Finding the way through a £100k hole

Isitdoable

Busy busy busy week or so.  This has been fantastic.  I took the plunge and booked the coaching for myself.  I feel like I have something holding me back from something I am very capable of doing.
Had a very big win on a business debt last week.  I have some 'useable' cash due to the bounce back loan.  Managed to negotiate a full and final settlement on an old debt that wiped £7000 off the balance.   Achievement of the week

PurpleFairy26

Sounds like a very productive week indeed! 

WhySeaEm

Hi there, I'm sorry to read you've been so badly affected by the coronavirus. Really hope your insurers pay out soon. I think the mindset coaching is great idea and I hope it helps you clear your mind.

Isitdoable

End of the month and I have just finished up my financial round up and paid all the credit cards.  I logged onto my Aqua card and noticed they had put live a 6 month 0% balance transfer offer, so I've thrown all my money at clearing that so I can shuffle another card onto there.  In an ideal world it would have been the AMEX as that has the highest rate but apparently they don't do transfers from AMEX cards, so it was the Barclaycard with a still hefty APR of 20%.  Max transfer was £3000 so that's nearly half the balance on the Barclaycard now on 0%

CC totals:
ME
Aqua - 3198
Amex - 6255
Card - 4007
Cap 1 - 0

OH
Bcard - 35
Lloyds - 891
Virgin - 4168
M&S - 778

TOTAL - 23172, a reduction of 1730 since last month.

We are literally working like dogs to get by and pay these debts down right now, but thats the only way we are going to get through this I think.   Work has been going well and very busy in the sense of how we can operate now, turnover is very much down but we are earning enough to keep our bills paid, and to not be losing money, which before we could start up in some capacity we were losing.
The situation with HMRC remains unchanged, they seemed to have stopped all action due to the pandemic, and I'm not sure when they will restart - I have tried to get in touch but no luck at all, and emails are just being answered with an automated response.

In terms of our personal bills......SOA looks like this right now: (I'm writing this down again as a. I intend to look at a few areas to see if we can make more savings and b. I want it cemented in my mind what we are looking at in terms of an income need if everything goes tits up work wise.

Contents Ins - 16
Life Ins - 35
Car tax - 48
Electricity - 75
Car finance - 392
Nat Trust Memb - 10
Rent - 1300
Mobile phones - 107
Netflix - 8
Car ins - 52
Water - 29
Prescrip prepayment - 10
Sky - TV/Internet/Phone - 80
TOTAL - £2162

Over the past month we have literally spent nothing else, other than food.  Obviously we haven't been anywhere!  The food however......now there is an issue!  £622 spent!!!!  So I need to seriously get that in hand.  We are obviously eating a lot more at home, we are all there all day long, but we absolutely do not need to spend that much.  I've not wanted to go to the supermarket, so I have literally just been managing to get a click and collect and then panic filling the virtual trolley!

brizzlegirl

Just popping by,  yay to the financial wins and the business keeping going  
We are all spending more on food I think, inevitable really, but you’re doing great with that SOA, you've got this  

Isitdoable

Gosh it has been a long time, but it doesn't mean I haven't thought about money, in fact I've spent a lot of time on that.  I've also been very very busy with work, and we now along with many others know we can reopen on 4th July.  In a way, we now move into a more stressful period, with absolutely no idea how it will go!

CC Finances are as follows.    It is 28th June, and I have evaluated and paid every single card.  We have a smaller reduction this month.  We gained a balance transfer fee for the transfer onto the Aqua card.  I also have to give some immediate thought to the balance on the M&S card as the 0% expires on the 20th of this month. 

1.7.20 - ME

5923  - amex

3216 - aqua

3919 -b'card

3813 - n'wide

0 - cap 1

16871

1.7.20 - OH

814 - Lloyds

290 - B'card

4118 - Virgin

752 - M& S

5974

Grand Total

22845

Smaller progress this month, as I don't have so much spare cash, although I am hoping to generate a bit more for a mid-month pay off.  OH also had to pay for a prior commitment on his Barclaycard.  It is his only 'thing' for the whole year so allowed I think!

In terms of other spending.  Food I have brought down to a more respectable amount - about to tally it up as a final, but I cancelled all but weekly shops and tallied as I went (I will update on final figure).  Only other spending has been some clothes for the children (£114), two months of exercise classes for me (£54), and extra curricular actives for the eldest (£35).  Nothing frivolous whatsoever.

IrishSean

Is the HMRC bill accruing interest?
Keep a record of all your attempted contact with them; maybe the likes of economic development team in your local council or a cost effective accountant could offer a fresh perspective on how it might be addressed. 

I would just hate for you to achieve so much on the personal finance front only to be 'upended' by HMRC deciding to be tools sometime in the near future.

Isitdoable

IrishSean said:

Is the HMRC bill accruing interest?
Keep a record of all your attempted contact with them; maybe the likes of economic development team in your local council or a cost effective accountant could offer a fresh perspective on how it might be addressed. 

I would just hate for you to achieve so much on the personal finance front only to be 'upended' by HMRC deciding to be tools sometime in the near future.

No, it's not accruing interest.  I have got a very detailed record of all the conversations I have had with them, including the last one where they advised all actions were currently suspending due to covid.  I'm going to make contact again next week, to show I'm being proactive.   My accountant has given me quite a bit of advice regarding it.....essentially that HMRC are a law unto themselves and we don't really know what they are going to do!  I still toy daily with the bankruptcy route but I can't bring myself to press the button.  So I just keep trucking on, and at the very least use this experience to get myself into far better financial habits that will serve me far better going into the future.

IrishSean

Hopefully it won't come to that.. given all that's happened you've never had a stronger case for arguing forbearance..if your accountant can find any loopholes, mores the better. There's paying a fair amount of tax to contribute to public services and then there's being screwed into the ground by HMRC...

My only dealings with them have been to do with a CTC overpayment, which was a nightmare.

I'm selling a jointly owned property, hopefully soon: have made enquiries about mitigating CGT altho tbh, I think the 'profit' will be too small to fall into that bracket. If I do ever get a btl to fund a pseudo pension for myself i'm def declaring it for income tax.. don't fancy them coming after me in years to come. Have had friends hassled by them for stupidly small amounts and yet know of others 'post 08 boom' who 'negotiated' their own deals (property magnates who were 'too big to fail')... infuriating department that HMRC😬

missymoo81

Hey isitdoable, I have just caught up! Bless you! You’ve been through the mill during lockdown. We’ve been exactly the same! It’s been so hard to keep afloat! Keep your chin up you’re doing an amazing job!! I used to spend an awful lot on shopping but have managed to get it down to around £70pw for 4 of us. I just do an online shop at Tesco each week.