Newbie - first post, scarey!

Storm

anh1904 wrote:

Statement of affairs (as much as I can think of, and pretty accurate (apart from the dentist which will hopefully be less this year as I spent over £350 last) from my records of the last year)...

Outgoings (monthly, or monthly equiv when paid annually):

Mortgage £987 (due to go up I guess after tomorrow interest rate decision)
Life ins £35
B&C 30
Repairs/emergencys £100 If you've got a bit aside already could this be reduced to maybe £50 a month at the moment?
Two cars (petrol ins, mots, servicing) £394.17 Are two cars neccessary?
Coucil tax, Elec, Gas, Water, TV lic £288.33 Have you checked you're getting the cheapest utilities?
Cable £45 (just negotiated on phone down to £35 for same deal!!)
Mobile £36.99 (till December) Once you're out of contract look at going PAYG or a cheaper tariff
Saving policies for 3 kids £60 Not necessary, though I know you won't want to stop them!
Student Loan £60
Food £500 This seems very high, switch to non-branded stuff, buy BOGOFs, cook more from scratch etc
Clothes £100
Dentist (loads of problems) £20
Products (hers) £30 This is high, try BOGOFs or cheaper brands
Days out budget £75 Look around locally for free activities - museums, exhibitions, fairs etc
Meals out £80 Try mystery shopping where you get paid to go eat somewhere & report back on them!
Gym (him) £40.50 (£486 paid annually)
Gym (her) £47 You can probably get a cheaper deal by having a joint membership
Monthly petty cash £50
Golf subs £83.33 This is a lot - how often do you use it?
Holidays £125 (£1500 a year budget) Tough one, but hols aren't unfortunately neccessities & they can be done much cheaper too
Hair (her) £25 Phew! I'm guessing colouring etc - how necessary is it?
New baby (clothes, toys, etc.) £75 This can be done cheaper, a baby doesn't care if it's dressed in designer stuff or supermarket!
Annual present buying family and friends £30 (will surely never stick to £360 though for all birthdays and Christmas for everyone - last year was over £1000!) Good for you setting a budget, if you decide how much per person will be spent, then start a spending diary to ensure you don't go over!
Child care £100
Maintenance to ex wife £570
TOTAL £3990.32

You mentioned a new baby, and I wondered whether baby has arrived yet or is on the way. What sort of difference to your income will maternity leave make? You also can account for child benefit coming in, possible child tax credits?

In terms of extra ways to make money, the usual suggestions are selling as much as possible on Ebay/Amazon/Car Boot, online surveys, mystery shopping or taking on a 2nd job.

Hope this helps!

Storm

all_hours

I've worked out with your current budget and the extra £10 from the cable reduction you have £12 per month left over to pay off the debt. This would take 187 years to clear, and that's not accounting for any interest.

If you get rid of gym memberships, the golf subs, savings, and make serious cuts in the food, hair, meals out, days out, holidays, products and clothes budgets - you would have £950 a month this would take around 2.5 years to pay off.

KittyKate

I think the OP would do well to go 'back to basics' as suggested above.

How anyone can enjoy new clothes, meals out, holidays, daytrips, expensive food, gym, cable, 2 cars etc whilst worrying out all that debt is beyond me.

You'll appreciate everything you have and more when you're debt free. And probably will never spend that much again. So wasteful (no offence intended, but there are people on here who survive on your 'daytrip fund' to feed a family of 4 for a month).

My suggestions:
Lose everything that isn't a necessity.
Negotiate debt repayments, pay the minimum on all but one and clear that one off, then move on to the next, etc etc.
Find alternate ways to obtain things - new baby? Join Pigsback for Boots vouchers. Want to get fit? Lose the gym, lose a car, get a bike (from Freecycle if you can!)
Find the best deals for suppliers.
Negotiate your mobile.
Ebay. A lot.
Get a second job.
You want to help yourself but you really do need to cut down! Have a good long think - do you want to live like a millionaire on a moderate income or do you want a stress free debt free life? Treats are just that - treats. If you can't afford it, don't buy it. Sorry but I do hope you make some cutbacks quickly and release money to throw at your debt. All the best.

anh1904

I only posted a full and honest account of actuals, didn't mean to offend, honest.

987 mortgage is repayment
100 on repairs/maintenance is to allow for a known problem on a flat roof and some plumbing (it may even be conservative)
Cars breakdown as follows:
Petrol car1 £90
Insurance car 1 £400
Tax car 1 £190
Servicing/Mot £600
Petrol car 2 £1560 (I live 38 miles from my job)
Insurance car 2 £220
Tax car 2 £130
Allowance for repairs, tyres, and all car 2 servicing £550 annually (4 tyres on car 1 cost £330 and only then because I have contacts)

House breakdown
Council tax £1800
Electricity £600
Gas £600
Water £350
TV lic £110
These are estimated as we've just moved in

Cable bill is for phone, tv and internet (Supreme package at NTL if anyone is paying more, suggest you phone them)
Mobile contract expires in December, so will review then.

Kids savings are in long term investments, so not likely to cut them.

Food, we eat an almost entirely organic diet which we know is an expensive luxury, but as Dr Gillian would say, you are what you eat. This budget feeds 5 of us.

I could cut my golf out, but if I played weekly at a pay and play course it would cost me nearly as much, whereas I play most weekends, and during the week in the summer when the light evenings are with us.

We both have gym memberships to use before work so we can travel and miss the traffic (Gyms are both by our respective workplaces which cut about 20mins off the journey compared to peak hour travelling). They are up for review soon though, and are a likely candidate for ommission going forwards.

Partner has hair done at some salon (T&G) which is over £100 each visit, she has cut frequency lately and may even change with a little persuasion.

I have shopped round all the sites for the cheapest gas and elec, the cheapest car insurance, etc. with tips off this site and others.

Thanks everyone for the responses and suggestions at which bits to look at first, it'll make for a great start to planning. I will publish an amended budget within the next month when we have reviewed exactly what we're spending on what in the new house, and will be up there to be shot at again by the looks of things.

lynzpower

Incidentally, your partner must be having either a) regular colours? b) reg perm? Or c) the style director

I see the middle grade person at Charles Worthington and it costs £35 for cut, wash, blowdry & restyle.

Is you partner on board here? What does she think about what your debt payments are?

How are you paying the debt at the moment, only from what I can see form your SOA you are not paying any off at the mo, is this righT???

toontastic

What kind of tyres are you using on your car and what size just it seems very expensive. Also remember to get your MOT done at government centres as they don't do repairs so you won't get ripped off.

I'm sure others will be able to help you alot more.

Storm

I think you need to start a new SoA, with the first outgoings being the absolute essentials - mortgage, c.tax, utilities, car costs, insurance & minimum repayments on all your debts. With what you've got left over you can then sort out which of your luxuries you're willing to let go.

I would love to eat organically, but to be honest it's not essential, and there is the possibility to make a HUGE saving here. Also, as this budget is for 5 of you it seems a bit strange you're paying so much maintenance to your ex if she's not looking after the children(?)

You've obviously already made a huge dent in what your debts were - so is it the new bigger mortgage that's made it so difficult now?

Snaggles

anh1904 wrote:

I only posted a full and honest account of actuals, didn't mean to offend, honest.

You haven't offended - at least you ARE being honest with yourself about how much you are spending, and that's the first step to cutting back.

Please don't feel that people are trying to shoot you down - generally (with the very odd exception) people say things with the very best of intentions and if the responses are ever....lets say overenthusiastic..... it's because people genuinely want to help.

Unfortunately, some of the most helpful advice is the hardest to hear. I understand there are reasons for the things that you spend money on, but sometimes you have to think....right....maybe it IS nice to play golf regularly, it's supposed to be very good for stress apparently (book me in for lessons lol!), but it would be even nicer to have a healthy bank balance, and hence less stress anyway (not suggesting you are stressed - speaking from personal experience, not making a judgement about you, I promise).

I suppose it does take a complete change of mindset to really get into the swing of being a DFW, and it's difficult at first. I would set yourself small targets to start with and you will be surprised how quickly you can gather momentum and get hooked on making savings and making your money go further.

So for example, if your food bill is £500, how about this month aim for £400 - then the following month £350.....and so on until you just can't possibly get any lower (my friends feed a family of 5 on a mainly organic diet for around £200 per month, so it IS possible - they get locally produced vegetables etc delivered each week, which seems to work out cheaper for them).

I wish you the very best and hope you manage to sucessfully reduce your outgoings and start to get the debts repaid.

Dolly_Smith

anh1904 wrote:

Food, we eat an almost entirely organic diet which we know is an expensive luxury, but as Dr Gillian would say, you are what you eat. This budget feeds 5 of us.

this woman fills me with rage! you don't have to eat mung beans all day to be healthy - personally I think she looks terrible considering she's preaching to everyone else what they should eat.

It's easy to eat healthily and cheaply without buying organic. Why do you need to buy organic? If it's for ethical reasons you might want to look at your petrol and car usage which has far more impact on the environment that non-organic food

the gym membership is huge! - why not take the kids out for long walks? completely free, good exercise and a learning experience aswell if you go to woods or out to the seaside

I don't think you've had your lightbulb moment yet but hope these ideas help you out anyway

Snaggles

Just a thought but do you have a garden? Why not plant some edible things - soft fruits, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, even potatoes, carrots etc - and if you have a greenhouse what about tomatoes, cucumbers etc. Also growing your own herbs is extremely easy - hardy ones like sage, rosemary etc will live outside quite happily even through winter, and coriander, basil, parsley etc are easy to grow on a windowsill (basil likes LOADS of water, coriander likes to not have too much water). Just little things like these will save money, look great in the garden, and best of all you know they definitely haven't been treated with anything at all.