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I'm a student who is sick of being in debt. Can someone give good advice please?

This is anon as I don't want people to know about my personal finances

I'm a third year med student in the UK, and I constantly find myself short of money about a month before the end of term. I always end up at the limit of my overdraft and have to resort to borrowing off friends, and more recently, I've ended up borrowing off payday loan company smart pig.

This is a vicious cycle, as due to the interest on the loan, I end up paying back a lot more than I borrowed and end up even more short of cash at the end of term.

The uni tell the medical students that they don't recommend we have a job during term-time, as we're in placement for about 8hrs a day, but I figured if i can find some evening shifts a few times a week it should help me pay off my debt.

However... I'm really struggling to find a job. I've spent 3 years of uni applying for jobs in the city I'm in, and the one company that accepted me ended up shutting down. The fact my availability is so limited is a massive factor why places keep rejecting me, and I don't know what to do any more.

I already have problems with my mental health - I'm on antidepressants and I've been on a waiting list for CBT for months now - I'm still waiting to start.

The problem with me is that I'm absolutely **** at budgeting. I have no self-control, and I'm very impulsive (quite related to the mental health issues). I buy random crap and order food in cos I'm often too unmotivated to cook. On top of this, travelling to placement is extremely expensive; I frequently have to buy rail passes which cost between £50-100 a month depending on the location I am travelling to, and the uni barely reimburse it; they give a travel grant of £80 for the full year, which only really covers 1 month.

The constant worry of money and trying not to think about if I can make rent next month is really taking its toll on my already pretty poor mental health. I'm sick of being like this and I'm really struggling to change my habits. I've tried making a budgeting plan, weekly spending tables etc but I always end up discarding it and going back to my old habits.

Does anybody have advice? I'm really down about this and I would really appreciate anything, including self-help books, videos about budgeting, techniques you've used in the past etc.
I don't want to go through the rest of my life being so awful with money!
Hi anon! I’ve been in a very similar situation as you, currently struggling to save any money for a deposit for when I move out of my current place and have quite bad social anxiety and depression as well. I would suggest something that for some reason has really helped me: online food shopping. I live with my partner and planning out what I’m going to eat and getting it all here once a week at the same time is so helpful to me. All the food is there for the week, I can look at different deals and change and adapt my plan if it gets too expensive. Click and collect if you don’t order enough for home delivery but still do it online and do it all at once. It cut our food spending by 75% because all the food is there and you don’t really have an excuse not to use it. Another thing I’d suggest is, if you really have to get a job, work at somewhere a bit rubbish like Domino’s as they have rush hours where shifts start after 6pm each night. But only if you absolutely have to. Your mental health is so much more important and it might be the case you can cut money down without having to get an extra job. I am so bad at self control so I actually have two bank accounts, my current account and my savings and I put everything except for what I want to budget for one week in my savings, and just take money out once a week when the week restarts. Then it’s like the money doesn’t exist in the first place. I’m sorry about your mental health issues and am glad you’re getting help <3
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Original post by charleyrosejones
Hi anon! I’ve been in a very similar situation as you, currently struggling to save any money for a deposit for when I move out of my current place and have quite bad social anxiety and depression as well. I would suggest something that for some reason has really helped me: online food shopping. I live with my partner and planning out what I’m going to eat and getting it all here once a week at the same time is so helpful to me. All the food is there for the week, I can look at different deals and change and adapt my plan if it gets too expensive. Click and collect if you don’t order enough for home delivery but still do it online and do it all at once. It cut our food spending by 75% because all the food is there and you don’t really have an excuse not to use it. Another thing I’d suggest is, if you really have to get a job, work at somewhere a bit rubbish like Domino’s as they have rush hours where shifts start after 6pm each night. But only if you absolutely have to. Your mental health is so much more important and it might be the case you can cut money down without having to get an extra job. I am so bad at self control so I actually have two bank accounts, my current account and my savings and I put everything except for what I want to budget for one week in my savings, and just take money out once a week when the week restarts. Then it’s like the money doesn’t exist in the first place. I’m sorry about your mental health issues and am glad you’re getting help <3


Thank you!
The click and collect idea is a really good one, however the closest store to me is a Tesco and it doesn't have click and collect as it's one of the smaller ones. it's a 40 min bus and £4 return journey to get to the closest ASDA & Tesco for me... Not even a big sainsburys or anything near where I live! The cheapest option I could find is £2 delivery from Iceland, for a minimum basket of £25. Do you think thats acceptable?
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Regarding the budgeting thing, I'm no expert, but I suggest maybe setting aside an amount of money to spend weekly on grocery, e.g. if you have £150 a week to spend then put aside idk £20-£30 for a week's worth of grocery

make a timetable of the days where you have more time to cook e.g. Wednesday + Thursday dinner and start controlling your takeaway habits from there by reducing the amount of times you order or eat out in a week

idk if you've done this already but it may also help if you save extra money a week that is only towards your students debts in another account to prevent you from touching it.

(i really hope it kinda helps)

:smile:

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