Debt

An economist on the news the other day described the UK as a nation of borrowers. The average Brit has £4264 of debt (EXCLUDING mortgages and student loans) (source: the national money education charity Charity Action) and the average household debt including mortgages is a whopping £55,814! Whilst it's almost impossible to avoid getting a mortgage (unless you're rolling in it!), the other debt is potentially unavoidable. Why do we do it?

Luckily I don't owe £4264. (Well, if we're counting student loans then I'm waaayyy over. I think my four year course gave me a debt of ~£24,000, but that's another blog entry!) Now that I've paid off my £500 credit card I'm also lucky that my debt is interest free. My graduate account overdraft is 0%, as is the money I borrowed money from someone to help buy a car a couple weeks ago (apart from the guilty feeling knowing that I haven't repaid them yet).

My problem was partly frittering money away whilst living in London, partly a once-in-a-lifetime two week tropical ecology field course to Kenya (followed by two weeks travelling), and partly just not having an emergency fund. When I needed some expensive dental work I had nothing to fall back on except credit.

I have been at the point where you only have £10 to last the month. Now I'm trying to turn it around. I'm taking some responsibility.

I don't want to be a statistic.

An Introduction to the Frugal Graduate

University is over and I've joined the real world. My student bank account has been converted to a graduate account, but unfortunately they remembered to transfer my overdraft too. I'm slowly digging my way out of the hole and back up to £0...

I studied Biology at Cardiff University and my good grade can attest to the fact that I did not waste my money on too many nights out or all day shopping trips. I didn't even enter my overdraft until the second year of Uni, but then it was engulfed by a month in Kenya with the University studying tropical ecosystems (fantastic, but I'm still paying the price!) Since then I lived in London for a year on a work placement, which was far more expensive than I'd anticipated even with the salary I received!

So here I am, two months after graduating, working as a chamber maid in a hotel and living with my parents to save money! I've managed to pay off my small credit card debt and buy a car to get me to work (although I was lent some money to help with this that I want to repay as soon as possible). Luckily a research job is in the pipeline for the autumn and beyond (for which I'll be moving out) but money will definitely still be an issue.

A frugal lifestyle will enable me to save money and hopefully benefit the environment by reducing wastage and recycling items for new uses where possible. I will use this blog to document the ways I've been cutting back and reducing my deficit!

Bryallen