x-post - Salary cut in half overnight - Need help!

rising_from_the_ashes

mmmm won't let me quote your SOA for some reason ..... here goes:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2463
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 100
Other income............................ 100
Total monthly income.................... 2663

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 625
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 550
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 125
Electricity............................. 100 This is huge - cut consumption, check readings & bills & comparison sites
Gas..................................... 100 As above - as a comparison I pay £64 in total for both G&E
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 50 Can you get a meter?
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 80 Cut asap & switch to PAYG
TV Licence.............................. 15 Should be £12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 80 Cancel - you can still get Freeview
Internet Services....................... 20
Groceries etc. ......................... 800 This is huge too - pop to the Old Style Board & try the Grocery Challenge. Families of 4 manage on £220/month (incl toiletries, nappies, cleaning stuff) so you should be able to knock around £500/month off this
Clothing................................ 100 Cut in half
Petrol/diesel........................... 200 All essential journeys?
Road tax................................ 30
Car Insurance........................... 100 Check comparison sites
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20 Not high enough for 2 cars
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5 Needs to be at least £10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 20
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25
Haircuts................................ 0 Need something in here - £10
Entertainment........................... 0 Need something in here - £20
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0 Essential to put something in here to cover appliances breaking down etc - £50
Total monthly expenses.................. 3055


Assets
Cash.................................... 100
House value (Gross)..................... 132000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 15000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 147100

One quick win would be to sell one of the cars as you suggest - esp if you can bike to work - would save on fuel, maintenance, loan, tax, insurance etc etc

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 145000...(625)......4.5
Secured Debt.................. 15000....(500)......7.9
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 500......(50).......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 160500....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Capital One ...................1300......50........34
Virgin Mastercard..............4800......120.......34
Barclaycard....................3750......110...... .34
Overdraft......................1500......0........ .30
Total unsecured debts..........11350.....280.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,663
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,055
Available for debt repayments........... -392
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 280
Amount short for making debt repayments. -672

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 147,100
Total HP & Secured debt................. -160,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -11,350
Net Assets.............................. -24,750

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

The SOA will balance with the cuts in the Grocery Budget alone but your Gas/Elec are astronomical (sorry!) and if you get rid of one car that will help loads too.

rising_from_the_ashes

Where's the £80 for the gym in the SOA?

This needs to be incl for the notice period anyway.

Learning2Budget

Scrap the gym, cut back on sky and reduce your grocery shop. All achievable. Good luck mate.
L2B.

danlovedough

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Sorry things are tough ... classic situation of living to what you earn rather than what you need ..... I do think you should have notice of a change but it would appear you've not got a signed contract in place?

How did this come about because you should've received something when your T&Cs changed last year ....

They never got around to giving me a new contract and i was so busy trying to make the new business work, and also trusted them to not put me in a situation like this, that I never chased it up.

I spoke to them yesterday and have requested a formal written contract for the new agreement including 10% equity in the business by end of March 2012.

stewil18

wouldn't your benefits be closer to £180 for child benifit?

also as a quick win, could you get anything from the current ppi situation - might help with paying off a loan? just a thought

Learning2Budget

Not if u earn over a set amount. Although if everything has dropped you may now be entitled!

Bosniavet96

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Whilst I notice that people have advised disposing of one of your 2 cars, I cannot see that anyone has suggested selling both, paying off all or part of the debt on them & purchasing 1 or 2 older cars outright. The grocery bill can be cut down, & I am sure you'll get plenty of ideas from other threads on this site.
Good Luck

brummiedevil

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Have you tried shopping at Aldi or Lidl, a lot of people initially turn their noses up but I shop there and have done for ages. The food is great and reasonably priced and for the same shop you can do at one of the big supermarkets you can normally get double. I've noticed recently that its getting busier and busier there too as more and more people make the change.

Another idea write down what you spend it gives you a real idea of where your money is going and take a shopping list with you of what you need - cuts down on buying stuff you already have.

You could also take packed lunches to work and the kids packed lunches to school.

downsizer3

Good advice above.
I'd also look to moving as much of your debt to 0% ASAP. You can get long term arrangements and perhaps move all or some onto one 0% deal before you start tackling the repayments.
Any chance of taking in a lodger?
Can your wife perhaps look at childcare for others as she's at home with baby?

mancitychick

stewil18 wrote: »

wouldn't your benefits be closer to £180 for child benifit?

also as a quick win, could you get anything from the current ppi situation - might help with paying off a loan? just a thought

For 3 children you should be receiving child benefit of £188 every 4 weeks.