I'm back again - this time I'm terrified

elle_gee

Hi.. I'm usually just a lurker on DFW, but just wanted to mention something you might need to look into..

The council tax issue - the way I understand it, you should be paying 75% of it. You get single persons discount as your OH is a student and therefore not required to pay, but you still need to pay. Is your name on the tenancy agreement? It doesn't matter that you are registered (as in on the electoral role?) at your parents house, if you on on the tenancy agreement for the flat you share with your OH you are clearly living there and required to pay CT.

That's just the way I understand it and it's just advice that you should look into it if I'm right or not. Thing with council tax is that there are big penalties for not paying it (I think we're talking big fines and prison!) and I'd hate for you to get caught out. It might only take a slip of the tongue and a nasty neighbour making a phone call to the council to report it and you'll have more bad stuff coming your way

Good luck with your DFW journey

chevalier

my comments are in blue

iwanttobreakfree wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1100
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1100 so is this right? For a managment position? Sorry but there is no way I would be putting up with a crook job for this low salary. Can you retrain to get better qualifications so that you can earn more? I appreciate you are doing two jobs, but what about survey sites, doing free clicks etc to up your income in a painless way. Also your OH could do this too.
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 212.5
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 10are these really correct?
Gas..................................... 10ditto
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 10.5
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 45 ask your provider to drop you to the lowest tariff you can
TV Licence.............................. 14 this is highter than normal is there a reason for this
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 0 you have to set a realistic budget for this. then you will know how much you need to save
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 60
Road tax................................ 3.5
Car Insurance........................... 56.26 are you driving a high performance car, under 25 or have points? If not you are bien ripped off on this and you need to check moneysupermarket.com to get a better quote. Then go via a cash back site like, quido, topcashback etc to get cash back on the new deal to.
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 9.99
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 18
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 459.75

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 6000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 6000

No Secured Debt
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Car Loan.......................6349.16...193.7.....5.9
Personal Loan..................7388.64...153.9.....5.9
Halifax Visa...................1316.74...32........25.97
Money lent from mum............359.63....50........0
Money lent from G..............400.......10........0
Orange mobile debt.............98.45.....20........0
O2 Mobile debt.................359.71....59.95.....0
Choice.........................132.......20........0
Littlewoods Catalogue..........333.77....60........0
Argos Card.....................578.95....17.36.....27.9
Barclaycard Visa...............740.11....22.2......19.9
Capital One Visa...............471.09....14.31.....30.3
HSBC Visa......................498.88....12.47.....16.9check out your credit score on experien (if you look at quidco.com you can get a free months trial just make sure you cancle before the end of the free month). Then see if you can't get a low life of balance card to put the really high percentage debt onto. You will save interest that way. BUT if you do this you HAVE TO close the cleared cards, so you aren't tempted to spend on them again.

Summary of Monthly Income, expense and surplus
Total monthly income: £ 1,100 are you sure you aren't entitled to any benefits?
Expenses (incl. secured debts): £ 459.75 you could maybe trim this back a bit by the suggestions above. If you are living with your parents then i would suggest that you tell them of your problems. Aks them to stop the rent for 6 months. that would at least enable you to pay off the most expensive debt, and free up some money for the other debts.
Available for debt repayments: £ 640.25
Unsecured debt repayments: £ 665.89 Surplus £ -25.64

Personal Balance Sheet SummaryAssets: £ 6,000

good luck
chev

iwanttobreakfree

Unfortunately I can't negotiate a better salary - I work for the NHS - its non-negotiable. I only plan to do it until I can get rid of my debt and build my fitness classes up - then I'll get something more part time - I hate office work.

The gas & elec is my half - they are combined. We pay them an amount each month and then when we get the bill we pay any extra - we aren't sure what our actual bill will be reguarly but we are upping it as we think it fits to cover it.

I am under 25 hence why insurance is so high. I'm 25 next year so I suppose thats one upside to getting older.

TV licence is apparently more expensive in first 6 months but it will then go down in price.

iwanttobreakfree

On the upside I did a class today - another £20 earnt!

I'm going to try take lunch into work at least 1 day this week - I figure if I start off small I wont notice the change over and it will seem easier. I just don't know what to take - I'm rubbish with lunches!

elle_gee

iwanttobreakfree wrote: »

On the upside I did a class today - another £20 earnt!

I'm going to try take lunch into work at least 1 day this week - I figure if I start off small I wont notice the change over and it will seem easier. I just don't know what to take - I'm rubbish with lunches!

Make two days worth of something - pasta, sandwiches, etc. Not much more effort but saves you doing it the next day

iwanttobreakfree

Mmmm I love pasta and my OH figured out how to cook garlic bread in the toaster - you can't have pasta without garlic bread though I'm not sure my colleagues will feel the same way lol!

elle_gee

I suppose if you have the flat pizza style garlic bread (rather than the french baguette type), you could cook it at home then warm it back up in a toastabag (£2.99 for two from most supermarkets - awesome things!)

iwanttobreakfree

Oooh I've never heard of a toastabag - what does it do? Are they reusable?

elle_gee

http://www.firebox.com/product/28/Toastabags - the pricey version

iwanttobreakfree

I really like the look of this - I think I'll have to invest. I'm intrigued how people are making scrambled egg with it lol!