Utterly desperate and totally scared

Magsmx5

Hi, well done for gathering your thoughts and putting together your SOA. Always scary seeing it down on paper.
As you are self employed, check out Martin Lewis guide for the self employed. Just a few thoughts: contact the Council re. council tax and ask for help or delay in paying CC, as with the management company , what are the child related expenses? Is there any chance these can be reduced, contact the satellite company and try to reduce rate as you are paying nearly £130 for phone, satellite  and internet services. you will be saving on the entertainment fee - not a lot but it does all adds up.  For now try to reduce your food bill. How many dogs do you have that the food bill is so high. 

Contact your credit card companies and request a payment holiday. It will take some time get your head round this, but stay strong and you will get through this. 

Dizzy_Imp

Magsmx5 said:

Hi, well done for gathering your thoughts and putting together your SOA. Always scary seeing it down on paper.
As you are self employed, check out Martin Lewis guide for the self employed. Just a few thoughts: contact the Council re. council tax and ask for help or delay in paying CC, as with the management company , what are the child related expenses? Is there any chance these can be reduced, contact the satellite company and try to reduce rate as you are paying nearly £130 for phone, satellite  and internet services. you will be saving on the entertainment fee - not a lot but it does all adds up.  For now try to reduce your food bill. How many dogs do you have that the food bill is so high. 

Contact your credit card companies and request a payment holiday. It will take some time get your head round this, but stay strong and you will get through this. 

Thank you for taking the time to look over my figures and make suggestions - much appreciated! 

In response - I have read all of Martin's guides concerned with COVID-19 and have researched and read countless news reports and Parliament Bills and proposals on the matter.  I'm hoping this has prepared me to watch out for any changes to the current information.

I haven't approached my Council regarding the Council Tax yet - they were very amenable when we were flooded five years ago and helped us out then, so maybe I could be cheeky and ask again.  I already pay over 12 months rather than 10, so can't stretch things any further there.

The fee for the management company is for them to manage my let.  I've already told them that their fee will be reduced in line with whatever my drop in rental income is due to my tenant being unable to pay any or the full amount.  Surprisingly, they accepted this without argument so next month this will reduce (I'm assuming less rental income).

The entertainment and internet charges have already been slashed.  We have cancelled Sky, but are tied into our broadband contract for another 12 months. I'm taking a look at hubby's mobile contract tomorrow as I'm sure I can switch him to a cheaper deal. I'm already on a cheap SIM only one.

Our food bill, believe it or not, has been halved over the last three months.  My family aren't liking the sudden drop in shop-bought snacks and unnecessary yummies, but life is tough now chaps! I'm baking nearly every day ( thank goodness we have loads of chickens as eggs are as rare as hen's teeth in shops ATM) but the kids and hubby are like a plague of locusts within minutes of any baked goods coming out of the oven!  I'm trying to batch cook and am eeking out food and stretching it a bit further using frugal tips and suggestions (quite enjoying this challenge actually).

The dog food bill is high as we have six dogs.  Five monsters all over 45kgs and a collie.  They are raw fed which is actually the cheapest way to feed them as two have allergies which are totally controlled with a raw diet.  My local supplier already gives me a huge discount due to the quantities I buy, so I can't ask him to reduce this cost any further.  Also, my oldest girl is expecting a litter next month, so this cost will actually increase when the pups start to wean.  

Credit cards are not currently offering payment holidays - they have offered to freeze interest for 30 days, which I've accepted, but I'm now waiting to see what the banks and lending houses will put in place for people struggling.  Both mortgages have had holiday periods requested, just waiting to hear.

Well...my brain is still firing in all directions, but now it's down in written form, it no longer seems to have to power it did over me when the figures were vague and not truly known.

Hubby is on board, by the way.  He saw me crying earlier and says he will do whatever it takes to get us through and out the other side. I can't ask him to work any harder than he already does though, so I think I need to take charge and let him concentrate on getting his work done.

BabyStepper

Hi there

Well done for getting you soa done, no small task in itself. Great.

I won't pretend to have a handle on a solution, but I have a couple of thoughts about your soa. 
First, your business expenses seem to be mixed in with your household expenses. Keep these seperate. Your business is currently on hold, so you can stop the business insurance, boarding license, commercial waste fee etc at the moment. I know we are all trying to predict the future here, but things are not going to return to 'normal' for several months so these expenses need to be separated out and stopped. I'm also self employed and it is very difficult to see your business suddenly disappear, but we all just need to be realistic and hope our customers will return. 

Secondly, if you have been filing tax returns and have been in business since at least the 2018-2019 tax year, the government will give you 80% of your average wage in June, back dated to March. It doesn't help in the here and now, but you will have a lump sum coming. 

Cancel diving membership, audiobooks, school lottery, you cannot be paying these things out at the moment. 

Your level of debt is very high, what was your income before your business stopped? I hate to say it but it looks as though you have been living well above your means for a very long time. Your dogs are costing an absolute fortune, is there anything else you can feed them right now? Even temporarily? 

You said your tenant was claiming benefits so will be continuing to receive payments throughout all of this virus business. Is there still a way to have housing benefit (or whatever it's called now) to be paid directly to you? I'd be well annoyed at them just stopping paying, what a cheek! You still have the mortgage to pay. 

Great that you requested mortgage holidays, good move. 

Well done for trying to speak to the CC companies, I know they're rused off their feet at the minute but at least your trying to get some leeway. They really need to be stopping payments for everyone, but we'll need to wait and see how it all pans out. 

Please keep posting, all the heads on here are much better than one.     

warby68

Your domestic fuel bills look very high - appreciate you have animals and a business but still thought it worth a check. Are you really shelling out well over £300 pm on electricity and oil? I wondered if the oil was perhaps less frequent.
Your buildings/contents insurance also looks high but I know you have 2 properties and have had flooding so just double checking again.
I susepct your debt position was quite stretched well before Covid so its probably about emergency measures of cancelling everything you can, not paying non-priority debts and literally paying life essentials only until the current situation starts to pass and a longer term solution can be considered - noone can really comment on that with no idea what your business earns in 'normal'times and whether your BTL washes its face. Your mortgage holidays will help in the short term once the lenders get their acts together. If your business was viable from bank perspective before you may be able to get a Business Interruption loan especially if you are having to feed livestock etc which would be considered high priority - realistically though this will take time and with that equity Banks may expect you to use your asset base for funding.
Whilst moving unsecured to secured debt is not advisable I can see here why you see it as a backstop with significant equity but try not to do anything like that short term.

fatbelly

BabyStepper said:

You said your tenant was claiming benefits so will be continuing to receive payments throughout all of this virus business. Is there still a way to have housing benefit (or whatever it's called now) to be paid directly to you? I'd be well annoyed at them just stopping paying, what a cheek! You still have the mortgage to pay. 

Yes it's possible

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-and-rented-housing--2/universal-credit-and-rented-housing-guide-for-landlords

Dizzy_Imp

Morning all - can't believe I've had more responses and helpful suggestions already! Thank you!

OK, so plans for today are to cancel the waste collection, audiobook membership and school lottery. Then on to ask about Council Tax reduction or deferral and look into what SIM only deals my mobile provider can offer.  I can't really swap providers as we live in a very rural area in Wales where coverage is sporadic at best and this company do at least reach us. At least we don't have to have a signal booster, which we have in the past, with mixed results on our infrequent sunny days...

I appreciate the comments about the cost of our dog food.  Whilst it is not possible to change two of the dogs to something different, the remaining four might have to slum it a bit with biscuits supplemented with a much smaller amount of raw.  I can also feed them "surplus to requirement" cockerels as they mature and need despatching.  I usually leave these out for Mr Fox as it seems to keep him away from the flock and I love seeing the cubs in the fields playing, so I know they're being well fed.

Fuel costs are accurate.  We have a very large, Grade II Listed 15th Century farmhouse that is partly below ground, has no foundations or DPC, single glazed windows and no wall cavity to be able to install insulation.  It's a renovation project and a half, which comes with all the challenges of a Listed building and the costs and restrictions imposed by the planning people, but we love it and have got used to living in dust and the cold!  That said, we did have a logger-lorry load of tree trunks delivered a while back which hubby is cutting down for firewood to run the woodburner (and underfloor heating plus hot water) and are using the oil more as a back up now.  That said, oil prices are the lowest I've seen in ages at the moment, so it would save us about £250 to fill our tank now.  The oil supplier boards his dog with me (under normal circumstances) and he always gives me a heads up when prices fall or rise to any great extent.
OK, that's enough for now - off to homeschool the small beans (joy) so I'll pop back later to update and read any further suggestions and comments.  TTFN x

fatbelly

Yes I've noticed that with  fuel oil - also thinking of making an order in  the next week or two.

theoretica

In these times I would look at the money you have coming in and put your absolute necessities (for life or legal) in order, starting with food and see how far the money you do have will go.  When you come to the end of your money you are going to need to stop paying some things temporarily, whether they 'agree' or not.

Durban

How long have you been self employed for and have you filed a tax return for 2018/2019? 
You may be entitled to help from the government for the self employed.
I believe that you don't need to do anything , they will contact you if you are and you then fill out an online form and should get a lump sum in June.

Definitely look into an evening / night job temporarily at either a warehouse or supermarket. 

I'm guessing that you're not 55 yet and have a defined contribution ( stock market ) based pension?  If you do , you can take 25% out tax free from 55.  However , I guess you're possibly not at that age yet? It's not a great idea as it is for when you retire and can't work anymore but in a dire situation it can be helpful

RAS

Hubby is on board, by the way.  He saw me crying earlier and says he will do whatever it takes to get us through and out the other side. I can't ask him to work any harder than he already does though, so I think I need to take charge and let him concentrate on getting his work done.

Hi love
Laudable as it is to want to be in control and even knowing he can't work harder, have you shared the SOA with him and talked through the priorities together?

There are a few queries re you SOA. 
You have a lease van, is that for hubby's work? If so, is his salary you have quote net of the costof the van, or do you need to deduct the cost of the van from his income? Just trying to understand how much flexibility there is in the budget.

What is the monthly rental income for the BTL, before the management fee is removed? And given the recent changes in the tax regime, does it actually pay it's way?

I apprecaite that kids and hubbys have hollow legs but they need to understand they can't just eat all the treats. There's a much higher price to be paid for instant gratification. And since you are in a rural area, does anyone do sacks of potatoes and horse carrots?