Wowzers! debt a lot worse than we thought ....

eyeopener2

Can I ask something?

How are you currently servicing your debts inc mortgage? is every penny going on those and then you borrow more on the cards to pay for everything else including food etc?

I did a quick tally of your priorities (mortgage, council tax, gas, elec, water, food, tv licence,medical and building and life ins) and that leaves you with £517

Out of that you need to pay for cars (£473), phones and internet (£91), child care (£240), debts........(£706). Thats before you even think about haircuts, going out, dyas out, school meals, uniforms, etc, etc.

So your overspending before you even get to debt repayment, which you know so please don't take this as preaching or anything.

Is there anyway you can get rid off one car? The combined cost of both is £5600 a year.

Cut child care by one day?

Just throwing ideas about here really.

If the job situation continues much longer you may need to think about seeking professional help with this and speaking to the debt charities Step Change, Payplan or National Debtline. There is no shame in that, it saved my life and my marriage and , well, everything really.

Hopefully a job will come along and things will improve. You will still need to address the debt situation though. It's bloody hard, I know from bitter experience, but you can dig yourself out but tough choices have to be made.

Good luck

E2

ALIBOBSY

I agree with the above poster, especially whilst OH is lookinh for full time job could you both look for part time evening/weekend work just to up your income a little. The food/grocery bill could come down a bit but below £200 would be very difficult and to cut any involves canny shopping and cooking/baking from scratch which you may struggle to have time for.

Is there no way either of you could do more work from home or change the days you need to be in work so you can cut the child care. If your kids are at school isn't it cheaper to use after school clubs-our local one is just £6 per day per child, but I think you get family rates for more than one child at the same school-there is also a breakfast club as well which is around £3.50 from 7.30am and includes cereal/toast.

Ali x

plzhelpmesave!

pleasedelete wrote: »

Why does your business have staff if your oh doesn't have a full time job and you not make any money? You can't afford to have staff if you are only making £400 a month. What is the business? How many hours a week do you work at it?

Hi

Staff are specially trained and qualified as its a specialist fitness studio so OH out, and I don't have the ex perience. Working 6 days a week at the moment

plzhelpmesave!

Thanks E2 for honest advice.

eyeopener2 wrote: »

Can I ask something?

How are you currently servicing your debts inc mortgage? is every penny going on those and then you borrow more on the cards to pay for everything else including food etc? Yep, but didn't really see this was happening til the other day when we sat down to talk and realised we're both putting normal expenses on credit cards

I did a quick tally of your priorities (mortgage, council tax, gas, elec, water, food, tv licence,medical and building and life ins) and that leaves you with £517

Out of that you need to pay for cars (£473), phones and internet (£91), child care (£240), debts........(£706). Thats before you even think about haircuts, going out, dyas out, school meals, uniforms, etc, etc. I think I did some double counting with the debts as we paid the car insurance £1700 on credit caard a few months ago. but you're right again, we are sinking in each month. Both of our earning figures go up and down each month so on better months, we put less on the cards.

So your overspending before you even get to debt repayment, which you know so please don't take this as preaching or anything.

Is there anyway you can get rid off one car? The combined cost of both is £5600 a year. have told OH to do this, but he won't. My car worth about £1k as it is, but needs £800-£1k of work doing - have dents lots of paintwork scratches (big ones :-() that would need to be repaired. He won't sell his as too ashamed to drive my girly & beat up car. Insurance was actually cheaper for 2 cars than one for some reason....

Cut child care by one day? - childcare paid for by WTC, but have spoken to provider about cutting down to 2 days

Just throwing ideas about here really.

If the job situation continues much longer you may need to think about seeking professional help with this and speaking to the debt charities Step Change, Payplan or National Debtline. There is no shame in that, it saved my life and my marriage and , well, everything really. OH thinks it is manageable as we're paying it back (juggling it!) he wants to go down loan route and says theres other people worse off than us who manage with a loan.

Hopefully a job will come along and things will improve. You will still need to address the debt situation though. It's bloody hard, I know from bitter experience, but you can dig yourself out but tough choices have to be made. He's been applying for the last few days but also looking at other ways we can get money in through self employment, been sorting stuff to put on ebay.


Good luck - thank you!!

E2

I don't think we've had our light bulb moment yet...more of a rude awakening! We seem to be still coasting along and esp OH is in some denial (??) as thinks we can still juggle and wait for things to get better on the work front.

Have started to keep a spending diary and cut back on any extra spending. Did some batch cooking yesterday, sorted paperwork and clutter..... small steps every day and working every day to generate income!!!

Thanks so much to everyone for comments, suggestions and taking the time to reply. Really do appreciate it

pleasedelete

plzhelpmesave! wrote: »

Hi

Staff are specially trained and qualified as its a specialist fitness studio so OH out, and I don't have the ex perience. Working 6 days a week at the moment

Ok. I am going to be really brutal. Will it ever make money?any start up that relies on bought in labour is going to be a struggle. I imagine the next few weeks are peak annual enrolment time.

Do you do everything non skilled- clean loos etc etc to minimise the hours of your qualified staff and ensure that in every working hour they are using their skills and not doing tasks that you/oh could be doing?

At least 4 have opened and shut in our town alone in past few years. They seem to do ok and then fold after about 12 months (I guess they can't pay tax/vat bills etc as they have been balliff type closures not nice voluntary wind downs)

100 hours a week is not an unusual workload for a start up business.

plzhelpmesave!

Thanks PD for your brutality! ....we're pushing everything at the moment and getting more people through the door - banners, leafleting, door to door, coffee mornings at schoools and referrals - its working but slowly and I know NOW that it's not going to be a long term busiess for me - just while Im stuck in the lease!

Yep, I do everything that staff doesn't and need to utilise my time better to I'm always marketing, selling what we do - Will see it through for the next 6 months while other projects are being set up and then see if I can sell it or buy out the lease.

I'm also working on another project in the evenings which has massive potential & getting business coaching support to help me focus and get results...its helped a lot as I went into this industry a bit blindly thinking I could make a decent wage! live andl learn eh??

allydowd

plzhelpmesave! wrote: »

Entertainment........................... 60 - days out & takeaways

You need to get creative and find free/cheap days out:

http://dofreestuff.com/

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/cheap-days-out

or google "free days out".

dazla

Please be prepared for when the 0% transfers deals run out, this happened to me and was left up sh*t creek without a paddle. My debts then began to overwhelm me and I literally had no money left to buy food etc and had to resport to selling pieces of furniture to survive. This went on for a few months before I contacted payplan. This was the best decision i ever made, i really think they saved my life, as I was at such a low ebb.

I have approx £23.000 to pay off and should do this in the next 3 years.

I had a quick look at your SOA, when your mobile phone contract ends can you get a pay as you go. I did this and have saved a lot each month, by just sending texts etc in the evening and weekends. Also, I buy second hand where I can and use ebay for any purchases, even stuff like contact lense solutions !

I wish you all the best

Dazla

plzhelpmesave!

Ally - thanks., for the links. we bought merlin passes last year, so trying to use those if we do go out ...only ever did cinema on orange wdnesdays or kids am - and have cut back on those now - take own snacks and stuff too :-) Used to use tesco cc points for bowling and skating etc,

Thanks Dazla for sharing, That's my worry too if the 0% runs out, we'll be swimming in your creek :-(
will check with DH re contracts and downgrade as soon as we can. He's swapped to a £15 one, and I'll downgrade mine or get payg when contract ends - which is next year some time...

thanks again for the replies....

FatVonD

plzhelpmesave! wrote: »

Yep, I do everything that staff doesn't and need to utilise my time better to I'm always marketing, selling what we do - Will see it through for the next 6 months while other projects are being set up and then see if I can sell it or buy out the lease.

Do you have a breakout clause, might be worth checking your contract to see if you can exit your lease earlier?

Are you a Limited Company? If you are you could effectively leave whenever you wish and your landlord can chase the company for money (but not the directors unless you've put up a guarantee.)*

Could you sublet some of the space to an allied business (yoga classes or summat?)

*I'm no expert so verify this on the small business forum.