Help needed

tjak

Having posted here before, and been struggling being self employed, I am taking the bull by the horns and applying for a job.
I am hoping to hear first week of April, and would probably start beginning of May. I will have a basic salary plus commission, but need help in managing my budget, as my expenditure is always going to be higher than the basic salary.

SOA as follows:
Cahoot -£300.00 (flexi loan 6.9%)
College fees -£161.87 (only 2 more payments)
Mortgage -£719.67
Nursery -£527.50
Mobile -£21.34
Water -£44.17 (meter to be installed any day
Council Tax arrears -£110.00
Laser eye treatment -£90.00
Council Tax -£96.00
Gas/Elec -£89.00
TV License -£10.49
Phone/TV/Broadband -£68.44
Car Insurance -£24.65
Petrol -£130.00
Life Ins -£49.75
Life Ins -£60.75
House Ins -£31.43
A&L Loan -£568.71
Food -£250 (3 of us, plus 2 dogs)
Total -£3,361.77

Outstanding Debts
Amount Interest Monthly payment
A&L £15,132.00 6.70% £568.72
Cahoot £14,521.00 6.90% £300.00
College £323.74 0.00% £161.87
CTax Arrears £879.00 0% £110.00
Eye treatment £630.00 0% £90.00 last one 1/8

Total £31,485.74 £1,230.59

With commissions/car allowance, I should be able to take home around £2880, so any advice would be welcome.

Thanks

lynzpower

I dont want to be the doom monger here, but I wonder whether the timings right to start thinking about shuffling and re-jigging until you have the contract in your hand. If you dont get the job, then it may add to the disappointment.


Best of luck with the job though, whats it for etc?
Lynz x


Sorry, completely misunderstood, I thought youd been here before and posted your previous SOA. Sorry... :rolleyes:

indesisiv

The first thing that stands out for me is the life insurance.

Life Ins -£49.75
Life Ins -£60.75

These seem awfully high. Can you swich them?

serena

Hi and welcome,

Well done for posting your SOA.

I am not an expert, but lots of them around on this forum who will be here soon to help out.

Just with a quick glance, you are short of £481.77 a month, and will be increasing the debt by that much every month.

I notice that child benefit and child tax credits are not included in your income. Can you get nursery/childcare vouchers?

The gas and electricity seems high, and the TV/phone/broadband could alsdo be cut down I should think.

kar

Hiya, I've only had time for a quick look but a couple of things i've noticed.

Your Gas/Elec bill sounds excessive. Have you tried searching for a better deal. Read this article by martin:

Martins Time to switch article

Maybe you can make some savings there.

Mobile phone bill is again a lot have you thought about changing to PAYG and limiting calls. Remeber before you make a call to think do i need to make this call now or can it wait till i'm home and can use the home phone.

In a similar light to gas/elec check that you are on the best deal for TV/Phone/Internet etc.

Also food bill even for 3 and dogs that sounds a lot. Try looking on the Old Style board for help reducing this. Make a meu plan and work out what food you need and don't by all those extras that seem to appear.

On the bright side both you college fees and laser surgery payments will stop fairly soon which will give you a little more leeway

tjak

I switched gas/elec a while back, and we are on a capped payment. I recently reduced the monthly cost by £21 by reading meters.
Mobile is on a contract but now on the lowest tarriff, tied in until June.
I thought I was doing ok with food expenditure, as we get a veg box delivered each week (taking week about with a large and small box) and then once a month stock up at supermarket. We are all vegetarian, and cook properly every night. I got a slow cooker a month ago (bday present) and this keeps us away from takeaways.
We use washable nappies (DS is 2) and always have.

I will get nursery vouchers from new employer, but nothing at present as I am self employed.

TV costs could be reduced ... but that is OH's only luxury.

Thanks for help so far

lynzpower

oK, well if you only have 2 payments left for your college fees, you can use that 161 per month to throw at your highest APR debt, or in fact your council tax arrears. Speaking from experience you dont want to get the collections involved with them, at £40 a letter. plus the rest!

Have a look at the CIS among others, your buildings life and contents seem very high indeed. Im with them and pay 50 quid the lot per month.

Gas & electric is very high. Check you are on the cheapest provider and do all the "green things" you can, insulate your roof & boiler, turn all lights off your not using, dont leave anything on standby. Cut out tumble diryer use- they use loads of lecky!

Are you really paying 2 lots of life cover? Is your OH working then? What are they contributing?

527 a month for nursery?!? God is that what it costs? :eek: Someone suggested on here using a child minder instead, as they are cheaper. Check out if you are in a sure start area, there may be something attached to that you could use for part of those costs?

all the very best of luck with your job, keeping them crossed for you x

tjak

embarrassed to admit, but I work in financial advice ....

our life cover included critical illness and we would not be able to replace it with a cheaper policy which included it.

I will look into house ins. though

Thanks

tyllwyd

Does your last eye payment go out in August (or is in January 2008)?

I guess that you have looked at your mortgage and got the best rate you can?

Your monthly payment on your Cahoot loan is much cheaper than for A&L although the amount borrowed and interest rates look similar - is it because the term is different?

tjak

My last payment for eye treatment is 1st August

I had thought about extending the term of the A&L loan in order to reduce the payment, and then overpaying when I can.

CLAPTON

does your OH work?