Affording to Live - NOW WITH SOA

DancerSupreme

My husband is about to take a pay cut. His job always included a subsidised house. He also has to pay CSA for his older 2 children. If we were not paying this we would have enough to actually rent a house and not rely on the council's homelessness department which I have heard is shocking in this area.

We have debts and our repayments are £450 a month. His salary will become around £20,000-£23,000.

How can you get your income to cover your rent because looking at ours (and I do have a small wage but mine really covers the debts and childcare) we only have £400 a month but realistically we really need closer to £650-£700. :eek:

Obviously factoring in that we have the CSA, car insurance, fuel for getting to and from work (2 cars needed due to our work patterns), and all the normal bills on top.

Our payment to each "area" all seem to be normal or relative yet we end up with very little left for rent and I just keep looking at the CSA which is sticking us up.

I would post an SOA but have no exact figure of his potential salary so am just after some advice and please do not assume I am trying to avoid paying the CSA.

Thanks everyone :money:

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2 needed due to work schedules and places of work

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 659.63
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1142.63
Benefits................................ 230 CTC approx.
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2032.26

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 249.9
Rent.................................... 400
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 100
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 40
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 40
Mobile phone............................ 70
TV Licence.............................. 15
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 45
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 26
Car Insurance........................... 120
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 24
Car parking............................. 10
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 20.25
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 8
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 15
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 25
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 15
Haircuts................................ 15
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 10
Child Maintenance....................... 221
Total monthly expenses.................. 1849.15


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 8500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 8500


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 10630.8..(249.9)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 10630.8...-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
HSBC Loan......................913.32....76.11.....0
MBNA Loan......................1022.98...102.8.....0
Total unsecured debts..........1936.3....178.91....- Both finish in Jan 2012

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,032.26
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,849.15
Available for debt repayments........... 183.11
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 178.91
Amount left after debt repayments....... 4.2

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 8,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -10,630.8
Total Unsecured debt.................... -1,936.3
Net Assets.............................. -4,067.1

MFWannabe

Hi
Are you saying you will no longer have a subsidised house? Do you know what the average rent is in your area?
You really need to post an soa to get the best advice as it is very hard to give advice withouth seeing the actual 'picture' of figures; all incomings and outgoings. For soa purposes use the figur that you think your husbands wages will be (base it on lowest figure for this purpose so you are basing it on worse case scenario)

DancerSupreme

FREEZ wrote: »

Hi
Are you saying you will no longer have a subsidised house? Do you know what the average rent is in your area?
You really need to post an soa to get the best advice as it is very hard to give advice withouth seeing the actual 'picture' of figures; all incomings and outgoings. For soa purposes use the figur that you think your husbands wages will be (base it on lowest figure for this purpose so you are basing it on worse case scenario)

Nope no more house. He is currently in the army so they take their quarter back upon his discharge. Average rent for the size of house we need is around £650-£700 but that is something very small. We could get a mansion up north for what we would pay down here and we are considering the move next year once I am on maternity leave.

Will post an approximate SOA based on £20,000 as he seems pretty confident he will earn that at a basic.

dancingfairy

Can you not rent privately by cutting your debt repayments by doing a dmp or similar? I appreciate it's not ideal but may be better than relying on the council's homeless department.
Altenratively have you looked at restructuring your debts at all? ie credit card suffling or maybe a consolidation loan or similar (maybe a credit union would help?) - I appreciate this is not ideal again but a)your credit rating is no doubt better than it was when you started and b) you've been debt busting for a while now so are hopefully more clued up and less likely to spend madly if you did get a consolidation loan.
Other than that I guess you have to crunch the numbers and see how they stack up and what cuts you can make.
Good Luck
df

shebrett

If your husband's pay decreases then usually his CSA contribution will also decrease in line with that. If you take a look on the direct gov website, they have a calculator to work out what you what you would pay on his new income. Good luck with things.

DancerSupreme

dancingfairy wrote: »

Can you not rent privately by cutting your debt repayments by doing a dmp or similar? I appreciate it's not ideal but may be better than relying on the council's homeless department.
Altenratively have you looked at restructuring your debts at all? ie credit card suffling or maybe a consolidation loan or similar (maybe a credit union would help?) - I appreciate this is not ideal again but a)your credit rating is no doubt better than it was when you started and b) you've been debt busting for a while now so are hopefully more clued up and less likely to spend madly if you did get a consolidation loan.
Other than that I guess you have to crunch the numbers and see how they stack up and what cuts you can make.
Good Luck
df

Neither of us have the credit history to get a loan or anything and both of them finish in 12 months. Short of talking to each company to reduce the payment and extend the term I am not sure on that one.

DancerSupreme

shebrett wrote: »

If your husband's pay decreases then usually his CSA contribution will also decrease in line with that. If you take a look on the direct gov website, they have a calculator to work out what you what you would pay on his new income. Good luck with things.

I have already done this. It is always going to be hinder us badly financially unless he earns an extra £7,000 a year I think I worked out.

DancerSupreme

Can anyone assist with this?

MFWannabe

gembaxter wrote: »

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2 needed due to work schedules and places of work

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 659.63
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1142.63
Benefits................................ 230 CTC approx.
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2032.26

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 249.9
Rent.................................... 400
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 100
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 40
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 40 - Check comparison sites to see if you can get cheaper
Mobile phone............................ 70 - This is huge; even if it's 2 phones! Need to cut these to lowest tarriffs or go payg
TV Licence.............................. 15
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 45 - Need to try and cut this in half while you are paying debts
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 26
Car Insurance........................... 120 - This is a huge amount!! check comparison sites to see if you can get cheaper
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 24
Car parking............................. 10
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 20.25
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 8
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 15
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 25 - This is very high. Again check comparison sites to see if you can get cheaper
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 15
Haircuts................................ 15
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 10
Child Maintenance....................... 221 - Could your husband contact CSA and see if they will reduce this amount as his wages are dropping and your living arrangements are drastically changing
Total monthly expenses.................. 1849.15


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 8500 - Considering selling and buying cheap runarounds for now while you pay debts. Nice cars are nice to have but being debt free is much nicer
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 8500


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 10630.8..(249.9)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 10630.8...-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
HSBC Loan......................913.32....76.11.....0
MBNA Loan......................1022.98...102.8.....0
Total unsecured debts..........1936.3....178.91....- Both finish in Jan 2012

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,032.26
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,849.15
Available for debt repayments........... 183.11
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 178.91
Amount left after debt repayments....... 4.2

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 8,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -10,630.8
Total Unsecured debt.................... -1,936.3
Net Assets.............................. -4,067.1

Hi
I've made some comments above where you could make some cutbacks. It seems that you need to make it through the next 12 months and things will look better with both of your loans finishing then. As i suggest above; consider selling cars and getting cheap runarounds for now while you make cutbacks and pay off your debts.
Ask your husband to contact CSA and see if they will reduce payments due to cut in wages and big change of circumstances (i don't know if this will be done as i have no idea how they work)
Also you have entered £400 for rent; is that correct as you stated above that it would be nearer £600 to £700 to rent?

hippychick1

Have you entered your expected incomes into www.entitledto.co.uk ? It will tell you the amount of tax credits you will get, and also if you are entitled to any housing or council tax benefits. It helped me no end when my circumstances changed.

DancerSupreme

FREEZ wrote: »

Hi
I've made some comments above where you could make some cutbacks. It seems that you need to make it through the next 12 months and things will look better with both of your loans finishing then. As i suggest above; consider selling cars and getting cheap runarounds for now while you make cutbacks and pay off your debts.
Ask your husband to contact CSA and see if they will reduce payments due to cut in wages and big change of circumstances (i don't know if this will be done as i have no idea how they work)
Also you have entered £400 for rent; is that correct as you stated above that it would be nearer £600 to £700 to rent?

£400 is what I budgeted if the council will help. That is roughly what their properties are at the moment. We ideally need an extra £300 a month.

The mobiles I can drop a bit but we are in contracts. Hubby uses his for work so uses all the entitlement he has.

House phone includes internet but again is in a contract so not sure if we can actually leave this.

Car insurance will not be renewed until next year. At the mo it is £100 a month for both cars but it is slightly higher due to an accident last year. This is the cheapest we could get.

House insurance again is not up for renewal until June but is that high at the mo due to kit insurance for hubby army stuff so this cannot be reduced until he de kits.

For all of the above am I able to get out before the end to try and bring the prices down? I am not being stubborn just explaining and then looking how to get them down.

CSA will not reduce. They are heartless and unfortunately do not take into consideration living costs. They want their cut before anything else from my experience.

I have no idea what to do. By the looks of things we are going to struggle to live unless we are in some studio or 1 bed place which with three of us, two cats, a lizard and a baby on the way is not practical. Just feel like crying tonight