Graduate, Teacher, desperate for help!

MWorries90 · 6 July 2017 at 12:26AM

..Hi, I feel my situation is quite complex so I will do my best to explain.
I qualified as a teacher and have been employed as one since Sept 2016. I moved in with my parent (who rents a council house) to try save money. My school is in a different town, and before Christmas I was unable to drive so had a 2hr communte each way. Due to my own lack of money, I am now car sharing with my parent. I have the car Tues, Wed and Thurs, but use public transport on Monday and Friday. I have bus passes for two of the buses but have to pay for day tickets each time for the third bus/network.

My contract has been made permanent, so I would like to move closer to my school to cut down travel time and possibly expenses.

I am volunteering abroad over summer in exchange for food and accommodation, but had hoped to enjoy my time off and also an extra week i will be in the country to travel. When I booked flights, I had not realized how bad my credit card debt was, nor how little I would have in my current account.

Here are my figures:
Current account -960 (£1000 student overdraft, no fees. £960 available)

Savings account £275

Credit card debt £1937 (1100 has an APR of 18.9%, interest is 1.45% each month. 837, I just moved over to have an offer of 0% interest until October 2018)

My Salary is £22467 After tax, pension, NI, and student loan (£10ish) I take home £1291.30 each month (25th)
As a teacher I work all week. As I have mild narcolepsy, I try to keep weekends free to sleep, exercise and spend time with family.
I go out for a meal maybe once a month. Rarely go out drinking.

Expenses
Board £340 (rent, bills, food, phone £13.50, difference in car insurance to add me on)
Petrol £42 pw (maybe less if price is good)

Buses for 1day (values taken from the bus passes):
£3.86 x2...£7.72
£2.64
£4.20
...£14.56 x2 each week for travel to work

Weekend travel is minimal but usually I use the car.

Netflix £7.49 pm
Graze box £3.99 fortnightly
School lunch £10pw quality food to allow me time to sleep at a decent time and not get up even earlier to prep (5:00 or 6:00 on a car day)

Medication £8.20 every 2months
Having realized my situation I have stopped buying breakfast. I don't shop for clothes and shoes regularly, just at seasonal changes when I need something. My gym membership was a one off payment so no monthly expense there. Mum is a hairdresser so I don't have that cost either.

My situation has arisen from poor habits previous that I had lost control of. Where I need help now is: I need to work out what I can afford when looking for a property to rent with my friend so that I am closer to work (ideally on the bus route or walking distance and looking to move beginning of September or August if needs be-she would move in while I am away), what I can budget for summer (July pay 25th before I fly out, August pay 25th, I fly home on 3rd Sept), and what is my best approach to tackling my debt?

I used step for change but it doesn't allow me to put in negative balance. I have already reduced my overdraft from £1500 to £1000. I feel like I'm drowning in money problems and can't plan for summer or moving because I'm worried I'll have nothing at all. Moving house will see a deposit and fees needed to be laid to secure the house at the very least...

I hope that makes sense, I don't know who to turn to with these questions:(

Arleen · 6 July 2017 at 1:54AM

I would suggest that you post a complete SOA, linke here: http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php and start a proper spending diary, noting down every single penny that comes in and out, it will quickly unearth where your money is going.

Are your tickets transferrable? Did you calculate how much will that trip actually cost you on top of that? While you may have room and board provided, there will always be expenses on top of that. It may be cheaper to simply accept the loss of money on tickets than it is to go. Additionally, that would free your time here to maybe seek some summer employment?

Becuase from what you are saying you have a lot of expenses ahead of you - deposit, first and last months rent, moving costs and then the expenses to make the place livable, and probably also a car of your own as sharing with parents won't be easy once you move out. And you don't have money to cover either of those, so spending money on vacations doesn't seem like a good financial choice, even if it means that the tickets will have to go to waste.

parsniphead · 6 July 2017 at 7:05AM

As Arleen says, you need to do a full and honest SOA. Also start keeping a spending diary. It's amazing to see where money is frittered away. You are spending £103.74 per year on Graze boxes alone. All the other little bits will add up too.

There will be lots of support and help on here. Keep posting and good luck.

EssexHebridean · 6 July 2017 at 11:22AM

Others have already advised on the SOA and I agree with that. Fill it in as accurately as possioble and make it reflect the situation as it is right now - NOT what you think you should be doing. An Aspirational SOA isn't the right place to start!

One thing that does leap out at me from your post:

Current account -960 (£1000 student overdraft, no fees. £960 available)

You don't have £960 available if your minus figure at the start of the line is correct. You OWE £960, you have zero available. You need to adjust your thinking to stop thinking of the £1000 overdraft limit as money that's available to you - it's not, and more to the point, it can be pulled away and recalled at any time.

Have a look at the MSE Credit Club to see if you might be able to get any other 0% balance transfer offers for the remaining interest bearing card debt. Once all the card debt is on 0% set the direct debit for those to the current level of the minimum payment (so it stays static rather than dropping as you impact on the capital balance, meaning that ongoing, you pay more off without even noticing it) and throw everything else at getting shot of the overdraft, then move on to clearing the cards.

Oh - and cut up the cards - until you're back on an even keel you won't be helping yourself by using them.

I get that you're keen to move out of parents - must be hard going back after being away at Unit etc! At the moment though you're not going to be saving as much on travel as you will increase your outgoings by striking out on your own so I'd suggest putting that idea on hold for 12 months at least if you can. In the meantime you can pay off as much as possible on the debt and then re-evaluate.

Good luck!

ReadingTim · 6 July 2017 at 11:24AM

It's not complicated at all - you simply need to spend less than you earn.

Ditch the luxuries because you can't afford them - that means the netflix and the graze boxes. The school lunch argument is frankly rubbish - it takes 5 minutes to make sandwiches; and they cost far less than £40 per month. You're also buying bus passes, but only using the bus 2 days out of every 7, which I can't believe is cheaper - generally speaking, bus passes/travelcards etc cost somewhere between 3 and 5 times a daily ticket. So you pay for 3-5 days, and get the rest of the week 'free'. So ditch the bus pass and buy daily tickets for all buses on the days you use them, or better still, ditch the car and just use the bus. You'll also save petrol money too.

You should also keep a spending diary to see where every single penny goes, as there's plenty of things you've missed off - never buy cosmetics for example?

Finally, much as you might like to, you really can't afford the holiday after the volunteering, and, if I'm being brutally honest, I might suggest that you ditch the volunteering too, and find some additional paid work over the summer.

Ilona · 6 July 2017 at 11:51AM

Tim is right, you need to find paid work over the holidays, and save it for your new place.

A spending diary is a good idea, and filling out a Statement of Affairs. There may be some areas that you can reduce your outgoings.

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

Ilona

Ilona · 6 July 2017 at 11:59AM

MWorries90 wrote: »

Netflix £7.49 pm Dump this. It's a want not a need
Graze box £3.99 fortnightly Dump this. It's a want not a need.
School lunch £10pw quality food to allow me time to sleep at a decent time and not get up even earlier to prep (5:00 or 6:00 on a car day) Lunch prep the night before, put it in the fridge, get up, job done.

My suggestions.
Ilona

Silver_Queen · 6 July 2017 at 12:44PM

You must be paying a lot into your pension? I'm on a lower salary than you and my take home is a couple of hundred more than you per month. Is there any way you can reduce your pension contributions until you're back on an even keel?

anna_1977 · 6 July 2017 at 3:28PM

I was thinking the same as Silver Queen - I pay into a pension and take home £200 more than you but earn £2500 less a year

tlc678910 · 6 July 2017 at 4:19PM

Hi,
I think moving out could be the right thing for you as it may not be much dearer if you are sharing with a friend, and if you can live close enough to school to walk or cycle you can manage without a car and have minimal transport costs. How much do you expect the property to be each?

The workload of a new teacher is horrendous and if you can get back an extra hour or two each day from your commute it will be worth the extra sacrifice. A huge amount of teachers leave in the first few years so do whatever you can to make it easier.

But to move out you need to find the money for deposit and rent upfront. Can you or will you need to decide between cancelling your trip or delaying your move?

MandM90 · 6 July 2017 at 10:22PM

By my rough calculations that's about £600 unaccounted for which could clear your debts in 5 months.

Honestly, I would forget about holidaying when you owe money, unless you would consider putting it on a credit card. Whilst you're in debt, and buying things, that's essentially what you're doing!

I would also put off moving out quite yet as it will cost a lot more than £340 a month to live! As others said, you need to find out where all this money is disappearing. By the end of this year you could be debt free and preparing to move out, in total financial control.

I would get out your bank statements, comb through each one and see where you're spending. Or use the YNAB free 30 day trial (no card details required) and download transactions, sort them, and see where it's all going.

I fear if you go on hols, then move out, you're just burying your head in the sand....

Graduate, Teacher, desperate for help!

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