Is this achievable?

prettypaula

i live in nottingham, in a really nice estate, few houses up for sale here regularly (all 10 years old)

let me know via pm if u want some house links

paulmapp8306

To answer a few points. Yes i have forgotten Petrol (Damn Damn).

As I say - my contents is currently £50pm- but a lot out of house, my forces stuff, covered in a war zone, 1 mil £ public liability etc. I have no idea what house insurance costs either. Im was hoping to get it down a little.

House - Well, £350pm is worked out at 5.5% (heading off a BR rise), taken over 20 years (as Im 44 already) but with a a good deposit - somewhere around £70k. i have £18k from my mum, £8k I can take in an advance from my pension, and we have an inheritance that while we dont know exact figures, is 25% of estate which includes a 2 bed detached bungalow in Eastbourne thats full paid for. Were guessing anywhere from £30k to £60k. Working from £45k for these figures. Obviously that will change once we know firm figures (Ultimately if its £10k less well look for houses £10k less rather than pushing the monthly budget).


Gas/Elec. I currently pay £125pm Electric alone, then a further £100 into an account for our heating oil. its very expensive in NI, and no duel fuel discount. If I can get it down to £150 for both ill be happy i guess. We are in a 4 bed house here, with no cavity wall (though there is decent loft insulation), gaps around and under doors (blows in through the front in winter ) etc - and we are high power users (which we can cut if need be come the time).

Shopping. There are 4 of us, and currently spend £150 per week on average. That includes everything though - not just food but cleaning stuff, toilet roll etc, the occasional clothes, CDs, DVDs and such for the kids. we do eat well - and its not cheap over here either. i guess we have chicken, chops, roasts, stews etc every day - and currently the kids dont eat with us (they eat 5ish - we eat 7 ish) which makes cheap eating more difficult (and also costs more in elec to cook). Once we settle they will be older and we will start to eat together.

i guess its realistic to make the petrol money i forgot from savings in Gas/Elec, food and insurances? We wont need much in this worse case scenario. If neither me or the wife are working the car will be used for weekly shops, job interviews and trips to see family.

paulmapp8306

RAS wrote: »

Worth

1. Seeing if your missus can get an extra hour a week work (and note that son the other parent will need 8 hours a week to qualify). the check www.turn2us.org.uk

No idea what this means.

Tixy

paulmapp8306 wrote: »

No idea what this means.

If she works 16 hours she might be entitled to more tax credits. I think the second sentance is probably a typo and meant to say soon the other parent will need to work at least 8 hours for the family to be eligible.

paulmapp8306

Arr - OK. Well these figures are based on neither of us working at all.

I If work it will all attract Tax/NI so Ill loose 30% or so (as Ive taken my tax free element against my pension). If Nikki works then she will get her tax free element on top.

If we both worked 15 hrs min wage - we would only loose £80pm of Child Tax Credits (but not get working tax credits) and also loose around £20 pm Council Tax credit - so £100 pm BUT Id bring in around £240pm and Nikki around £360pm. So an extra £500. Were aiming for her to work 15hrs PT around the kids school (there 8 and 6) with me finding a FT job. As Im an Electronics Tech by trade and have management quals Im hoping that wont be too hard - and at more than min wage. Niki is currently doing an NVQ (or whatever its called now) 3 with work in child care (she works in a pre-school at present) so were hoping she should find work as well.

However, as Ive been out of the real world for 23 years and given the state of the country and job market - we wanted to plan on worse case. We dont want to end up back in debt by making plans that arnt achievable.