help help help!!!

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Hi NB,

The obvious thing to do would be to down size on your house e.g from a 400K
to a 200K house. This would reduce your biggest outgoing i.e your mortgage.

Understandably you may not want to do this.

If you make big changes you maybe able to avoid doing that.

There is nothing in the SOA for holidays, birthdays, hair cuts. Did you not have any of these last year ?

Keep up the good work.

Best,

justmarried06

Hi Nat, welcome to the board.

A few thoughts for you:

Could you break down the insurance costs into each one for us? Are they all at the cheapest level and are any due for renewal that you could do through Quidco and earn some cashback?

Same goes with the utilities, £170pm seems awful high, check out the Utilities board or a site like https://www.uswitch.co.uk to see if you can bring these down.

Can you split the phones down too - does this cover landline or just mobiles? Do you both need mobiles, are you on the cheapest tariffs, do you PAYG?

You don't say how many you are feeding but £300 is a bit high, see the Old Style board for loads of fab ideas to cut this (and there are some rather nice recipes on there as well!!)

Am presuming that the petrol costs are for two cars - is this right? If so do you need both, could you car share for work or use public transport.

You don't mention stuff like TV licence, Sky if you have it, what about things like haircuts, clothes, entertaining/going out and all the sundry stuff that all adds up?

JM xx

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Do you have sky ? (as I can not see it on the SOA)

Phones seem very, very high. Does this include internet. Do you use pay as you go mobiles ?

Do you have 2 cars ?

Can you break the £200 on insurances down to specifics.

nattybone

all the birthday stuff and haircuts went on the overdraft. there is myself and hubby and two kids. I get my friend to cut our hair approx £25 for all of us every 3 months. Dont know if we deserve a birthday budget! and alas no hols for us either...we like being at home...which I guess is a good thing!

On the downsize thing...I doubt we are going to emerge with much equity to put down for a new mortgage so wont the rpts be high? and rate bad?

also ...part of our income is from the two lodgers...who bring in £610 per month...which we probably cant have in a smaller house for 200k?( we have the kids sharing a bedroom at the mo)

how about we fill the airing cupboard with a small family of lodgers?

tee hee !

nattybone

So... we dont have tv/sky..cant stand it.

phones are 18 talk talk internet. 15 talk talk land line. 25 my mob. 25 hubbys mob. both mobs on contract.til later this year.

Food is to feed 3 adults (two of us and 1 lodger) and 2 kids and includes washing powder and toiletries etc is £300 per month alot ya think?

also insurances and utilities have been switched using u switch. gas an elec npower online on budget dd. seems about right for usage. water is what it is!

car ins kwik fit and asda ( just renewed). thru search engine from martin.

Insurance breakdown is:

£40 life ins
£12 income protection
£40 horse box
£21 horse ins
£30 dog ins
£60 car ins's (for both cars)

many thanks again!



cant do car shares as live in rural dorset. hubby just changed car for diesel so better than before but he travels 80 miles per day.

lynzpower

do you have any other horse costs apart from the box& insurance such as stabling, feed etc?

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Hi NB,

Maybe post an updated SOA with all the aditional info i.e income from lodgers, insurance break downs include monthly cost for birthdays., mobiles

so all your incomings and out goings are listed in one page, broken down to as much detail as possible.

Best,

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Can't see any thing on the SOA for car MOT / repairs. ??

nattybone

i have to say that I am so blown away by you guys on here and respect what you are achieving in your own situations. :beer:

I am so cross at myself for allowing myself to get to this point. The light bulb moment is definately here.

What is the weirdest is that up until 3 years ago I didnt have any debt at all except for a easily managed little mortgage of 80k on repayment.

Due to a huge drop in the sale price of a property when we desperately wanted to move back to our family and friends in Dorset, we lost a massive amount of our equity and didnt down size. In fact we upsized a bit. What were we thinking???!!!Since then the loans and cards and overdrafts have emerged and i feel like a little girl who has got lost somewhere. Hey, I dont even feel like I'm a grown up yet!!!

At the end of the day I know if it all went pop that it doesnt really matter as we are happy as a family and believe in God who is so much bigger than mortgages and loan and cards and debts. the weird thing is that i would be happy to live in a mobile home and be debt free and be able to spend time with my kids instead of dashing around working my behind off! How can I restore the balance??

Anyway...here goes...the amended SOA:

Alas have not budgeted for mot, tax and repairs....have forecasted below...good thinkin!think £50 pm ok?

Also horse expenses are currently met by me looking after two others for other people, so apart from horse box ins and horse ins I am ticking over on the other costs.

Amended SAO:

Incoming

Partners Income: £1400pm
My income £950pm
Lodgers Income £610pm
Benefits etc £150 pm

Outgoings:

Mtge: £1350 pm

gas /elec /water £170pm

council tax £300 ( paying off some from last year as house hadnt been valued.)will be £170 from April 2007

Internet £18pm
Home phone £15pm
My mob £25pm
Hubbys mob £25pm

insurances:
£40 life ins
£12 income protection
£40 horse box
£21 horse ins
£30 dog ins
£60 car ins's (for both cars)

Food £300pm

Petrol £200 pm

Car repairs & tax £50 pm

repayments on loan and credit cd £525 pm

DEBTS:

Mtge 275k on var rate with c and g. Still in tie in until april 07 and unsure whether can change to a different supplier based on income multiples now(used to work at bank when got this one and strings were pulled)

northern rock 10 yr loan started oct 05 25k on 5.9%

m and s credit card 5k on 3.9% life of bal transfer(paying min per mnth £250)

two overdrafts:

1 at LTSB 5k at 10% apr
1 at A & L 5k at 0% until Oct 07

house value approx 400k

Any ideas greatly appreciated...

inthegreen

Your dog insurance looks high is it for 1 dog or more?

Your horse insurance looks low who are you with? Some of my debt was through a certain company refusing to pay my vets bills on my last horse.

Could you get a sharer for your horse? Could you do livery services for anyone else in addition to the other 2 to earn some cash? What about mot's, servicing fuel etc for the horsebox? do you take other people in the horsebox, are they paying a decent rate for you to take them? (not profit but making sure you cover costs)

Very envious of you living in Dorset though!