My SOA

Cyril

No comment really other than the thing that strikes me is that to help out your predicament your income needs to increase.

Being self employed bringing in 100 - 400+ and needing a car to do it is not helping your situation. You need paid employment, even part time, to provide a decent income. Self employed desires are when you are in a financial position to do it.

Either do it in the weekends / evenings or when OH earns enough to support you whilst you build up the business.

It will be very hard to budget as closely as you'll need to with fluctuating income.

Good luck though you are taking your responsibilities seriously.

HappyMJ

Charityworker wrote: »

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.

You can do it fair enough and well done but the official figure from CCCS is from £293 to £505 per month. It's already at the lower limit.

HAYLEY8005

Wow ccs is generous you can easily clean and feed a family of 4 on £300 per month unless the kids are nearly adult then a bit different mine includes pack lunches and we eat great steak and all , i could if i wanted spend lots more but i dont need too , so meal plan and do it online i find is the best way that way you know what you are spending so £75 PER week is easily achieveable

Jenjen

Cyril wrote: »

No comment really other than the thing that strikes me is that to help out your predicament your income needs to increase.

Being self employed bringing in 100 - 400+ and needing a car to do it is not helping your situation. You need paid employment, even part time, to provide a decent income. Self employed desires are when you are in a financial position to do it.

Either do it in the weekends / evenings or when OH earns enough to support you whilst you build up the business.

It will be very hard to budget as closely as you'll need to with fluctuating income.

Good luck though you are taking your responsibilities seriously.

Thanks. I do understand what you are saying. And thats why I haven't included my earnings in our budget so they will be a bonus when we get them. Fortunately the months where I don't earn anything at all are now rare so in theory we will always have more than we have budgeted for.

I have been looking for a job but have so far struggled to find anything that fits in with my husbands work hours (He is out of the house from 6.30 am until at least 7.30pm most days and he never knows if he will end up being even later than that, if something goes wrong with a clients system he has no choice but to deal with it) and my daughters nursery times. That will hopefully be a bit easier once she goes to school in September but I will continue looking in the meantime.

Thanks for your help

Jenny

Jenjen

HAYLEY8005 wrote: »

Wow ccs is generous you can easily clean and feed a family of 4 on £300 per month unless the kids are nearly adult then a bit different mine includes pack lunches and we eat great steak and all , i could if i wanted spend lots more but i dont need too , so meal plan and do it online i find is the best way that way you know what you are spending so £75 PER week is easily achieveable

I need to get my head round meal planning I think. That is on my very long to do list for this week.

Thanks

Jenny

maskerade

Hiya,

Just to add because I see a lot of DMPs from the other side from people who owe my company money we do get an itemised breakdown of the budget and £293 is the lowest I've seen for food for that many people. Other people have suggested it but you really could give yourself some breathing room by adding a bit more to that figure.

Best of luck

Jenjen

maskerade wrote: »

Hiya,

Just to add because I see a lot of DMPs from the other side from people who owe my company money we do get an itemised breakdown of the budget and £293 is the lowest I've seen for food for that many people. Other people have suggested it but you really could give yourself some breathing room by adding a bit more to that figure.

Best of luck

Thank you thats really good to know. I still keep playing with the budget calculator and figures trying to work out the right balance. We've been living beyond our means for so long its hard to know what is a realistic figure.

Jenny

tallyhoh

Worked out (if my maths is correct) that you are spending £391 a month on transport. That's more than you earn. As your OH can catch the bus most days & you only need the car for visiting occasionally, would it not be cheaper to get a taxi when needs be?

Jenjen

tallyhoh wrote: »

Worked out (if my maths is correct) that you are spending £391 a month on transport. That's more than you earn. As your OH can catch the bus most days & you only need the car for visiting occasionally, would it not be cheaper to get a taxi when needs be?

Its not really just occasional though its about 50% of his week. He only usually gets the bus 2-3 days a week. His client visits often involve carrying equipment which I know could possibly be done in a taxi but they are also often 50+ miles away from either home or the office depending where he is travelling from. His office is also 30 miles from home which doesn't help. I really wish he could get the bus more often but his boss is a pain and tends to drop visits on him at the last minute as well and expect them done yesterday.

The fuel budget allows for one tank of fuel for each of our cars although some months I will probably use less than that to be honest so we may find we have a bit of surplus there I hope.

Thanks

Jenny

HappyMJ

Does he get remimbursed for his work mileage either from work or by filling out a tax refund form from the HMRC? This tax year it is worth 45 pence per mile if work reimburses it and if not you can get a tax refund of 9 pence per mile on the 20% tax rate. That can be backdated several years if you haven't done it yet.