Hi everyone,
Apropos of my other thread in /r/marriage, it was suggested I make my way over to this board. This is the thread in question, whereby I racked up nearly £2k in CC debts and then had to tell my wife about it [she was actually quite supportive in the end]:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Marriage/comments/8b9m7j/how_shall_i_tell_my_wife_im_nearly_2k_in_debt/
I have always been terrible with budgeting and money stresses me out. In the early 2000s I had three CCs and an overdraft, but, due to a windfall from my grandfather, was able to pay them off. I then got an inheritance of £20k and squandered most of it in under a year: yes, I know, pretty awful, though I do have some nice hardware leftover [computer, camera etc] which get constant use even now. But overall, yes, I am dreadful with cash.
All through my life I have been in this cycle whereby I get paid, spend some money and have fun [after paying bills/rent] and then for the last two weeks of the month I'm left with very little and have to ask for advance cash for the next month, which puts me in a perpetual deficit.
Yesterday I had a conversation with my wife where I told her that a] I was 2k in debt from the CC, b] that I did not want advance money any more and c] I want to get out of this cycle, balance my money and be in control of my finances which has never, ever happened.
I am in my late 30s and my parents are in their 70s/80s and in good health. But I need to learn how to do this to support myself for when, eventually, they are not around.
I earn about £1450 per month net. I think that initially what I will do is, after getting paid, pay the rent/bills and then split the disposable into four weeks' work of food, household items, socialising. I also need to factor in paying off the CC card, but I'm not sure how much to budget for that yet. Maybe 200 a month? I don't know. It's 35% APR so pretty damn high. Balance will be about 1800 by next pay day.
Is this a good way to go about initial budgeting on my salary? Any advice would be great. I have been terrible with money my whole life [runs in my family] and will turn this around so I can finally be in control. It would be nice to factor in savings too, even £10, £20 a month or so.
I may keep the CC when it is paid off to help raise my credit limit more [or maybe get a better one?].
Here is a makeshift spreadsheet which is a work in progress, I haven't included the four-weekly split yet:
Submitted April 11, 2018 at 07:43AM by PossibleWishbone https://ift.tt/2JBcTwt
