My statement of means

blondie1982_2

Sorry new to this, not sure if this is the right this to do?

But below is my situation..Not looking very good at all. Not included money for going out, just clothing and toiletres.

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1,450
Potential Lodger - £300

Total - £1750

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £750
Council Tax - £100
Council tax owed - £40
Gas - £30
Electric - £30
TV License - £15
BT - £30
Mobile Phone - £100 (2 contracts)
Food - £100
Transport - £100
Gym - £20
Loan with Family members - £310
Credit card - £150 (4800 owed)
Gas and electric owed - £80
Overdraft charges - £50
Toiletries - £40
Clothing - £50

Total: £1,995

-£245 left

Now I feel even more depressed..........

Tixy

Hi Blondie

Your rent is certainly high compared to your income, so without a lodger it does look like it would be impossible to stay at your current property. Is your property 2 bed?
I know you said you didn't want to rent a 1bed property but have you researched how much it would likely cost to rent a 1bed place - would it be less than £450? Or have you considered moving into a house share property until your debts are reduced and you could afford a place of your own again?

Why do you have 2 phone contracts? how soon until you can cancel one (or both and find a cheaper deal)
Is BT for home phone and broadband? might be worth seeing if you could find a cheaper provider at all?

How many more months until the council tax arrears are paid?
How many more months until the gas & elec arrears are paid?
Your elec costs looks quite high - have you checked to see if you are on the cheapest tariff for your usage? and have you tried to reduce usage? or are you on a prepayment meter now?

You haven't listed water rates - is this in with council tax?

How long until any of the loans to family finish?

Toiletries - this looks expensive for 1 person, can you work on reducing this, dropping a brand etc.
Clothing - could you try reducing in the short term at least until the arrears are repaid.
You might need to also think about budgeting for haircuts and a small amount for presents etc.

For others reading - the background info is here - potential split, not enough income

Superbiatch

You need to complete a full statement of affairs, there is a sticky on this thread about how to do that to get a better picture.

There is one thing thats jumps out at me, rent. You seriously don't earn enough money to pay that amount. Your housing costs should ideally be about a third of your income.

Mobile phones, you really do need to look into going PAYG, even if it contract - it might be worth your while to sell the phone (or phones seen as you have two), pay off the contract to start again with a clean slate.

How much do you owe to family and friends? Is £310 a monthly figure you pay out?

Lastly, you can manage with much less than £40 a month on toiletries. Make sure you buy 3 for 2 offers, stock up when you can etc. Clothing budget, i'm afraid you simply can't afford £50 a month as things are (I can't afford £50 a month and I'm only paying out £1k of my £1.5 salary on essentials).

Hope you find that helpful for starters

lvm

blondie1982 wrote: »

Sorry new to this, not sure if this is the right this to do?

But below is my situation..Not looking very good at all. Not included money for going out, just clothing and toiletres.

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1,450
Potential Lodger - £300

Total - £1750

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £750 - is this a mortgage or rent? It's extremely high if it's just for one person. You might be better finding somewhere cheaper to live than getting a lodger (depending on where you live)
Council Tax - £100
Council tax owed - £40
Gas - £30
Electric - £30
TV License - £15 (should be £12.12 I think)
BT - £30
Mobile Phone - £100 (2 contracts) - why do you need 2 contracts? This is VERY high.
Food - £100
Transport - £100
Gym - £20
Loan with Family members - £310 - is this the total amount or is this what you are paying monthly?
Credit card - £150 (4800 owed) - what is the APR?
Gas and electric owed - £80
Overdraft charges - £50
Toiletries - £40 - a month?!?! What do you spend this on?
Clothing - £50 - is this a month too? This is quite high if you're struggling with money...

Total: £1,995

-£245 left

Now I feel even more depressed..........

I've put comments above. Your situation is not awful. Need to know if you're paying your family £310 a month or is this what you owe in total? Can they give you some breathing space?

The phone contracts need to go if they can. Even if you're tied to a contract you need to phone them up and plead with them to downgrade.

oldtractor

Hi Blondie and welcome to the board. My first thoughts are your rent is taking up far too much of your income and is unafordable. you need to move elsewhere. A tv isnt essential, getting rid of it would save the monthly fee and so would cancelling the gym. Martin has a statement of affairs thingy,its more detailed and it would be useful to fill this in and post it up for people to see.

blondie1982_2

Thank you everyone

I forgot about water, I pay £60 a month too on that...

To get a place to rent, the very cheapest (and it would be a complete dive) would be £450 a month. Plus I have no means to get the deposit, rent upfront, letting fees, moving costs are very high.

So I am better getting a lodger in to my current place. It is 2 bedrooms.

I have 2 contracts because one is my partners phone. but it is in my name. The contracts expire in 18 months time

Family loans, both for another 2 years.

I aproximated on the clothing and toiletres, I probably do not spend that much. Just wasnt sure, I thought worst case would be best. Plus toiletres, would include hair cuts etc.

The gas and electric arrears and council will be clear in a year.

I dont know what to do. I dont think I have anyway out of this.

Phelpsie001

If it is rent it is high.... if it is a mortgage, maybe not so much?

My income is approx the same and I overpay my mortgage so it is £804 a month. Massively expensive for rent, but a wise move for a mortgage.

I'd say to definately cut down on toiletries, clothes and transport. Perhaps you can car share and half the costs? All of that would maybe save you £150 a month. Maybe cut the food down by £30 a month by buying smart and freezing alot? So that is maybe £180 a month saved without being too painless?

That leaves you with a deficit of -£65 a month.....

Could some of the family members perhaps give you a few months rest?

I know that this is only short term though.....

That's my tuppence worth

needingaccountability

Doesn't look good lvm but as others have said there is room for improvement. As soon as your mobile phone contracts end cancel them, get a pay as you go sim and you could cut your costs to as little as £20 a month for 2 phones. (again why 2?) Do you really need a BT landline as well as the mobile? possible £30 there. Gym membership? cut your cloth to suit your pocket, you can't afford such a luxury. Get your excercise in the good old outdoors.

Same comments as others re toiletries and clothes. How much clothes do you need? stop shopping for any new until you clear your ovedraft or whatever it is that is causing you to have £50 bank charges. If you really feel the urge check out your local charity shops, you can pick up great stuff, many brand new from high street retailers for couple of pounds.

Hope your potential lodger becomes reality soon as it look a lot worse without that income.

blondie1982_2

The £310 is what I pay each month.

One loan someone took out for me (as I have a bad credit rating and couldnt get one) so I cannot ask them to pay it.

The other family loan is my uncle who only agreed to lend it too me if I paid it off before he retired. I cannot drop him in it either, I just cant.

You are correct about the tv licence.

£750 is high for one person, but I am living there with my partner at the moment so it is more then managable. I preparing for a split, hence why I am doing this.

The clothing I can bring down to 0 and toiletres less too.

I could get rid of TV and gym, but I would probably end up killing myself as I would have just ended a relationship and would be sat at home with nothing but 4 walls.

Gettingtherequickly

blondie1982 wrote: »

I have 2 contracts because one is my partners phone. but it is in my name. The contracts expire in 18 months time

Why is your partner not contributing to his phone cost? Just seen your comment about preparing for split, so I assume that you are preparing for the worst case scenario. But partner still needs to pay for phone.

Tixy

Are you and current partners financially associated? any joint accounts at all? If so then it would be in his interest to help you keep your credit rating good, so maybe he'll agree to contribute to pay his phone bill at least - if you split and he won't pay then you need to ensure the account is stopped so he cannot run up bills on it that you are then liable for - and you may find that they let you drop the account to a much lower tariff - also you need to try to get his phone off him, which hopefully you could then sell to raise a bit towards the bills.

Water looks high at £60 a month - is that including any arrears? are you on a meter?

Can you cancel the gym subs - and if you cannot then perhaps you can see if you can put the membership on hold for a few months (and keep fit using free methods instead).

Is the current rental just in your name or in both? presumably if you did look for a cheaper place you would get a deposit back from this one to put to the new one? Moving costs shouldn't be high - do you have any friends with a van or large car ho could help you move for free (or for a pint or 2 as payment). Also could you move closer to work to save the transport costs of £100 a month?

How much are you & partner struggling at the moment? if you might be together for a little while yet and if you could afford to with joint finances could you up your repayments to the ctax arrears so that there would be less still outstanding for you to find alone if you do split?

Its hard to suggest an ideal solution, often people would recommend a DMP (or token payments and then a DMP once your priority debt arrears were cleared) but the family loans would make this very hard unless you can also reduce repayments to them as well as your other creditors.