What's the point???

rluc

Hi Tasha,
I am now a self employed electrician. I did have a job but retrained to try and be closer to home to keep my ex-wife happy (didn't work!) Had been going okay but obviously at the moment not so well. So trying to look at getting back into my previous career ( service engineer) Thinking about going worldwide as pay better but would still like to do the whole kids and family thing one day and not good job to be in when starting all that although don't feel good about trying to meet someone in my current financial mess!!

Fire_Fox

Don't be so down on yourself. All the best ladies would be very impressed by a man who is go-getting and honest enough to work on sorting out his money situation! :money:

Mr. Fire Fox got himself into trouble many years back but had savings by the time I met him. I did not know this right away of course, but the fact that he had sorted himself out from nothing (he got evicted) impressed me loads. Go to one of the DFW meet-ups - you never know!

rluc

Thanks to all. Will look at doing my SOA over the next few days.Don't know whether it will make me feel better or worse to see it all written down!!

rluc

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2000
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2000
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 350
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 35
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 320
Road tax................................ 15
Car Insurance........................... 39
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
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......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25
Haircuts................................ 6
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 40
Emergency fund.......................... 0
electrical registration................. 35
accountant.............................. 70
public liability insurance.............. 10
Advertising............................. 48
Total monthly expenses.................. 1283

Assets
Cash.................................... 150
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 1000
Car(s).................................. 1800
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 2950

No Secured Debt
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
LLoyds TSB CC..................10670.....216.......5.9
Barclays CC....................8590......200.......4.9
MBNA CC........................3558......88........0
Total unsecured debts..........22818.....504.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,000
Expenses (including secured debts)...... 1,283
Available for debt repayments........... 717
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 504
Amount left after debt repayments....... 213
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 2,950
Total Secured debt...................... -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -22,818
Net Assets.............................. -19,868
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.
I think I have done it all correctly have had to try and average out my earnings but at the moment that is about right. Things were looking really quiet on the work front but have picked up the possibility of a couple of new jobs I am going to look at tonight so fingers crossed. Also going to look seriously at going back to being employed. Have signed up for an ebay account and generally trying to stay positive!!!

TurnaroundSue

Hi Rluc and welcome to the boards. Just a few things that stand out for me - You have nothing down for council tax, electricity, gas and water rates. Your mobile phone seems a bit high - could you phone and see if you can get a downgrade? You groceries are way too high if that is for only yourself. Go over to the OS board and see how you can reduce it by more than half.

Also I notice that you have some of your business expenses coming out of your personal expenditure. I am self employed too and all my business expenses come from my business account BEFORE I pay myself a wage. That way it keeps it nice and tidy for when you do your tax return and you also will free up extra money that you should be paying from your business account.

I hope that work will pick up for you again - but it could be worth trying some leafleting as OP has already mentioned. If you have no work on anyway, at least you are doing something productive and it might just generate some more work for you.

Good luck and keep posting

TurnaroundSue

ps: thought just occurred to me as to whether you need an accountant at all. If your business is quite straight forward then it is fairly easy to do your own tax return on line. I have done mine for the last 3 years and if I have any problems, I ring up the tax people (who are friendly by the way) and ask their advice. Admittedly, they tell it as it is and can't 'help' you with any 'extras' you could claim for, but is your accountant really saving you the £70 pm that it is costing you to have him?

Just a thought, but not sure how much this helps, if any?

Caroline73_2

rluc wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2000
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2000
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 350
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0 ?anything
Gas..................................... 0anything?
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0 anything
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 35 get a lower tarriff
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200 I spend this on a family of 4!
Clothing................................ 0 allocated something here
Petrol/diesel........................... 320 walk more! If it is business driving then allocate it from business not household budget
Road tax................................ 15
Car Insurance........................... 39 shop around
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
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......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25 if you are single with no kids 300 per year seems a lot
Haircuts................................ 6
Entertainment........................... 50 cut back a bit
Holiday................................. 40 can you afford a holiday?
Emergency fund.......................... 0
electrical registration................. 35 business budget
accountant.............................. 70 business budget (but see if you need it anyway)
public liability insurance.............. 10 business budget
Advertising............................. 48 Business budget
Total monthly expenses.................. 1283

Assets
Cash.................................... 150
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 1000
Car(s).................................. 1800
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 2950

No Secured Debt
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
LLoyds TSB CC..................10670.....216.......5.9
Barclays CC....................8590......200.......4.9
MBNA CC........................3558......88........0
Total unsecured debts..........22818.....504.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,000
Expenses (including secured debts)...... 1,283
Available for debt repayments........... 717
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 504
Amount left after debt repayments....... 213
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 2,950
Total Secured debt...................... -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -22,818
Net Assets.............................. -19,868
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.
I think I have done it all correctly have had to try and average out my earnings but at the moment that is about right. Things were looking really quiet on the work front but have picked up the possibility of a couple of new jobs I am going to look at tonight so fingers crossed. Also going to look seriously at going back to being employed. Have signed up for an ebay account and generally trying to stay positive!!!

I hope this helps a little I'm fairly new to this, but you MUST keep business and household separate. I have my own small business and find that life is much easier since I started doing that.

Damita

Welcome, and well done for paying of 7k..

Your food bill is very high for just you, I pay £120 for two adults and two kittens and I still think that is high.

Also you need to cut down on the holiday and entertainment.

Also are you on PAYG? They have contracts for £10 on 02..

Hope that helps

MrsPorridge

Definitely get over to the old style boards for some tips and ideas on meal planning and groceries. I pay around £150 per month for everything, grocery, meat, fruit, cleaning stuff and thats for 2 adults and 1 child. We eat much better now than we did before.

Caroline73_2

I meant to add that you have loads of ways of upping your 'spare' cash at the moment so good luck!