It makes me incredibly sad.

What this means for my debt is that I'm going to have to put a lot of payments on hold. I guess it's something I buried my head in the sand about, but I have no money for moving or a new deposit. I'd need to save at least £1000 to cover a deposit, and that would be a small one.

And then there are people like my Dad who told me last week that "I'm going to buy a [fourth] property. I don't need the rental income, I just have too much money". Thanks Dad, I'm so glad you're enjoying living on your pile of gold all the time.

greensalad · 5 January 2015 at 4:05PM

Sorry, I realise my last post sounds really entitled.

I'm just so sick of living in constant fear of having the rug pulled from beneath our feet.

greensalad · 5 January 2015 at 6:02PM

I've just done some serious future forecasting.

If I was to pay my utilities bills, rent, set aside a small amount for groceries, and then give myself £100 a week for everything else, I could be debt free before the end of the year.

It seems totally crazy. But the figures balance out. It even gives me £50 a month to spend on improving the house (or if no improvements needed, then an extra £50).

It's a bit of a "perfect" calculation. I doubt I would be able to keep to it as there will always be things cropping up.

But it was a nice reality check. I'm going to try my best to do it.

Considering getting a prepaid card and loading £100 a week onto it to use and cheap myself in check.

Only issue with this is that I will have to ditch use of Money Dashboard because it uses my bank account.

However if I get more into the habit of using YNAB then it would be fine.

That way I could pay all my bills and rent when I get paid, and then only allow myself a weekly budget instead of blowing all my money in week one and having nothing by week four.

AleMrsT · 5 January 2015 at 7:33PM

Sorry to hear the news about the valuation. I guess your dad lives in a different area? Is it possible for you to suggest he buys the investment property near you, and you rent it off him? Maybe with a view to buy in future? Sorry if this isn't possible for various reasons, obviously I don't know the circumstances, but thought it would be worth mentioning in case it might be an option.

Just because the landlord is getting it valued, doesn't mean it will sell. Also, not all landlords are averse to pets or making a house your home. I'm a letting agent and a lot of out landlords are more than happy for tenants to decorate, put pictures up etc. Perhaps tell the agent that you would really like to stay, they may push for an investor to purchase who would be happy to keep you as tenants. Or better still, get your dad to buy it

greensalad · 5 January 2015 at 8:42PM

AleMrsT wrote: »

Sorry to hear the news about the valuation. I guess your dad lives in a different area? Is it possible for you to suggest he buys the investment property near you, and you rent it off him? Maybe with a view to buy in future? Sorry if this isn't possible for various reasons, obviously I don't know the circumstances, but thought it would be worth mentioning in case it might be an option.

Just because the landlord is getting it valued, doesn't mean it will sell. Also, not all landlords are averse to pets or making a house your home. I'm a letting agent and a lot of out landlords are more than happy for tenants to decorate, put pictures up etc. Perhaps tell the agent that you would really like to stay, they may push for an investor to purchase who would be happy to keep you as tenants. Or better still, get your dad to buy it

Honestly, that would be the dream. It would be a win-win in my view. If my Dad could let us live here low cost it would make my dreams come true. I could probably post off my debt in a matter of months and have a healthy deposit for my own place in 2 years.

Sadly my Dad doesn't think like that. He's a bit too self absorbed to consider how much he can help others. He'd probably rather buy a big house and keep it as a [strike]second[/strike] fourth house.

greensalad · 6 January 2015 at 10:14AM

Today

Gonna be an SD on lunch but nothing else. Will buy broccoli and fresh milk so I can make broccoli and stilton soup. Also will need to buy some Tupperware as we don't seem to have anything very much at the mo.

Tomorrow

Nothing that interesting happening

The future

This weekend will be a bit of an "errand" weekend. Got lots of bits. Still need to return two dresses (£35!)

As soon as I get paid, will get some tools so I can add new cupboard doors to the TV unit. Bought the wood, I just need a stanley knife, saw, two clamps and four hinges. Gonna budget £35 for the lot. But the knife, saw and clamps will come in handy for years to come.

monz · 6 January 2015 at 1:24PM

You are doing fantastic! Keep up the good work xx

greensalad · 6 January 2015 at 1:38PM

monz wrote: »

You are doing fantastic! Keep up the good work xx

Thanks! Feel like I'm getting there slowly

greensalad · 6 January 2015 at 1:40PM

Have sent reminder to my second job with invoice as they are 14 days overdue.
Am poised to purchase a new Kalixa prepaid credit card as soon as I get paid. I plan to use it for giving myself a weekly spending budget (of £100). If I can keep to £100 budget then my entire debt will be gone 6 months early. I think other spends will crop up... but I think I can definitely chip away at it faster.
Need to buy stamps and post letter to Akinika to ask them to bill me! I've got £116 in my other bank account waiting to be paid to them.

Silly student debt diary

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