Suggestions Please!

catandy

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,768.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 709.20
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.50
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460.00
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.99
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.27
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,482.20

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,768.76



Both I and my flat mate work from home hence the hight phone bills / internet fees - so hard to cut them down any more than they are.

what else can i do? credit cards and overdraft are my first priorities - am i missing anything else totally obvious?

thanks

catandy

Asiacat

Do you really need that 90 pound a month fitness centre membership.

Can't you take up jogging or swim at the local pool?

XXSCOTSLASSXX

Is this SOA just for 1 person or you and your flatmate combined?? a few things jump out Groceries £400 - for 2 people??? and your courses £333.00 per month??? what is this..... All the car expenses jump out too £255... is this really necessary when you both work from home?? School trips, school meals and pocket money £140... is there a child here aswell?? bit more info required re the home set up i think

catandy

no sorry i should have made it clear - its me and my 2 teenage sons plus i pay the bills on the flat - flatmate is currently waiting on payment for freelance work hes done so not paying anything towards the bills until that comes thru.... to be honest thats the sticking point his work is very hit and miss and I cover it all whilst hes waiting

gym fees for for 3 of us - me and 2 sons and contracts run until march next year cant break them (ive tried)

the courses 333 per month covers the cost of me having the equipment to become fully qualified - it covers a server, software licenses and online training. should be finished by june next year..... fingers crossed.

sorry i missed out so much info. i cant think straight at the moment for trying to work out what to do next

XXSCOTSLASSXX

catandy wrote: »

flatmate is currently waiting on payment for freelance work hes done so not paying anything towards the bills until that comes thru.... to be honest thats the sticking point his work is very hit and miss and I cover it all whilst hes waiting

Thats extremely generous of you however why is he not doing/looking for other paid work 'whilst he is waiting' in the real world where a single mother with 2 kids wouldnt be able to pay his way and keep a roof over his head and food in his belly 'whilst he is waiting' he'd have no choice but to find other means of employment. Does he reimburse you for his share of everything once he has been paid?

The £400 for food even for 4 (presuming you are paying for flatmates food too) is still high this could be cut quite a bit....still think the car costs of £255 are high considering no one goes out too work is all done from home..... school meals £80 on top of the £400 groceries is very high.

catandy

yes he does pay back when he gets paid and i keep it all written down with a running total so i dont get short changed. i agree that this is not the way it works in the real world but he has done the same for me before so i feel that ive got to repay the favour

food bills agreed and car bills absolutely, the school meals work out as 10 quid per week per teenager so i cant see that I can cut that down any further (short of sending them with packed lunches which they wont eat because its not cool)...

thanks for the suggestions

Hele_an

How old are you teenage sons? If they are any older then 14 then they should be encouraged to go out and earn the money for School lunches f they want them to be 'cool'. If they are not willing to work then they should be sent with a packed lunch or go hungry.

Also are they not able to use any gym equipment at school after hours? This may save on the gym fees when they come round to renewal.


I don't mean this to sound harsh, just it was said to me my my parents and it worked a treat! Worked 30hrs a week the summer I turned 15 for a paltry 2.25ph. Felt like a queen having all this cash and no time to spend it!

katy_ann

catandy wrote: »

yes he does pay back when he gets paid and i keep it all written down with a running total so i dont get short changed. i agree that this is not the way it works in the real world but he has done the same for me before so i feel that ive got to repay the favour

food bills agreed and car bills absolutely, the school meals work out as 10 quid per week per teenager so i cant see that I can cut that down any further (short of sending them with packed lunches which they wont eat because its not cool)...

thanks for the suggestions

If they wont eat packed lunch because its not "cool" then they can go hungry or get a paper round and pay for their own food, maybe they need to realise this?

catandy

ok so I see a theme emerging here - toughen up with kids and flat mate and make them take some responsibility - I agree with the sentiment just going to find it hard to put into action, I'm a bit of a mug with money and tend to be the provider for all - ok when i was earning good £ but become a problem since my takings have dropped.

ive also started writing down exactly what i owe on what - each credit card in turn and interest rates, moved all the tiny amounts in saving accounts into my account with the overdraft to bring that down a bit (ok its only 90 quid and wont touch the fees but every little bit helps).

Im also looking at all the ways suggested to make some extra money - selling all the old mobile fones we have lying around the house is number one priority. Ive been quoted 120 quid for those so far so thats in process...

thanks for the suggestions everyone

katy_ann

Theres lots you can do for extra pennys, ebay old things, literally anything will sell, one persons rubbish is anothers treasure! Ive used Music magpie, webuybooks, car boots, ebay lots of people

Takeaway_Addict

catandy wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,768.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 709.20
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 High- You paying for the kids as well?
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.50
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00 High
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64.00

Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 Do you need this?
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00 Goto Old style board and look at reducing this to at least £250 and this is to include pet food and washing up stuff etc
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300.00 Any chance of a consolidation loan or 0% cards?
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180.00
Savings & Investments
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00 As said before...pack ups
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00 As said before reduce
Entertainment
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.99
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90.00 Cancel asap
Education & Courses
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333.00 what is this? Can it be restructured and do you really need it?
Big One Offs
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33
Odds & Sods
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.27
Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,482.20

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,768.76



Both I and my flat mate work from home hence the hight phone bills / internet fees - so hard to cut them down any more than they are.

what else can i do? credit cards and overdraft are my first priorities - am i missing anything else totally obvious?

thanks

catandy

No haircuts down?

Consolidation of loans are good but only if you learn from mistakes and don't load the cards up. I have done both and on the second consolidation but have learnt and got rid of all my other cards

There is some good wiggle room in there if you want it. As said before you do waste money on stuff for your kids when they could be earning it themselves....ie Gym (mobiles?) etc