Sell up and rent - thoughts?

CarpeDave

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2500
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 696
Other income............................ 427
Total monthly income.................... 3623

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 375
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 253
Electricity............................. 85.35
Gas..................................... 100
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 70
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 118
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 39
Internet Services....................... 30
Groceries etc. ......................... 600
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 400
Road tax................................ 12
Car Insurance........................... 100
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 70
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 100
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 40
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 40
Buildings insurance..................... 15
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 95
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 50
Entertainment........................... 200
Holiday................................. 250
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 3129.35


Assets
Cash.................................... 2000
House value (Gross)..................... 470000
Shares and bonds........................ 2200
Car(s).................................. 14500
Other assets............................ 4000
Total Assets............................ 492700


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 16322....(375)......5.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 16322.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Home improvement loan..........16635.....374.......5.9
Barclaycard....................5274......112.......17
Sainsburys Mastercard..........5850......140.......19
Yorkshire Bank Master..........5761......60........0
Tesco Mastercard...............5190......75........0
Total unsecured debts..........38710.....761.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,623
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,129.35
Available for debt repayments........... 493.65
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 761
Amount short for making debt repayments. -267.35

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 492,700
Total HP & Secured debt................. -16,322
Total Unsecured debt.................... -38,710
Net Assets.............................. 437,668

Created using the SOA calculator at .
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

AdrianC

Well, that's a chunk healthier than you initially suggested!

So £3,623 in, and £3,129 going out including the car loan.
You're only £250 off breaking even - £3,900ish, not your estimated £4,500. There's easy wins to make that back - you're splooging £450/mo between "entertainment" and "holidays" (£3k/year - 10% of your actual after-tax income...), and the £600/mo grocery bill can definitely be wound in a chunk.

The kids are 10 and 7 - so out at school all day. Can't your wife get a part-time job?

£400/month on fuel? Really...? At 40mpg and £1.25/litre, that would be about 2,850 miles/month or 34k/year.

Start by sorting your 17% and 19% credit cards out. Can you transfer any balance to the 0% cards?

bouicca21

There are several places to start cutting - and without feeling the pain.

I'm a bit surprised at how high your council tax is, but presumably its a really big house? Your gas and electric is also high - you both have incomes so presumably out most of the day and the children are at school. There is no way you should be paying that much, even in a big house. Have you checked your tariff? Is the house adequately insulated? Do you all swan round in summer clothes in winter? If so buy some jumpers/cardigans and wear them!

Mobile phone also high - is that for one phone or do you each have one? Check out family plans and sim only.

Groceries way too high. Try the old style board as well as the debt free board for ways of cutting that down (find your nearest Aldi and Lidl, start meal planning, take packed lunches).

I'd also be looking at the cost of car insurance and petrol but without knowing more about the neighbourhood (big house in Herts, surely not a high crime area? You seem to be paying the sort of premiums I'd expect in deprived bits of inner London) and your need to do so much travelling, it's difficult to make suggestions.

Pixie5740

CarpeDave wrote: »

OP here.



I'm tryingt to post the initial piece on the DFW board, but when I click "New Thread" on there I get a screen warning me saying "The Grabbit board is for telling people about the top deals and offers" and asking if I'm sure I want to post there. Is there a glitch on the site or is it my cack-handedness at using computers?

It's not MSE, it's you.

Red-Squirrel_2

Your wife doesn't work?

You've put nothing down for clothing, that can't be true, even if you are cutting down what about school uniforms, replacing essentials etc?

csgohan4

that's alot for entertainment, Can't remember the last time I went to the cinema. Use those discount cards and vouchers if your going out

getmore4less

Cut the holiday and you are break even.

Why the car debt bigger than the value of 2 cars

Where did the other cars go?

Usual money sinks.
Phones and TV packages can go.

House running costs seem high and £600pm for 4 people is a lot of food

Start a spending diary for 2019 and go back over 2018 to see how accurate the SOA is

How much did the debt go up in 2018?

quantumlobster

No expenditure on clothing, but £450/mo on basically nothing (i.e. holidays and entertainment)? Priorities need to be rearranged.

The mileage seems high but it's entirely feasible - it's a 70-mile each way commute. Such a high mileage would also drive (ha ha) up the insurance.

OP - what car? what journeys?

Communications is an expensive bit:

Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 118
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 39
Internet Services....................... 30

£209/month.

Cut the cord - go internet-only (but you've got a console, right? there are many ways to watch - Netflix/Amazon if you have them (but they cost money) and BBC iPlayer and other demand services), and look at sim-only packages with modest data allowances - for example, Three do a 12-month sim-only package for £9/mo, with 4GB data and unlimited minutes/texts. If you're in a cabled area, Virgin will do you the basic no-phone-line broadband for £35/mo (50Mbps). ADSL providers can give you less speed than that for between £20-£30.

CarpeDave

One car is a 2015 BMW X3 diesel on a HP plan. WBAC values it at £12,244, finance company settlement figure today is £16,322. So we're in £3658 of neg eq on that. Tax disc is £140pa, servicing is £500 a year. It uses £75 of fuel a week on the school run and on family duties at weekends.
The other car is a 2009 Fiesta Econetic diesel worth £2000. Zero tax, 70mpg, I use that to commute to work 40 miles away. It takes a £50 tankful once a fortnight. I service it myself for under £100 a year. I drive a small car transporter for work and bring it home two or three nights a week, which helps. The car insurance on both is due for renewal in late March, so I will do all the work I can to get the premiums down as much as possible.

The mobile phone cost is for two phones: Mine is £43pm for the handset on the Apple 12 month rolling agreement thing plus £27pm with Three for unlimited calls and data. I use it all day for GPS tracking, navigation, job allocation, emails and calls so it has to be powerful and reliable. My wife's phone is £49pm, it's halfway through a 24-month contract.

Council tax is hefty, because it's an old big house so has always been one band from the highest bracket. Thinking about it, the previous owners sold half the garden to build the house next door in 2000, so I'll find out about reassessment for our property if that wasn't done at the time. Thank you.

Gas/electricity is on a combined tariff with British Gas, we're paying £185.35 a month and the quarterly bills say we're on track to cover the annual costs at this level. We had a new efficient combi boiler installed in January 2018, so we're not keeping a tank of hot water on standby all the time. We live in a bungalow with a loft conversion, we keep doors closed (and curtains/blinds at night), have a thermostat set to 18C in the day and 16C at night (with half a dozen programs each day of the week, 20C for a couple of hours at breakfast and dinner times), and I've insulated the cupboards surrounding the upstairs rooms with polystyrene board, mirror/bubble wrap sheets, rolls of loft insulation and draught excluders.

"Entertainment" comprises a meal out a month, one or two date nights at the pub, and things like swimming, bowling, trampolining and rock climbing as a family. We also have Spice Girls tickets and a family pass for Camp Bestival 2019 already paid for. I've cancelled our National Trust membership because we've only visited NT properties twice this year. We've also cancelled direct debits to the four charities we were supporting, with emails sent to explain our reasons why we've done so.

I have already transferred balances from the high interest cards to the 0% ones, but then I've spent on the high interest cards again... I know.

The main areas that have got us into so much credit card debt are:
1. When we moved house in Sept 2017 I started working for a courier business, the promise was there of a good income but it became clear that the work wasn't available to support that. So my income fell to around £800pm for 9 months before I called it a day and started a much better paid job a lot further away.
2. We got married earlier this year and although we did it "on a budget" with no church service and the reception at our house, the costs still came in at around £4,000. The honeymoon in Mexico was around the same amount again. This was all planned and budgeted for when we thought the courier business would take off.

Groceries can indeed be cut back, my wife is an amazing cook and can conjure up healthy meals from pretty much any ingredients. The children prefer "freezer tapas" to anything special in any case!

getmore4less

csgohan4 wrote: »

that's alot for entertainment, Can't remember the last time I went to the cinema. Use those discount cards and vouchers if your going out

2 adults and 2 kids on £50pw is not bad over a year if you nclude the odd trip and a few meals a panto etc.