De-lurking for budget advice

TeaForOne

Hello money saving experts. I've been lurking, and hope you may be able to help me make my budget guesswork more like an estimate.

I am about to leave my husband (he doesn't know yet and I feel like a real heel for talking behind his back, but I need disinterested opinion) and I'm trying to plan my finances. One of the reasons (there are other reasons I won't go into) for leaving is his attitude to money: he takes no responsibility and has never understood that me saying "we can't afford it" is not me being mean. The final straw has been his purchase of a new car that's impractical, expensive, uneconomical and I felt bullied into "approving" what he was buying.

I have colluded in his denial, though. We've taken holidays we shouldn't have and over the years I have transferred his cc debts to my name to get low interest rates (he just won't do it himself) and despite being a bit of a rate tart I'm not on top of it. I want to be pretty much debt free in 2 years; I accept it may need to be 3 if the house doesn't sell.

So anyway, below is my SOA but it's a bit of a guess because the rent may be less, and I really have no idea what gas/elec/water/contents insurance will be.

The mortgage in the SOA is half the actual mortgage we owe - this is my "half" which I intend to continue to pay partly because I feel it's only fair (I'm the one who is leaving), partly to protect myself and partly to ensure we don't default (the £400 is enough on its own to keep bank happy I think).

The £100 other income is from our son who is paying me for a car I paid for for him.

The credit card debt is what's in my name. My H has his own of about the same size.

The personal pension is additional to my occupational pension (deducted from salary)

Questions:

- can anyone help by telling me what they pay for utilities for 2 bed terraced house and/or 1/2 bed flat?

- what are the flaws in my plan? What have I forgotten?

Need to have the finances as sound as possible so I can concentrate on the really difficult stuff next.

Thanks


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2430
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 100
Total monthly income.................... 2530

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 400
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 194
Rent.................................... 450
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 80
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 20
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 20
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 35
TV Licence.............................. 15
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 140
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 80
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 40
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 60
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 12
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 30
Life assurance ......................... 40
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 30
Entertainment........................... 30
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 20
personal pension........................ 70
gym..................................... 22
Total monthly expenses.................. 1908


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 150000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 155000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 38000....(400)......0.5<
Car loan.......................3070.....(194)......7.8
Total secured & HP debts...... 41070.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Capital One....................3030......300.......0
Barclays.......................3577......100.......0
NatWest........................6329......100.......0
Tesco..........................4762......100.......0
Total unsecured debts..........17698.....600.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,530
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,908
Available for debt repayments........... 622
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 600
Amount left after debt repayments....... 22

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 155,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -41,070
Total Unsecured debt.................... -17,698
Net Assets.............................. 96,232

Created using the SOA calculator at makesenseofcards [sorry had to take link out of here as am newbie]
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Oregon

No advice from me (someone more knowledgable will be along soon though) but just to say **hugs**

Keep smiling x

Horace

Depending on where you are rent can be more than £450 a month and you will need to pay a deposit too so that could end up being two months rent in advance (one for deposit and one for rent). For instance my rent is £525 a month for an unfurnished 3 bed flat (described as 3 bed but I use the smallest as an office - you could probably stick a cot in here but nothing bigger than that). My council tax is around £800 a year (although as I get housing benefit due to being a low income, I don't pay council tax).

Some water boards have single person rates - I have a single person rate because I cannot have a water meter fitted into my flat - my water bill is around £90 a year.

I have the cheapest tariff for electricity with Scottish Power and pay them £39 a month. I do not have gas.

My contents insurance was £130 for the year which gave me £75K of cover and included some high priced items that had to be listed separately,

Hope this helps?

Also cooking for one is cheaper so you might be able to shave some money off the grocery budget too.

Good Luck

PS. Start squirrelling money away in a separate account that he does not have access to and more importantly one that he cannot find by opening the post.

TeaForOne

Horace - thanks that's really useful. Already have a secret account - saving up for a deposit. There are lots of properties for £450 pcm and under where I'll be living so that's realistic.

Oregon - thanks for hugs. I'll be needing lots of those.

Oregon

You can PM me anytime hun. I've been there so you can use me as a sounding board if you need x