Help! I'm drowning!!

Biffa

Sam,

The main thing is that you've posted on here - the first step to recovery! When you look at all the figures on paper, it IS scary, but don't let it overwhlem you too much.

If you're working from home, are there any tax breaks you can claim? As far as tax goes, I'm clueless about it, other than it makes large dent in my weekly payslip, but I'm sure you can claim something if you work from home. Might be worth looking into if you haven't already.

Ebay is great - bargains galore - but they soon add up! Start flogging the contents of your wardrobe that haven't seen light of day in months; all the books that you've read, cd's you no longer listen to..... we sold a few bits and bobs over 2 weeks and made over £50 without really trying!

Keep a spending diary too! Write down every penny that you spend - even if it's only 40p on a newspaper etc etc - over the course of 3 /4 weeks, you'll get a picture of where it's all going. With an overspend like yours, you need to be ruthless. Do you really need to spend £2 on Hello and the likes? Instead of paying for everything by debit card, draw out a set amount of cash each week and when it's gone, it's gone. Paying cash for everything is far different to sticking all your purchases on plastic!

Good luck with the SOA - will have a look at it tomorrow if you get chance to post it.

samsampotts

Haven't had chance yet to list all my outgoings, got a few hours spare tomorrow afternoon though so will do it then. Got 19 listings up on ebay at the mo which already have bids! Still got loads to put on too so should be able to pay a small chunk off a credit card. Have spoken to my sisters who are moving at the end of the month and we're going to do a car boot together before they move. Its nice to feel like I'm finally facing the problem head on and doing something about it, however small.

chica_fi

Just wanted to say... well done!! :beer: You've made the first and the hardest step ... it's all downhill from here!

slowlyfading

Just saw this thread, welcome! You've done the first massive step by posting on here, and admitting to yourself that something is wrong. Well done on the ebay things, and look forward to seeing your SOA
Nicola x

samsampotts

Ok Here it is, my SOA. (All monthly unless stated)

Loan £479.11
Council tax £99.00
Sofa (interest free) £41.37
TV Licence £11.37
Water rates £15.16
EDF Elec £19.00
EDF Gas £17.00
BT Line rental £11.00
Orange £50ish usually
Gym £11.99
Primus Telecom £5.64
Telecoms World £11.69 (freephone number for my business)
Food - I really don't pay attention to this, unfortunately I'm a bit of a food snob and love cooking so realistically I can spend up to £100 a week on food just for me and my boyfriend! I know that sounds ridiculous and obviosly some weeks I spend less, lets say an average of £80 per week.
Credit Cards - |I| don't like to pay the minimum so usually pay out around £600 a month over four credit cards
Fuel £35 per week

Big expenses over the year include
Car insurance £200 ish
MOT, tax and 2 services a year due to huge mileage I do - £400 - 500 for the year
P.O Box for my business for the year £112.50

On the upside, I don't have to pay much tax at all as I'm self employed and not earning a great deal at the moment.

I live with my boyfriend and at the age of 27 I feel we are both very lucky to own our home with a mortgage rather than rent. My partner doesn't have a brilliantly paid job and his wages just cover the mortgage, his mobile bill and fuel for his car. Therefore, if we want to go anywhere or do anything together, or if there are any big bills etc, the responsibility falls to me - I literally pay for everything to do with our lives apart from the mortgage. I certainly don't resent my partner for this, he works extremely hard, I just sometimes feel like my heads going to explode with all the money juggling I have to do, especially as I seem to have run out of places to juggle to and from!

The first year of my business went brilliantly, I was earning about £2000 a month. Unfortunately, in my inexperience, I spent it as I earnt it. Last year was a difficult year and I consequently had the same outgings but not the income to cover it. I suppose I had also got used to a certain lifestyle whilst I was earning better! I'm coming round to the idea now of leading a much simpler existence and I've become much less materialistic, I just hope its not too late to crawl out of this hole Business is starting to gradually pick up again, sometimes it just feels like its one step forward and two steps back!

Thanks for all you help and support so far everyone who has posted!:D

samsampotts

Oh I forgot;

£14.99 Blockbuster per month

!! We very rarely watch TV (maybe two hours a week!) but love to watch films.

samsampotts

As an aside, I'm having a dispute with Orange at the moment. You'll notice my bill is pretty high, well I recently renewed with Orange despite this as they were offering free broadband - great! Er - no, We discovered quite quickly as a lot of our communication with magazine customers and personal training clients is through the internet, that any emails to hotmail accounts were not getting through. Orange were very unhelpful when we contacted them about it saying that orange was blacklisted by hotmail and there was nothing they could do about it. I argued that, had I known this, I would not have renewed my contract with Orange and would have gone elsewhere for my phone and broadband. I asked to be released from my contract and was told that I would have to pay - wait for it - £407.63, for the privilege of terminating a contract that was sold to me without the disclosure of the problems that it had! I have written a letter of complaint and recieved a very unsatisfactory response that did not address any of the points in my letter. So I seem to be stuck with a substandard service and high mobile phone bill for another 10 months! I think its a disgrace - any advice out there?

Lazy_Line_Painter_Jane

If you entered into a contract with them and you believed it was all above board, you can legally argue that they are in breach of contract for non-disclosure, especially as Hotmail are one of the largest web accounts with 85% (so I read) of people having access to one.

You would be within your rights to cancel your Orange contract and go with someone else as they haven't honoured their side of the contract that they were happy for you to sign.

There is a thread about Talk Talk on the forums somewhere, with the same breach of contract issues discussed.

Have you tried Virgin? Especially if you have an old Telewest/NTL box, they go through that. I switched my phone and broadband, together they cost me £20 a month with all weekend and evening calls free (great as I am out at work in the day and so only use phone in the evenings anyway!)

Kick Orange's butt, though! You should not have to pay for and put up with such a substandard service :mad:

Lazy Jane x

emzig123

samsampotts wrote: »

Ok Here it is, my SOA. (All monthly unless stated)

Loan £479.11
Council tax £99.00
Sofa (interest free) £41.37
TV Licence £11.37
Water rates £15.16
EDF Elec £19.00
EDF Gas £17.00
BT Line rental £11.00
Orange £50ish usually
Gym £11.99 Can this be cancelled? Go jogging instead!
Primus Telecom £5.64
Telecoms World £11.69 (freephone number for my business)
Food - I really don't pay attention to this, unfortunately I'm a bit of a food snob and love cooking so realistically I can spend up to £100 a week on food just for me and my boyfriend! I know that sounds ridiculous and obviosly some weeks I spend less, lets say an average of £80 per week. Obvious area to cut back. I spend around £100 a month on food for me and OH, I cook from scratch and with a bit of imagination you can cut that right down.
Credit Cards - |I| don't like to pay the minimum so usually pay out around £600 a month over four credit cards OK, if you put the CCs down in a list with APRs, amounts owing, limits and then pay the highest amount to the card with the highest APR and minumums on the rest. Once card A is paid off move onto the one with the next highest interest. check out https://www.whatsthecost.co.uk/snowball
Fuel £35 per week Why so high? can you walk?

Big expenses over the year include
Car insurance £200 ish
MOT, tax and 2 services a year due to huge mileage I do - £400 - 500 for the year
P.O Box for my business for the year £112.50 Divide these into monthly amounts and save for them throughout the year

On the upside, I don't have to pay much tax at all as I'm self employed and not earning a great deal at the moment.

I live with my boyfriend and at the age of 27 I feel we are both very lucky to own our home with a mortgage rather than rent. My partner doesn't have a brilliantly paid job and his wages just cover the mortgage, his mobile bill and fuel for his car. Therefore, if we want to go anywhere or do anything together, or if there are any big bills etc, the responsibility falls to me - I literally pay for everything to do with our lives apart from the mortgage. I certainly don't resent my partner for this, he works extremely hard, I just sometimes feel like my heads going to explode with all the money juggling I have to do, especially as I seem to have run out of places to juggle to and from!

The first year of my business went brilliantly, I was earning about £2000 a month. Unfortunately, in my inexperience, I spent it as I earnt it. Last year was a difficult year and I consequently had the same outgings but not the income to cover it. I suppose I had also got used to a certain lifestyle whilst I was earning better! I'm coming round to the idea now of leading a much simpler existence and I've become much less materialistic, I just hope its not too late to crawl out of this hole Business is starting to gradually pick up again, sometimes it just feels like its one step forward and two steps back!

Thanks for all you help and support so far everyone who has posted!:D

Hope those give you a few ideas!

Lazy_Line_Painter_Jane

Just a thought, but if you look on the net there are all sorts of DVD rental companies out there (Amazon and HMV both do it off the top of my head). Even the most expensive plan gives you 6 DVD's per month, they will pay all the postage for you and you can send them back when you like, so no late fees and they have a huge selection - TV shows, world cinema, documentaries, etc.

Either that or use the local library for rentals - much cheaper and they often have a more varied selection, especially if you use the main library and not a branch one.

Hope this helps!

Lazy Jane x