I have no idea where to go from here.

DCFC79

The 3 stand outs for me


Mobile phone............................ 25
Internet Services....................... 41
Groceries etc. ......................... 120


Where do you shop ?


Aldi/Lidl or Asda, Tesco ?

Ms_Chocaholic

Water rates - £38.72. Have you thought of getting a meter.

theoretica

I agree with others that you need to take a look at your business - you can't afford to be on no income in the hopes of jam tomorrow! Do you need to put so much into stock? At present all you are doing it working to build up your stock.


Are you sure you live on £120 groceries for the three of you? That is impressive.


What benefits will you be losing when HMRC start their clawback? If this will eat into the childcare element you might be better off cancelling that and working when your partner can look after her.

Emjay85

Hi everyone,

I’m unable to quote/reply for some reason so I will answer as much as possible in this post.

With the 3 stand outs -
Mobile phone is 25 between 2 of us. One is £10 and one is £15

Internet - I agree, we I’m looking to change it this week hopefully.

Shopping is £60 every 2 weeks so £120 a month.

I’n regards to water rates I believe we are on a meter? I think so at least but I will check it out.

The business has a lot of up front costs and generally costs me £400 per item I stock. So for me to have even 3 items in stock I need to spend £1200.

The return on the items is about 70% so I mean that’s great, but given that I sell online it’s difficult to maintain social media traffic and shop interest if you’ve only got 1 or 2 items in the whole shop. I’m working on a monthly subscription which should smooth out some of the fluctuation and hopefully being some financial stability.

As I say, I’m also still looking for a full time job in this time. Not that it means much these days but I’ve got my masters degree, and teacher level qualifications in my field.....but trying to find a job is still proving to be a shot in the dark.

fatbelly

I sometimes look at an soa and red lights start flashing. With you it's amber lights.

It looks as if you are managing, with a small surplus.

However, HMRC repayments are likely to kick in at OVER £60 per month and that will wipe out the surplus.

You should talk to UC with your soa at hand to try to negotiate downwards but in practice this is difficult and you may have to look for savings elsewhere over the long period that it will take to repay this.

You list includes

Debt Recovery...............120

What is the: Creditor? Balance? Interest

D_M_E

Life assurance - have you looked at comparison for this, you may find it cheaper especially if you arranged it through the bank.

Mortgage - you have listed this twice - is it also added to the total twice?

Energy costs are high but I see you're comparing costs here.

Bank overdraft charges of £12 on a £250 overdraft? You are being robbed, or is it one of those accounts with a fee and the £12 includes the fee? If so, tell the bank to channge it to a fee free account particularly if you don't use any of the benefits.

Debt recovery - what's this for and when is the expected final payment?

HMRC - have you queried the amount?

poppasmurf_bewdley

Your groceries at £120 is way too high for two adults and a child. I would be looking to bring this down to around £80 if not less. Change to Aldi, Lidl and Iceland. Cook in bulk and freeze meals.

fudgecat

I disagree that £120.00 a month is too high for a family of three. £60.00 every two weeks sounds like the basic shop, but are you sure you do not top up during the week?

Karonher

If you have teaching qualifications then apply to an agency. Even a day or a week could bring in between £400 and £800 a month.

katsu

As you are looking for work and working less than 16 hours, what about registering for contribution based job seekers allowance? Universal Credit may or may not offer you better things, I don't know about benefits but at the very least you should be able to get up to six months of contribution based job seekers allowance (they would take off earnings, I am not sure how your sales would work). It is about £73 a week so it might help?