First Steps to Solvency

mamamu

Comment on your budget:

You have to start accounting for bills which come yearly - MOT, Car service, dental check ups/ treatments, glasses etc. 

EF is vital too.

Otherwise you going to loose control as soon as one big bill hits. 

Also cut up credit cards and then you have to stick to your budget whatever it takes. 

alt80

24/9/20
Finished work 6.30ish.

1. Yolt everyday: 3/7 🙂
2. Make most of long weekend but not spend more than £100: n/a
3. Activity with son everyday: 4/7; 20min dog walk. Bit too much to drink over dinner so wife did story lol. 
4. October budget: sorted.
5. 3x workouts, 3x 5km: 2/6
6. Plan weekend in advance: sorted. 🙂 
7. Switch off work number/ email apart from twice a day to check when off: n/a - dreading doing this tbf now it's getting closer.

alt80

@annabanana82 my car does 15mpg may 18 on a run lol. 

Includes a bottle of champagne, couple of bottles of okish wine and a few beers. 🥂 Not massive drinkers tbf. Also counts a few Starbucks etc spends. Wife doesn't spend particularly extravagant amounts on food. Will be worth speaking to her about the batch cooking thanks. 

Entertainment just for bits outside the rest of the budget tbh. £250 to spend as we want not a lot but it's something??

@shoppingobsessed2020 This is facial, waxing, eyebrows & lashes, hair. She's doing nails herself. Had the lips thing done for £140 the other day so that's not for a while. She loves having her hair done so not going to give that up. 

Wouldn't be surprised re parents tbf - she shares the love of fitness with her mum, nothing else lol. Honestly if she was her mother's daughter I wouldn't have lol. 

@ohdearhowdidthathappen Yes! 40 months for the cards (including balance transferring each one for another 0% deal once) - don't count the cars / mortgages etc but seriously thinking bmw can go for an older Vantage next year - similar payment but an AM on the drive don't mind if I do. Schooling can't really change until next September if it is tbf. Still to be discussed. 

@mamamu No mots - age of cars. Servicing etc. I'll account for from January. I suppose this is the 'emergency budget' lol. Make some headway and revise.

Not cut up the credit cards but they are in a safe place just one each available. Needs must.

RelievedSheff

There is certainly room for improvement in the budget as time goes by but you can't cut everything at once and you have made a good start there. Well done.

alt80

I’m getting to the point of burnout constant stress going on in my life. Had far too much to drink last night. Not sure about anyone else but I’m really concerned we’re heading for a massive recession next year. Not sure if that’s worry over nothing but the financial stuff is not going away for me anytime soon. Never been spooked by a bit of personal debt and being leveraged before but I am now. Another bad nights sleep I saw people lose everything in my industry during the last recession good lives reduced to having nothing and bankruptcies. Realistically I’m done if I make the wrong moves /the prs goes to !!!!!! /massively reduced client base. Need to get the sleep sorted my secretary has noticed I am stressed thinks it’s just a heavy workload I know it’s not that I’ve always coped fine with it. Can’t tell anyone that I’ve got so much debt over me I don’t think there’d be anyway out if it was my turn for recession to hit. Keep telling myself my business is in a healthy position I’ve got generally decent tenants no real issue with arrears and there’ll always be a demand for property but so stressed I’ll be the unlucky one who won’t weather the storm. Looking at the personal issues has just opened a massive can of worms for me it kicked off with wife about the mortgage debt she reckoned she didn’t realise I was in for as much as I am and it would just all be on the company rather than the company and then me. She’s ‘disgusted’ over the fact I’m ‘swimming in debt’ really not helping at all.

@RelievedSheff thank you I hope I’ll get there.

enthusiasticsaver

There is certainly more room to trim in that budget but I guess Rome was not built in a day.  I am amazed that you cannot get groceries any lower than £650 but if you are chucking top quality champagne in every week that may be why.  We could afford to do that but prefer Prosecco anyway and much cheaper. You both still seem very hooked on the luxury items like beauty treatments, champagne and posh cars. To be frank if your son is school age and your wife at home all day I wonder if she has to have all these treatments to keep from getting bored.   I also am not sure all property dealers are as leveraged as you, maybe just the ones you mix with.  
You really also need to get to grips with saving for emergencies and annual costs like insurance even if the cars are new and don't need mots they presumably are serviced.  BMW parts are horrendously expensive. 

QueenJess

alt80 said:

I’m getting to the point of burnout constant stress going on in my life. Had far too much to drink last night. Not sure about anyone else but I’m really concerned we’re heading for a massive recession next year. Not sure if that’s worry over nothing but the financial stuff is not going away for me anytime soon. Never been spooked by a bit of personal debt and being leveraged before but I am now. Another bad nights sleep I saw people lose everything in my industry during the last recession good lives reduced to having nothing and bankruptcies. Realistically I’m done if I make the wrong moves /the prs goes to !!!!!! /massively reduced client base. Need to get the sleep sorted my secretary has noticed I am stressed thinks it’s just a heavy workload I know it’s not that I’ve always coped fine with it. Can’t tell anyone that I’ve got so much debt over me I don’t think there’d be anyway out if it was my turn for recession to hit. Keep telling myself my business is in a healthy position I’ve got generally decent tenants no real issue with arrears and there’ll always be a demand for property but so stressed I’ll be the unlucky one who won’t weather the storm. Looking at the personal issues has just opened a massive can of worms for me it kicked off with wife about the mortgage debt she reckoned she didn’t realise I was in for as much as I am and it would just all be on the company rather than the company and then me. She’s ‘disgusted’ over the fact I’m ‘swimming in debt’ really not helping at all.

@RelievedSheff thank you I hope I’ll get there.

Please just breathe.  I know finances always hang heavy, but you know that you need to make improvements and you are making them.  I really think you need to find some extra cash for an emergency fund each month.  As it gets bigger it will give you mental relief.

Also I think you should take another look at things you can sell to give you a boost on reducing the debt and keep you going.  Just keep calm and make a plan.  Think of it this way, for every month that passes, you are in a better position than you were in the month before.  You can't worry about everything that may or may not happen in the future 24-7 because you will drive yourself crazy.

Make a plan and start with little steps.  You're doing fine.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

I wouldn't like my personal assets tied up to business ones.  How far away are you from being able to separate them?  At least that way if the business did go tits up, it wouldn't affect your home and you wouldn't have to go bankrupt.  Without those risks hanging over you, you might feel calmer about your situation.
Your wife must have had to sign documents to allow the charge on your house etc, so she can't really claim ignorance to it

Naomim

I understand it's very stressful. I think when we all start actually sitting down and looking at the figures we've already had many sleepless nights and then worry about how to sort it.  But, you are making plans and trying to fix it. As @QueenJess has said, please take a minute to breathe and look at what you are achieving already.  Is this also exacerbated by the counselling? Bringing it up and out into the open? It WILL improve.

A good idea to work out your wife's committed spends for Oct.  It would even help more if she could spread things out. Before lockdown I always had my nails done.  I moved it from 3 weeks to once a month to stretch it out a bit.  Since lockdown I decided I can live with my own nails!   I would take the coffee money etc out of your grocery budget and make that part of entertainment.  MrM and I are on tight personal spends. We have £120-£140 a month each and quite a bit of mine is spent on coffees and usually a meal out with a friend.  However, I also think if you set her up a Monzo account (no overdraft facility) and put a set amount in for her, she could spend it on what she wants without you needing to know what she's spending her money on, and she won't feel like you're keeping watch over her.   You have to find a happy medium and it seems your wife isn't happy with it at the moment. Although I also think it's unfair that you are being blamed for "swimming in debt".  But then again, my husband knew nothing of our outrageous credit card debt either when I started this journey and it's the same for many, many people on here.

Keep at it, you're doing fab.  BTW  I downloaded Yolt after reading your thread. Nice little tool.

Naomim

monetxchange

I can understand you feeling the stress over the next year. I think many of us are to be honest. But that's why it's all the more important to make cuts now. You've done well with getting rid of big things like extra cars, but some lifestyle changes, little things one by one, will help get you away from being so heavily leveraged. To steer away from arguments, maybe this week focus less on no more beauty treatments etc for now and look at things like cutting that huge groceries bill - you can't afford the champagne etc at the moment. Burning entire tanks of expensive petrol every weekend all add up, maybe just once in a while go for a drive and the other times do a walk with your son instead? 

An emergency fund should be just that - for true emergencies like boiler breaking down. All the money you've budgeted monthly for presents and car maintenance etc needs to be getting saved every month so you have it to pay in full when the bill comes in. Stuff like Christmas happens every year, it's not a surprise or an emergency! This is when using accounts with individual savings pots like Monzo (maybe you can do this with Yolt too) really come into their own.