Hit me with your best advice (please!)

beautiful_ravens

Thanks, all!

You know, I got into debt last winter, because OH couldnt cover the rent, so I paid £150 towards it one month, and £100 the next month by using my overdraft, and its just got worse and worse, because he never paid it back!!!
I was breaking even myself at the time, but once I was in the red, I was stuck and just ignored it, carried on using the overdraft...

We have always kept our finances seperate - its because of 1)the child maintenance, and 2)a problem my OH had with his ex-partner when they had 'joint' money. Dont mean to be difficult, tis just the way we do things.
In the summer we do use more of his money, usually to pay off the things I havent paid during the winter. He is only breaking even in winter by also using some savings he has, which he also did last year :S
His monthly average wage would be £275 pcm, but we cant budget with that amount in the winter, because we dont have it. It can be less than £200 in winter, like this year, he's had lots of days off, finished early etc simply because theres no jobs to do.

Thanks for the tips Jesthar. I get charged for the overdraft according to how far into it I am - so at 2k its £25 a month, but at 1k the charge was alot less.

The electric Im paying for is last years usage which I owe + the amount I use now; infact I did it wrong, cos they want me to pay £123 pcm, but have agreed to let me pay £110 for a few months on the condition that Im sorting something out...
I have just started turning off the water heater during the day, turning lights and TVs off, switches at the wall etc.
We dont have double glazing, but Im 99% sure the landlords -as good as they are- are not going to pay for that. The house is detatched, so very chilly, & we are in a valley which gets colder than surrounding areas!!
Yes we are running electric heaters sometimes, and have a woodburner on aswell when really cold.

Im trying to get my shopping bill down, but quite hard with 5 people to buy for, my OH complains about everything I make him to eat. I have been on the OS board, yep! Some great ideas there

Whats not mentioned above is the amount I was using on ebay/paypal, which Ive stopped now xmas is done.

I have just cancelled 2 insurance policies, accidental death type things, which will free up £7.11 pcm.

The petrol usage on my list is a maximum of £14 a week (I dont always use it all), which I need to get my DD to preschool, and the trip to get the next lot of petrol. I cant do without the car, we live in a rural area. I recently started cutting down my trips out, thats how I got it down to £14, lol...
I do the shopping online, which means I dont have to drive, but forfeit £4.50 of my food budget on the delivery charge - I guess driving may be cheaper.....? Its 7-8 miles...

Ok,

The mobile phone amount - A monthly average!! We have no signal here, so I hardly ever top up, or even get to use it!

To do Xmas/birthdays, I sold stuff on ebay, and bought presents on ebay with the money I made as I made it. I also found £40 and spent it on xmas food, got some free pheasants for the dinner, and made alot of presents, but youre right, I may have spent -from my account- about £50 on xmas, and birthday pressies were either ebay overspending or going in the trolley as part of the food money, which used to be £80 a week.

The stuff in the list is a confused amalgamation of my new and old spending ways, as Ive only just started.

Ames

I think there are codes somewhere on here to get free shopping delivery, I've no idea where they are though!

beautiful_ravens

Worth mentioning that we owe £2700 to tax credits as they overpaid us £3000 and we spent it (about 5 years ago) Now I pay back £15 a month, it will take a long time, but at least theres no interest on it.

Jacks_xxx

Hiya hon,

Forgive me if I cause offence - It's not my intention I promise.

But from where I'm standing your household finances don't look as if they are being managed fairly.

When he earns less you get yourself into debt helping him out with his designated bills...but no mention of him helping you with yours when his earnings go up.

You can keep the money itself totally separate but share the responsibility for your household finances together.

From what I can see some of your OHs earnings need to be put aside at the busy times to prepare for the quiet ones, and he needs to pay you back the money he borrowed from you.

Fair dos, If he wants to keep things separate then he needs to be able to pay his designated bills all year round without holding his hand out to you - and he needs to give you your money back so that you can start paying down that overdraft.

He can't have it both ways sweetie, can he?

Love Jacks xxx

beautiful_ravens

Lol - :rotfl: hi, no Im not offended at all....last year he bought my car on his credit card for £1,400, then paid it off when he got his 10 year money spinner money:o ...so, I make it sound unfair, but I cant ask him to cover my stuff when he got me a car, can I? We do help each other out from time to time, but at the moment there's just thin air everywhere! Both his parents and my mum have recently helped us out aswell, so...

I DO have a shed full of junk though, and was thinking 'garage sale'

I am planning to get a little job doing care in the community, or putting an 'odd job lady' ad in our local paper. I just cant earn too much or I might lose some child tax credits, and cant work full time cos of the little one still at home.

The trouble is that last year I just recklessly spent my overdraft without thinking until I got near the limit. Silly ME!

beautiful_ravens

OK here is a rough guesstimate of his ins/outs - Im not really sure how much the car and bike costs him, in insurance/tax etc. Hes not ere at the mo so I cant ask:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 3
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 800
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 800
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 0
Rent.................................... 650
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 145
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 4
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 0
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 95
Road tax................................ 10.05
Car Insurance........................... 20
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20.5
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 140
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 4
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1088.55

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 2000

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 800
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,088.55
Available for debt repayments........... -288.55
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount short for making debt repayments. -288.55
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 2,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 2,000
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

Of couse, some of the things like car tax and MOT only come around once or twice a year, not really every month.

Jesthar

beautiful_ravens wrote: »

Thanks for the tips Jesthar. I get charged for the overdraft according to how far into it I am - so at 2k its £25 a month, but at 1k the charge was alot less.
So, the more you reduce your overdraft, the more you will be ABLE to reduce your overdraft...

The electric Im paying for is last years usage which I owe + the amount I use now; infact I did it wrong, cos they want me to pay £123 pcm, but have agreed to let me pay £110 for a few months on the condition that Im sorting something out...
I have just started turning off the water heater during the day, turning lights and TVs off, switches at the wall etc.
We dont have double glazing, but Im 99% sure the landlords -as good as they are- are not going to pay for that. The house is detatched, so very chilly, & we are in a valley which gets colder than surrounding areas!!
Yes we are running electric heaters sometimes, and have a woodburner on aswell when really cold.
Good start! Particularly turning off the water heater, those things GUZZLE energy. I have a gas boiler rather than an immersion heater, but it's a 20yo system so it has a hot water cylinder rather than on demand heating. I give it a half hour burst morning and night, that's more than enough to keep the tank hot. Cutting your electricity and oil use would make a big difference to your finances.

On that topic, how is your general insulation - in particular, is your loft insulated? It's amazing the difference it makes, even just a single layer of budget fibreglass (man, I hate the stuff!) should keep a lot of heat from escaping. If you don't have that, would the landlords be up for that?

Thick curtains are a great help, or using spare blankets as extra curtains (done that!), as is stopping as many draughts as you can (I've used clingfilm to do this in the past!) And I know some enterprising people on here add a layer or two of bubblewrap to single glazed windows and other cold areas, and find it really helps. There's lots of great ideas in this thread:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=15321163&highlight=bubblewrap+house#post15321163

Im trying to get my shopping bill down, but quite hard with 5 people to buy for, my OH complains about everything I make him to eat. I have been on the OS board, yep! Some great ideas there
Indeed - I love my slowcooker! So easy to bulk everything out (my bolognaise sauce costs about 75p for a big helping), and so cheap to run compared with a normal oven.

Whats not mentioned above is the amount I was using on ebay/paypal, which Ive stopped now xmas is done.

I have just cancelled 2 insurance policies, accidental death type things, which will free up £7.11 pcm.

The petrol usage on my list is a maximum of £14 a week (I dont always use it all), which I need to get my DD to preschool, and the trip to get the next lot of petrol. I cant do without the car, we live in a rural area. I recently started cutting down my trips out, thats how I got it down to £14, lol...
I do the shopping online, which means I dont have to drive, but forfeit £4.50 of my food budget on the delivery charge - I guess driving may be cheaper.....? Its 7-8 miles...
Well, that is going to depend - how often do you shop? If it's once every couple of weeks/once a month (freezing things like milk, bread etc.) then that's not so bad, if it's every week the delivery charges will add up. Is it the same charge no matter how much you spend (I've never shopped online)? The petrol use would be lower than the £4.50, I suspect, but you do also save the time of going shopping! Oh, and do you do your online shopping through a cashback site? You can claw a little money back that way!

Going to the supermarket is a double edged sword - you can pick up some great bargains in the reduced section, particularly meat and veg (I recently got 1.5 kilos of carrots for 20p), if you go at the right time, but you have to be very careful not to overspend or impulse buy.

Looking at your OHs SOA, that is the 'winter earnings' version, right? He really needs to be putting money aside in the summer, looking at that, as he can barely cover the rent and council tax in winter. I think you need to get together and have a joint look at your finances, as you're going to need a clear picture of the situation you are in...

In the meantime, why not have a look at the 'Up Your Income' section of the boards? I only do daily free cashback from cashback sites and some paid survey sites (plus some online cashback shopping and free trials which pay cashback), but I already have getting on for £100 accumulated which will be paid out when I reach various thresholds over the next few months. And there are plenty of other income bossting things you can do, too.

Ames

If your OH earns less in winter then presumably he does less hours? So could he get a part time job as well, say stacking shelves or something?

beautiful_ravens

Ames wrote: »

If your OH earns less in winter then presumably he does less hours? So could he get a part time job as well, say stacking shelves or something?

yes of course youre right - we have suggested this to him, its a tricky one because sometimes they have a job on, sometimes nothing, or just yard work... its not a very predictable schedule - They put up marquees. Also, he goes away every 3 weeks to see his son, so cant definately work weekends. We suggested gardening to him, but he doesnt want the hassle of self-employed paperwork. He is very difficult - when at home he mostly sleeps, I think maybe he has depression, and hes a pessimist who is all but impossible to motivate....Not making excuses here, but this is what I live with.

Anyway - when we moved in, december 2007, the plan was that I would cover the council tax (he didnt want to move house, the rent and C.Tax here is more than our old house) which I did for a while but, along came the overdraft. So its a sort of 'my fault' thing, and I will have to sort it out if I want to continue living here, which I do.

bunny999

What first attracted you to this bundle of laughs ? Why are you still together ?