Sinking downwards fast

cally6008

Rather cross with myself, circumstances and money. I did really well for 14 months and had no bank charges, cards paid on time and things were going great.

They are now heading downwards fast and I'm at a loss what I can physically do to start pulling things back up again.

I think the main hit was back in November 2009 when CSA started taking £364 off my OH wages, which meant he was only bringing home £535 and could only give me £300 a month towards rent and bills (and many times towards end of month he asks for money for cigs)

Then we had Xmas to pay for.

Another big hit was my work stopped paying overtime as wages, in February 2010, and you now get time-back-in-lieu for any extra hours worked. I'm only on 18 hours at the moment so went from bringing in £525 straight down to £452. This is going to creep up again slowly but not by much as I'm now doing opens on a Saturday and if this goes ok for a month then boss will bump me up to 19 hours permanent and then when next person leaves (soon as they got 3 job interview this week), boss says I can be put up to 21 hours permanent.

I've worked it out that I need to be on 22 hours a week at £5.80 an hour in order to bring home a clear £500 wages (paid monthly). Is my maths correct ?

The good part is that ...

CSA drops down to £188 in June 2010 and then to £138 in July 2010, which should free OH money up to give me more as we've always worked it so that bills are £400 per month for each of us which gives plenty money for food and any sudden bills that may appear.

Another good thing is that we can ditch the mobile phone contracts shortly. They finish 28 May 2010 so I need to phone them up before 28 April 2010 and cancel them. That will be another £50 a month saved at least, normal bills are £66-£70 a month. I'm going on to Tesco PAYG and OH is doing whatever, he hasnt made up his mind yet.

I really dont know how to turn this around, I was doing well but have had late payments on my 2 credit cards for past couple months so bang goes my hope for getting a loan to pay them off, cut them up and pay off a couple of other things. It's just turning into a vicious circle. Get paid end of month, statement come on 7th, put off paying cos no spare money, get paid, pay minimum off, get late payment, statements come 7th etc etc.

There's nothing as such left to Ebay, I've got a pile of stuff (celebration cards) to list but they for mothers day, valentines day, xmas so maybe not worth doing just yet.

I keep bugging OH to sort out getting a new harddrive to put in his old pc so that it can be sold to put the money back on the credit card after he spotted a new pc for £210 that was better than his old pc. His old pc hardrive is kaput hence getting new computer. He's trying to get his mate to give him a hardrive for free though. It might be quicker just to buy a new one myself, I dont know. It's been sat there for a month as it is.

I am looking for another job and am the next person in line for when job becomes available at local garage. Trying to get shop work for 24 hours is just a no-no round here at the moment. I've been looking for past 2 months.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 452
Partners monthly income after tax....... 525
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 977

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 375 (paid via S.O.)
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 103
Electricity............................. 25 (summer months £20, winter £30, E.on via a key meter, very happy with this so far, get Tesco points as well)
Gas..................................... 20 (put in jar to save for gas bill coming, British Gas on Fixed Price 2011, quite happy with this though)
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 14 (paid via DD from my bank)
Telephone (land line)................... 40 (this is telephone line, calls and broadband, amount put in jar to save for bill coming, they wanted to up DD to £49-50 and I said no way)
Mobile phone............................ 70 (2 phone contracts on T-mobile, going PAYG end of May on one, not sure what OH is doing but he can pay for his own!)
TV Licence.............................. 0 (due in june 2010)
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 175 (big tesco shop at end of month, normally £100 or so but added extra on for nipping for extras and essentials, 2 adults, 2 cats, am working on weaning cats on to cheaper food but old cat fussy bout biscuits and how she will eat tablets which get crushed on to her food)
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 0 (OH pays)
Road tax................................ 0 (due in june, last one was put on one my CC cards)
Car Insurance........................... 0 (due in june ??, last one was put on one my CC cards)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 (OH pays)
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 7.20 (we both on anti-d's and get 2 month supply at once)
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 68 (£24 by DD for flea/worm/boosters, old cat on senior plan which gives £10 off her tablets, tablets now cost £44 for kidney and thyroid)
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 897.2


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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
me - capital one...............1830......65........34.08
me - halifax...................1470......20........16.9
oh - aqua......................750.......25........0 (not sure of apr)
oh - hfc - pc loan.............422.......14........0 (not sure of apr) - have had brainwave, this is pc that is mentioned above as been broken so OH going to look into getting it fixed under cover, but not till friday.
oh - capital one...............100.......5.........0 (not sure of apr)
Total unsecured debts..........4572......129.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 977
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 897.2
Available for debt repayments........... 79.8
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 129
Amount short for making debt repayments. -49.2

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -4,572
Net Assets.............................. -4,572

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.[/FONT]

cally6008

Ebay

I have 107 items sat on ebay at the moment. I decided to try doing a 10 day listing with auction at 99p and BIN at £2-50 but have had no takers as yet and only a couple of watchers on 2 items.

My website.

I'm in the middle of sorting out the affiliate banners on my website as although I was getting the clicks, I wasnt getting anything from it. I'm ditching the "earn % commission per sale" ones and keeping the "earn £ x for person signing up". Only another 300 banners to sort out.

My blog

Totally random stuff on it, definitely not expecting to earn anything from it. Mainly my favourite links or videos in one place.

LeeSouthEast

Consider quitting smoking. It's amazing how much this eats!

You seem to have a short-term battle ahead. Have you done an SOA recently? We can find places to cut back I'm sure. Good luck!

cally6008

LeeSouthEast wrote: »

Consider quitting smoking. It's amazing how much this eats!

You seem to have a short-term battle ahead. Have you done an SOA recently? We can find places to cut back I'm sure. Good luck!

I don't smoke. OH smokes and has been making noises along of the lines of "yeah I'm going to stop" but hasnt done anything yet.

SOA just added to first post, looks bad even without the debts added in.

beanielou

Well done on getting your SOA done.
Could you add in your debts as difficult to advise without the whole picture.

cally6008

I'll get debts put on as soon as possible but have to be careful cos OH due home soon and I dont want to spark his depression more and get him more worried.

cally6008

OK, debts now added, doesnt look too bad on paper but OH smokes 25 a day and likes his red bull type drinks.
I dont drink or smoke and am cutting down on chocolate. I dont have many bad habits and am a person who hates spending money on useless stuff.

I save 1p, 2p, 5p and £2 coins up and put them in seperate bank account which is at about £15. It was at £45 but we needed a new microwave so paid for it on CC as we were doing the monthly shopping and then took the £30 out of my bank the next day and paid it off the CC.

My bank (barclays) has O/D of £500 and often in it.
OH bank (cumberland) has O/D of £750 and always in it.

LeeSouthEast

cally6008 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 452
Partners monthly income after tax....... 564
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1016

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 375
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 103
Electricity............................. 25
Gas..................................... 20
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 14
Telephone (land line)................... 40 Still seems expensive. Shop around!
Mobile phone............................ 70 This is rediculous. But I think you know that!
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 175 You can probably shave £50 off this with OS effort
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 0 This is still a joint expense
Road tax................................ 0 as above
Car Insurance........................... 0 as above
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 as above
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 7.20
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 68 This is a huge chunk of your income
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0 You need this
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0 Include cigarette spend here
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 897.2


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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,016
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 897.2
Available for debt repayments........... 118.8
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 129
Amount short for making debt repayments. -10.2

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -4,572
Net Assets.............................. -4,572

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.[/I][/B][/FONT]

In short your SOA is missing a fair amount of information, so it's not really useful. Your short fall is actually much higher than made out here, due to unincluded spends. However, you can make some savings in places.

cally6008

Just a quick update. My OH read this thread the other night and I think it gave him a shock.

As of 8am this morning, he'd gone 23 hours without a cig (so proud of him).

Telephone - we might be moving to TalkTalk but havent really sat down and looked at figures and costs yet.

Mobile - yep high now but changing to payg shortly.

Groceries - monthly shop is anywhere between 60-100 roughly but then there's the nipping to shops for fresh milk/bread/meat etc and getting the freezer filled up so maybe 175 was a bit too high, I'm not sure

Petrol - 20 a month roughly,

Road Tax - havent a clue
Car Insurance - havent a clue (think it was put on a CC for a years worth)
Car maintenance - none so far but due mot n needs bit work doing first I think

Pet Insurance - 9 per month for boy cat, 15 per month for old cat (this gets them both their 6 monthly checks, flea treatment, vaccines, wormers, claws clipped etc and gets old cat 20% off her medication plus one free blood test per year). Old cat tablets cost £44 per month now since she gets the 20% off. We've always said that when she goes we will save a lot of money but no signs of her popping her clogs yet. Harsh but true .. we still love her to bits though.

Contents Insurance - do we need it ? Never even thought about getting it. It would just be another bill to pay which we cant afford right now.

Entertainment - cigs now nil, OH giving up.