SOA - OH unemployed, need help with it

continualdiamond

Income:

Myself - £920 (this is my lowest wage, i work in a school and do 2 jobs, 2nd job is 5 hrs a week, i only get paid this during term time only, so wage does change each mth, but thought id include lowest to be safe)
OH - £256 JSA

Total - £1176

Expenditure:

Mortgage - £439.64
Council Tax - £102.00
Mortgage Payment Protection - £16.00
Building/contents Insurance - £25.43 (this i cannot alter,leasehold property)
CCJ - £10.00
Electricity - £30.00 (have just switched supplier)
Water - £33.13
Hire Purchase (1) - £171.10
TV Licence - £11.50
Telephone(s) - £40.00 (Broadband,internet,tv,2 mobile phones)
Payment Cover - £17.88 (payplan to cover debt repayments,OH going to claim)
Gas - £25.00 (have just switched supplier)
Road Tax/MOT - £18.00
Insurance - £40.00 (just changed this,lowest quote)
Petrol/Oil/Diesel - £200.00
Maintenance - £30.00
Breakdown Cover - £8.00
Food - £320.00
Clothing/Footwear - £40.00
Dentist/Prescriptions/Glasses - £20.00
Pets - £25.00
Hairdressing - £16.00
Debt payment - £11.00

Total - £1649.68


= - £473.68


The debt payment is what payplan want us to pay temp while OH is off work. When he signs onto JSA for the 1st time (he only had his interview to set it up yesterday) they will fill out the payplan claim form, so payplan will pay it for us. I have been in contact with WTC, told i could get £22 a week, haven't included that in income, as waiting for the claim forms in the post.

I haven't altered anything on the SOA as this is a direct copy to what payplan worked out for us for our DMP. They set the limits as they knew what was ok for each one without creditors querying it.

I thought id let people see what payplan had come up with.

Our house consists of - 2 adults, 4 cats and 1 dog.

So feel free to suggest changes as i could do with letting payplan know the temp changes while OH is not working.


Thanks


Oh, i am looking for work during the school holidays. I have managed to get working 1 day a week so far, helping a family out, but don't start until Easter holidays. OH cannot claim on mortgage protection as policy is only 60 days old, it needs to be 90 days old before you can claim......typical

4littleone

Hi,
your food bill looks really high, I feed 2 adults, 2 kids and a cat on £30 per week.
You should definitely look at cutting that right back.
Also, your petrol costs are £200 per month? Can you walk for any of those journeys? Get a push bike? Do you really need a car? You have no kids so you could manage without one and get really fit at the same time. :j

Is your council tax paid over 12 months or 10? If you change to 12 months this would give you a bit more each month as well.

continualdiamond

Yes i know the food bill is high, this is why i wanted to do a direct copy from what payplan had come up with get ideas on what people think.

When i mentioned this to payplan they said it was better to put down the max, that find your short. Seeing they know all about DMP i just went along with it.

Petrol is high as its a 2L car and prices have gone up soooo much. It used to go through £50 a week if we visited friends at the weekends and when OH sometimes had it. If i just use it for work and nothing else, it goes through about £20, its hard to estimate really as each week is different to if you just go to work/come home, or if you go out somewhere at night etc.

I could walk to work if i had to 30 - 40 mins each way, but id look pretty daft as i work in a school, i had loads of things i bring and take home each day. Yes for this reason alone, i really do need the car.

Council tax is over 10mths. I didn't know you could switch to paying it over 12??? never heard of that.

msmicawber

The things that jump out at me are:
Food bill - you could reduce this by half by savvy shopping. See the Old Style board for ideas as well.
Petrol/oil/diesel - why so high?
Clothing/footwear - do you really need to spend £40 per month?

msmicawber

Sorry, posted at the same time as you and see you've answered a couple of my queries.

continualdiamond

This is the thing, its a SOA copied from my DMP with payplan. I haven't spent £40 on clothes for the 2 of us in like mths. This SOA with payplan was created last mth, now this mth OH is unemployed, so it needs changing.

My last clothes purchase was a pair of jeans for £9 off ebay.

Payplan said it wasn't a good idea to leaves areas at £0 because its a budget, you need to have a figure for each one.

I can assure you, clothes is something OH and I go without, we hardly ever buy stuff cos cannot afford to.

Petrol = high, because payplan set the limit. Like my 2nd post, it used to go through £50 a week when OH and i shared the car. My work - 15 mins away. OH's old work 40 mins away.

Please bare in mind, i coped this off my DMP with payplan. They set the limits, not me. This why i have posted this. When payplan set the limits, like the £40 for clothes, we thought stuff like that we'd put away into a savings account, rather than be like, ok we must spend £40 on clothes for us each mth.

Of course, that way of thinkin is out the window now.

msmicawber

Sorry, I'm not sure what you're asking then. I thought I was responding to a request to suggest changes you could make without telling payplan until your OH has an income again.

ShelleyC_2

I'm a newbie so no expert advice!

Any chance you can become expert at doing each others hairdos?! I've been trimming my own hair for years but lucky cause its really curly so you don't notice wonky bits :rotfl:

I'm a huge fan of my slow cooker - can chuck in cheap ingredients and come home to lovely cheap and easy tea. Will help you cut back on food bill.

Good luck xx

continualdiamond

Sorry for the confusion. I need to cut back so i break even, so pull £473 from some where. I don't know if i have to ammend my SOA with payplan or not, i do have the option when i log into my account online.

They know my OH is unemployed, so changing the SOA with them, won't do any harm. If anything it will let the creditors see how much little income we have now.

Especially as no way knowing when OH will get work again. So making the SOA work and letting payplan know, might have to be the new SOA for like 6mths or something (though i hope it wont be that long)

RAS

CD

I think the issue is that you have a SOA with payplan which is devised to provide you with a reasonable standard of living and ensure that there is a bit of slack in you budget for the unexpected. On the bais of this, Payplan have worked out what is a reasonable offer to make to your creditors.

Since OH lost his job, you can not longer afford a reasonable standard of living and to ensure that there is a bit of slack in you budget for the unexpected.

You have to start living within your means rather than to a reasonable budget. Until you understand this you are not going to be able to budget and will get into a worse mess as time progresses.

Poppy9

How long do you think you OH is going to be unemployed for?