Keeping up appearances.......

HappyNow

merlot123 wrote: »

Your SOA doesn't look too bad. Are you sourcing the pet food from the cheapest place? Pet insurance, have you checked recently you are getting the best deal. (Make sure you use Quidco/cashback website for any purchases you make).

Where in the SOA is the second mortgage for the rental property? ( may have missed it).

Do you currently pay your council tax over 10 months? If so, February and March are free months, so use that money to repay your highest APR debt.

I would say the present amount each month is alot. I'm going to say also you cannot really afford a holiday this year.

Do you have anything you can sell on Ebay to repay some of these debts a little quicker?

Make a note in your RL diary about the gift tags, I buy alot of my Christmas gifts in the sales and I pop a note in my diary of where they are kept and who I have bought for, otherwise I would forget by December.

merlot123

Thanks for your input

Yes, after years of not bothering I have now sourced the cheapest animal suppliers, and I will keep re-checking it for special offers etc. The dog insurance is due for renewal this month and I will shop round carefully.

The rental property was bought by re-mortgaging our own home, so the £458 is our only mortgage. We would have been mortgage-free if we hadn't bought it so I hope it ends up being a worthwhile investment.

I do intend to pay more on our credit cards in Feb and March when we don't have council tax so that should really help.

I agree about the pressies - we have always done it and it's part of the reason for our debt. The children are adults now so I will explain to them that we will be reducing the amounts, and I have already spoken to other family members and agreed we won't buy for each other in future.

We haven't had a holiday for several years so the holiday fund account is a new idea, but I agree it is a luxury and if things get tight that fund will be the first to stop.

Yes, I do have some things to Ebay but I have been putting it off 'cos I don't really know how to go about it! I pledge to learn that within the next week or two.

Good tip about putting the gift tags in my diary - now done!

Thanks again for your lovely suggestions x

PinotGrigio41

poohbear59 wrote: »

Have you had a look at the monthly grocery challenge on here? That is where I started to make savings. We are now feeding 4 adults on £100 per month (I have two sons at home for now).

How on earth are you managing that Poohbear ? Thats amazing !

HappyNow

chevalier wrote: »

My comments are in blue. Hope they help
Originally Posted by HappyNow

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household.........(but 2 children both at uni so here at holidays and still needing some financial support, entered in Child Costs)) they can't get temp jobs to help out? One child is fine and we don't contribute at all as he has a job and cheap accomodation. The other child unfortunately is in really expensive halls (our fault - we just did not get round to applying when the cheaper options were available). Her loan doesn't even cover her board/food and although she does have a part-time job there she literally couldn't manage without our support. In September she will have cheaper accom so we will withdraw or reduce our payment.
Number of cars owned.................... 2 can they be downgraded to take account of cheaper insurance. They are already both quite old - in fact we really need to look at replacing the most ancient one within a year or so, which is a worry!
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1702
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1493 Can either of you earn any extra money, eg from mystery shopping? Maybe you could do this, if you want to keep it a secret? Ie in your lunch break? Yes, I am definitely going to do this.
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 400 Is this the rental from the house? When was the last time the rent was reviewed? If more than a year, than I would expect a rental increase. It is the house rental, but it is the most we could charge for it really. Our current tenants are moving out this month and they were paying us less. We will probably have a month with no rental income at all during the changeover so that will be a problem for January's budget.
Total monthly income.................... 3595
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 458
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Council tax............................. 197 Ouch is this over 10 months or 12 you can ask to switch over. Over ten months and I will be putting the two free month's money towards our cards.
Electricity............................. 81 Again hope your new habits brings this down, and well done on the new tariff. Thanks - I am being very economical with it.
Coal..................................... 75 Is this for the heating? Hot water? Can you stockpile some in the summer when maybe charges are lower? Could you burn free wood instead? Yes, it is for heating but not hot water (which is via immersion heating, now permanently switched off - shower/washer/dishwasher all heat their own water. No-one in the house has even noticed!) Our stoves won't stay lit with wood but I will try to stock up with coal at summer prices.
Water rates............................. 0 (we have a bore hole supply)
Telephone (land line)................... 12
Mobile phone............................ 94 (includes internet) Still seems pretty high, but I think you said you had already checked the tariffs? For 3 mobiles? Is one for work? That was the Old Me - 'iphones all round'! Won't happen again!
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 34 (Sky Movies will be cancelled in 5 months
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 280 So for most of the time this if for two of you only? Does this also include the pet food? If not then this is a bit on the high side. There are lots of tasty cheap meal ideas on the Old Style Forum. I am definitely going to reduce this
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 360
Road tax................................ 42
Car Insurance........................... 59 I am assuming that this and the road tax are for 2 cars?
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 10
Other child related expenses............ 125
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 80
Buildings insurance..................... 29
Contents insurance...................... included with buildings Have you got landlords insurance for the rental? If not this could be a false economy if the tenants trashed the place...Also do you do a tax return for the property to make sure you don't owe tax? Also the mortgage interest on the property can be offset against tax too I think. Yes, we do have landlords insurance but I forgot to include it! It has just come up for renewal and I am shopping around. The lowest quote is £120. We do claim the mortgage interest against tax and it brings our profit down to virtually zero (that will change of course as the mortgage reduces/rent increases).
Life assurance ......................... 20
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50 How about the challenge of a money neutral christmas eg, selling things on ebay to fund this? Or else making things for presents instead of buying them. If you aren't very crafty, the keep an eye on the Grabbit board, as there are often bargains on there, but only if you are quick. Thanks, I will definitely do this.
Haircuts................................ 28
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 50
Emergency fund.......................... 20 do you have a lot in this already? You might consider paying off debt an emergency. No, we have nothing in it - it's my new idea. Previous emergencies were always straight on the credit cards!
Savings - furniture/car needed.......... 88
Hobbies................................. 200 could you do this less frequently. Or could these hobbies make you any extra money? Difficult. This is the only area where my husband spends any money and it is his life. I'm worried about being 'identifiable' if I give too much detail, but it's a form of motorsport which is quite expensive - we have spent MUCH more than £200 per month on it in the past so this is quite a reduction. As it is also likely to be the base of my son's career I feel we are committed to it, but we will reduce the spending as much as possible. Both of them do sometimes earn money from it (which is why I hope we can manage on £200 now) but anything earned goes straight back into their expenses.
Pet costs............................... 120
Total monthly expenses.................. 2595

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 300000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 80000
Total Assets............................ 382000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 58320....(458)......4.9?
Total secured & HP debts...... 58320.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
credit cards...................64079.....960.......6.9 would suggest putting the actual balances and apr's in here. It will seem less daunting, if you can focus on one card. Also if 6.9% is an average then some will be lower and some higher, ideally you need to pay off the higher apr cards first. I will do that, thanks.
overdraft......................5000......30....... .12.9 I read something about Santander matching overdrafts for 12 months for free if you switched to them, but not sure if that would be a help. I think we will stay put for now but bear it in mind as a possibility for the future if our charges/fees increase.
overdraft......................500.......10....... .12.9
Total unsecured debts..........69579.....1000......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,595
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,595
Available for debt repayments........... 1,000
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 1,000
Amount left after debt repayments....... 0
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 382,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -58,320
Total Unsecured debt.................... -69,579
Net Assets.............................. 254,101

Good luck with your ongoing debt busting. Have a look at the snowball calculator I think it is at the top of the debt free wannabe forum. Then you will have a debt free date to work towards. The snowball is my next job!
chev

Thanks so much for taking the time to comment. Very thought-provoking and much appreciated . I have responded to each comment in red. x

PinotGrigio41

Jsut reading through your SOA, I cant believe how organised you are. I have yet to do the snowball calculator, I am using the dates given to me by CCCS when I roiginally looked at a DMP although I think it actually will be less. I think a part of me is putting off looking at it really ! 2031 is bad enough, what if it tells me its going to be longer ?!

Our cars are both quite old, actually one is particularly. I am also worried about replacing it and how we are goign to fund it. For the moment though it is still going strong, if a little chuggy and as silly as it sounds I do love it ( was a lovely car in its day and I certainly wont ever be having another one like it !) and it holds lots of memories. Sentimental old fool that I am !

Hope you have a good day today x

sharp910sh

Your debt is quite high, but the good thing is that you have a lot of equity, in the two houses.

What are you jobs, could you increase your salary?

poohbear59

Here is a link to January Grocery Challenge http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3695287 I haven't used it for a long time now but when I first started out on here it was a massive help to me.

And here is weezl's http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/ How to feed a family of four for £100 a week.

I grow lots of my own vegetables, we also have rabbits, trout and salmon for free ocassionally. My friend grows far too many vegetables so we get a lot from her too. Towards the end of last year we were given sacks of potatoes from someone on Freegle.

PinotGrigio41

How's your day gone Happy Now ? You ok?

HappyNow

sharp910sh wrote: »

Your debt is quite high, but the good thing is that you have a lot of equity, in the two houses.

What are you jobs, could you increase your salary?

Thanks for the reply . Yes, I suppose the equity means that our longer-term prospects are good, it's just the present that's a bit tight.

No, there are no options for overtime/good salary increases in either of our jobs. We've both actually had a salary freeze this year, but some people in our jobs have actually had redundancies or pay cuts, so we're counting our blessings at the moment

HappyNow

poohbear59 wrote: »

Here is a link to January Grocery Challenge http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3695287 I haven't used it for a long time now but when I first started out on here it was a massive help to me.

And here is weezl's http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/ How to feed a family of four for £100 a week.

I grow lots of my own vegetables, we also have rabbits, trout and salmon for free ocassionally. My friend grows far too many vegetables so we get a lot from her too. Towards the end of last year we were given sacks of potatoes from someone on Freegle.

Thanks so much for that and I am going to sign up for the Grocery Challenge. Payday on Friday (usually 15th but earlier if it falls on a weekend) so starting then!

We have a big garden and could easily spare some for veggie growing - I'm just held back due to lack of time and zero expertise! I pledge to grow at least something this year though, and I will get out my dusty old books and have a read up. Thanks for inspiring me

HappyNow

PinotGrigio41 wrote: »

How's your day gone Happy Now ? You ok?

Hi Pinot

Yes, it wasn't a bad day thanks, just a bit frustrating because hubby was using the computer all night and I couldn't get on here! I spent an hour or two calculating January's finances though, and it is going to be a TERRIBLE month. My new, fixed budget can't really come into play until February which is a real shame.


January's financial problems:

• The tenants of our rental house are moving out next week. They've been great and there shouldn't be much work to do before we get new ones in, but there will be minor repairs/touch-up painting so I need to allow £100 or so for that (it always looks shabby when the pictures come off the wall etc and I do want to attract a good new tenant).
• The landlord insurance is due on the rental house. I've shopped round for quotes (go me!) and got a good price of £121 for the year, but it's still a lot to find.
• While it's empty there will be no rent coming in. We THINK we have a new tenant interested, but it's not definite yet, and even if they want it and the Refs come in OK, we will still have at least 1/2 weeks with no rent (so up to £200).
• Daughter's laptop was broken when she came home from uni. We thought it would be a minor repair but it's worse than we thought and un-economic to repair so we have to buy a new one which will be straight on the credit card . We will shop round for a cheap one, but still........
• Daughter's uni accomodation fees are due this month. Because we were slow applying last year (Old Me - New Me wouldn't do that!) all the cheaper places were gone, and her loan is £600 short of covering it. We paid half the shorfall in October but the remaining £300 is due in January. That won't happen next year as she will be sharing a house, so it is a 'one-off'.

So, all in all January will be very tight. BUT I'm not depressed about it and I will just suck it up, cut back as much as we possibly can and be philosophical about it. At least now I can accept these as unavoidable expenses and I have plans in place to sort things out. I couldn't have said that a month ago!

Ha, how depressing, bet you wish you'd never asked Pinot!

Got to do some work now (working from home - yay!) but I will be back at lunchtime to catch up on everyone else's diaries and try and get my snowball done.