Money Worries and Debt!!!!!

[Merthyr]

Im 19 and havent long recovered from a serious gambling problem,I have a job working full time and take home around 850-950 a month,I still have around 1600 pounds of debt and my credit is down the pan, ,i pay around 195 rent a month .I have a mobile phone contract which i have fallen behind on ,I am always skint at the end of the month and i get paid every 2 weeks ,i have been no good with money what so ever,
Any advice would be great thanks

[dothawkes31]

you're 19, just get your head around being able to work full time, no point stressing now, when you get to 30 you'll get used to it all.

[Panic Button]

Just stop spending on anything that is not absolutely essential.

£1600 debt is nothing compared with some. Work hard on getting it down, and you will feel much better about things.

[~max~]

You have to get out of the habit of living on credit. Destroy your credit card. Transfer your CC balance to a 0% card , or take out a cheaper loan to cover the balance and concentrate on paying it off. Get a pay as you go mobile phone as soon as you can. Don't buy anything you don't have the money for.
Have a look at this site http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/
And don't gamble. Ever.

[dothawkes31]

what were you doing at 19 No Knowledge? i had been working full time for 3 years, owned my own car\ outright and was taking 2 holidays a year abroard, we didnlt have credit cards then, loans, nothing like that, this problem Merthyr has needs to be looked at with a certain amount of perspective

[dothawkes31]

and i was 19 in 1974, Torremolenos was my second home.

[cazzz1975]

you have to live "no frills" in order to get rid of the debt. it will be difficult but worth it. a contract mobile phone is a non essential, you should switch to pay as you go. buy basic foods, dont eat out. only spend on essentials and with the money you will free up you can put towards paying off your debts.

cut up your credit cards

[Merthyr]

Thanks for all your advice,Surely i need to sort it out now and not ten years down the line ?

[tamborine]

Your spending money after exes £750pm = £185pw.....If you paid £100pw towards your debt it would be cleared in 4month.

[dothawkes31]

not exactly, my advice, which is resumed worthless as we all know, would be to grow up gradually and not take on the debts more mature people have the capacity to cope with, i love you no knowledge you are like my concience on my shoulder, (a grasshopper called Jimeny cricket even)

[dothawkes31]

No merthyr, you needed to have lived within your means over the last few years, but that's the peer pressure factor i suppose

[Postdog]

"you're 19, just get your head around being able to work full time, no point stressing now, when you get to 30 you'll get used to it all"

Blimey, I'm 54, reasonably well paid compared to some jobs, don't go mad with my spending at all, and also always skint just surviving. When will I get used to it?

[dothawkes31]

Postdog this is a case where you have to go back in your mind and remember being 19...........it's in there somewhere, dig deep my son lol

[Merthyr]

You can't go back to them days and comapre them with the present,Thinking about what we have these days to get yourself in debt comapred to around 30 years ago?

[dothawkes31]

that is probably why i made the comparison Merthyr, at 19 it should be not easy to get into debt, no matter what the era.

oh and ignore the pensioner he still thinks i sell shoes, he has short term memory loss and forgets i moved on .

[Buenchico]

As PB states, £1600 of debt isn't a lot. (I owe about £10,000 and, with a combination of unemployment and occasional casual work, my income is less than yours. I'm still not panicking too much!).

If you're taking home around £900 a month, and spending about £200 per month on rent, it doesn't take a mathematical genius to calculate that you're spending about £700 per month on other things. Your first task should be to try to write down where it's all going to. Until you've done that you won't be able to see where economies are needed.

Let's start with some of the obvious things you need to look at. Firstly, food. I'm not suggesting that you should starve yourself but it's amazing just how much unnecessary expenditure some people make on food. If you're currently spending, say, £3 on a prepared meal (bought from a supermarket) for your evening meal, try cooking something simple for yourself. You can make things like simple (but tasty & filling) pasta dishes for well under a quid. Doing so will save you at least £60 per month.

Sticking with food, what do you do for lunch? If you always eat in the staff canteen or (worse) go to KFC or McDonalds, you're spending far more than you need to. Pack yourself some sandwiches, using cheap but tasty fillings. Doing so might save you around £40 per month.

If you've got energy bills to worry about, try to reduce the temperature of any thermostats. (Wearing several layers of clothing might not be 'fashionable' but it will mean that you won't need to heat your room to more than, say, 18C). Make sure you always switch off any electrical appliances which aren't in use, and that you follow 'green' energy-saving measures (such as never boiling a full kettle if you only want one mug of coffee).

If you list your expenditure there's a very good chance that 'socialising' (i.e. pubs, clubs, cinemas, gigs, etc) will t