Updated SOA - advice please!

jadex

lobsta100 wrote: »

Council tax............................. 174

Water rates............................. 42

Re CT - if it is true you pay it every month (i.e £2088 p/a) that you must be in Band F or higher or live in the area which collects extra levy on top of borough and Greater London Authority ones. In fact there is no such exact amount (i.e.2088) charged in the whole London - so you'd be better to check your numbers as you are maybe paying less than you think you are.
http://data.london.gov.uk/datastore/package/council-tax-bands-borough

Re water - I don't know if it is possible to have it metered for your flat, but £42 p/m is very high. Few years ago I used to pay £27 p/m based on the number of bedrooms and how many people live in the house and the fact that we had a garden. I then moved to a bigger house with water meter and paid only £125 for the whole year last year (and £115 or so the year before) and we have a garden too!

JulieGeorgiana

lobsta100 wrote: »

Can anyone suggest a car to buy outright with that profit (£3 - £4k) of similar size/ capacity to new style focus that would be cheap to run and not have a lot of costs coming soon due to age/ high mileage?

You need an older 1ltr petrol (which are very practical and economical, small runaround cars which can still fit children in them). For example, I am currently in the process of selling my car, 6 years old... never had any problems, very economical and £3k (i'm not try to sell it) my point is that you can get small reliable cars which are great cheap runarounds, which cost a minimum to run (ie. £120 tax, £280 insurance...) and MPG is still good on these cars too.

I find that my service/MoT are still going through fine on a car this age... with a minimum of issues.

So my advice to you is look on Autotrader for 6-7 year old cars and see what you can find... make sure it's got a full service history, and a minimum of owners and reasonable mileage (apx 10,000 a year is reasonable)

lobsta100

jadex wrote: »

Re CT - if it is true you pay it every month (i.e £2088 p/a) that you must be in Band F or higher or live in the area which collects extra levy on top of borough and Greater London Authority ones. In fact there is no such exact amount (i.e.2088) charged in the whole London - so you'd be better to check your numbers as you are maybe paying less than you think you are.
http://data.london.gov.uk/datastore/package/council-tax-bands-borough

Re water - I don't know if it is possible to have it metered for your flat, but £42 p/m is very high. Few years ago I used to pay £27 p/m based on the number of bedrooms and how many people live in the house and the fact that we had a garden. I then moved to a bigger house with water meter and paid only £125 for the whole year last year (and £115 or so the year before) and we have a garden too!

So it turns out I do only make 10 monthly payments as I am in Band E, £1739/yr! So looks like cashflow in Feb and March will be easier!

I am with Thames Water - do you know how often they take payment? I was basing the amount in the SOA on the last amount taken by direct debit and I assumed it was quarterly.

JulieGeorgiana

I pay water monthly (£41.44pcm) which is not metered. I know having a meter can save you a LOT of money which is why £42 is said to be high.

lobsta100

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

I pay water monthly (£41.44pcm) which is not metered. I know having a meter can save you a LOT of money which is why £42 is said to be high.

So you pay the same as me then.

What do those on meters tend to pay?

lobsta100

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

You need an older 1ltr petrol (which are very practical and economical, small runaround cars which can still fit children in them). For example, I am currently in the process of selling my car, 6 years old... never had any problems, very economical and £3k (i'm not try to sell it) my point is that you can get small reliable cars which are great cheap runarounds, which cost a minimum to run (ie. £120 tax, £280 insurance...) and MPG is still good on these cars too.

I find that my service/MoT are still going through fine on a car this age... with a minimum of issues.

So my advice to you is look on Autotrader for 6-7 year old cars and see what you can find... make sure it's got a full service history, and a minimum of owners and reasonable mileage (apx 10,000 a year is reasonable)

Does this look a good deal? Is it a good car in people's opinions?:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201201439079393/sort/priceasc/usedcars/price-to/4000/price-from/3000/fuel-type/diesel/quantity-of-doors/5/maximum-age/up_to_7_years_old/transmission/automatic/maximum-mileage/up_to_60000_miles/body-type/hatchback/radius/1501/page/1/postcode/nw41ls?logcode=p

Credit-Crunched

lobsta100 wrote: »

Does this look a good deal? Is it a good car in people's opinions?:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201201439079393/sort/priceasc/usedcars/price-to/4000/price-from/3000/fuel-type/diesel/quantity-of-doors/5/maximum-age/up_to_7_years_old/transmission/automatic/maximum-mileage/up_to_60000_miles/body-type/hatchback/radius/1501/page/1/postcode/nw41ls?logcode=p

Personallayh I would not touch a french car with a barge pole!

The hydrauilics in the citroen fail all the time and the parts are through the roof.

Look for Japense or German or some fords mondeo, focus

Verbatim

lobsta100 wrote: »

So it turns out I do only make 10 monthly payments as I am in Band E, £1739/yr! So looks like cashflow in Feb and March will be easier!

I am with Thames Water - do you know how often they take payment? I was basing the amount in the SOA on the last amount taken by direct debit and I assumed it was quarterly.

I'm with Thames Water and I believe it's over 10 months with Feb and March "free" just like the CT is. We have a 7 bed Victorian house unmetered and pay almost £49 a month, so your monthly bill looks high for a 2 bed flat.

sunday_girl

How long will your mortgage remain at 2.5%? You are paying a very low amount at the moment for a mortgage of that size and if your interest rate went up it doesn't look like you would be able to absorb it.

miggy

Sunday-girl: I noticed the OP was previously overpaying the mortgage by £150 a month, though how long for, I don't know. Just saying there may be less capital owed than we might expect.