My financial affairs - AKA Why am I always skint?

klfairy

Tixy wrote: »

I hope its the £400 one? Pay it off asap, only pay minimums on everything else (and certainly don't start savings until its paid).
Then hit him round the head with the statement And tell him to cut the card up.

It is the £400 one, thankfully. If the card hasn't been cut up, it will be.

It's a big deal for me to face all this, having been in a sticky patch myself some years ago. I stopped opening letters and panicked every time I had to think about money. I wish I could hand over responsibility for finances to someone else, but I can't.

RAS

Hi

You appear to have only put OH's overdraft on the revised SOA. Can you add your as well.

And at 34%, if OH pays the minimum on that card, his debt will actually increase over the year. Never mind any cash charges.

Can I suggest that you both sit doen with all bank and card statements for the last 6 months and work out where the money has gone?

Also that you both get your credit records from the reference agencies?

Catslovelycats

klfairy
Sounds like you're doing a good job of starting to get your head around all the spending.
I don't earn as much as you both do/did but I found/still am finding a spending diary is invaluable in helping me to see where my money is really going, rather than where I think it's going.
This year I started to save money 'religiously' - a standing order goes out on payday to an ISA that doesn't get touched. I found it hard at first but now am used to the money not being there (not that it's a lot).
Once you've started to clear your CCs, I defo recommend regular savings that you won't get tempted to dip into.
All the best!

klfairy

I do that with an ISA too, but it has had to be used the last few months. It doesn't help that OH's job currently pays weekly (by cheque!) so I'm always worrying about when the bills are coming out.

I've done a calculator thing and worked out that if we pay £120/month to Capital One, it'll be cleared in 4 months. We have a few things to ebay so that should knock a chunk off.

I really appreciate the help, thank you all. It's hard enough dealing with my own stuff but straightening out OH is hard work too.

foxgloves

I think your energy payments seem really high. We are currently paying £82 a month for both gas & electricity. Remember that every time someone leaves a light on when they are not in the room, tops up the bath with extra hot water, puts the heating on or turns it up when they are sitting there in a t-shirt in winter, boils a whole kettle of water for just one cup of tea, leaves gadgets on stand-by, etc, it is costing you money. We have swapped around suppliers in the past, but nothing got our monthly payments down as successfully as simply cutting out all the silly energy-wasting we were doing ourselves. Give it a try. Make it a challenge. My husband used to say (his LBM came a little bit later than mine....) 'Yes, I've left 2 lights on, really that's only going to be pence', but of course all those pence over a year & over lots of gadgets, lights, etc, add up & when he saw that we were cutting our bills by pounds, he became as hot as me about switching things off. We're debt-free now for the first time this year after a long time, and if there's is one thing we've learned, it's that all those small savings add up. We wouldn't go outside into the street & drop all our spare change down the drain every day, would we? It's just a change of mentality, which once you get it, can really help you get those debts paid off, while developing the budgeting skills needed to ensure that you don't get in this situation again in future. Best of luck with it. It can be done. My partner got on board with it & had his own LBM when he saw how determined I was, & realised how much more freedom we'd have to do stuff in future is we didn't have so much debt to service every month. Neither of us have ever looked back.

MFWannabe

klfairy wrote: »

Revised SOA below.

Currently no life assurance. I can't get any (kidney failure) and OH's policy lapsed while he was out of work. I have asked him to sort it out.

I have no idea what the interest is on the mortgage. I can't find the paperwork atm. It's recently come off the fixed rate period and iirc we looked around at the time but couldn't find a better deal.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1885
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1613
Benefits................................ 81.2
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3579.2

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 490
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 31
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 74
Electricity............................. 105 - This is HUGE; check comparison sites to see if you can get cheaper and make sure you're on the best rate
Gas..................................... 90 - This is HUGE; check comparison sites to see if you can get cheaper and make sure you're on the best rate
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 67.27
Telephone (land line)................... 43 - See if you can get this cheaper with your sat tv
Mobile phone............................ 58 - This is high; switch to lowest tariff possible or go payg
TV Licence.............................. 24.25 - This is high; or does it include any back payments? Normally £12 ish per month
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 36.62 - See comments above in phone and also take this down to lowest package
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 400 - Is this correct? You said previously there wasn't much driving going on at the mo?
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 170 - This is high; is it really worth keeping and insuring the sorned second car?
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 40
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 10
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 20
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 30
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 32 - This is high; mine is only about £5 per month. Check comparison sites for cheaper deals
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 40
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2136.14


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 100000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 102000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 86000....(490)......0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 0........(31).......0 - How much is owing here and what is the APR?
Total secured & HP debts...... 86000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
My credit card.................1865......35.67.....12.95
OH credit card 1...............3300......70........0
OH credit card 2...............400.......10........0
OH overdraft...................2200......10........0
Total unsecured debts..........7765......125.67....-

There's no mention of OH's loan or your overdraft here?
You also need to enter the APR's on the cards and overdraft listed


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,579.2
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,136.14
Available for debt repayments........... 1,443.06
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 125.67
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,317.39

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 102,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -86,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -7,765
Net Assets.............................. 8,235

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Hi
I've made some comments above where you could possibly make some cutbacks. You need to edit your soa though to include your oh's loan and your overdraft as they are still missing.
You should have a good surplus every month but obviously this is being spent somewhere; you both need to keep a spending diary to find out where it's going.
The very high interest card i would pay off in full next month; then once that moneys been paid it's gone. Then cancel the card and cut it up

klfairy

The gas and elec are both paying arrears. Payments should drop to around £50 each in Feb/March next year. OH let the TV licence lapse so I've had to take out a new one and they make you pay double for six months before dropping to £12, which will be in May. Mobile phone is for two of us. OH's contract is due up in the new year; mine not until next Autumn I think. Our combined broadband and landline is a good deal, I'm told. Apparently we need it to be superfast (I don't know why). Personally I think we could cut it back, but perhaps there's something I don't understand there.

I'm a bit concerned because all the financial stuff to do with OH's debts/things in his name are missing. I don't know the terms of his loan particularly, other than that it was for £20k over ten years. It's in his mum's name and he has 4.5 years left to pay £219 a month. Come hell or high water that debt is always paid because it's in her name. There's a sofa we bought nearly 2 years ago on some finance deal or other. It's in his name and I have no idea how much or how long is left. I do ask him to sort things, but he's not had his LBM yet. I'm not even sure I've had mine, but I know that the switch is around here somewhere.

Will try again with the SOA. I've started a spending diary, so feeling both virtuous and a cow for pestering OH. I have calculated we need £175 to buy the new clothes he needs (suit, shirts and jeans) so need to keep very focused in order to make sure it's available.

klfairy

Hopefully this is right now. Not quite sure how I'd managed to get some of the figures so wrong (stupid fingers?) but here we go...

I've learned something very important. I thought I was budgeting before, but I wasn't. I had a list of direct debits and that's really NOT the same thing. We never planned for clothing purchases, haircuts, birthdays and so on, which meant those expenses just came out of the pot and we'd struggle sometimes.
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1885
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1613
Benefits................................ 81.2
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3579.2

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 490
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 31
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 74
Electricity............................. 105
Gas..................................... 90
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 67.27
Telephone (land line)................... 43
Mobile phone............................ 58
TV Licence.............................. 24.25
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 36.62
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 400
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 95
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 40
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 10
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 20
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 32
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 40
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2031.14


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 100000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 102000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 86000....(490)......0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 0........(31).......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 86000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
My credit card.................1865......35.67.....12.95
OH credit card 1...............3300......70........0
OH credit card 2...............400.......10........0
OH Loan........................0.........219.......0
My overdraft...................2000......0.........0
OH overdraft...................2200......10........0
Total unsecured debts..........9765......344.67....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,579.2
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,031.14
Available for debt repayments........... 1,548.06
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 344.67
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,203.39

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 102,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -86,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -9,765
Net Assets.............................. 6,235

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

klfairy

Hell it's too complicated. At the actual moment of now we run one car and don't do many miles/use much petrol and OH is on lower wages. In January he will earn more but do a bit more mileage. I may or may not be back at work. If I am, then we have more miles, petrol and 2 cars to tax and insure, plus childcare. I have no idea which set of information to plonk into the SOA. Even if I do *now*, then it's still barely reliable.

Catslovelycats

HI klf
I sense your frustrations.
I have enough trouble trying to get on top of my spending, yet alone trying ti control someone else's as well!
You're doing a grand job. Don't get disheartened. This is the beginning of a very positive new future for you. Stick with it. Once you've got the numbers clear in your head, you'll start to feel in more conrtol. I promise! :beer: