So so !!!!ed off (with SOA)

slimey

Okay, so I've still not done my SOA, but this pay month (15th to 15th) I've really tried to cut back on non essential stuff. I've got next to no headroom on my credit cards, so I'm having to manage without them as much as possible.

So far, on the first day of the month we had a family day out to London, which I reckon set us back just over £100. Then my wife's car broke down, and needed new starter motor and ignition switch - £250 for the repair. As a result, I'm only half way through the month, and I've pretty much run out of money. We can probably struggle by for food until the end of the month, but I need to get petrol to be able to drive to work (40 miles each way!). Hopefully I've got enough spare on the credit card to struggle through.

I've also got a work trip to St Lucia next week - good in some repects because it'll save a week's petrol (and I can claim for the mileage to the airport), but I'll need to be able to pay for incidentals while I'm out there - taxis, etc - but I have no idea where that money's going to come from. I spoke to work today to make sure they could pre-pay the hotel, and they said they'd try (assuming their credit card
wasn't at its limit!).

Anyway, to top it all off, one of my money saving attempts was switching gas+electricity supplier - a reduction in the monthly spend, plus cashback through quidco. Today, I've had my bill through from existing supplier. As this bill covers winter, I've ended up with a balance of £720 owing to them :mad::mad::mad: - unless I can find that from somewhere, that'll completely scupper my plans to change supplier. They've also told me that they're increasing my direct debit for gas from £100/month to £177/month :mad:. The frustrating thing is that I only increased the payment from £50 to £100 in December based on their calculation of what I'd need to pay.

***ARGH*** I thought I was doing so well at trying to start sorting stuff out, and I feel like I'm getting no-where because I keep being thrown these extra big bills.

So so so so !!!!ed off right now.

epsilondraconis

Stay positive - it'll be a good month next month...

HairyHandofDartmoor

Hi slimey .

Well I can understand why you might be fed up just now. There are a lot of issues in you email to address, but what struck me all of a heap was your gas bill and new payments:eek:.

Do you have your heating on volcano setting all day and all night? Do you have an enormous house? Are you heating the whole street?

I don't mean to be fascetious but we need to understand why this bill is so high. Could it be a mistake? It appears to me that your current power company have been estimating your bills all over the winter. It is always best to give them your reading o the meter if no meter reader has called. This way it stops massive bills piling up.

You really need to post your statement of affairs before we can help you properly. I'm sure that we can help you, but we will need a lot more information first .

Sunshine12

If you cant afford to pay for things when you away on business cant you just explain to your employer what the situation is and tell them they will need to pay rather than you claiming it back. I very much doubt any company will make you go all the way to St. Lucia on business knowing that you might not be able to afford stuff as that will only be detrimental to the business as your mind wont be on work but worrying about how you going to afford to pay for incidentals until you claim it back. Cant you get a company credit card? I know it might not be as simple as that but if you only just breaking even because you not having to pay petrol then surely they cant expect you to fork out for a business trip?? They must realise they not paying you a very high salary yet expecting you to pay the outgoings that you may have on business trips...??

sheba

So...

can't magic a way to solve all these little(?) annoyances, (would that I could!!!!) but just thought I'd pop in and commiserate with you- it's always the way that once you start to make a concerted effort to get straight life does its doody on you!

But hey to get some perspective- it's only money and as such is a (realitively) minor thing to worry about- lifes about people and expieriences, and as long as the people you love are okay and your expierience of the world is that it is safe warm etc- alls good.

But, again, commiserations- it can seem like trying to climb Everest while attached by a bungee cord to base camp- and said cord wants to flick you back on your !!! to good old blighty!!! so if it helps to yell then yell...1,2,3 arrrrghhhhh!!!! now isn't that better (?!)

Best wishes

slimey

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

Do you have your heating on volcano setting all day and all night? Do you have an enormous house? Are you heating the whole street?

Um, Yes, Yes, and hopefully not :rotfl:

We've had the heating on constant over the winter. Just this week I've got round to switching it back to timed (couple of hours in the morning and evening).

We've got a fairly large house (5 bedroom over 3 levels), although it's new (about 5 years old), so should be fairly well insulated / energy efficient.

I don't mean to be fascetious but we need to understand why this bill is so high. Could it be a mistake? It appears to me that your current power company have been estimating your bills all over the winter. It is always best to give them your reading o the meter if no meter reader has called. This way it stops massive bills piling up.

Our meters are outside, so we never see when the meter reader comes round. To be honest, I've never checked that the reading is accurate - I've just trusted it when they've said they've read it. I'll go outside in a bit and check the readings, just to make sure they're reading the right meter!

I actually dug out the last 18 months of gas bills when I was looking at switching supplier:

10/10/07 - 15/01/08: £209.31 (based on estimate)
16/01/08 - 09/04/08: £507.83 (based on estimate)
10/04/08 - 20/10/08: £415.89
21/10/08 - 21/04/09: £1097.88

You really need to post your statement of affairs before we can help you properly. I'm sure that we can help you, but we will need a lot more information first .

I'll do one - I promise...

Thanks!

slimey

Sunshine12 wrote: »

If you cant afford to pay for things when you away on business cant you just explain to your employer what the situation is and tell them they will need to pay rather than you claiming it back.

I should be able to do this with most costs - flight is paid for by them, I'll get them to pay for airport parking and hotel. It's more the on-the-ground things like taxi from the airport that I'm most worried about. With luck I should be able to persuade the company I'm visiting to buy me dinner in the evenings

Cant you get a company credit card?

They don't issue them to anyone in the company - only the finance team have them, for buying stuff online.

They must realise they not paying you a very high salary yet expecting you to pay the outgoings that you may have on business trips...??

Ah, but they do pay me a good salary (~75k). I just don't have any spare money. Maybe I need to do the SOA to work out why not.

slimey

Okay - here's a first pass at an SOA. I've only included the fixed expenses. Some of the numbers (e.g. petrol, groceries) are educated guesses - I'm trying to keep a spending diary (but not too great at it)

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 4800
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 4800

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 553
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 195
Electricity............................. 120
Gas..................................... 100 (Due to go up to 177 next month)
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 67
Telephone (land line)................... 25
Mobile phone............................ 28
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 22
Internet Services....................... 20
Groceries etc. ......................... 450
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 400
Road tax................................ 30
Car Insurance........................... 58
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 486 (School fees - will end in August)
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 32
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 146
Other insurance......................... 31
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2775


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 265000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 267000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 265000...(553)......2.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 265000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
HSBC Loan......................10128.....596.......0
Egg Credit card................7787......237.......26.9
HSBC Credit Card...............11496.....281.......21.9
HSBC Overdraft.................2500......0.........0
Barclaycard....................12300.....264.......14.9
Total unsecured debts..........44211.....1378......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,800
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,775
Available for debt repayments........... 2,025
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 1,378
Amount left after debt repayments....... 647

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 267,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -265,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -44,211
Net Assets.............................. -42,211

slimey

Well, one benefit of doing the SOA is that it forced me to login to Internet Banking. The situation isn't quite as bad as I first thought (I'm not yet at my overdraft limit :j), but with a couple of credit card payments to come out before the end of the month it'll be tight. Must remember to claim expenses at work - I reckon they must owe me about £100...

Did the snowball calculation while I was doing the SOA. If I don't do anything to increase debt repayments, I'll be debt free by summer 2012 (assuming I can stop adding to the debt).

Also, checked the gas meter - the meter reading is correct :eek:

slimey

Tustastic: Thanks!

I know we're spending money on clothes, etc - but that's hard to budget for. My wife asked me this evening if she could spend £16 on a 2nd hand Boden top+jeans set for my daughter - I suggested not.

I know the life assurance is high - it was taken out as cover on my life to cover the mortgage payment (which was £1100 at the time), and also school fees. We should probably re-do this now that mortgage payments are much lower (here's hoping interest rates don't shoot back up too quickly!), and we'll not be paying school fees after this summer.

This month we actually did try to plan meals and shop from a list - spent £270 in Asda at the start of the month, which was supposed to be for 2 weeks. We'll probably stretch it to 3, and have to buy top-ups towards the end of the month.

lifesuckssometimes

We've got a fairly large house (5 bedroom over 3 levels),

Downsize.. 5 bed house means higher fuel bills and mortgage repayments