Ostrich is finally coming out of the sand

Thebrummie5

Feeling like an ostrich has finally taken it's head out of the sand....a bit unwillingly and is on very wobbly legs right now!

I've been a VERRRRRY long time lurker - think from when I was pregnant with my youngest who is now 7! Lightbulb is still flickering so not fully on but totalling up debt today might just be what I needed to do in order to post here and ask for your help!

Me, DH and 3 kids - all at primary school. I'm self employed earning around £600 a month and DH retrained as a sparky last year after a couple of years of struggling with self employment. Thankfully, he has been working his socks off for the last 6 months and we are praying that it continues!

Don't think we are very frivolous - non drinkers non smokers, not even sky - so bit hard to even think of where the money has gone to - other than normal life and living expenses of a family which had very little regular income coming in for the last 2-3 years and have been used to juggling 0% credit cards for the last 10 odd years.

SOA to follow and would appreciate and welcome any comments - and feel free to be harsh and honest - I can take it now I'm out of the closet!!

Thebrummie5

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . .. 3,600.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . 185.00

Monthly Expense Details

Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.00 - 3 phones in total, me, DH and his father
TV licence. . . . . . . . . 12.12
Home phone. . . . . 55.00 - been really high for last 3 months so averaged it
Electricity .. . . . . 65.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 65.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . 37.50
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82.33 - pay over 12 months
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . 13.25 - switched today saved £100!
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . 705.04
Plumbing/Boiler cover .. . . . . . . . .12.50
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . 433.33 - I KNOW!!! Working on it!!
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . 260.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Car tax . . . . . . . 22.92 - don't save for this!
Car insurance . .. . . . . 92.50 - 1 car DH has business insurance on van


Debt Repayments

Credit card repayments= all on 0% . . . . . . 576.00 (7 cards between us)
Personal loan repayments £15k on 8.9% 4 years to go. . . . 259.00

School meals. . . . . . . . . . 120.00 - only in winter, back to sandwiches after Feb half term
Childcare/Playgroups. . . .. . . 66.00 for 3 kids per month
Family days out . . . . . . . . 50.00 - guesstimate!
Shopping for fun. . . . . . 30 - odds and sods - guesstimate!
Eating out. . . . . . . . 80.00 mainly takeaways but cut down A LOT already


Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . 42.50
New children's clothes. . . . . . . 40.00
New clothes . . . . . . . 20.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . 21.66 - 3 years to go
Birthdays . . . . . . . 30.00 - don't save this
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . .. 10.80


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . 3,800.42


Total monthly expenses. . . . . 3,435.95

Pennydropped

Just off the cuff at this point...
mobile phones - can you cut this? some service providers allow free calls between other phones on the same service provider
home phone - why so high? should be lower
electricity/gas - can this be trimmed at all? is this monthly direct debit?
life insurance - is this the best rate you could find for your coverage? shop around and see if you can get a better deal
food and household shopping - can you get this down under £300 by dropping to store brand or basics/essentials products and meal planning?
petrol - any way to trim this? you say 1 car, DH has insurance on his van, so I'm assuming 2 vehicles here - any chance of cutting to one vehicle or at the very least using less petrol? Only asking as I know with a self-employment it can be difficult
car insurance - have you shopped around to make sure you're getting the best rate?
can you spell out the debt payments, amount of payment, balance left, and interest? it helps to us get a better picture of repayments
eating out - if you trim this down to 1 a month, say for £20-30, you save £50 right there! When you look at your high grocery bill, this is just more food expense.

Sazzie23

Hi thebrummie

Well done for fighting your way out of that closet...spelling it out in the SOA is tough stuff isn't it. Where does is all go?

Suspect you might benefit from a spending diary, you can use phone or notebook - just for a couple of weeks to see what's really do spend, and what it's on.

Mobile phones yes high but do you still need landline? Make sure you use all your included mobile minutes. If you need landline, would you benefit from included calls package, does the cost include broadband, can you Skype/FaceTime people instead?

Petrol costs high, can you cut down by walking a bit more...makes huge difference to fuel bills if you cut out local driving

Gas & electric, make sure on best tariff, keep the unnecessary use down, turn off phone chargers, lights, doesn't seem to excessive if you have 3 little ones though.

Life insurance presumably one life covered...any cover for if either one of you gets ill, might seem like a luxury but if neither of you would get sick pay, what happens if either you or ok has an accident or gets sick.

I think I'd try to put saving for car tax and tv licence above eating out.
When you look at food budget, 2 easy ways, cut waste and drop a level, e.g go from branded to own label, or own label to budget - if you don't like it, buy a different brand next time, becomes quite fun after a time deciding which brands to chose or leave on the shelf (sorry a bit sad).

Good luck, seems like you are still in a position to fix this before it gets bad.