My S.O.A. enclosed, and first post

shaunyb

GeorgieFTB wrote: »

I think a man in eyeliner is hot!!:D

August is never my most productive month either but I have trained my lot, well kind of, I have two boys, 5 and 7, that when I'm in the 'office' in the morning if there isn't blood I don't need to know! Before I get a worst mother award I check on them regularly and always go and see why they are so quiet...:eek:

Gx

Sorry... I'm stilll not putting any makeup on , I'd look like Coco the clown. :rotfl:... Maybe I can train my 2 girls to use "dragon naturally speaking" to do my work for me.. but then the work would revolve around fireman sam, Im sure..
Anyway, Ive set out a plan for tomorrow, just a half days work to catch up, and I'm gonna have my headphones on to drown out extraneous noises - ("Ludovico Einaudi" playlist on youtube, brilliant for getting me relaxed and in the zone)

millionaire_in_training

Hi there. Good for you for facing up to this. I agree with some of the comments made by others i.e the money spent on entertaining the kids. My kids at that age were more than happy with a trip to the park. Lets face it at that age they are barely going to remember what you have done so spending a fortune doing 'things' with them is probably a waste. Hope that makes sense. An instance I have of this is my friend took her 11 yr old to Lanzarote for 2 weeks, at huge expense, they came and joined me and my kids for 1 night in a wee basic caravan and I heard her saying to her mum- ' sure this is great mum? I am having a brilliant time' so it isn't the money spent but more the time spent that is important .

Can your partner increase their earnings in any way?

Verbatim

Hi
Do you actually need two cars? As cars are very expensive to run having just one would considerably ease the burden. I'd also guess that the grocery bill and gas/ electrics could come down a lot and by easing off on the presents you'd be able to close the gap. If the budget is more a wish list than reality perhaps a spending diary would be the way to check where the money is really going?

shaunyb

millionaire_in_training wrote: »

Hi there. Good for you for facing up to this. I agree with some of the comments made by others i.e the money spent on entertaining the kids. My kids at that age were more than happy with a trip to the park. Lets face it at that age they are barely going to remember what you have done so spending a fortune doing 'things' with them is probably a waste. Hope that makes sense. An instance I have of this is my friend took her 11 yr old to Lanzarote for 2 weeks, at huge expense, they came and joined me and my kids for 1 night in a wee basic caravan and I heard her saying to her mum- ' sure this is great mum? I am having a brilliant time' so it isn't the money spent but more the time spent that is important .

Can your partner increase their earnings in any way?

True. We have a few parks round here and they get so excited at the mention of it, so that will certainly be a feature. Once the kids are back at school, my wife can then resume "work" so to speak, so hoping we can both increase to some extent.

Verbatim wrote: »

Hi
Do you actually need two cars? As cars are very expensive to run having just one would considerably ease the burden. I'd also guess that the grocery bill and gas/ electrics could come down a lot and by easing off on the presents you'd be able to close the gap. If the budget is more a wish list than reality perhaps a spending diary would be the way to check where the money is really going?

To be honest, yes and no for the cars. Sometimes I need a car to go and work for my ex-boss while my wife uses hers to take the kids to school. Both cars are of little value, and fully paid for, and between us, the fule bills are quite small.

I'm certainly going to be more in control of whats being spent now, and will begin writing down what is spent.

Thanks once again

millionaire_in_training

shaunyb keeping a spending diary is an amazing eye opener. Well it was for me. I don't spend a penny now without writing it down and sometimes it stops me from actually spending money as I don't want to confess . Now the only person seeing my diary is me but ti still acts as my conscience. I add up what I've spent at the end of the month and compare tot he month before. Sometimes I am happy with my totals and others not so and that ends up giving me a mental kick up the a$$. I really wish you luck with this as you seem keen to sort things out and are open to all suggestions thrown at you.

getmore4less

You seem to have business and personal all mixed up.

You are going to have to seperate them so you know exactly what is business debt and what income you can take.

I would look at gettting your car expences into the business

How many times to you actualy need the car taxis/hire might be an option.


Cars you say fully paid for but have 2 car debts on the list?

shaunyb

millionaire_in_training wrote: »

shaunyb keeping a spending diary is an amazing eye opener. Well it was for me. I don't spend a penny now without writing it down and sometimes it stops me from actually spending money as I don't want to confess . Now the only person seeing my diary is me but ti still acts as my conscience. I add up what I've spent at the end of the month and compare tot he month before. Sometimes I am happy with my totals and others not so and that ends up giving me a mental kick up the a$$. I really wish you luck with this as you seem keen to sort things out and are open to all suggestions thrown at you.

Thanks! The wife and I sat down and worked out loads of meal combinations that have already reduced our food bill (family of 4) to £50 a week while we are struggling (im a fussy eater too, so this is good for us!).

getmore4less wrote: »

You seem to have business and personal all mixed up.

You are going to have to seperate them so you know exactly waht is busisness debt and what income you can take.

I would look at gettting your car expences into the business

How many times to you actualy need the car taxis/hire might be an option.


Cars you say fully paid for but have 2 car debts on the list?

Yeah... the 2 debts are from previous occasions .... dont ask.. well yeah I was a taxi driver once and needed my own car, which then went in an accident.. job lost, car written off, defaulted on loan (long story)

The wife takes the kids to school each day in her car and mine only gets used if I go to help out my ex boss... which could be 2 days one week, and then 2 months at home.. its very close to home and Im lucky to use £5 in a week if I use it for a full week, which is rare. It also comes in handy if one ever breaks down.. thats been my thinking so far though - weve also used my car for vacations as its larger and she prefers her car for driving.

Im really thinking that with me being more focused working, (sorted out some quiet space in the home, and times), plus food reductions, plus trying to negotiate a few direct debits for better providers we m,ight be able to find £200 or so a month to start tackling the high APR debts first. Ive also emailed a crdit union to se if they can provide help with consolidation in the immediate term.

Thanks again all...

getmore4less

Work out what it costs to have the second car just sitting there doing nothing which it seems to do most of the time.

Tax, insurance, MOT etc.

If the other work place is close and uses £5 for a full week thats sounds like around 4-5 miles you don't need a car for that.

One car need to be in the business and justify its cost from the income that comes from its use


How far are the schools and OH work?


Personaly I think chipping away at the edges is not enough.

Currently you are not even meeting the minimum payments and will struggle even with the cutbacks you have identified.

With interest frozen on all unsecured debt you need £782pm to pay these off in 5 years which is about the max length of time to look at DMPs any longer and they are less appropriate

Look at this seriously, you need to up your income big time if you are going to do anything with this debt.

Your self employment is just not generating enough income.

If it is not possible to up income you may want to have a look at other options.

You have no assets(secured debts exceed the house value)

I think that unless there is a turnaround on the income you need to do something more drastic than a few cutbacks.

shaunyb

Thanks getmoreforless,


The second car costs about £700/year when working out those extras. I forgot to add that its also used for transporting a mower to cut a relatives lawn once a fortnight as well.

Im going to look at lowering the costs on that..
weve just been through stuff, and feel that:

working harder we can produce an extra £200 a month
saving food costs by £200 a month
taking £200 a month out of business instead of reinvesting it, and then weve got £600 a month

if we tackle our first 2 biggest debts at £6500, we'll have cleared them in 10.8 months, then after that we should have around £1000 as those 2 debts are costing us £520 a month (business credit card and greenwoods).

with that £1000 a month we can do a lot, so now we feel much more optimistic.

Gonna get myseklf sorted now.

MANY THANKS

getmore4less

business credit card

why is this in the personal accounts and not the business?