From bad to worse...

stellagypsy

Helena83 - why can't you put the rent of your other property up to cover your costs?

DIL's LL raised her rent by £120 PCM last year because his mortgage on it increased. At the moment, she is on Housing Benefit and complained to them but they agreed he was within his rights do this, they paid her some more benefit towards it. It is your property, you can charge what you like within reason but at the moment, you are struggling and IMO should look at raising the rent to a realistic level - at least break-even.

Stella x

Soubrette

Also, anything you cancel now to save money can always be reinstated when times are better

I understand your quandry about your job - I left work 18 years ago to look after my family and had a 10 year career break and although I wouldn't have it any other way, it totally stuffed my career opportunities.

My salary was £11,000pa in 1992 and is only £14,000pa now in 2011(pro rata as only work part time)

ETA just for clarity - if I worked full time I would get £14,000pa

determined_new_ms

helena83 wrote: »

Thanks for all this help!

I am cancelling the lovefilm (to be honest they payment bounced this month anyway so they have emailed me to say they are cancelling it anyway!)
OH is in construction so has had to take whatever was available when his last job fell through. The company he is with have promised him a promotion and a payrise later this year fingers crossed.
Ex is a pain in the bum, she won't bring the kids even halfway. No way we can negotiate anything with he or she'll just say we can't see them at all.
Will ask OH about lift share, I'm sure someone must live near here.
Can't get any more rent but have offered to sell it to the tenant. He's gonna let up know this week.
I'll pluck up the courage to ring orange. Better run it by OH first though. I know there's no way he'll give up his phone but I could sell mine and get a cheap one.

Hi helena - ok this is a real long shot a friend of mine's husband lost his job in the building trade so he decided to start up his own business (he started off doing work for people he knew through the local church they go to but it has snow balled since then) I am seeing my friend on Thursday I will try to get some info about how he went about it and come back to you guys. But maybe you could look into the possibilities - its only been about 2 months but my friend said he is earning more than he was when he was in his job

Also really sorry to say this but I think you guys need to sit down with his ex and negotiate child maint & delivering/collecting children at the weekends, I know this will be difficult and I am not encouraging separated fathers not contribute (I was a single parent for 12 years and never received a penny maint) but you absolutely cannot pay money you do not have. Go through CSA I am sure he would be assessed as paying less than this - when your financial situation changes he can up his maint payments x

Al1980

Hi,
Have you thought about increaseing your income by renting a room out in your property. A quick way to find tenants for free is via gumtree or a effective way is through spareroom, you could approach a agent to find you a tenant and they normally deduct a fee from the tenants first payment.

Al

RAS

helena83 wrote: »

The other house is 100 miles away!! Should probably have mentioned that. This is why we are renting here!! We have considered moving back there but we'd both have to find work and its only 1 bedroom so not really a possibility.)

Can we get the geography sorted out?

The other house is 100 miles away, OH's work is 80 miles away and he make regualr long trips to pick up the kids.

What is the distance between the other hosue and OH's work?

Are you saying that your current rental is about half way between his old and new work?

helena83 wrote: »

OH is even worse at putting his head in the sand than I am and whenever I try to explain it to him he has a bit of a strop and comes out with something along the lines of "we earn over £3000 per month, we should be laughing". He keeps wanting to buy stuff and it is always me that has to say no. He doesn't understand that the odd tenner here and there all adds up!

Well you do not earn over £3000 per month, do you?

And you are spending over £3000 per month before you pay o0ff any of the debts.

helena83 wrote: »

we aren't locked into sky so I would happily cancel it, another one to argue with OH over.

Internet is one I am trying to get out of a contract with. It would be cheaper and more reliable to do it with the bt phoneline really as we can't get free sky broadband in this area.

I'm going to write all the figures down and see what he thinks tonight! Will probably end up in an arguement but hey on the bright side I might be better off as a single mum with the extra benefits?! (only joking)

One option may be that you move back to the old house and he lodges locally in the week?
Then has the kids day-time only?

When do the rental contract on this and the other house end?

elvis86

RAS wrote: »

Can we get the geography sorted out?

The other house is 100 miles away, OH's work is 80 miles away and he make regualr long trips to pick up the kids.

What is the distance between the other hosue and OH's work?

Are you saying that your current rental is about half way between his old and new work??

I misread this as New York, and laughed out loud as I thought you had jokingly become exasperatd by all the different distances quoted by the OP!:D

RAS wrote: »

Well you do not earn over £3000 per month, do you?

And you are spending over £3000 per month before you pay o0ff any of the debts.

Well said. You could have £10,000 a month income and still be up the creek without a paddle if you were spending £15,000!

I appreciate that people's situations change and sometimes you can't predict what's going to happen in life, but how did you end up living 200 miles away from your OH's children (who he needs to see regularly), 80 miles away from the house you own, and 100 miles away from your OH's job?

Presuming that all these things didn't happen at once, did you never stop to think that the distances you were putting between key places in your lives might cause you problems? Regardless of the expense?!:eek:

[Deleted User]

helena83 wrote: »

OK, so here is my SOA. I'm terrified now!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 970 (can either of you up your income any? over-time? second job?)
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1400
Benefits................................ 180 (ensure you are recieving everything that you are entitled to)
Other income............................ 350 (can this be increased?)
Total monthly income.................... 2900
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 460
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 137
Rent.................................... 700 (pretty standard for 3 bed house in this area plus cant raise deposit/moving costs anyway)(Can you downsize to a 2 bed?)
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 153 (can you pay this over 12 months instead of 10?)
Electricity............................. 35
Gas..................................... 55 (would look into switching but have £200 outstanding which we can't clear, BG won't reduce dd's by any more)(Are you actually managing to reduce the £200 owed by paying this? - your bill should go down as the weather improves re: lower heating costs)
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 26
Telephone (land line)................... 24 (Can you combine this with your internet and get this cheaper?)
Mobile phone............................ 135 (massive I know, 3 phones still in contracts - any advice greatly appreciated!)(this needs to be massivly reduced - I hope you manage to get the phone companies to let you cancel or downgrade - you should sell the extra phone definately, and switch premium phones for cheapies)
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 24 (on basic package now I think)(this needs to go)
Internet Services....................... 15 (as I have said above see if you can combine with house phone - I think talk talk phone and internet is £18/month, but you should check out what all the options are)
Groceries etc. ......................... 260 (visit the old style board - meal plan, batch cook, drop brands etc, you should be able to reduce this a bit with practice)
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 350 (Travel to work and picking up kids from their mum every other weekend) (are there cheaper travel options - train and/or bus? - car share, ensure that trips are combined where possible)
Road tax................................ 12
Car Insurance........................... 106 (2x insurance and AA)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 500 (approx)(as what other posters have said re: vouchers)
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 12
Contents insurance...................... 18
Life assurance ......................... 12
Other insurance......................... 20 (homecare)
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Lovefilm subscription................... 10 (need to cancel this)
Child Maintenance....................... 350
Total monthly expenses.................. 3446

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 90000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000 (if this is two cars, try selling one not only would you raise some money to pay off some of the arrears or debt, but you would save on monthly outgoings too)
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 93000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 72000....(460)......4.5
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 4500.....(137)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 76500.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
DMP............................15000.....180.......0 (I'm not sure how these things work, but can this be reviewed when you have a change in circumstance? eg you going back to work?)
council tax arrears............120.......60........0 (this will be gone in two months so will free up another £60 per month - also once paid off see if you can spread payments over 12 instead of 10 months)
tax bill.......................210.......20........0 (I know this is a relatively low monthly payment, can you try negotiating a lower monthly payment)
Total unsecured debts..........15330.....260.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,900
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,446
Available for debt repayments........... -546
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 260
Amount short for making debt repayments. -806
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 93,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -76,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -15,330
Net Assets.............................. 1,170
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

If your other half is not on board (re: cutting things down, cancelling things, selling things) then you need to have a serious chat with him and show him your current, and future SOA's, so that he can see it in black and white that you have a monthly shortfall and how much it is, and the areas where there's potential for cut-backs.

Try e-baying/amazon/gumtree what you don't use and can sell and try and get some of the utility and council tax arrears, tax bill and debts down so that you have a little less outgoings every month

And good luck, especially with the mobile phone companies

theoretica

helena83 wrote: »

This is SOA based on me going back to work 3 days per week and using childcare vouchers.
Total monthly income.................... 2388
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 455
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 137
Rent.................................... 700
Council tax............................. 153
Electricity............................. 35
Gas..................................... 55
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 26
Telephone (land line)................... 24
Mobile phone............................ 130
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 24
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 260
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 300
Road tax................................ 12
Car Insurance........................... 106
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 260
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 12
Contents insurance...................... 18
Life assurance ......................... 12
Other insurance......................... 10
Child Maintenance....................... 350

Instead of looking at what you spend now and trying to cut down, how about looking at what you can afford. The red items which are either non-negotiable or things you have said you will not compromise on add up to £2076. How are you going to distribute the remaining £312 among car cost, food and communications? I am sorry, but I can't see a way you can break even without major changes.

Unless you can bring more income in, I think you will need to sell the house (saving you £105 a month + repair costs) and hope you get enough over to pay off the car loan and pay the deposit to move somewhere cheaper + ideally closer to the kids and work - if possible on a public transport route.

There is an article on this site about getting cheap breakdown insurance, and also the best way to get quotes for car insurance.

helena83

Thanks to everyone for their help so far. Today is a new day and I'm trying to be a bit more positive.

I can see how the distances are confusing!! I'll try to explain. We moved about 100 miles north of where we used to live, this was to be closer to my family and for work. OH had got a job which was close to where we live now but this fell through. He was then out of work for a while and eventually found a job which is about 40 miles away from us. Its a good secure job and he won't always be on that site and his next job should be nearer. Hope that clears things up a bit!!

Anyway, we had a good chat last night and OH is going to start doing some extra hours soon which will help. He is also on board with getting rid of sky, lovefilm, mobile contracts etc so that is my job for today. However his ex is saying it was our decision to move away so we have to foot the bill for the extra travelling costs and she won't be happy with less money. With the divorce only a couple of weeks away we don't want to rock the boat too much just now.

Just got my fingers crossed i'll be able to sort out the phones now. Wish me luck!

RAS

helena83 wrote: »

However his ex is saying it was our decision to move away so we have to foot the bill for the extra travelling costs and she won't be happy with less money. With the divorce only a couple of weeks away we don't want to rock the boat too much just now.

Firstly, she is right about the travel situation, re how the CSA would look at it.

But if she or her lawyer make any comment in court that suggest she is linking contact with maintenance, the court will come down on her like a ton of bricks.

And with the divorce a few weeks away, your OH HAS to get his finger out with respect to the maintenance NOW.

He is paying substantially more than she is entitled to according to the CSA. if this gets enshrined in the financial settlement set at part of the divorce, then you are stuffed majorly for the next decade or so.

Unless he does this, you would need to consider bankruptcy, as you have to cut hundreds off your expenditure each month before you can balance the books, let alone start paying off debts. The good thing, if you both went BR, is that any shortfall in the old house would be included in the BR.