HELP! We're in the poo!

bandraoi

How about you set up a separate account for the modelling work. When you get paid from it, you put it in the account. Everything you pay to do the modelling work, ie all you make up, leg waxes, haircuts , fitness classes etc. comes out of this account.
That way you can clearly see what you're making there and what you're spending there.

Then take all that stuff out of your budget and work out the rest based on everything else.

bandraoi

brokeinwales wrote: »

Outgoings
Rent £535
Phone/ broadband £44.00 (locked into a contract for another 5 months unfortunately)
TV License £11.65
Food shopping £230
Cigarettes £60
Wine £40 (I know!!!)
DVD rental £5.99 (I've run out of free trials!)

this lot is joint, and adds up to £726 from what I can see. It doesn't include the council tax, water, electricity, the taxis, Christmas (do you buy more or less than him, do you buy together?) The eating out (do you split the bills?)

Seems to me that his £400 probably doesn't quite cover half of it.

Again, as with the modelling work, maybe you should separate this out from your normal account and all joint/house related stuff comes from one account. Then you can see what running the house is actually costing and budget accordingly.

RoxieW

hey hon - just wanted to add my support. I know its hard to cut down, I struggle with it myself!

Just my thoughts -

As others have said, the upkeep for the modelling - plus travel costs - means you're not coming out with very much from it each month. U need to cut these costs.
I'd second the epilator - or, perhaps have another try with saving using sensitive products. I have v sensitive skin and used to get horrible shaving rash - but now I use premium razors and an oil for sensitive skin (I use balnium oil form the chemist) instead of gel or foam and I dont have the same problem.
The haircut costs sounds fair enough to me - not sure if you could trim this much more tbh - however the toiletries is on the huge side monthly. You need to ditch expensive brands and go cheap - tesco have some great barbara daily stuff! Or try your local market - they often have a cosmetics/toiletries stall. I buy bedhead shampoo and cond - 2 jumbo bottles that last about 3 months, for £10 a set. Cheaper than buying cheapo shampoo from the supermarket. As a moisturiser I use baby oil - cheap and v effective.
Cigs need to come out of OH's pocket money as you simply cant afford this - maybe that will spur him to cut down.
Wine - buy a box for £12 and vow that once its gone its gone.
DVD's - ditch this - if you have sky there's enough on tv, or get a freeview box.
Taxis - ditch this apart from essential.
Lunches - yep, buy some tins of soup so that you can grab one if you dont have time to make sandwiches.
Food - I've saved about a third throu menu planning alone (less waste) - I still eat the same things/quality.
Dump the kung fu, writing and swimming for now (you could buy a kung fu dvd).
I know it seems thou, but not affording the council tax is a dire situation to be in. These luxuries do need to go at least until you get back on track. Also, my energy bills have been extortionate this year. About £400 for a quarter which is around double to last year. You need to be prepared for this bill when it comes and putting money away each month.

brokeinwales

Whoa - where did all these replies come from?! It's going to take me a while to go through them properly.
Firstly RE:

What i think the OP is trying to say is, how can get the debt paid off without cutting back?

I'm not saying that at all - I'm not stupid, and am more than willing to cut back and I am aware of our overspend. I'm just trying to work through the various options, that's all.

I really love the idea of a seperate "modelling account" by the way - I'm going to set this up straight away.

Anyway, my OH and I have outlined a new budget this morning that looks a bit like this:

Income
My wages £970
His contribution £480 (he's agreed to up it slightly)
Modelling work - I am going to increase my availability this month and hopefully try and guarantee a £100 at least a month income from it
Surveys, amazon etc - will just do what I can. Giving up ebay as a waste of time.

Outgoings
Rent £535 (we'll look for a cheaper place when the contract runs out but stuck for now)

Put aside for electric bill £120

Council tax - going to offer them £100 a month

Phone/ net - going through our bills I discovered I actually miscalculated this. the £44 was per quarter - so it's more like £12

TV license £11.65

Food shopping £160 (armed with old-style tips I'm going to aim for a £40 weekly shop, instead of a big monthly one - OH doesn't believe I'll do it but I'm determined to prove I can!)

Paying off RBS overdraft £20

Cigarettes - b/f has now agreed to buy these out of his own pocket money and get rollies if necessary

Wine - as I'm happy to go without, b/f has also agreed if he wants any he'll buy it himself.

Haircuts £12 (I'm cutting the frequency to every ten weeks, as my hair is long and in good condition.)

Leg wax - still budgeted £13 at mo, but I'm going to look for somewhere that'll do it cheaper.

Kung fu/writing/swimming - I'm still considering this, the swimming I will lose for a while I guess, and try a home aerobics video instead. The kung fu I am really reluctant to stop (apart from it being an amazing workout, it has amajor social element for me too.). Writing I may stop, but £6 doesn't seem a lot in the scheme of things.

Taxis £16.40 (I may be able to cut further by asking if I can take a lift with someone some nights)

Bus £5.40 (replacing the unecessary taxis)

Loan repayment £89

Make-up etc £15 - I may be able to get it lower but want to take it slowly.

Christmas/ B'days - haven't got any for a while luckily so we can do without this. If anything comes up I have about £9 worth of Boots points

DVD rental - We had to compromise on this - cut down to the £3.99 package instead of £5.99

Clothes - will go without everything except stockings until we're out of the poo!

Magazine subscription - cancelled it already!

Eating out - again, won't do this until we're out of the mess.

Boots meals - decided to replace with soup/baked beans on rushy days

---

OK - I realise this isn't perfect yet, but I feel like I've made a start, and I wrote it all down in a nice spreadsheet and stuck it on the wall.

Since last post I have also:

Called up the Gas transporter people who have no supplier registered at my address at all (God knows where our gas is coming from - we've been here nearly 8 months!)

Called Energywatch and left a message about the leccy.

E-mailed the council about the council tax.

It's a start, so I feel a little better.

In_Search_Of_Me

Well done for making a start! Do wish you would look at an epilator though!! That way you also dont have to go through the hair growth stage as you just do it as you go along! Great the BF on boards as well & that youre dong the grocery budget! Not sire if you have a car (which I assume not) but there are a couple of car boots (Splott on Sat & Bessimer Road on Sun) for flogging stuff but also for buying. I appreciate it takes time to change the habits of a lifetime...before I had my LBM I (and am ashamed to admit this now!) looked down my nose at Lidl & aldi but nw love bot plus always shopped in John Lewis (will struggle when we get one in Cardiff!) but now just walk round in disgust saying "I'm not paying THAT...bloody ridiculous!"!! How times have changed! I DO still but expensive make up though but I only buy one or two products a year & dont wear it that often...thus I have a beautiful bag of chanel/mac make up but also mix in with rimmel...tests have also shown that cheapie stuff lasts just as well, more in some cases, than the expensive stuff! I love the epensive stuff but honestly ack that I am an advertising mans dream & honesty think chanel lippy is a work of art but I know that it has to be a treat, not a daily occurence! Keep posting on here & hang in there...one of our previous comments (I'm not stupid) suggests that you may be feeling a bit got at & frazzled which I can understand but you have to understand that you are amongst people who have been quite ruthless in cutting back & your comments did indicate that you didnt realise the seriosness of being behind on council tax...Also you can ask to pay over 12m not 12 which makes it easier to buget? I also have a separate bank account for DDM's whch helps sort dosh on pay day as x amount goes for bills & whats left in my main account is mine...Hope that helps! Hugs for you!

In_Search_Of_Me

sorry dire typos!!

brokeinwales

one of our previous comments (I'm not stupid) suggests that you may be feeling a bit got at & frazzled which I can understand but you have to understand that you are amongst people who have been quite ruthless in cutting back & your comments did indicate that you didnt realise the seriosness of being behind on council tax

Yeh I do realise people are only trying to help - but everyone's got to start somewhere. If I was already budgeting really sensibly I wouldn't be here asking for help, right?! I do realise the seriousness now - but I guess it only really hit me in the last 24 hours.

I'm not sure about the epilator - I did try one a few years ago, and apart from being excrutiatingly painful i found it left me with funny little spots on my shins, so I got rid of it and haven't gone near them since!
I used to use Lidl when I was a student, so I'm actually sort of excited in a weird way about going back to it! (plus because b/f doesn't believe £40 a week groceries is possible I have a challenge to meet now!)

Make up is a huge issue - you kind of have it drilled into you when modelling that you must use the fancy brands, even though I know some of the mid-range ones are probably just as good. Because of my stupid sensitive skin I have to be really careful about what I use as well - but I think I can probably make some cut backs if I get over the snobby part of me.

I've just been looking into making my own body scrub from sugar and honey though which actually looks like quite good fun!

No car unfortunately (I wish!) but will definetely check out the Splott car boot if we need anything for house in future as it's only round the corner!

RMP_2

You sound to be making headway already. If you stick to the GOLDEN RULE you should be out of this mess quite soon...

GOLDEN RULE = If it's not keeping you alive...get rid of it!

Good luck

Ames

With the writing group, what do you actually pay for? Could you set up your own which is for people to air their work, and meet monthly in the library? If it's paying for a teacher then fair enough.

msmicawber

Hi there,

Definitely give the epilator another go - it is a bit painful at first, but once you've done it a few times, it becomes less painful. I certainly find it less painful than waxing and I do my underarms as well. I've had mine for over 20 years, so the £30 quid or whatever it was that it cost me back then was something of an investment! Make sure that you keep your skin moisturised and you won't get sore patches.

I'm staggered at your grocery bill for two people, especially as you say you cook veggie food from scratch, don't always do a packed lunch for yourself, and don't include your eating out in it.

I don't understand about the necessity for the taxis - is this because one or both of you works evenings, or returning from social evenings?

I'm not sure also why your make-up costs so much - I appreciate you say you've been buying expensive makes and that you're looking to find cheaper brands, but what is it you keep buying and how come it runs out so quickly? I don't wear make-up myself apart from lipstick occasionally, so am a bit ignorant about it, I concede. For instance, do you always wear foundation? If so, do you really need to when you're not modelling?

It strikes me that since your OH has £50-70 per week pocket money, that's plenty to buy his own wine, magazines and ciggies, then you'd have about £100 extra per month to offer to the Council while you sort out reducing your grocery shopping.

It is a bit painful at first persuading yourself to change how you spend, but there's plenty of room for manouvre in your budget and you should be able to pay off your debt quite quickly with fairly minor changes in spending.