Martin SoA

martinmerlin

Until last month I was working nights as a social care worker for people with mental health needs and also had a secondary job as a cleaner, my net monthly income was:
£975.00. social care job.
£300.00. cleaning job.
My live in partner also chipped in with:
£320.00.

An opportunity came up to work days at the project, the basic money will remain more or less the same, but possible overtime and sleep-ins should boost it a bit, the downside was that in order to do days I would have to cancel my secondary part time cleaning job and loose the £300.00. However in the scheme of things I decided to apply for the day position, which I got and started two weeks ago. My main reason for swapping to days was the fact that it may be possible for me to get promoted to senior (more money).
I kep't putting off dealing with my finances, and thought will 'do it tomorrow', however my live in partner has decided to leave, it is amicable and she has agreed to stay for a few more weeks, so I still receive her £320.00. I fully realise that I am in the mire because I don't do the cleaning job any longer, and when she leaves I will be a further £320.00. light.
This situation has forced me I guess to make some attempt at sorting all this out. Here is my plan.....If you can call it that.

Go to the doctor to seek help in giving up smoking, been given help already at a local pharmacy, see them next Thursday.....................

Write down all I owe and post my SoA...........

Contact cab or similar to try and work something out.


Monthly wages £1100.00. estimated.
Partners £320.00. will cease after about 4-5 weeks from now.

Monthly outgoings:
Rent to Church housing trust £347.00.
Council Tax £95.00.
Nat West bank loan (£20000) £401.00. Includes £86 loan insurance.
Phone/broadband/calls £30.00.
TV License £11.50. Paid quarterly.
Washing machine insurance £5.00. Paid quarterly.
Gas/electricity £50.00. Paid quarterly.
Kays catalogue (£2150) £150.00.
CC1 (£3100) £91.00.
CC2 (waiting for statement) £40.00.
CC3 (waiting for statement) £68.00.
Redoute (£80.00) £5.00.
TOTAL £1288.00

Food £200.00.
Cigarettes £160.00. these have to go......

Many thanks in advance for any pointers, hopefully the cab can devise some sort of plan...................I hope......cheers

southernscouser

Martin, first of all welcome to MSE and the DFW board! :beer:

Well done for facing up to things. I guarantee we can help.

OK, you need to take the worst case scenario so we'll assume now that you don't have that £350 to rely on.

When your ex does leave your flat you will be entitled to single persons council tax. I think this is a 25% reduction.

When does that Natwest loan end? At £400 a month it can only be 6 months or so!

Is the washing machine insurance essential? Thats £60 a year! How often does it break down? How much is a new machine? If you only buy one every 5 years that would be £300 you would have spent in insurance!


Food for you could easily be cut to £100 a month or less. Check out the oldstyle board for more advice there!

Broken_hearted

£160 on cigarettes are you smoking them or eating them. We roll our own cheaper and slightly better for you. We spend £40 a month between us both. Good luck with trying to give up.:T

jessicamb

When your partner moves out you can get 25% off the council tax - single persons discount. £23.75

Is the loan right? £401 paying off 2k (or should it be 20k?) If its the lower could you speak to them about extending the payments until the end of the year or similar? Are you comfortable with cancelling the loan insurance - in many cases they dont seem to pay out anyway. £86

Washing Machine Insurance £5 - not a huge amount but I would question its worth?

Other than that - £200 on food for you and partner or just you? If you can you cut back - the OS board are really good with ideas and you could easily make it £100 for one methinks £100

Giving up the fags £160

I make that approx £370 saved a month

Can you take in a lodger to share the rent or move somewhere cheaper?

Prudent

The os boards have great tips on food and cheapeating. I spend around £90 per month on self and teen daughter and a further £25 on two cats.

lynzpower

Hi there
Sorry to hear of your break up, but great for keeping it amicable!

just to say, you will be entiteld to single persons council-tax allowance, do speak to your LA about this.

Also, is all the debt on te catalogues, yours or with your ex-partner? if she owes a bit too, make sure you make arrangements for how she will help pay anything off.

Also are any of your cards on 0% APR, read martins article on cart -tarting by clicking CCs on theleft of the screen at least what you pay will come off the balance

Any chance of getting a lodger in to help out on the income front for a while?

You can get phone broadband & calls from talk talk, someone on here is getting the lot for 22 a month- check it out

all the best
lynz

ps youhavnet included transport- do you need a car or travel card?

gallygirl

Not much to chip in, as experts got there 1st! however, gas & electric quite high? Are you paying off arrears? Try uswitch to get cheaper quotes, also I see you pay every 1/4, you will get cheaper rate if you pay monthly by DD. Assuming you're not in arrears they should accept you for this, wait till your next bill comes in then that can be added to annual estimate and you can spread the cost out.

Your bills should come down as you'll be on your own, also out a lot at work. make sure you switch all appliances off, not put on standby. have you got energy saving bulbs - look on the freebies board, there is usually a link on there. Reduce teh temp on whater heater, and lenght of time you have it on. Keep doing this till it is too cold - I was amazed at reduction, had been heating up just to put cold in so could use it . When autumn comes, again turn down gradually, by 1 degree until too cold, and shorten time is on for.

Good luck, you've come to the right place!

tawnyowls

southernscouser wrote:

Is the washing machine insurance essential? Thats £60 a year! How often does it break down? How much is a new machine? If you only buy one every 5 years that would be £300 you would have spent in insurance!

I so agree with you. Those warranties are a total rip-off, and the worst thing is, they're usually taken out by the very people who can least afford them because they're scared into thinking 'what if?' My last machine (a Bosch) is still going strong after 11 years, and my Hitachi lasted 14 years before that. Even the salespeople in stores admit when questioned that a machine should last about 7 years. Cancel immediately - even a Bosch is less than £350 and you can get cheaper ones for about £200.

Not sure I'd bother with the NatWest loan insurance either. You don't own a house, so if the worst happened and you couldn't work, they'd have to be satisfied to wait until you could pay them, unless you've got a very fancy car or something they could seize, otherwise it wouldn't be worth their while.

Might find that if you pay your utilities monthly rather than quarterly that you'll get a discount. Have you checked you're with the cheapest ones?

Need to give us info on the % interest on your credit card/catalogue debt. Catalogues usually v. expensive, so probably will be priority.

MCBIRNIE25

Monthly wages £1100.00. estimated.
Partners £320.00. will cease after about 4-5 weeks from now.

Monthly outgoings:
Rent to Church housing trust £347.00.
Council Tax £95.00.
Nat West bank loan (£20000) £401.00. Includes £86 loan insurance.
Phone/broadband/calls £30.00.
TV License £11.50. Paid quarterly.
Washing machine insurance £5.00. Paid quarterly.
Gas/electricity £50.00. Paid quarterly.
Kays catalogue (£2150) £150.00.
CC1 (£3100) £91.00.
CC2 (waiting for statement) £40.00.
CC3 (waiting for statement) £68.00.
Redoute (£80.00) £5.00.
TOTAL £1288.00

Food £200.00.
Cigarettes £160.00. these have to go......

Hi there, just a few things.
Loan Insurance, they are dire,not worth it. They very seldom pay up and really are a con, as is the washimg machine insurance.
You can spend less than that on food, and still eat well.
Check your gas and electricity via uswitch, and if you use uswitch through https://www.quidco.com, apparantly you get money back too.
I use talk talk phone broadband and line rental for 22 quid a month, again, through quidco you get 22 back, i never knew this when i signed up grrr.
Cigarettes defo have to go, your doctor or the nhs quit smoking helpline will offer free patches and stuff to help there.
Let us know the apr for your loan and other cards and we can help further.

MCBIRNIE25