My SOA

HappyMJ

Jenjen wrote: »

We wont need to re mortgage, it was a 35 year mortgage in the first place so it will just switch to SVR with 30 yrs remaining. The plan had originally been to reduce the term at a later date but I know that wont happen for now. Thats the least of my worries right now though. We are both only 30 so the mortgage will be clear by the time we are 60 even at that. I can live with that!

Just be careful. 35 years is a very long mortgage and gives you little time to save for retirement. You also need to budget for interest rate rises so I would suggest trying to keep the repayment the same.

Jenjen

Thank you. I understand what you are saying and we never intended to keep the mortgage for as long as that, but we never intended to get into this much debt either so I need to deal with that first before I worry about the mortgage.

NeverAgain_2

Jen,

If you are confident of having £500 a month, every month, fairly soon to repay the debt, that would be a better option than bankruptcy.

And your determination to do the right thing is to be admired.

But there is a danger you will struggle with the DMP for two or three years, only to have to declare yourself bankrupt in the future.

Many people on these boards have done that.

We none of us have a crystal ball, but if your £500 a month plan isn't working smoothly within a few months, I suggest you abandon it sooner rather than later.

Jenjen

NeverAgain wrote: »

Jen,

If you are confident of having £500 a month, every month, fairly soon to repay the debt, that would be a better option than bankruptcy.

And your determination to do the right thing is to be admired.

But there is a danger you will struggle with the DMP for two or three years, only to have to declare yourself bankrupt in the future.

Many people on these boards have done that.

We none of us have a crystal ball, but if your £500 a month plan isn't working smoothly within a few months, I suggest you abandon it sooner rather than later.

Thanks. I think I need to give it a try and I'm sure our situation will omprove over time. I have a real problem with the idea of not paying it all back. We spent it so we should pay it.

Charityworker

Maybe I'm missing something here but why are you getting so little child tax credit and child benefit? I thought it was about £108 per week child tax credit for 2 children?

Charityworker

After another look I can offer some more advice. Do you really need 2 cars? I know you both need them for work but could one of you get away with a moped or push bike or a bus?

£75 on electric and £50 on gas is a lot. Can you cut this down a bit by the obvious thing - turning lights off when not needed, turning volume down on tv, only boiling what water you need for drinks, turning the heating down. Another way of getting your heating bill down is by leaving the oven door open when you have finished cooking. The heat from the oven goes into the house.

Packed lunches instead of school meals? Wow, £293 on food (minus the school dinners). Smoked salmon and truffles all round then!

chivers1977

Charity Worker

The Child Tax Credit is means tested so due to the DH's income it is reduced. I only get £10 per week plus £20pw child benefit

HappyMJ

Charityworker wrote: »

After another look I can offer some more advice. Do you really need 2 cars? I know you both need them for work but could one of you get away with a moped or push bike or a bus?

£75 on electric and £50 on gas is a lot. Can you cut this down a bit by the obvious thing - turning lights off when not needed, turning volume down on tv, only boiling what water you need for drinks, turning the heating down. Another way of getting your heating bill down is by leaving the oven door open when you have finished cooking. The heat from the oven goes into the house.

Packed lunches instead of school meals? Wow, £293 on food (minus the school dinners). Smoked salmon and truffles all round then!

You do know this is for a family of 4. If you can have smoked salmon and truffles for 80 pence per person per meal then please tell me where you get yours from. I want some too....and groceries isn't just food it's ALL groceries. Where should the cleaning products be listed in an SOA?

Charityworker

HappyMJ wrote: »

You do know this is for a family of 4. If you can have smoked salmon and truffles for 80 pence per person per meal then please tell me where you get yours from. I want some too....and groceries isn't just food it's ALL groceries. Where should the cleaning products be listed in an SOA?

I think weve had this conversation before. You can buy polish, toilet, cleaner, bleach, dusters and all purpose cleaner for about £1.50 the lot in wilkinsons and other discount stores. Washing powder is also £1.63 in wilkinsons. Cheaper in other places I believe.

As you know (but don't believe) I spend £130 a month on a family of 4 shopping.

Jenjen

Charityworker wrote: »

After another look I can offer some more advice. Do you really need 2 cars? I know you both need them for work but could one of you get away with a moped or push bike or a bus?

£75 on electric and £50 on gas is a lot. Can you cut this down a bit by the obvious thing - turning lights off when not needed, turning volume down on tv, only boiling what water you need for drinks, turning the heating down. Another way of getting your heating bill down is by leaving the oven door open when you have finished cooking. The heat from the oven goes into the house.

Packed lunches instead of school meals? Wow, £293 on food (minus the school dinners). Smoked salmon and truffles all round then!

Erm, I've never ever bought smoked salmon and truffles! And we have actually been living on far less than that for the last few months and really struggling to make the food last. I'd love some advice on how to feed a family of 4 for less than that if you have any though?

I've spoken to British Gas about the cost this morning actually and they are going to reduce our payment down a little so we will be paying £40 for gas and £70 for Electric. But we will have to monitor it closely to make sure we are not underpaying. The reason our electric is quite high is DH has alot of computer equipment running for work purposes but he is currently looking at ways he can improve the efficiency and hopefully reduce the costs. If he didn't have stuff set up at home though he would have to be in the office a lot more which would cost a lot more in travel costs.

Neither of us could manage with a push bike or moped as my business and DH's work both require us to carry a lot of stuff around. FOr me its the stock for my business which I take to set up at various events, fairs, toddler groups etc wherever I can get it in. And DH has to carry equipment to clients etc. We have considered if we can manage our diaries round each other so that we don't both need the car at the same time but it would probably mean me turning a lot of work down which defeats the object really.

Thanks for your thoughts though. Its good to see what ideas and suggestions other people have. I will try that with the oven its a good idea as my kitchen is always freezing!

Jenny