Is anyone else just stuck in debt and fed up?

[Catsarekings123]

I am actually owed a refund of £1500 from something which will be wonderful, but it's just a waiting game and could be another 2 months yet, however I know I will be getting it.

I'm not the worst with money but I'm not the best either. Every month before my wage comes in I calculate everything that's going out that month, and what ill have left.

I live alone. To give a rundown:
Mortgage- £440, boiler cover- £31.50, gas- £35, electric- £35, water not yet been billed as moved in last few months, ongoing orthodontic treatment- £54, petplan and insurance- £43, phone contract and handset- £32, gym- £14, YouTube/netflix- £22, wifi- £24, £300 on clearing debt atm across x2 credit cards and one loan.
Student loan- £30, then it's food, public transport etc.

I know i could cancel the gym but it's working out at around £3.50 a week and benefits me hugely. I don't have any Sky or anything like that and only have netflix so watch a lot of films etc on it.

If anyone sees any areas I could cut back on I'd be willing to take suggestions..I paid £300 alone on my credit card this month but then had an unexpected £190 repair bill.
It's living alone with a mortgage which is stressful as you have to plan for these unexpected emergencies.

I don't get expensive clothes, make up, hair etc. Everything is as cheap as I can make it.
I'm changing jobs next week and will be on 28k base salary and have got an evening job which will be £300 extra a month.
I don't drive, mainly use public transport but occasionally take an Uber, as waiting outside in blistering wind and rain is depressing a lot of the time.
I don't buy expensive food either, do what I can in terms of cheap or free hobbies. Used to do a dance class but now I just do one on YouTube. Will restart running once it warms up next week.

"What's wrong with watching nothing? Why do you need to be watching something? "

@LlamaDharma Because it's someone's main form of entertainment. Some people read, some people go to the pub. And then some people really enjoy watching films. It's actually a really cheap way to spend time.

I'm really surprised this needs explaining.

@MikeRafone I love the pocket accounts in Chase. At the moment I have one for summer (changed from Christmas), one for the car, one for my daughter's activities, one for flooring and one for a rainy day. I work part time on a zero hours contract and put £10 into each pot for each day I worked that week. I also have a Help to Save account. The car goes in for its MOT tomorrow so I'm a bit stressed but hopefully I'll have enough in the pot to cover it.

You need to be a bit more systematic.

What’s your minimum income in a month?
You’ve listed your expenses.
How much debt to you have, what form is it in and what is the interest rate.
Cut your expenses back as much as you can - if you can’t give up Netflix then take it back to the minimum subscription and cancel YouTube premium. For the sake of £6 if you want Netflix, keep it.

Then what is spare - you need to budget this. You need a pot for food, travel and emergencies as a minimum. Aim to get £1,000 in an emergency fund, then focus on putting towards the debt (there’s no point paying down debt if you’re going to rack it back up).

The Financielle app / podcast has a great playbook for this. It feels like you need a mindset shift in the short term, and then once you’re out of debt you can relax the budget a bit (think about how great a free extra £300 per month will be!).

When I was in 15k debt from my divorce I got a 2nd job and paid it off in 2 years. I hated working 6 days a week but I hated being in debt even more. I don't have any debt now.

Ring everyone and threaten to cancel, don’t actually cancel unless you want to however see if they will come down in price. Keep your cat, my cat was my luxury when I was in a similar situation and I wouldn’t have been without him.

Yay and then it’ll break down in a couple of years.
Been there, done that.

Thats not an area where going for the cheapest of the cheapest is the best idea in the long run.

Depending on the interest rate on personal loans, and the mortgage rate and terms and conditions, when you need a loan you could possibly increase your mortgage borrowing more cheaply than the personal loan rate. When you do need a new boiler, you could apply to borrow more on the mortgage for home improvement, so long as you have the headroom on percentage loan to value and the terms and conditions allow. This may be at a cheaper interest rate than personal loans and of course it will be repayable over a much longer period.

Was it less than 14 days ago - or more precisely less than 14 days since you received the policy documents? If so it's a cooling of period and they have to cancel (and pay back any premiums you have paid, with no charge).

Didn't read every post but saw a few saying get rid of boiler cover and pet insurance. If personally never do this. Our dogs would have cost us in the thousands without. Even ‘small’ things like having to sedate for an x-ray costs hundreds.

This year our boiler would have cost probably around £1500 for repairs and it’s only 12 years old. We’ve only had to pay 2 call out fees of around £140 total because of our cover. I’d say the amount you’re paying is a lot. Look at comparison sites. We’re paying £18 a month for boiler, electrics and plumbing cover.

If your phone contract is coming to an end look at sim only. I kept my paid off handset and now pay £9 a month for 32gb data and unlimited everything else.

Ditch pet insurance if it's for cats and self-insure by saving the same amount every month you'll get some interest and save a fortune. I have never insured any of my cats and i have never regretted this. Ditch the boiler cover - my boiler service costs £75 a year. Buy your hand set and go sim only. Get on MoneySavingExpert - loads of ideas there.

I agree with others, get rid of boiler cover, we've never had that, and apart from yearly service never paid anything for it.

I would live with Netflix and YouTube ads for a bit, they might not annoy you as much as you think. Although considering you don't have any other TV/entertainment stuff, I'd say this is pretty minor expense.

Regarding debts - what are those for? You have very low outgoings and pretty healthy income, there shouldn't be any need to get into debt.

But as you're already there, then:

You mention £400 overdraft, do you mean it's available to you, or are you in overdraft already? Unless it's free introductory offer, overdraft is one of the most expensive forms of debt, so try not to get into one. Even paying with credit card is better if you think you might run out.

Is credit card debt interest free? If you are paying interest on it/them, have a look if you cam get interest free one. You can get one up to 2 years sometimes, have a look on MSE website. Then move as much of your balance there as you can, it will usually cost about 3%, but after that you'll at least won't be racking up interest.

Obviously if you can't get one, then cc debt will probably be the highest in terms if interest, so you need to throw all you can at it.

If it's on 0 interest, then set up a DD for a minimum amount, and throw all you can at the loan with the highest interest. Then tackle the next one. Then the credit card.

It you are paid monthly, say end of months, it helps to move all your direct debits to the start of the month, then you know how much you have to play with until next pay day. Divide this into weekly amounts or whatever makes sense for you. Set yourself mini challenges, ie can I get through the week on less that £100, or whatever.

You can do it, you just need to plan and be proactive.

You're not going to get anywhere near the amount by saving
I pay about £10pm which is £120 a year
Out of hour vets is £200 to walk in the door
Mine covers dental treatment too and up to 10k of bills

I was in credit card debt for most of my life this far (all due to poor spending habits.) This is the closest I have been to no debt (not counting mortgage.) I made a plan and have slowly crawled my out with my last 2k to go (and that will be gone by April).

You can do it OP!

The OP says she's paying £42/ month not £10. I don't know if I've been exceptionally lucky with my cats but I've never needed OOH vets and they have never had anything major wrong with them other than one that cost £800 in vets bills for an unexplained serious leg wound. That's 8 cats across 30 years. None of my cats have needed dental treatment. I just pay their vaccinations and annual check up. I'm obviously not the only person who sees cat insurance as a waste as lots of people on this thread are saying ditch it (clearly not it you own a dog as vets bills are crazy for canines).

But if you'd saved £18 a month for 12 years you'd have £2592 plus interest. You'd also have had the option to spend some of that money on adhoc large expenses that can happen without going into debt.

For me I’d rather keep the insurance and not have the worry of suddenly having to potentially face a ££££ vet bill and have to make a choice between paying for treatment on a credit card or taking out a loan or maybe not even being able to pay for it at all, and having to euthanise. I know I’d absolutely kick myself if I was in that situation and had cancelled the £40 a month my cats insurance costs me. I can easily spend £10 a week on things far less important than my cat so for me it’s worth it. (And a lot of peoples cat insurance will be less than mine).

I am on UC and work part-time zero hours and 2 months ago we finally finished paying back my exdh's credit card (long story but refuses to move out/ get a job and we still have a joint claim). It was always transferred to a 0% credit card but we've been paying back £100 for years! Feels so good not to have any debt at last. It can be good to actually see when you will have paid it off and I used to 'write' in Samsung notes each month the new balance. MOT tomorrow which I'm not looking forward to but I'm hoping I've budgeted enough.

Your problem isn't the expenses you've listed - it's everything else. You should have hundreds and hundreds of pounds left outside the bills and food you've listed.

You need to work out where you're spending that money. That's where you need to cut back.

£1,600 going out. 28 K salary. About 400 a month left.

Just wanted to say OP that if you are watching Youtube on your laptop, you could use the free version and then download an ad blocker.

But I haven’t owned the house for 12 years, so that doesn’t make sense. In fact over the years I have owned houses I’ve claimed on my boiler cover three times. In this instant I had started new cover so had only paid £18 a month for 3 months then needed the cover when my boiler broke down. So if I’d saved it I would only have had £54 when I need far more to heat my home and water…

@Catsarekings123 have you only just moved in?

If so there's a lot of little expenses that really add up. Once that settles down you might be fine.

My mortgage was more than that on my first flat and I only earned 17.5k.

It was tight but I coped. I know things have gone up but your figures seem okay.

Once you have your refund why don't you work out a proper budget. The money saving expert site has good templates.

People tend to forget annual expenses like car maintenance, presents, professional fees etc..

If you factor in all of these things it will be easier to manage.

A written budget each month would help. Consider using an app for this like YNAB.

Your main issue is debt.

Could you work more until that's cleared?

Look up Dave Ramsey on you tube. He has some good videos.

I paid 78 for a boiler service recently.

Cancer the cover and save an amount each month for the eventual repair/replacement.

Your insurance would be unlikely to cover a replacement. My last boiler needed replaced around 12 years old, but it wasn't fit for purpose initially (underpowered)

How cruel she is not starving Just wanted budget help