twinparents07's joint diary 'doing it together'!!

twinmum07

We are in a bit of a pickle at the moment and our outgoings and income are totally out of synch. We have a 13 week old baby and toddler twins so are currently on a mortgage break until November. We are saving what we can during this break and will use these savings to pay the mortgage, hopefully until March 2011 but, as things are, we won't be able to meet our mortgage payments after this point.

I run a business which isn't pulling its weight due to a mixture of the financial climate and not having put in enough effort over the last 9 months due to chilcare issues.

We have asked for some pointers already on our SOA and have been able to edit in red with some of the tips in mind and also factored in pay increases etc. that should have come in by March 2011 when we get to mortgage crunch day.


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2720 = 2780 in Sept (unless govt block 2.3% pay rise for teachers)
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 188.4 hopefully rising to 268 with tax credits once processed (unless govt. stop them!)
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2908.4 (Sept est. £3048)
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1610
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 375.4000000000001
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 149
Electricity............................. 54
Gas..................................... 39
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 27
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 25 (hopefully £10 in Oct)
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 11.5 £0 by xmas
Internet Services....................... 12.5
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 £250 (damn you baby formula)
Clothing................................ 20 £10 - kids only (DH is a maths teacher so elbow patches are expected)
Petrol/diesel........................... 200 £170 by no random drives
Road tax................................ 32
Car Insurance........................... 127 due for renewal in Oct - an old non-fault claim has finally been closed so an extra 2 years no claim - will call insurance co. tomorrow
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20 0 - we don't save, just panic when it happens
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 20 scrap and go 100% cloth nappies
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 20 opticians - down to £8
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 10 we don't save and have a £100 vet bill coming but DH is giggling at this representing a saving as we have gone from 3 cats to 2 !!!!! Heartless !!!!!!!
Buildings insurance..................... 17 these 3 have just been renewed but will hunt harder next year
Contents insurance...................... 17
Life assurance ......................... 22
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20 £8 we are tight really and this would mostly be for gifts to our own kids. The baby can have birthday and christmas gifts wrapped up 2nd hand from the twins and the twins can be economised on(or we can rely on grandparent generosity and spend the £10 we usually do!)
Haircuts................................ 20 £5 this was mostly for the kids - I will learn to clip or invest in a couple of hats when it goes wrong. DH already does what is left of his own hair
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 3175.4 (est £2949.90 at end of 2010)

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 180000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 15000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 195000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 226000...(1610).....4.9
Secured Debt.................. 7883.4...(375.4)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 233883.4..-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
HSBC B.........................4577......113.......17.9
Virgin B.......................5476......120.......24.9
Halifax B......................3669......55........12.9
Tesco J........................3220......90........19.9
Barclays J.....................3970......90........19.9
HSBC J.........................7450......185.......25.9
Total unsecured debts..........28362.....653.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,908.4 est 12/10 = £3048
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,175.4 est 12/10 = £2969.90
Available for debt repayments........... -267 £78.10
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 653 £610 (hopeful decrease in min payments)
Amount short for making debt repayments. -920 -£531.90
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 195,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -233,883.4
Total Unsecured debt.................... -28,362
Net Assets.............................. -67,245.4

We have both registered on here so we can battle this together so I am twinmum07 and my husband is twindad07 - cunning eh!

The baby is being Christened on Sunday so we are busy preparing everything for the drinks and nibbles back at ours so we can't do much of any meaning until Monday but we want to make sure we are ready to go full steam on Monday morning.

One of huge problems has been around childcare so we have done the first (and hardest) task of talking to the in laws about the severity of our situation. We were concerned that I currently work one day a week and the in laws have the kids but in November the twins will be starting nursery for a half day so that could have meant I would no longer be able to work. However, the in laws have offered to come down one day a week so the twins can go to nursery and I can do a days work (we live 45/50 minutes away from them)

Happytogetdebtfree

Hi just an idea has oh considered tutoring ? my relative is a teacher and does tutoring as well and this brings in a nice bit of income, its around 25 per hour per student something to think about and how sweet you have both joined good luck on your journey x

twindad07

We're off to look at some of the challenges, to see which ones appeal and which ones are do-able. I already like the NSD challenges and the £10 a per challenges, so might start there.
My wife is currently looking at some of the survey sites that she's already registered on.
I'm also going to sort out a signature - I want to see how much debt we have.

Happytogetdebtfree

Hi twin dad its lovely to see a motivated couple, have you thought about ebay too ?? and carboots you have quote a bit deficit in the salary is there any chance some of teh credit cards can be put on 0% credit cards or life of balance cards ? hope so that would be a greta help in reducing the payments or clearing more debt.. what do you do for work twin mum ? is there anyway you could promote it more ?? can you reduce minimum payments ? are you on the mortgage break so you have 1610 per month ?? spare ?? after short fall that leaves around 690? you could maybe overpay to reduce the minimum payments ?? try and get some head room ?? good luck

twindad07

Hi happy

Tutoring is something that we've talked about, I got some cards printed up last year to deliver door to door advertising tutoring - just never got round to giving them out!! Will certainly be delivering them for next school year.

I might also start refereeing again - £20 a game but I let my registration lapse so will have to do the course again to re-register. Bit of a pain when I'd refereed for 10 years then stopped 4 years ago and it costs £70 which isn't too bad its more the time it takes to do the course.

twindad07

Hi Happy

The business is a card making and craft business, selling the supplies to make them. Unfortunately over the last 6 months or so we just haven't had the necessary time to keep on top of it. Hopefully in the summer we will be able to spend more time on it building it up.

We stupidly decided to go on holiday this summer which is taking up some of our mortgage break money so with the remaining savings we need to save it to offset the deficit in march for our mortgage. We've just come out of a year of interest only into a 6 month break so the savings per month are about £700 which we will put towards the mortgage from November.

Credit cards are all maxed for me and been turned down for 0% ones.

Thanks

Happytogetdebtfree

Yes definatley do tutoring my relative didnt put cards out i think he joined a website and it also went on word of mouth... its a nice little money earner, i assume you do alot of your selling card and craft materials on ebay.... if your struggling with payments now it may be wise to speak with ccs for some advice... now som eadvice because you have started a diary it takes awhile for some response, repost your soa and things on the main dfw area and you will get an influx of advice good luck hope you can correct the short fall x

twinmum07

Right - one baby Christened, party finished, clearing up nearly done so once our exhausted twins are in bed we can get cracking with sorting out our finances and get in gear for getting some money in.
My aims for tonight are to put our cards/overdrafts and whatnot into the snowball calculator - we aren't actaully aiming to be debt free in the future, just to be able to make the mortgage payment but it would be nice to have a date to work towards and be able to feel that we always know exactly where we are with things.
I would also like to have a look at applying for Open University posts tonight so I am prepared before the closing date on Wednesday.
I need to get my filofax back up and running so I have lists of what I am doing in what order.
We could also do with checking with the in laws if they have a definate day in mind for childcare so I can start some speculative letters.

It has been a long day but I just want to get cracking with getting us out of this yukky situation. Hopefully we can get something done as one of us awake and trying to get on and the other is snoozing on the sofa (notice how I didn't point the finger and say who is awake and who is napping! How diplomatic!)

Happytogetdebtfree

Hi glad you had a nice day.. the snowball is fun to play around with really hits home about things and also encourages you to do more to improve estimated dates

twinmum07

I did it a couple of years ago and loved getting credit cards bills (!!!) so I could see the impact of my overpayments but I have slipped as our finances have got worse so will have to get the old snowball up to see if things are better or worse now.
Have just spent an uneventful hour and a half on the phone to my mum sepite the fact she has been up for the Christening for most of the day (her phone bill, not mine - phew!)

Happytogetdebtfree

Haha... i was going to say if you post your soa on the main thread page you might get more viewers with comments and advice xgot to love mums they love to talk xx