Suggestions for further cuts

Magpye

HI there,

I had my LBM a few months back and have been cutting costs ever since, but somehow it's just not enough. I've recently been turned down for a payment holiday on our mortgage and I'm feeling stressed out as the OH is no help at present. Our SOA:

My income: £1087 net
OH income: £225 weekly (contributes £75 a week :mad:)

Current account 1: -£2.01 (interest free, will be closed soon)
Current account 2: -£475 (to be closed)
Current account 3: -£675 (to be closed)
Current account 4: -£200 (interest free)
Current account 5: -£600+ (arranged)
Joint account 1: -£300 (arranged)
Joint account 2: £300 (most bills paid off this one)

Mortgage: £297 (£46500 left)
Council Tax: £97
Home insurance: £10.25
Company car insurance: £25
Private car insurance: £22.08
TV License: £12
Sky package: £21 (will be cut down, cancelled if I have a say in it )
BT Line rental £9 (just claimed £75 credit back)
Broadband and Call package £14.99 (free eve and weekend calls)
Car Loan: £250
Personal Loan: £189
Credit Card 1: £75
Credit Card 2: £25
Credit Card 3: £25
Parental loan: £135
OH Mobile £35 + calls (varies)
Catalogue £40 (paid off after this month and not buying more)
Groceries £100
Cat food £20 (feeds two hungry Bengals )
Gym & Swim subs £22.90 (cancelled)
Contact lenses £25
Gas and Electricity: £71

Misc outgoings (which I currently don’t control)
Band subs ?? (he won’t tell me :mad:)
Football practise ??


This makes the outgoings £1521.22, £134 more than we have coming in although this would be helped if the OH gave me all his wages!!! TBH I have no idea what he does with his money but he is constantly OD on his bank account (yep, that £600+ is his) and makes excuses to not talk about money.


Right now I will be more than happy to get down to a manageable monthly payment so if anyone can suggest more cuts please, please do it. I will not be offended in the slightest.

Magpye

benbenandme

Please forgive me if this is out of place, but alarm bells would be ringing as to why he won't talk to you about money ... my ex was the same and I found out eventually about his debts. Could this be the reason he doesn't want to talk to you about it, especially as he already has run up an overdraft?? I hope I'm wrong but maybe a warts and all discussion about finances could bring out more?? It looks from your post though as if you are already cutting back where possible, it will be much easier with his support though Good luck !

rayday2

OH seems to have a lot of hobbies etc that you are paying for sky etc, if he wants to keep so much money to himself why does he not pay for the sky etc himself out of what he keeps. Also to prove a point why don't you hold back some of yours!

Uniscots97

Maybe I'm being silly here but why are you paying company car insurance and another set of car insurance?

ltm07

Your debts & outgoings aren't too bad,but you should talk to OH about helping out more. Your combined wages come to £2062 pm(OH's wages £225 x 52/12=£975). Your outgoings are £1521.22. OH still wouldn't have to cancel Sky as you would still have £540 a month left(£540.78 to be precise )! What my OH & i do is after paying everything out &we split the rest 50/50. This shouldn't be a problem to him,especially as you both earn slightly more than him. It's your choice,but talk it through with him,if he does have debt issues then suggest to him that you both work through it together. At the end of the day you should have £6480 pa between you left over after paying everything out,enough to have a decent holiday,pay off more of your debts & have plenty of nights out,days out etc,and you wouldn't both have to struggle. Good luck whatever you decide.

Kaz2904

If you have a company car then I would be tempted to ditch the other car and get a cheapy run around as the company car should be reliable anyway.
Whos name is sky in? If it's in your name I would just ditch it completely and say, done deed we can't afford it.
Or have you thought about getting the sky surf see speak package which would be £30 + BT line rental?
Any way of getting cheaper contact lenses?
How about a cashback mobile contract? My BIL actually has a free contract. He pays £25 a month and can claim it all back. He also got the lg chocolate free with that contract and £30+ cahback via quidco.
Joint account 1 is the od interest free? If not can you switch it to your other -£2 account with the free od?

How much of the above is actually your OH's outgoings? My DH used to moan like heck about our outgoings and then came up with a grand idea where we should each pay half of the bills and keep whatever was left over to spend on ourselves. He didn't think it was such a hot idea when I agreed to it and said right you owe me £197.36 per month. It soon stopped his moaning about not having enough money because I used to just turn it back at him- want more money? Get a better job.
(I sound like a monster don't I?!)

With the debts, what are the aprs and minimum payments and time left on loans? Have you done a snowball?

If you change to the sky package and cut OH's mobile to £30 (even without being a cashback contract) then you should be able to cut your outgoings to £360.33 over what you earn. Then tell OH that you must have at least £100 per week from him and you could be in a position to start over paying your higher interest rate debts.

If OH isn't prepared to play ball then you have to ask whether you want to spend the rest of your life throwing money into a bottomless pit and funding his spending.

Magpye

Thanks for all advice so far.


The reason we pay separate car insurance is that the company car is leased by my work and I need business insurance. I can probably get cheaper contact lenses as I know D&A aren't cheap.


I blame MIL for OH's financial cluelessness, she is truly hopeless with cash and the OH has really never had guidance on money from his parents. MIL pleaded poverty to us when it came to a wedding present (OH's Nana gave us more), couldn't afford to pay for any of the wedding - but still managed to afford two trips to NZ :mad:. Sorry but it really makes me mad.


Anyway:



Loan @ 8.9% APR, term left 2.3 years, can make overpayments/early settlement with no fee

Car loan 6.2% APR, term left 4.9 years. Joint purchase as previously we had two small cars + company car (eek). OH has put balance of his old finance onto new loan as it’s cheaper.

Parent’s Loan: I need to check with my parents as I’ve lost track of how much I owed them – I know they would help us in a heartbeat if we were in real trouble as they are very good to us but I don’t want to rely on them.

Credit card 1: £2600, BT’d to new 0% APR card for 13 months.
Credit card 2: £500, 10.9% APR, considering BT.
Credit card 3: £150, 0% on purchases to March 2008. Plan to use this for everyday spending and pay off regularly as I get rewards.

The really annoying thing for me is that we should be doing comfortably.
I will need to sit down with the OH and explain the situation to him without him going loco.