OliveOyl without Popeye, SOA please advise

OliveOyl_2

OH has taken a job overseas for at least two years. He LOVES it, and probably will stay for longer. I cannot join him, partly because we have 3 young adult children (uni, boarding school, working), my elderly & dependant parents and our debts keep me at work. So if I can hammer our debts, and the parents agree to move into sheltered housing, I could at least join him in a couple of years time for a while. At least that's the plan.......

The trouble is, I'm struggling to work out a budget for one person when I'm used to 5 people and a very different life. So I thought I'd ask you nice people for help.

Income:
My salary £1573.08, though this may reduce as I will need more holiday than my entitlement, my boss has agreed to additional unpaid leave.
Popeye plans to send £2800 plus any he can spare back home each month.

Family allowance and maintenance pays most of the school expenses for DS2

Outgoings per month:
Mortgage £1,792.52
Rates £190.00 (this isn't discounted for a single person because DS1 and DD still have this as their address)
Electric £34 (this should go down as this is based on a full house, though children turn up at intervals, often with heaps of washing)
Gas £35 (as the electric)
Water £15 (we are metered, this also should reduce)
TV licence £11.37
Mobile currently £30-ish until Popeye gets his internet then we'll Skype and this will return to £17
TV/Broadband/Telephone currently £50, but should reduce to £35 when Skype happens.....
Life Insurances and Pension plans £250.19
Building & Contents £42.71

Car Costs
We run DD's car + mine
My insurance £14.56
I've just paid DD's insurance for the year £340
Petrol is usually about £60 per month
2 x car tax (?)
servicing is usually about £60-80 per car each year

Now the debts......
We've had a rise in costs setting Popeye up in his new home so our overdrafts are hovering at around £1700 EACH :eek: (12% and 5%)

Barclaycard (Popeye) £3600 0% ends April
Barclaycard (O.Oyl) £2,943.70 6.9% LOB
M&S (Popeye) £6,578.15 4.9% LOB
M&S (O.Oyl) £1,829.86 3.9% LOB
Tesco £4,815.25 :eek: :eek: This one has to be cleared pronto, it has shipping/furniture/flights on it at :eek: interest.

Then there are Three Consolidation loans (yeah, every year we'd "sort" ourselves out:o ) They are fixed, should finish in the next 2-3years and can't be overpaid. The monthly repayments total £500.70.

Now I have no idea how to work out what to spend on feeding and cleaning me, the house and the cat

And I need to buy flights for me or him very 6-8 weeks at an average of £600 a time.......
(the next one I have to buy is for February, it's obviously cheaper bought well in advance, but you can see what it has done to the Tescos credit card buying the December ones....)

Seaxwyn

Hi Olive! Well done for getting this together, it must be a horrible thing to do when you're miissing popeye.

One idea - if you are regularly spending £600 on flights, can you look for a credit card that gives you great perks for these - eg cashback or airmiles?

Could you get a lodger in the house?

Or could you downsize? If it is no longer a home for five people could you sell up and get a smaller one? Or move out and rent it out?

Just ideas - feel free to ignore them!

chevalier

OliveOyl wrote: »

Income:
My salary £1573.08, though this may reduce as I will need more holiday than my entitlement, my boss has agreed to additional unpaid leave.
Popeye plans to send £2800 plus any he can spare back home each month.

Family allowance and maintenance pays most of the school expenses for DS2

Outgoings per month:
Mortgage £1,792.52
Rates £190.00 (this isn't discounted for a single person because DS1 and DD still have this as their address)If they are really not living there, then you need to change this. Also you can ask to pay it over 12 months rather than 10.
Electric £34 (this should go down as this is based on a full house, though children turn up at intervals, often with heaps of washing)don't let them using you as a laundry for nothing! Charge them a nominal fee!
Gas £35 (as the electric)
Water £15 (we are metered, this also should reduce)
TV licence £11.37
Mobile currently £30-ish until Popeye gets his internet then we'll Skype and this will return to £17
TV/Broadband/Telephone currently £50, but should reduce to £35 when Skype happens.....
Life Insurances and Pension plans £250.19have you checked whether you can get the same life cover at a cheaper rate
Building & Contents £42.71ditto these. If you can then you can go via cash back sites, to get cash back when you switch

Car Costs
We run DD's car + mine
My insurance £14.56
I've just paid DD's insurance for the year £340and she isn't paying you back because?
Petrol is usually about £60 per month
2 x car tax (?)
servicing is usually about £60-80 per car each year

Now the debts......
We've had a rise in costs setting Popeye up in his new home so our overdrafts are hovering at around £1700 EACH :eek: (12% and 5%)can you balance transfer these onto somewhere else?

Barclaycard (Popeye) £3600 0% ends April
Barclaycard (O.Oyl) £2,943.70 6.9% LOB
M&S (Popeye) £6,578.15 4.9% LOB
M&S (O.Oyl) £1,829.86 3.9% LOB
Tesco £4,815.25 :eek: :eek: This one has to be cleared pronto, it has shipping/furniture/flights on it at :eek: interest.

Then there are Three Consolidation loans (yeah, every year we'd "sort" ourselves out:o ) They are fixed, should finish in the next 2-3years and can't be overpaid. The monthly repayments total £500.70.

Now I have no idea how to work out what to spend on feeding and cleaning me, the house and the cat work out a weekly meal plan that uses up things in the cupboard/freezer and then use this to sort out your shopping list. I would have thought about £30 would be a good start.

And I need to buy flights for me or him very 6-8 weeks at an average of £600 a time.......can he get subsidised ones through his work?
(the next one I have to buy is for February, it's obviously cheaper bought well in advance, but you can see what it has done to the Tescos credit card buying the December ones....)

hope this helps
chev

Karmacat

I agree, the flights need to be bought in the most efficient way possible.....

If you don't know what a single person (with occasional add-ons, lol!) spends, why don't you go back to keeping a spending diary - even a meal diary, as opposed to a meal planner.

The interest rates on the cards look good, tho you haven't mentioned the Tesco rate. Will you be able to get replacement 0% deals, do you think? The interest rate on one of the overdrafts looks high-ish at 12%, will you snowball on one of them?

Hope you're feeling okay, and not still sick - I haven't actually been at it with a calculator, but it looks do-able.

taxi73

Well done on posting your SOA and I have to agree with the others as far as getting the flights in the most cost effective way...another 0% card is a good thing to shift the tesco debt to also..the loans can sit in the background as there is nothing you can do about those.Don't know what else to suggest at the moment but will have another good look later

OliveOyl_2

Thanks for all your suggestions

We agreed to run DD's car for her during her time at Uni, we don't officially give her any other financial help. (I strongly suspect that she has a fair bit from her father though.....) She works as well. I've told her that the car is a luxury she could live without as many students do, but then she probably would never get to work or even lectures.... We are also reassured that the car is properly maintained. And this support should expire when she finishes next summer and we'll then be getting rent from her. :whistle:

I'll definitely be looking at our insurances. I already get the car insurances via Quidco.

As for converting the overdraft to a credit card debt, even the 0% deals worries me. The multitude of cards are so confusing as it is. Popeyes money was 5 weeks late last month and I got 2 charges for late payment which I know will accrue a greater %age underneath the cheaper balance amount. :mad:

The children all think of this as their home, they haven't "left" yet as they are in school or student accomodation. (even DS1) I can't imagine renting out one of their rooms! One of them is usually home 2 weekends out of 4. But if I'm serious about clearing debt fast then I shall look at that....

Seaxwyn

Hi Olive

I do sympathise about the house still being the children's home, even if they aren't there all the time. You could give it six months and see what the room occupancy rate is.

My mum rented out my room the week I left for university - but on a deal where I still had it in the holidays. I honestly didn't resent it at all. It meant I couldnt go home in term time, but I don't think I would have anyway.

But... you have good income, and so desperate measures aren't really needed at this stage. Just canny management of debt and shifting of everything onto the lowest possible rate. You CAN keep on top of all those payment due dates. I have a piece of paper with dates and amounts pinned onto my board next to the computer and I've never missed a payment yet.

OliveOyl_2

I have the due dates on my spreadsheets. Some of them (mostly mine) are paid by SO, what I think confused me last month was down to the symetry of the cards His Barclaycard & M&S versus my B'card & M&S each with a different due date...

What I thought I might do was set each card up so that the minimum payment was taken by DD and I could choose the overpayments each month - but I haven't done it yet even though it is some months since I had that idea :rotfl:

sleepless_saver

I don't know if your working adult child lis living at home, but if not....
students and school pupils are disregarded for council tax - so if you were the only non-student in a houseful of them you could get single person discount. Plus school leavers between 18 and 19 who leave school or college between 1st May and 31st October are 'disregarded' until 31st October.

OliveOyl_2

DS is working away from here, and lives in digs, so he changes his address at regular intervals. He is on the electoral roll from here, though has opted for a postal vote, do I have to remove him? Otherwise 25% discount for the next 6 months would be worth it -many thanks.

sleepless_saver

It looks like the electoral roll is one of the things local authorities/audit look at to check claims for single person discount are not fraudulent, so yes I would get him off the roll asap!