AIBU? to be living of your overdraft all the time

[LidiaM]

hi ,
Me and my husband have planned overdraft of £2000 , my partner works full time , I dont work due to having baby and my materninty has finished few months ago,
We dont get any benefits or help from family.
We are renting and are fine with bills etc but we end up using our planned overdraft every single month and it feels like we are always in debt.
My partner comes home with £2,500 a month but despite that l, we always end up with £-2000 at the end of each month . the salary goes in and 3 days later the same thing happen over and over again

It makes me feel shit and I wonder if we are the only one?
:(
I am going back to work in Jan2020 so hopefully it can improve our situation with the overdraft but right now I am so nervous as this is not a guaranteed credit and Im just worries that they can take it away and what are we going to do :((((

Get an interest free credit card. Pay off overdraft. Pay off credit card a bit each month. I was in your situation and it's the only way out. Once you get in a overdraft it is so difficult.

I work in a bank and I see it all the time. Most people don't care or treat it like their own money, but I think it's important to remember it is a debt. Budgeting is definitely the best thing to do, it's also worth lowering the overdraft every few months 3-6 depending on the banks. I would be mindful that a new regulation comes in in March that the banks have to change the way they charge for their overdrafts, reducing some charges and making overdrafts more transparent. However in order for the banks to do this many will hike up the charges. You could see your overdraft charges increase beyond 40% per year.

They're talking about overdraft fees on the BBC right now - apparently they're not going to charge fees, just interest.

As the OP is probably effectively paying over 40% interest right now (£100 pm so over £1000 pa on a balance that over the year probably averages at far less than £2k she might see her charges go down, but the interest could still be a lot so incentive to transfer to a 0% cc if possible or earn more/cut back to pay off the OD.

The good thing is that you're not actually living beyond your means, as such. If your overdraft is static at £2000, then you've actually accrued a £2000 debt in the past and now must be living within your means, because your overdraft isn't increasing.

What you need is a plan to reduce that overdraft. You need to set yourself hard limits that are achievable. It can be done.

I would get a trial of YNAB (You Need a Budget) and build yourself a budget. It's an envelope budgeting programme, so you can literally have a category for every type of expense. It's really easy to shave money from categories when you can see them.