what to do and where to go now......

drrascal

This site was recommended to me in September 06 by a colleague. Since then I have come here nearly everyday to seek inspiration and advice. This is the first time I have posted as I feel I need both right now and a general bit of a kick I the right direction. I am 29 on Thursday, OH is 30 and a maths teacher and we have a 5 month old baby boy. I am currently on ML, and I am having a major rethink about things. Basically, my LBM came in September 06 when me and OH relocated for my job to Southampton, we sold our house and pocketed over 60k to start our new life with. When we looked at things we realized we actually owed 25k and used the sale of the house to clear our debts. Fast forward a year and a half and we have relocated again (didn’t like job or Soton) back to east midlands where we are both from, have a new house with a 220k mortgage, DS and no job for me, and our savings spent on baby things, and a new boiler, guttering and bathroom. The debts are slowly piling up again, and to top it all I have decided that I want to move back to Leeds, where we lived prior to Soton, so I can go back to work. This would mean selling our house, and upping sticks for the third time in less than three years. This is all my idea and I feel v.guilty as OH has followed me around with my job and he is very settled where he is, not sure if I should look for a job more locally and just stick it out or move?? Before we make any major decisions I would like us to sort our spending out. I am basically a yo-yo spender, one month I stick religiously to a budget, then as I feel so smug just blow all our money and more the next. So the first thing is to write a new budget- and stick to it- and do a major overhaul of our finances- with your help hopefully. Also seeing this written down will make me sit back and think everytime I want to spend, and hopefully help me see which way to go in the future.

SOA
Wages OH-varies between £1892 and £1986- he is still on an emergency tax code despite my nagging to sort it out and £120 tax back from other job
Me- SMP £447 -My maternity pay stops in June, but I have no job to go to, but have and want to return to work.
Benefits
CTC- £38.01
CB- £72


Outgoings
Mobile (x2) = 5
Mortgage= 1275 (includes overpayment of about 30)
Council Tax= 130
Utility=100
BT=14
Tv=11.37
Telephone= about 5
Internet=9.99
NUT=17.04
Teachers savings plan=25
Travel=75
Food=300
Savings=325

Debts
HSBC (0% until September) 925 paying 25 a month-925.
First Direct (0% until December) paying 30 a month- 1038
SLoans-1350 payments on hold until return to work, think APR is about 2.5%.

tyllwyd

Just to explain it to us, why do you need to move back to Leeds to work - would it be possible for you to find a similar job where you are now? Would you have a job guaranteed if you moved back? Why didn't you move back to Leeds when you relocated?

What would be the cost of childcare if you did go back to work?

duchy

I think you might want to check some figures as £5 between 2 mobiles for a month and £5 for telephone line rental seems too cheap.
Nothing budgeted for Christmas, holidays, gifts, clothes -maybe having specific pots for stuff like this and budgets would stop you overspending as I'm sure you must spend on these ?
Are your savings for a specific purpose or just a hedge fund ? If you add on the mortgage overpayment you could have enough saved to clear both HSBC and First Direct before the interest free periods run out-which would be FAB.
As for the angel or devil spending pattern-I find sticking with cash rather than cards helps with that. It is somehow is more "real" if I have to part with notes rather than just flash the plastic.

drrascal

I don't have to go back to Leeds to work, but would like to. I am a lecturer, so in some respects i have to go to places where the uni's specialise in my subject. I moved from leeds to soton when i relocated, and now regret this decision, didn't realise how good i had it really. I am 90% sure a new job will be coming up in Leeds in the next 2-3 months or so, and having done the job already would be in a good place to get it.
Childcare would be about 120 pounds a week for full time chilcare or 31 pounds a day for a full day. Although expensive, and i probably didn't realise how much it would be, me and OH would qualify for busy bees vouchers and both earn about 35k each a year.


Phones- well 5 pounds for two mobiles is cheap but there are good reasons. My mobile is a contract phone i brought about 7 years ago and i only pay for calls and texts, however where i live has virtually no signal in the house , so i rarely use it. OH mobile is left at home all day as he is a teacher and doesn't use it we only really brought it for when i was pregnant. We actually pay BT for line rental and then primus 1.49 for evenings and weekend calls and use 18185 for mobiles etc, so pretty sure these figures are accurate.

Savings are actually for house, car, pet insurance etc, could use the overpayment on mortgage for cc's but at the minute motgage is 5.34% and cards 0%, so not sure if this is wise.

tyllwyd

How much do you estimate financially it would cost you to move - removal fees, legal fees, estate agents, stamp duty, essential redecorating etc when you moved in? What about your mortgage - have you got enough equity to get a decent mortage rate, are you tied into your current mortgage?



BTW I can't see any car costs on your SOA. Do you have a car - do you think you might need one if you go back to work? Edited to say that I've just realised your 'savings' include car costs - if I were you, I'd get some bills out and try to break it down to see exactly what you do spend on these things each month.

drrascal

Tyllwyd- moving costs would be covered by the uni as would ea fees. We would have to pay stamp duty up to 1%- not sure where we would get 2.5k from though at the minute. Actually not really thought about any of this, so thanks for reminding me this needs factoring into the whole question

Mortgage is fixed for another 4 years at 5.34%, but is portable- they would give us 6 months to find a new house if we had to go into rented accomodation initially.

Car costs- yes OH has car that we save to maintain etc. If i wanted a car- would have to save to buy one. I currently use good old public transport to get where i need to and would continue to do so in leeds.