Losing my job at the worst possible time!

Sea.Shore

Zyx wrote: »

You don't seem to be in any trouble based on pretty much all the posts you are making. Apparently you know everything already anyway so why even ask? Seeing as you are paying £90 a month because you're incompetent I doubt you are in any position to tell people not to lecture you.
You apparently plan your "budget" as you plan your life. Instead of getting a degree when you have no responsibilities you planned instead to get two children and live of your boyfriend as you go enjoy yourself at university.

Well, we aren't at the moment but when I don't have a job in July we will need to cut our cloth. At least this time we have a couple of weeks to plan, so I posted so people could throw ideas at me that I might not have thought about myself.

Because at the moment we pay x amount of money to a credit card company doesn't make me incompetent. I'm paying it, not doing so would make me incompetent; and, as I said, it is there due to unforeseen circumstances we could not have predicted.

I'll just bypass the fact this is now 2015 and people do return to study with families and mortgages and not do everything the textbook way. I could never have done this at 16/17/18 I didn't have the life experience, level of maturity and understanding of the role and responsibility involved. And as for toddling off to university to enjoy myself, I'm not sure what you think I'm going to do at university, really. I'm doing this for me AND my family because we'll all benefit in the long run. Between home life, assignments, placements I don't think I'll have a great deal of time to live up to the party lifestyle. Not that I do that anyway!

Sea.Shore

dawyldthing wrote: »

If it was me I would see if you can spread the council tax over 12 month as whilst it still need spaying it will make it more budget friendly, get rid of sky (I pay landline upfront at £134 I think it was then just £2 for the internet each month). I won sky for a year a few years ago and bar the sports don't miss it. Petrol on the car seems a lot, could you just use it for essential journeys and walk more if possible (I've never had a car as I walk to work, but I'm sure there's ways of cutting it down). Mobile phones another one. Could you keep your phones and just go pay as you go when you end your contracts in time (I top up £10 a month and get 100 minutes, 400 texts and 1gb internet with ee, it's more than enough for me). While not ideal you could pay less on the credit cards if needed to make it more budget friendly but then stuck paying more interest, so 50 50 with that one. You could cut food down, there's a lass on facebook with the feed a family on £20 a week, was in the mirror this week. That should bring you back into budget give or take then there's just general appointments and clothes but I'm the same in I barely replace clothes as I'm saving for something.

Thinking about it I'd probably pay your credit card off sooner as it will free more money up in a quicker time then in November you'll be better off. I set up a spreadsheet to know where I go wrong, but all in all I don't think your doing that bad.

Thanks, I have a year left on my phone contract (maybe slightly less now) but will definitely look into that at the time. My OH is due to renew his now, but he needs a new phone as his screen is smashed and it doesn't work in general all that well. I'm not sure if it'll be better getting a cheaper contract, or pay for a phone but have it on PAYG, will have a look.

Sky will have to go, but need to have some form of TV so looking at the better options. I've heard Netflix is quite good, and now TV but don't know a lot about either. In the mean time I've cancelled some subscriptions and lowered the bill by £40.

Credit cards are a biggie, although there isn't a huge amount on them. I wasn't sure whether it might be better consolidating everything (the finance we have left on the car, credit cards) and getting a bank loan to pay them off and just pay for that. We pay around £280 for them at the moment and a bank loan could lower that by £100-£200. The other option would be to balance transfer so we aren't paying interest while we pay them off.

Transformers

I'm confused - if you didn't want a diverse range of options and opinions then why ask for input from a group of strangers on the Internet?

You're easily offended aren't you? You'll need to grow a thicker skin for when you work in the NHS.

Slinky

Why do you need any 'paid for' TV at all? We only have what you can get through a TV licence and Freeview and that's more than enough for us.

Sea.Shore

Transformers wrote: »

I'm confused - if you didn't want a diverse range of options and opinions then why ask for input from a group of strangers on the Internet?

You're easily offended aren't you? You'll need to grow a thicker skin for when you work in the NHS.

The majority haven't given a diverse range, just had a rant and finger wag.

No I'm not offended with the constructive advice. I'm offended at the people getting their claws dug right in when they don't know any history or reasoning behind actions.

My skin is thick enough, don't have any qualms in standing up for myself, thanks for your concern though.

Laconic

Hi there!

Commiserations on the job loss and congratulations on your determination to go to school -- I heartily recommend it! You were looking for varied points of view, so here's a take that may be a little different...

I don't think you're doing a bad job, but you might not be in a great place right now. True, we don't know you, but there are a couple of things you say that when people say them, often means they are living close to the edge of a financial meltdown. When debt consolidation starts looking attractive and the payments for debts but not the total amount of debt or the interest rate are mentioned, those tend to be the 'check engine' warning light on the financial dashboard. I hope that's not you, but if it is, well, lots of people have been there and can be of assistance, if you want.

I've noticed SoAs and spending diaries being used nearly interchangeably. So far, you seem to have a good idea of what your outgoings are and that's necessary -- tracking what you actually spend. However, a Statement of Affairs goes beyond that, taking a step back to consider both longer term expenses (quarterly and annual bills) and accounts for the total value of all assets and all debts, their interest rates and terms to tell you whether your net worth is positive, negative and if it's heading in the right direction. SoAs aren't easy to do, but doing one with your husband to be would be a fantastic thing, even if you choose not to share it. SoAs are the springboard of a good budget, whereby you allocate the resources you have to hand in the most effective way possible.

Something I've not seen suggested yet concerns financial vulnerability. Bear with me for a thought experiment. If, heaven forfend, your partner were to lose his job tomorrow and owing to a mix up, you had no child benefit or tax credits incoming for a month, do you guys have enough cash available to cover your expenses for that month (without borrowing)? If you do not have a month's expenditure aside, then you are in a precarious situation. Why and how don't matter: what does matter is that life's ordinary emergencies could very easily leave you struggling to catch up. If this is you, my advice is to seriously sit down and reconsider what the both of you need to do to get a month's buffer. There's lots of help on the forum, naturally.

With your going back to uni, I would love to suggest having 2-3 months of expenses in hand. I hate to say it, but academic institutions aren't always the best at admin and the number of times I've had to sort out again already sorted loans and bursaries is unbelievable. The council's not always too clever either, especially when you study. Any such disruptions do get sorted, but it's best not to suffer unduly because if them.

Good luck.

Sea.Shore

Laconic wrote: »

Hi there!

Commiserations on the job loss and congratulations on your determination to go to school -- I heartily recommend it! You were looking for varied points of view, so here's a take that may be a little different...

I don't think you're doing a bad job, but you might not be in a great place right now. True, we don't know you, but there are a couple of things you say that when people say them, often means they are living close to the edge of a financial meltdown. When debt consolidation starts looking attractive and the payments for debts but not the total amount of debt or the interest rate are mentioned, those tend to be the 'check engine' warning light on the financial dashboard. I hope that's not you, but if it is, well, lots of people have been there and can be of assistance, if you want.

I've noticed SoAs and spending diaries being used nearly interchangeably. So far, you seem to have a good idea of what your outgoings are and that's necessary -- tracking what you actually spend. However, a Statement of Affairs goes beyond that, taking a step back to consider both longer term expenses (quarterly and annual bills) and accounts for the total value of all assets and all debts, their interest rates and terms to tell you whether your net worth is positive, negative and if it's heading in the right direction. SoAs aren't easy to do, but doing one with your husband to be would be a fantastic thing, even if you choose not to share it. SoAs are the springboard of a good budget, whereby you allocate the resources you have to hand in the most effective way possible.

Something I've not seen suggested yet concerns financial vulnerability. Bear with me for a thought experiment. If, heaven forfend, your partner were to lose his job tomorrow and owing to a mix up, you had no child benefit or tax credits incoming for a month, do you guys have enough cash available to cover your expenses for that month (without borrowing)? If you do not have a month's expenditure aside, then you are in a precarious situation. Why and how don't matter: what does matter is that life's ordinary emergencies could very easily leave you struggling to catch up. If this is you, my advice is to seriously sit down and reconsider what the both of you need to do to get a month's buffer. There's lots of help on the forum, naturally.

With your going back to uni, I would love to suggest having 2-3 months of expenses in hand. I hate to say it, but academic institutions aren't always the best at admin and the number of times I've had to sort out again already sorted loans and bursaries is unbelievable. The council's not always too clever either, especially when you study. Any such disruptions do get sorted, but it's best not to suffer unduly because if them.

Good luck.

Hi, thanks for your suggestions.

All the bills I listed, are it (aside from annual things such as home/car insurance, car tax) we don't have quarterly bills.

I wouldn't say we are on the brink of financial meltdown but on the brink of losing my job we WILL need to cut our cloth, that's a given. We do have enough in the savings pot to cover us for a month without borrowing.

I didn't realise consolidating debt was a warning light to be fair. I only thought about it because I was thinking of ways to have leas money going out during this time, but continuing to pay at the same time. We got our car on finance at the time, and have paid £3500 off that with £5000 to go, so nearly half way but as you can imagine, you pay quite a bit in interest so I thought maybe looking into a bank loan might be better (pay less a month, and less interest overall) and if we did that, it might be an idea just to colsolidate everything into one monthly payment rather than 3/4 different payouts incurring interest on each. Of course if I was keeping my job this wouldn't be an issue and I wouldn't have posted!

My aim is to (hopefully) have 2/3 months worth of savings behind us before I start uni, fingers crossed. A silver lining, though, is that I've waited until now to do this because my parents have recently retired so I have little childcare issues or expenses