Enough!

KittyC

1st September 2009 Edit: Parents changed their minds and had a major at me for the below so I had to drop this topic... Sigh.

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I doubt this is going to be particularly interesting to anybody but I'm going to plunge in headlong anyway as it's quite theraputic being able to chat away in anonymity


A little background
I'm 22 and living at home again following a failed suicide attempt (thankfully, if you want to be picky I was technically dead) a few years ago now but I'm still feeling the effects. I've got a schizophrenic mother, middle bro (he attempted suicide too incidentally but I got to him in time before he could do any permanent damage ) who is now in his first year at Uni, youngest bro with Aspergers ....and Dad got mugged yesterday. Sounds like a bad soap plot doesn't it? Got 2 1/2 moggies as well and they're the best adjusted of any of us


Was Dad's mugging that scared the pants off me and got me started on this. He had the mortgage payment on the time so I've been off to raid my savings earlier today and sell all that I've got to sell (stopping short of body, I'm not that desperate!) Did mean that after a couple of months of nagging he's finally got stuff together for a SOA :j

Family SOA according to Dad
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 685
Partners monthly income after tax....... 364
Benefits................................ 200
Other income............................ 20
Total monthly income.................... 1269
It's not included (as I asked him not to to make a point) but I've been putting forward 800 a month (200 as rent, 600 to help out) for the past 3 years. My salary was £11250 gross p.a. when I started and I thought it was good

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 660
Secured loan repayments................. 356
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 150
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 40
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 14
Telephone (land line)................... 35
Mobile phone............................ 10
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 40
Internet Services....................... 40
Groceries etc. ......................... 480
Clothing................................ 40
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 48
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 20
Buildings insurance..................... 16
Contents insurance...................... 6
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 20
Emergency fund.......................... 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 2107

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 200000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 200000

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 30079....(660)......7.59
Secured Debt.................. 8280.....(356)......16.5
Total secured debts........... 38359.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Lloyds loan....................2000......60........0
Total unsecured debts..........2000......60........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,269
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 2,107
Available for debt repayments........... -838
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 60
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -898

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 200,000
Total Secured debt...................... -38,359
Total Unsecured debt.................... -2,000
Net Assets.............................. 159,641

Created using the SOA calculator at makesenseofcards.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

But yeah, my first reaction was: :eek: :eek: :eek:

I'm not entirely convinced that all of that is accurate (think it may actually be worse as I'm pretty sure there's an overdraft to go in there judging by the rows, thin walls we've got here) but it's the best info I'm going to get for a while. First on my hit list is groceries/learning to cook ASAP!

Ok, maybe second on my hit list - gotta get OU stuff ready for my lunchbreak tomorrow!

oscar52

Im not rfeally on expert o n these SOA thingies, but im sure they will be along soon. Myself, I cant see that many savings to be made (short of maybe eating jam and bread for the next few years)

However, welcome aboard, Im sure the advice experts will be along soon.

KittyC

Thank you loaner, I'm hoping that the seeing good sensible advice that gets dished out here will help shock my parents into action. I'm pushing from my side, would be a whole lot simpler if I owned the above mess!

oscar52

loaner wrote: »

£40 for internet is a lot, and 480 for groceries is too. A "borrowed" emergency fund is pointless, I wouldn't include it in the SOA (I know it's part of the proforma).

It's good to see that you are helping him out.

Didnt actually notice those!!!

You should really get rid of the sky/cable (or at least reduce it) until its more affordable

KittyC

Thanks oscar52, I know it's not ideal but I'd love to be able to get a higher paying job so I can put more towards the household... not sure how well that ties in with parent's taking more care of their own finances though :rolleyes:

I've got to log off for the night, looking forward to seeing more suggestions of what to trim tomorrow


-Kitty

=^-^=

GeorgeUK

Council tax............................. 150
If paying over 10 months, can you ask to pay it over 12? (from January)

Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 40
Have a look at the price comparison sites to see if you aregetting a good deal (uswitch, moneysupermarket)

Telephone (land line)................... 35
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 40
Internet Services....................... 40
Can you combine these in a package?

Groceries etc. ......................... 480
Have a look at the old style board for meal plans. Have you moved down a brand (shops own)?

With the mortgage taking up half the money available, it's always going to be a struggle but with the secured loan taking up another quarter - that's just plain scary.

Being £900 short every month is going to be a huge struggle to deal with. Having the £800 extra is a huge boos, but still not quite enough.

We need to see if there are even tiny savings you can make. Little things like turning off electrical equiptment instead of leaving it on standby, changing to energy saving lightbulbs, turning down the thermostat even one or two degrees.

Is the creditcard really at 0% or did you not know the APR for it? If it isn't at 0%, is it possible to get a new card that you don't spend on with a 0% promotional offer for balance transfers?

Is it possible to get a 2nd job? Looking at the figures, if you have 2107 right now, even without the payments to the creditcard and secured loan - assume these get paid off, you are still left with about £400 les than required.

You need to tackle the debts with the highest interest rate first so that more of your money goes towards the actual debt instead of just paying off the interest.

Hopefully others will have more suggestions.

Jenna

Hey Kitty,

Didn't want to just read and run, glad you and your brother are still around

It's late so will reply properly when I can, but just wondering, are these your finances or your parents? If your parents finances, then are they fully on board with this - I only ask as it's difficult enough making cutbacks when it's your own targets/goals to be DF, but if they haven't had their own LBM about money, it might even hurt your relationship with them as they will see you as "nagging" them! (do you live at home by the way?)

OK sorry for the 20 questions lol take care xx

KittyC

I've church in a moment so anything I don't answer I'll address when I get back

These are my parent's finances, I'm debt-free but after getting a truer picture of things I'm looking to see where I can cut mine back to help out more. I was working under the illusion that I was putting forward £100 more than they needed each month so they could invest it as naturally I won't be charging any interest on what I've lent them (sounds silly looking back at it, I've only fairly recently started to wake up to how things really work).

Dad's had a bit of a LBM but his reaction at the moment is "it's hopeless, what's the point even trying" but knowing him I don't think it will be long until he gets past that. Mum refuses to acknowlege there's a problem. I do most of the cleaning here as it is so can start swapping supplies over to cheaper alternatives (have been browsing the OS board ) and I'm hoping to win her over by cooking up some of the cheaper recipes from there (if I lay it on to quickly will just descend in to a slanging match).

Time's up, more answers later! -K

KittyC

Back and with a cup of tea into the bargain

Responses working from the top down –

Will mention about the emergency fund. The mortgage figures are correct, apparently it's something Dad and Northern Rock concocted following arrears and a court case. Council tax is currently paid over 10 months, 12 months sounds a bit more manageable. Have asked Dad to look at uswitch and moneysupermarket but he tells me that we've just switched to British Gas for both.

I'm browsing Sainsbury's website (nearest supermarket to us that doesn't require a train journey) and didn't realise that they had quite so much in their Basics range! Experiments to follow methinks Energy saving light bulbs also on the shopping list. The thermostat I will tweak as soon as I discover where in the house it lives

What Dad has listed as Lloyds loan isn't a credit card but a CCJ (not entirely sure what that is so will be looking up CCJs after I've posted this). Neither Mum nor Dad own a credit card.

As for a second job, I'm pretty sure Mum could get one but she won't Dad works inconsistent shifts but has his CV out there (apparently 60 year old non-drivers with a MA in Archaeology aren't much in demand). I won't have time for an additional job until this school term is over as I'm a youth worker (unpaid) when I'm not selling my soul to the corporate bogeyman. This may be a bit unrealistic but I'd love to be able to recruit in another youth worker for the next term as I'd hate to leave them in the lurch... and being selfish I want to leave that as a last resort as I'll really miss helping out the kids

Good point about the interest, left to myself I probably would have gone for the smallest amount first. Oh, and I do live at home.

Hope I haven't bored you all to tears with that lot....

GeorgeUK

CCJ - County Court Judgement. The court will have set an amount that must be paid.

As the loan is secured against the property, that too is a priority debt. So there is really not much you can look at to reduce this through card transfers.

Has he got his CV on the online sites such as monster.com?
Any chance of tutoring?

~Beanie~

I think you or your dad should look a bit more closely at the mortgage figures. My mortgage is £5K more than yours but I pay £260 per month - a difference of £400 :eek:

I apreciate that there may be arrears factored into this but is this incresed payment for the remainder of the mortgage? How much were the actual arrears for? It seems very high to me.