SOA - another newbie

justjustine

Hello. I'm not in the UK (so amounts are not in pounds sternling), but I hope it's OK for me to post here and that someone can provide us with some suggestions.

My husband has been unemployed for the past 8 months and I am a mature student (with 2.5 years still to go before I can work full-time again). I have a part-time job earning 400-500 a month. He currently receives 4500-4700 in unemployment insurance (based on a percentage of his average earnings last year - the monthly amount varies as it's a daily rate). I also have a well-paid full-time job during the university holidays, which earned me around 10K last year between the various holidays.

This is his second redundancy in under 3 years. We wiped out our savings the first time around and he took a 20% paycut when he accepted his most recent job, so we hadn't managed to build our savings back up at all before the latest redundancy. He previously earned a 6-figure salary, and is hoping to find a job paying at least 95K (before the 1st redundancy he was on 112K).

We have 6 kids, aged 11-22. The three oldest are students living away from home, but here in the holidays. DC4 is autistic and we pay an income-based contribution towards residential school fees. DC5 is on a scholarship in a full-time ballet school, with a small parental contribution, and luckily able to commute from home daily. DC6 attends the local comprehensive. We also have 3 pets.

We bought our home in May 2014, and can't make any changes to the mortgage until it's been 2 full years (i.e. June 2016). Current repayments are close to 2K/month. Interest rate is 3.1%. We also owe around 30K on a personal loan to the bank at 7.5% and 5.5K on a credit card (with the same bank) at 15.5%. Our current account is 12K overdrawn right now (bank have agreed to increase the limit, yet again, but I can't see them allowing us any more than this and honestly don't even want to have to ask!).

The loan was to cover the shortfall on the sale of a previous property which was in negative equity and sold at a big loss. We then bought our current home for 200K less with a much smaller mortgage (and a 10% deposit), although it's still a lot. The loan was originally for over 40K and we've paid off around a quarter so far (8 year term)

Right now, we're spending almost 2K a month more than we earn! We have no savings left and no way of knowing how much longer it will take my husband to find a job (he's applied for over 500 positions in those 8 months!).

We just don't know where to turn next. And our expenses are currently even higher than usual, as my husband has been travelling across the whole country for job interviews - most of which are not reimbursed, although a few companies luckily still do refund expenses!

We have one 7-seater car, 11 years old, that we really only use for driving our child to/from the residential school, or for occasional weekends away to visit our parents or to collect the students at the end of term. We also pay car insurance for one of the older kids, who needs his (14 yo Renault Clio) to get to and from his college, as public transport is unreliable in that particular town. The rest of us have travel cards for our city's public transport system which we use daily.

We don't smoke, rarely drink and don't take drugs. We don't watch TV, or really go out much. We have lunch out a couple of times a month and occasionally buy takeaways, which I know must now stop. All other meals are cooked from scratch, mostly using fresh produce from the local market (we buy up whatever's cheap at the end of the market).

I'm open to any suggestions of how to reduce expenses, or increase our income. We've already sold lots of stuff at car boot sales and on e-bay. Husband has some more books and CDs he could list on Amazon Marketplace, but that's pretty much it. He's already sold quite a few. I'm going to list a few more clothes and shoes on e-bay this week, but there's nothing worth much. Oh and we've talked about listing our spare room on Air B&B, but it would need repainting first and we'd have to invest in some new sheets...

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500.00
Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4,500.00
Summer job. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833.33

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166.67
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,950.00
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130.00
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garage rental . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00

Debt Repayments

Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475.00
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Savings & Investments

Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's saving accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210.00

Family

Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Boarding fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260.00
Conservatoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300.00
Weekends away . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166.67
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.33
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166.67

Education & Courses

University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.33
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One-Offs

Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00

Odds & Sods

Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax (no PAYE here) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,833.33


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,479.00

redpete

justjustine wrote: »

Hello. I'm not in the UK (so amounts are not in pounds sternling),

No-one here can make sense of the numbers without knowing what currency they are in, and you shouldn't expect readers to do the conversion to sterling so that we can relate it to numbers we know. We also wouldn't know what 'reasonable' costs are for wherever you live.

Also you haven't pasted in the MSE-formatted SOA list which makes it difficult to read.

Ebe_Scrooge

Hmm, it would help if you told us where you were - if the amounts are not in GBP they are pretty meaningless unless we can work out an approximate exchange rate.

However, going on what you've told us, here are my initial suggestions :

Mobile phones . . 60.00 This sounds a lot, but without knowing the currency it could be anything. Do you actually NEED a mobile ?


Household maintenance . . 200.00 Again this sounds a lot. Yes you need to budget for this, but it sounds a lot.


Garage rental . . 70.00 Can this go ?


School trips. . 33.33 Hard as it may be, can you afford this ?
School meals. . 100.00 Make sandwiches and packed lunches for a tiny fraction of this.
Pocket money. .50.00 This will have to go.


Family days out . .33.33 A walk in the woods and a picnic will be cheaper.
Cinema/Theatre trips. . 33.33 This can go.


Eating out. 300.00 That's a lot, cut it right out immediately !
Weekends away . . 66.67 Ditto

Complimentary therapies . .50.00 Get rid of this
Optical bills . . 25.00 Is this every month ? Any way of reducing it ?
Haircuts. . . 60.00 Seems a lot

Dentistry . . 166.67 Every month ??? This sounds a heck of a lot.

Private medical insurance . . 145.00 I'm guessing you're in America and this is required ? If not, get rid.
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . 40.00 A run round the park is free.

New children's clothes. .83.33 Reduce this - buy from eBay or charity shops.
New clothes . . 166.67 This can be cut to almost nothing.

Birthdays . . 30.00 Whilst not excessive, this can be cut. Your friends and family will understand.

Summer holiday. . 50.00 You cannot afford a holiday
Christmas . .25.00 As per birthdays above

Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . 43.33 This can go.



I hope you don't think I'm being harsh in any of the above, but if you want to make savings you need to think about what you really NEED, as opposed to WANT. Hopefully this will give you some ideas to be going on with.

questionss

Well done for facing up to things...

Ok - a few outgoings that could be trimmed
Kids savings - this needs to go, no good saving for the future when you can't afford the present.
Eating out - you spend 300 on this yet only 520 on household shopping - plus another 43 on snacks/coffee and 66 on weekends away, these can go.
New clothes - you don't need them
Medical insurance - is that a requirement where you are? Doesn't sound enough for 8 people so I'm guessing not. If it is do you have enough cover?
Dentistry - 166.67 a month, more than your health ins, sounds too much

How long does your hubby get this rate of unemployment benefit? Does it drop gradually. You need to plan for that too.

justjustine

redpete wrote: »

No-one here can make sense of the numbers without knowing what currency they are in, and you shouldn't expect readers to do the conversion to sterling so that we can relate it to numbers we know. We also wouldn't know what 'reasonable' costs are for wherever you live.

Also you haven't pasted in the MSE-formatted SOA list which makes it difficult to read.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I'm in a large (but not capital) city in mainland Europe and all amounts are in Euros.

I used the SOA format generated automatically on the MSE site after entering my budget in the budget brain tool. I'm afraid I didn't know there was another way to do it. Sorry

asparagus1968

here you go !


http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

andyfromotley

justjustine wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500.00
Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4,500.00
Summer job. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833.33

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00 Nope, until yr husband gets a job you must patch up and make do.
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166.67
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,950.00
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00 Car has to go
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00 Car has to go
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130.00 Car has to go
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garage rental . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00 car has to go

Debt Repayments

Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475.00
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Savings & Investments

Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's saving accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210.00 This has to stop for now

Family

Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33 This has to go for now
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 nope its tuff but stop for now
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00 what for?
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Boarding fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260.00
Conservatoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33 No free stuff only
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33 see above
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300.00 Not for now
Weekends away . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67 Nah

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 hahahah
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 Home haircuts
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166.67
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00 luxury no
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.33
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166.67 You cant afford this

Education & Courses

University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.33
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One-Offs

Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 not this year
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00

Odds & Sods

Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax (no PAYE here) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33 sorry this to has to go.


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,833.33


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,479.00

Hi, your situation is pretty serious, you have large debts already, they are increasing by over £1500 per month whilst the banks allow that to continue. I'm not convinced that yr husband will find a job any time soon given the amount of time he has been looking, that could be a long wait. If the banks cut off the credit you are dead in the water. So this extreme pruning of the SOA is in order to make sure that doesnt happen. we need to find £1646 in this SOA.

Making the cuts i have listed above will save you £1485.this means, making all of these radical, unappetising cuts will still leave you £161 per month short. Either revisit the SOA or find a way to increasse income. All of this is required if you want your situation to carry on as is.

Otherwise you need to consider some lifestyle changes. You may have to give up study and work full time. Your husband may have to take a lower paying job. You may have to move if you have equity in your house.

Hopefully your husband will find a well paid job soon and this will all be very temporary but you have to plan for the worst, and in doing so you simply cannot carry on as you are, it is the road to financial destruction for you. However make the changes recommended and you should be able to survive this. It all pretty rotten i know and i feel for you. I hope you can work it out.

justjustine

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

Hmm, it would help if you told us where you were - if the amounts are not in GBP they are pretty meaningless unless we can work out an approximate exchange rate.
Prices are in Euros. 1€=£0.75 right now.

However, going on what you've told us, here are my initial suggestions :

Mobile phones . . 60.00 This sounds a lot, but without knowing the currency it could be anything. Do you actually NEED a mobile ?
This is for a package including 2 mobiles, 1 landline + broadband internet. I use my phone a lot for my 2 jobs and also have elderly parents who need to be able to contact me. My husband needs to be reachable as he's job hunting... I could probably reduce the bill by lowering the call time and data limits. I will look into this!


Household maintenance . . 200.00 Again this sounds a lot. Yes you need to budget for this, but it sounds a lot.
This is a fixed maintenance charge for the apartment building we live in. We own our apartment, but have to contribute to the concierge fees and maintenance of lifts and communal areas.


Garage rental . . 70.00 Can this go ?
I've considered this, but don't know if my husband will agree. Our apartment is in a city centre, with no garage, so we park our car in the street (€12 a month for residents' parking ticket), but rent a garage in the suburbs to store a trailor which we use for transporting DIY stuff, camping gear, car maintenance tools, oil etc. We have to give 3 months notice and would have to find somewhere else (safe) to park the trailor (at my parents' maybe), but I think this may be necessary for a few months at least...


School trips. . 33.33 Hard as it may be, can you afford this ?
School meals. . 100.00 Make sandwiches and packed lunches for a tiny fraction of this.
Pocket money. .50.00 This will have to go.
I haven't given my kids pocket money for several months now, but had promised to pay them back once my husband finds work. One child went on a residential trip this year, which appears monthly on here, but was a one-off. There won't be any more for a while... School meals are not negotiable, I'm afraid. My youngest is too young to make lunch at home unaccompanied and packed lunches aren't allowed here. My DC13 doesn't have enough time during the day to travel home and then back to the dance school, and again, no packed lunches allowed The actual amount is lower than this, however, as it's only in term-time, not year-round.


Family days out . .33.33 A walk in the woods and a picnic will be cheaper.
Cinema/Theatre trips. . 33.33 This can go.
Yes and yes

Eating out. 300.00 That's a lot, cut it right out immediately !
I realise this. This has been the first thing to go, since we wrote it all down!
Weekends away . . 66.67 Ditto
This is the average out costs of visiting our parents once every couple of months. Hopefully they'll understand and visit us more for a while, instead...

Complimentary therapies . .50.00 Get rid of this
I have arthritis and have been seeing an osteopath once a month. Will definitely wait until we're back on our feet before I consider going back.
Optical bills . . 25.00 Is this every month ? Any way of reducing it ?
Yes. I'll have to start wearing my glasses all the time, instead of contacts, but it's doable.
Haircuts. . . 60.00 Seems a lot
My husband's hair grows really fast and he needs to keep it tidy for interviews, so gets it cut every 3 weeks. I get mine trimmed 3-4 times a year and this amount also includes a box of home-dye colour once a month, which I guess I could cut out. Eek!

Dentistry . . 166.67 Every month ??? This sounds a heck of a lot.
The application worked out the monthly average based on an annual amount. This included several crowns and some orthodontic work! Hopefully 2016 will be cheaper on that front...

Private medical insurance . . 145.00 B]I'm guessing you're in America and this is required ? If not, get rid.[/B]
Not America, but required. Social security covers 60% of costs and private insurance covers the rest. I recently had a major (life-saving) operation I would not have been able to repay, had I not had insurance! This is for 2 adults and the 3 children under 18.
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . 40.00 A run round the park is free.
Yes. Sadly this will have to go, but taking the kids swimming or ice skating is already fairly cheap entertainment and a good way for them to burn off excess energy - especially as we don't have a garden...

New children's clothes. .83.33 Reduce this - buy from eBay or charity shops.
New clothes . . 166.67 This can be cut to almost nothing.
Yes. No more clothes for anyone except maybe shoes for DC6, whose feet are currrently growing like mad This did actually include winter boots and ski jackets for all 3 minor children (it snows a lot here!), but will definitely use e-bay next time for that!

Birthdays . . 30.00 Whilst not excessive, this can be cut. Your friends and family will understand.
We don't do adult birthdays anyway. This is what we spend on presents for our kids. Approximately 50€ each (6 kids = 6 birthdays a year!) for gifts (usually a practical gift, especially for the students) and €10 for a cake and bottle of bubbly/sparkling apple juice. The first birthday of the year is this week... I think we'll have to tell the kids that we'll just do the cake but no presents this year.

Summer holiday. . 50.00 You cannot afford a holiday
My DC5 has a scholarship to a prestigious dance summer school 8 hours from here. We can't afford the residential costs, so have decided to drive there and all stay on a campsite for the week so she can attend the course. I've budgeted €600 to include the petrol and the campsite.
Christmas . .25.00 As per birthdays above
Yes, OK

Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . 43.33 This can go.
Yes, I agree. This is mainly hubby stopping at motorway services on his way home from job interviews several hours away. He can take sandwiches from home - for the outward journey, at least!
I hope you don't think I'm being harsh in any of the above, but if you want to make savings you need to think about what you really NEED, as opposed to WANT. Hopefully this will give you some ideas to be going on with.

Not at all harsh. This is what I wanted - honest feedback! Thank you so much!

justjustine

questionss wrote: »

Well done for facing up to things...

Ok - a few outgoings that could be trimmed
Kids savings - this needs to go, no good saving for the future when you can't afford the present.
Yes, you're right. We need to stop the DD and maybe even borrow money out of their savings accounts to get through until he finds work!
Eating out - you spend 300 on this yet only 520 on household shopping - plus another 43 on snacks/coffee and 66 on weekends away, these can go. Yep!
New clothes - you don't need them Agreed
Medical insurance - is that a requirement where you are? Yes
Doesn't sound enough for 8 people so I'm guessing not. If it is do you have enough cover? It covers 2 adults and 3 children. The students have their own separate coverage as part of their university fees. Social security refunds 60% of costs and private insurance the other 40%
Dentistry - 166.67 a month, more than your health ins, sounds too much. Hopefully last year was a one-off. It's not normally this much. And we'll be putting off any further dental work until he has a job!

How long does your hubby get this rate of unemployment benefit? Does it drop gradually. You need to plan for that too. He didn't actually get anything for the first 4 months, which was why we used up our remaining savings! He should be at the full rate until next December and it will then drop gradually over the next few months.

Thank you for your help!

DCFC79

Just a thought but can your husband do dog walking (assuming he is with dogs) in between job interviews/applications ?

Obviously cheaper if he could walk rather than drive to do it, your in a city so maybe not possible.

justjustine

andyfromotley wrote: »

Hi, your situation is pretty serious, you have large debts already, they are increasing by over £1500 per month whilst the banks allow that to continue. I'm not convinced that yr husband will find a job any time soon given the amount of time he has been looking, that could be a long wait. If the banks cut off the credit you are dead in the water. So this extreme pruning of the SOA is in order to make sure that doesnt happen. we need to find £1646 in this SOA.
Yes. The banks allow it because my husband has a large trust fund (which we cannot access any time soon), so one day we will break even, but right now it worries me to be living like this!

Making the cuts i have listed above will save you £1485.this means, making all of these radical, unappetising cuts will still leave you £161 per month short. Either revisit the SOA or find a way to increasse income. All of this is required if you want your situation to carry on as is.
See my post above for why the maintenance charge is non-negotiable. We need the car for my disabled child. Dry-cleaning is for my husband's interview suit, once a month. All the rest I agree with.

Otherwise you need to consider some lifestyle changes. You may have to give up study and work full time. Your husband may have to take a lower paying job. You may have to move if you have equity in your house.
Not enough equity that would make it worthwhile selling. I've looked into us renting it out and renting somewhere smaller to live in, but who would rent to a family of 8 with no-one in full-time employment? :-/
I'm taking on all the extra hours I can get at both my jobs. As a last resort I will take a year out from my studies this summer and work full-time for a year, but it's already a 6-year course, so it really would be a last resort!

Hopefully your husband will find a well paid job soon and this will all be very temporary but you have to plan for the worst, and in doing so you simply cannot carry on as you are, it is the road to financial destruction for you. However make the changes recommended and you should be able to survive this. It all pretty rotten i know and i feel for you. I hope you can work it out.

Thank you! It's been a horrible few years. I'm hoping he'll find a decent job soon (he's got through to the final round of interviews many times but always been the second choice! He already feels guilty about not "providing" for us and I think the psychological barrier to making all these cut-backs is a big factor, but I also think it's now necessary :-(