Help Help Help (and please be nice....!)

kelzbelz_04

Hi Everyone,

My partner and I have been struggling financially for as long as we can remember .... me going back to uni didnt help but im now finished and with an ok job.

He is self employed but has exisiting debts from years ago, and an overdraft, loan etc etc that we cant shift, although his salary is pretty good. We originally posted on the loans board yesterday but realised that it would be best to do a full honest SOA in his own name, with his own debts ....

We have done and the results are scary and upsetting.
I just wondered if anyone could suggest, if they have a minute, any ways to help us out - its probably good for a fresh pair of eyes to look at this.

Im really really grateful

Basically the £300 tax per month is what has been proposed by the HMRC to clear his backlog. These are all listed on the SOA but just so it makes sense, he has:
- 2000 0verdraft, costing 30 per month
- 6500 remaining on a loan, costing 174 per month
- credit card - although this is 0% for 18 months so thats not a major priority, as long as he chips away at it.

So here it is ......
We have put all the household bills in as half as I pay the other half no problems. We split everything down the middle.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,300.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.06
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.50
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.83
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366.37
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.12
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.24

Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.71
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Franchise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192.00
Accountant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00

Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174.01
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284.20
Argos Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Nationwide Credit Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Dave Payments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.02

Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.18
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.25
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.99
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00

Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.50
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312.50
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,300.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,591.48




Ps - Dave is my stepdad - we owe him back some money he leant us a while back ...just in case you wondered...

pps - Our pet food is expensive as our cats have odd food allergies, and are on a prescription diet :mad:

x x x x

Thanks againx x x x x

chunkytfg

kelzbelz_04 wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

My partner and I have been struggling financially for as long as we can remember .... me going back to uni didnt help but im now finished and with an ok job.

He is self employed but has exisiting debts from years ago, and an overdraft, loan etc etc that we cant shift, although his salary is pretty good. We originally posted on the loans board yesterday but realised that it would be best to do a full honest SOA in his own name, with his own debts ....

We have done and the results are scary and upsetting.
I just wondered if anyone could suggest, if they have a minute, any ways to help us out - its probably good for a fresh pair of eyes to look at this.

Im really really grateful

Basically the £300 tax per month is what has been proposed by the HMRC to clear his backlog. These are all listed on the SOA but just so it makes sense, he has:
- 2000 0verdraft, costing 30 per month
- 6500 remaining on a loan, costing 174 per month
- credit card - although this is 0% for 18 months so thats not a major priority, as long as he chips away at it.

So here it is ......
We have put all the household bills in as half as I pay the other half no problems. We split everything down the middle.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,300.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.06
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.50
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.83
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366.37
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.12
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.24

Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.71
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Franchise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192.00
Accountant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00

Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174.01
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284.20
Argos Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Nationwide Credit Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Dave Payments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.02

Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51.00You cant afford this atm!
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.18
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.25Freesat?
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.99
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00you cant afford this, go out less

Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.00Contact lenses I assume? you can get them in bulk online once you know your prescription and the solution from tesco's cheap
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.50You cant afford this
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312.50
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00Again this cant be afforded. pack lunches

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,300.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,591.48




Ps - Dave is my stepdad - we owe him back some money he leant us a while back ...just in case you wondered...

pps - Our pet food is expensive as our cats have odd food allergies, and are on a prescription diet :mad:

x x x x

Thanks againx x x x x

could you possibly ask Dave for a payment break?

SpagBol

The petrol seems very high, is this to do with the franchise? Are you getting the best advice for offsetting self-employment expenses against tax? Can your stepfather reduce payments for a bit? I would probably sacrifice the pension payments but that depends on your OH's age. Can you take over the utilities etc until he is on his feet?

AFK_Matrix

I am no expert but I would go along with what chunkytfg has said about cutting out stuff that you can't afford. Also has your mobile got long to run? If not then change to Pay as you go and only use it for emergencies.

And not saying you can do this but do you have a spare room that you could maybe rent out to a lodger as this would give you from £300-£600 a month depending on location, room size etc?

InsertWittyName

I'm guessing from the franchise fee & the petrol costs that OH is a driving instructor.

My real concern is that even if you had no debt payments at all, you'd only have £258.73 left each month.

Have you looked into maybe ditching the franchise and going solo?

Marco_Panettone

The Groceries at £140 - is that the total, or his half? If it's his half then it needs to (and can be!) cut by about 50%. Check out the OldStyle board for tips.

Also "Shopping for Fun" doesn't seem to be helping you enjoy life.

sueh6

Would it not easier to include both of your salaries so that you can see how you much you BOTH have left at the end of the month to repay debts? I understand that they are his debts but it sounds to me as though you are very much a pertnership ans so should maybe be approaching this differently? Out of interest how did you manage to pay the bills when you went back to Uni or did he support you? If he did then even more of a reason why these debts should be cleared together.

One thing that jumps out at me is that if the household costs are halved then £140 each on groceries is way too much - we manage on £280 per month for a family of 5 adults not two.

Sue

kelzbelz_04

Thanks all for replying so quickly!

Insertwittyname - yes he is a driving instructor - sorry i forgot to include that! I have put the fuel in as an absolute max - it is normally less but want to make sure im seeing worst case! He did think about going solo so its funny you should say that, but living in Bristol, you get to hear of all the driving schools and all the solo ones seem to be going under (gulp) ... so he decided to play safe and stick to franchise for a minute....

Spagbol - he uses a driving instructors only accountant, and they do seem to be pretty good - he fills in a cashbook daily and he puts all expenses even vaguely related to the business in, then they do the sums - the tax is high because its about 3 lots - when he purchased his car in year 1, for his pupils to learn in, he had all tax offset against it - so it was suprise when we found out we didnt owe any! we (very wronly) assumed this was for more than one year and so he didnt put any aside (massive mistake i know) and then 18 months later, they wrote asking for £4500! eeek! We called them and they have advise dhe can pay £300 per month for the next 12 months if he prefers and then see how things look....mind you im certainly no tax expert so if im completed missing a trick please let me know!

Marco - im afraid the groceries are his half! we allow £50 per week between us, so £200 per month total - £100 each. However, when we did the SOH and looked through the bank statements we found loads and loads in in-between little shops that add up massively .... so theyll need to stop for sure! - thanks

Sue - at uni I lived on my student finance! But due to the type of course (social work) I got loads of free grants and extra help... but he did support me when i needed it yes ... so perhaps we'll have to look at these more together .... Maybe i could pay the payment to my stepdad at least, which would free him up another £30 per month. And then I could pay more of the utilities as someone suggested.... thats a good idea....

AFK_Matrix .... his phone actually is up for renewal in a couple of months but he needs it for the constant calls and texts to his pupils to arrange lessons.....

Thanks again for all your comments x x x x

kelzbelz_04

Ps - Sue,

i will post our joint SOA shortly just out of interest ......... x

sulkisu

You need to post the full SOA, with both of your incomes, before anyone can give you real practical advice.

AFK_Matrix

Hi there Kelzbelz,

Well just as an example and I don't know how many txt and mins he needs but I went and looked on mobiles.co.uk and for 10pm you can get 400mins and 1000 txts and that is £17 a month saving. Have a good look round the online mobile shops and also use the cashback site topcashback so you also get more money back from getting a new contract.

What about the lodger suggestion, do you not have a spare room?