Coping...

[fireheart]

So now things are starting to get a little bit out of hand. Mainly, concernng cash.

I try to avoid asking my parents for money unless it's an extreme emergency. Extreme emergencies mean pretty much transport and on occasion, money for a card for parents.

As far as bills go, this is what I have to pay NOW:

Dentist-$300.
Rego-$169
Gym-about $20 every fortnight. (that's direct debited)

These are my other expenses.

Bus tickets-$14.40 every week.
Petrol-about $20 every 2-3 weeks shared with sister. (since we only use it for lessons, $20 gets 1/3 of a tank)

I'm also supposed to be saving up for this:

Timing belt for my car-the quote I was given was around about $400-$500 for parts and labour.
Debt to parents for insurance-$274. (that's actually insurance plus transfer papers for my car)

Now here's the problem...

Lately I've been earning less than about $300 per week after tax. I'm supposed to be setting money aside in another account for the timing belt, but that's stopped since after a while, the bank stops it if you have insufficient funds in your account to take the money out. The past couple of weeks I've noticed I've only barely just gotten by after I've paid off various things.

The dentist is flexible thankfully. So that's one less issue. ($50 a week)
Rego is not so flexible. I'm doing this by setting aside half the rego one week, then half the other week and paying it. ($80, then $89)
Gym is not an issue. Normally I still have $20 in my account by then.
Bus tickets are normally not an issue as I tend to buy them on payday.

Really, the bigger issues at hand are my parents debt and the timing belt. Idon't know how the heck I can cope with this and it's making me worried that once I do move out for good, I'm unable to manage my own finances.

I can't ask for more hours at work since I'm at uni.
I can't ask for most government benefits, as I'm doing less than the minimum required for each semester. And I doubt that depression/anxiety would count towards a disability pension-plus I'm working.
I can't ask for help from my parents, as I try to be independent and not a "Pain" to them.

I need help. Big time.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

What is rego?

Drop the gym for now. It's not something you HAVE to do. I know it's a good thing to do, but you can't afford it right now.

Ask your parents if you can hold off paying them back for a while. Either that, or use some of the gym money to pay them. That should remove a little of the stress over that debt. It's hard to justify owing them money while you keep the gym fee. You cannot affort 40 bucks a month when you owe someone money.

Do you have a tv bill or do you eat out a lot? You can shave money off your spending there. You have expenses I bet you are nothing thinking about right now.

What kind of lessons are you taking that is costing you? Probably ought to hold off on that, too, if it's not something you need at the moment.

[MaggieTheCat]

I would ask your parents if you could hold off on paying them back for a few weeks, until you get the dentist bill paid off. Then you can put the $50/week that you have allocated toward the dentist now, toward your debt with them. If you just started paying the dentist debt this week, you only have 5 weeks to go till it's paid off, that's not that long really. Hopefully they will be understanding about it.

I think RK has a good point too about the gym, lessons, eating out, etc. Start really thinking about where all your money is going and until some of your bills are paid off, don't spend on anything extra.

[Rapscallion]

You can get a good workout without a gym. I used loads of energy by simply walking up and down a sodding steep hill.

Do you mind rice or pasta? You can shave money off your food bills by preparing all your own and going for simple, one-pot meals. I tend to make one large meal in a pot and get six or seven meals from it for my freezer. Fairly easy to make it plenty nutritious as well with greens, grains, and pulses. Low fat as well, if you do it right.

If you owe money, always keep in touch with the person who you owe money to and make sure they're aware of your desire to pay and current situation.

Rapscallion

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Rice, pasta, beans, chicken, and pork are cheap. You can make them go a long way, expecially if buy dried stuff in bulk and whole chickens and such.

Heck, I used to fish and wild glean. No lie. (I don't know what your situation is, but I can remember time when I'd catch a few fish, pull out a few lily pads, and have stuffed "cabbage" and fish for supper. All I had to pay for was rice.)

I've been in dire financial straits before, believe me . You can find places to shave off a few bucks here and there. Don't buy paper towels, use rags and wash them. Don't buy cleaner, buy a bottle of white vinegar and cut it with water to clean stuff with. Processed food is expensive, don't buy it. Use coupons for shopping. Shop at thrift stores for clothes. Frequent dollar stores for toiletries.

I don't like living like this, either, but it's doable.

Raps is right about the working out. Go to a garage sale or a thrift shop and splurge on some free weights. Free weights work better, anyways.

[Magpie]

Does your university have
a) a gym? I get free access to the campus gym, that will make quitting the $20/wk gym a lot less painful

b) a disability office? Talk to them about problems with depression/anxiety, they might be able to find you a bursary that you're eligable for because of those. You'd be amazed at how much they know about that no one ever claims.

c)counselling services? They might do financial counselling, it doesn't hurt to ask. And if you're paying for your own food I third the suggestion of beans and rice. If you are able, cook the beans from dried, otherwise even canned beans are cheap. Lentils take only 20 minutes to cook from dried, can't get much faster than that.

hillbillyhousewife.com has some "cheap" recipes (she includes meat in about half of them, so her definition of cheap is rather questionable, but she also has some really really money saving ones too).

[trailerparkmedic]

If you're in school, can you take out some student loans to live on? I'm not sure how it works where you live, but in the US, if you use private loans, you can take out as much as you want. Even subsidized loans will cover cost of living, like rent and food.

[draftermatt]

I can't give you any better advice than you've got above, but I hope I can quell some of your fears about living on your own.

That you're worried about your finances and are making plans to get things paid off shows that you can handle your money. However you can't get blood from a turnip, so trying to get by on limited hours and limited money don't help you.

Plus when you do move out you'll have hopefully finished Uni and have a higher paying job. And if not higher paying at least more hours.

[fireheart]

OK, to answer a few questions:

1) I'm still living at home with my parents.
2) Rego=car registration. Rego can go from anywhere to between 3-12 months depending on how much you're willing to pay.
3) It's $20 a FORTNIGHT, not $20 a week. The gym is also part of my university campus.

Things I get for free at the moment on campus: doctor/nurse access, counselling services, financial planner services.
Things I get discounted since I'm a student: medication, bus tickets, other entertainment tickets.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

A fortnight is two weeks, unless I'm mistaken. That shakes out to 40 dollars a month.

Hmmm...don't understand the car registration bit. Is that like car taxes?