My Soa - Any advice welcome

catlover1_2

Hi,

I've been lurking for a while but have finally plucked up the courage to post my disaster of a financial state.

Not really sure where to start so here goes.

Income -

Job 1 - £2420
Job 2 - from £2000 - £6000 depending on the month can't tell in advance averages circ £4000 (note did not have this income when debt amassed no further debt since income increase debt reducing month by month but not by huge amounts)

Total £4420 to £8420

Expenses (monthly)

Rent - £850
water - £12 (is lower usage but in first year this is as far as they would put it down now in credit by £50 after nearly 12 months)
gas - ?? ( don't pay by DD as it was developing huge credits and charging £50 per month now in credit by £300 + and no DD usage last qtr ip to 26th sept £36 (actual)
Electric - ?? ( as above last actual usage 46 for qtr in credit by over £300)
Phone - 11 (pay on bill qtr to BT -calls and broadband paid by work)
Mobile - £20 ( in contract till april)
Council tax - £120 with single person discount
Car ins (no idea paid in full last december but less then £500 have full no claims will use quidco in Dec)
Car lease - £311
Loan - £17,000 - 6.9% interest inc £17000 would be less if paid in full monthly £223
cc1 - £7700 - 6.9% life of balance and 0% cica £150 per month min on DD
CC2 - £5000 - 6.9% life of balnce circa £100 per month min payment on DD
cc3 - £3800 - 0% till may 2008 ( card limit £4000) cira £100 per mont by DD
Hair - £150 every 6 weeks inc products
Food - Loads guess about £120 per week) so £500 per month
Eating out - £60 per week so circa £240 per month
Clothes etc.. - circa £400 - £600 per month
Horse livery - £650 (inc training and transport to shows ridden by proffesional rider winning cover entrance and kit etc..)
Horse Shoes - £60 (every 6 weeks)
One off for horse - e.g dentist etc... - £60
Smokes - £50 per month
Petrol - Paid by work
Car tax - included in lease
Car maintainance - Included in Lease
No sky etc...


Note I work 2 jobs most days leaving 6 in morning and get home circa 11-1am in morning so elec gas etc very low. but I need the lease car as drive circa 1000 miles per week.

Any advise very welcome.

xx

chevalier

my comments are in blue

catlover1 wrote: »

Hi,

Income -

Job 1 - £2420
Job 2 - from £2000 - £6000 depending on the month can't tell in advance averages circ £4000 (note did not have this income when debt amassed no further debt since income increase debt reducing month by month but not by huge amounts)

Total £4420 to £8420

Expenses (monthly)

Rent - £850
water - £12 (is lower usage but in first year this is as far as they would put it down now in credit by £50 after nearly 12 months)
gas - ?? ( don't pay by DD as it was developing huge credits and charging £50 per month now in credit by £300 + and no DD usage last qtr ip to 26th sept £36 (actual)
Electric - ?? ( as above last actual usage 46 for qtr in credit by over £300)
Phone - 11 (pay on bill qtr to BT -calls and broadband paid by work)
Mobile - £20 ( in contract till april)
Council tax - £120 with single person discount you can ask to pay this over 12 months not 10 to help spread the load each month
Car ins (no idea paid in full last december but less then £500 have full no claims will use quidco in Dec):eek: this is a huge amount! Are you very young or have points on your licence? Defo use quidco when you need to switch.
Car lease - £311does this work out cheaper than buying a smaller car and paying the other expenses?
Loan - £17,000 - 6.9% interest inc £17000 would be less if paid in full monthly £223
cc1 - £7700 - 6.9% life of balance and 0% cica £150 per month min on DD
CC2 - £5000 - 6.9% life of balnce circa £100 per month min payment on DD
cc3 - £3800 - 0% till may 2008 ( card limit £4000) cira £100 per mont by DD
Hair - £150 every 6 weeks inc products erm this seems an awful lot to me, can you go to the local college and get it done cheaper. Get the products only when they are on special offer, switch to cheaper ones.
Food - Loads guess about £120 per week) so £500 per month my guess is that because of your long hours you are buying easy to prepare stuff, or eating in the staff canteen. This would be my shopping for a family of four plus 2 cats FOR TWO MONTHS! And we eat more. Can you take your own stuff to work to cut down on this?
Eating out - £60 per week so circa £240 per month again can this be cut down?
Clothes etc.. - circa £400 - £600 per month erm if you are spending this much per month on clothes, then surely you have enough now not to buy anymore this side of christmas? Someone suggested really getting everything hung up/ironed, so you can see what you have really got. I know of one person who colour codes her wardrobe, so she can see that she doesn't need another red/purple etc colour top because she already has 3! Saved her a fortune when she realised she could wear x top with b skirt rather than c to make a new outfit.
Horse livery - £650 (inc training and transport to shows ridden by proffesional rider winning cover entrance and kit etc..)so does the horse really pay for itself? Ie it is good enough to cover these fees every month?
Horse Shoes - £60 (every 6 weeks)
One off for horse - e.g dentist etc... - £60
Smokes - £50 per monthwould be good to give these up if you can
Petrol - Paid by work
Car tax - included in lease
Car maintainance - Included in Lease
No sky etc...

TOTAL OUTGOINGS £3877 and this does not include one off cost for horse and was the minimum spent on clothes.

If you didn't spend on clothes until the january sales this would save you (inc this month) £1200. If you saved £200 off your shopping bill for food, this would be another £600. That is £1800 in 2 and a half months. That would pay off nearly half of one of your credit cards (CC3) in just 2 and a half months.

Note I work 2 jobs most days leaving 6 in morning and get home circa 11-1am in morning so elec gas etc very low. but I need the lease car as drive circa 1000 miles per week.

If you were able to start cutting back on the clothes and food it would almost be doable to give up the lesser paying job. How would it be to have all that extra time just for you?

For further motivation have a look at www.whatsthecost.com and have a look at the snowball calculator on there. You put in your debts, apr and payments and it gives you a debt free date. Then you can see what a difference throwing more money at your debt does to the debt free date, and also how much interest you will save.

Hope this isn't too harsh, but I think you need to start thinking 'which is more important more clothes this month or paying a wack of x credit card'.
best of luck
chev

tyllwyd

Is there a reason why your bills for eating out, hair and clothes are so high? Is it connected to your work?

And the horse costs - is that a hobby or is it connected to work?

catlover1_2

Hi Chev,

Thanks for this :

Car Insurance - I have a full no claims the £500 is just a guss but the car is a group 13 car and has to be fully comp as its lease.

Car Lease - Had a car before that I bought for £7000 did 52,000 miles in 1 1/2 years and engine went so I got less then £500 for it. decided to lease becasue the salary includes a car allowance of £560 and under terms have to stick to certain types of larger 4/5 door cars e.g 3 series, saab etc.. and must be under 5 years at end of any lease hp etc... so based on my mileage and the depreciation etc...its better to lease then I don't have any scary large bills / write offs...

Council Tax - Will ask next year ... but was thinking of just paying whole amount when bill comes in April then can forget about it what do you think ???

Hair -You are right will check this out.

Clothes - You are probably right , have cleared out one wardrobe and sorted through to seel some of it on ebay I have loads of clothes that I don't wear any more and seem to have wardrobes of stuff but no idea whats in it ... will try to have a sort through the rest during Oct. I rarely go to the high street as no timemost is from the internet e.g Karen millen online etc..

Food - You are right -- I do bring sanwiches with me some of the time but rarely stop for lunch usually eat a McDonalds or petrol station sandwich while driving. When I get home e.g between jobs for 20 minsI only have time for ready prepared stuff that goes in the microwave as I have 10 mins to change do make up ans 10 mins to eat. Am too tired when I get home to cook and need to go to sleep !!! So not sure I how to find the time to cook from scratch !!!

Horse - As he does bigger classes he's beginning to pay for himself in 2-3 years he probably will do. Please don't suggest I get rid of him as he is my family he means more to me then anyone else in the world.

Smokes - Keep trying but haven't managed yet.

Am planning to do the higher paid job for next 3-5 years to sort myself out hopefully save for house then will be too old the lower paid one is the one that is a career.

xx

the_cat

Hi and welcome to MSE

A few things stand out to me.

Gas/electric - get the credit amount returned to you immediately and renegotiate the direct debit amounts. You are effectively borrowing money so that they can earn interest on it! Pay this off a card asap.

I think you may have fallen into the trap of being time poor and therefore seeing spending money as a way to treat yourself. Obviously if you have been regularly spending as you claim on clothes etc, you cannot NEED to spend this every month. But its very easy to feel you deserve things/meals out etc when you work hard and have so little time to yourself. I can't imagine that you want to always work this way, so why not look at this as an exercise in 'buying yourself financial freedom'. Paying off the debts would give you the freedom to choose whether you want to work this way and for how long.

Hmmm.... the horse. OK, I understand on one level that this could be important to you, but if I understand this correctly the winnings generally cover entry fees and maybe a bit more? Certainly not all the costs of the horse. With so little time yourself, I'm guessing that you have very limited time with the horse yourself, so it seems that you are financing someone else's very expensive hobby! Do you intend to 'take back the reins' so to speak when you have the time?
Having owned horses and worked in the industry myself for several years, I know that 'one off' costs for a horse, especially an expensive competition horse, happen many times a year (if not week!!) Perhaps you could break these costs down and find out exactly what this truly costs you. I did this a few years ago and even though I was riding/competing the horse myself, I was startled to find a monthly cost of nearly £850. Certainly opens your eyes!

EDIT Oops cross posted, sorry!

catlover1_2

hi,

Horse - I love him very very much he is my family and I would do anything for him .... he is with the professional (one of the top 30 in the uk) because I bought him as a foal for me to have forever but didn't realise until he grew up and started to showjump how talented he really is so I decided to give him the chance to fulfill his potential ... if in a year or 2 he looks like he won't make it to the top then we will stop the professional riding and take him back on diy and he will do the occassional comp with me (I will have more time in the future as do not plan to work 2 jobs forever!!!)

The eating out is high - because I try to see my friends (alternate weeks) and we meet in central london as half way for everyone about once a week ... this includes my trainfare (9.60 return, tube about £3.00, car parking £5.00 at station, meal, drinks, tip etc..) this is the only time I see any friends and other then then horse my one relaxation we don't always eat through about half the time its only drinks and thats normally about £10.00 on drinks I don't have sky etc...

xx

catlover1_2

Hi,

Have phoned gas and elctric and they are sending me checks.

I think one of my probs is that as the housrs I work are so long that although on paper there is a huge amount coming in because I have no time my spending is on the way that costs the least time and I have no idea really where the money goes.

xx

liz105

can I ask what your second job is? Im curious cos Im out of work and that pay is fantastic!!!

ps. how on earth do you keep going? Id be ill working hours like that... hats off to you!

missk_ensington

SMOKES- Dont know if it helps, but after hunderds of failed attempts to quit I had the acupuncture thing in my ear last november, its a stitch/stuture thing (Dont ask me how it works cos I dont know, something to do with breaking off the signal between lungs/brain that causes craving) anyway it cost me £90 and I haven't touched a cig since last November. I've just booked a 2 week Caribbean Cruise for New year with my ciggy-savings!

FOOD- I know its easy to get grab food when you work long hours, but perhaps you could devote 2-3 hours once a week (at weekend perhaps) to cook in bulk a lasagne, a hot pot, a cottage pie........ put them all in containers and stick em in freezer. Then treat as a ready meal when you come home. (I use the plastic containers you get from the Chinese takeaway to store each portion in - you could advertise for them on freecycle, I've just asked for jam jars and got loads donated!) Also because you're oven is on in one swoop doing a few things at once, it shouldn;t add too much on the elec bill.

Hope this helps!

Lucy1982_2

I try to bulk cook every now and then and find that it really helps.

catlover1_2

Hi,

Liz - I have pm'd you re the job

Smokes - could be worth a go - I haven't smoked yet today !!!! and have some patches but haven't needed to us them yet. One of my probs is I feel I should stop but actually enjoy smoking .... bad I know , but I also know I would be less tired probably sleep better etc... if I stopped

Food - the batch cooking sounds a good idea will look inot it.

xx