Merry's Bankrupt Life - OR Interview tomorrow - 07.07.08!!

peachyprice

Merry_Gentry wrote: »

Right, this is what I have put onto the statement of affairs. Any comments/amendments appreciated :j

Income

Salary : 765 (mine)
Salary : 2371 (ribbit)
Child benefit : 175
Child maintenance : 300 (from my ex)

Total : 3,611

- - - - - - - - - - - -- - - -
Expenditure

Rent : 1,200
Food : 500 (this is for family of 6) Up this a bit (I was allowed £500 for fam of 5
Gas/electric : 89
Water : 40
Telephone (incl mobiles) : 80
Travel : 405 (this includes bus fare for two girls to and from school, H's visits to his DD, parking for me outside work)
Clothing : 75
Maintenance : 450 (CSA)
Council tax : 94
Other essential : 162 (this includes education fees, car tax, insurance, repairs, etc)

Total : 3,095

* This doesn't include tobacco, sky, hobbies, repairs, etc.
* Do they include my child benefit as part of my income? I have done so far....
* It's difficult to estimate utilities as we are moving into rented and have no idea how much it's going to cost to heat it over the winter.
*Phones include mobile phones for four of us (2 DDs have PAYG, and H & I are swapping to PAYG shortly)

Any help and/or suggestions appreciated :beer:

You have to include child benefit in the SOA, but it won't be included when they calculate your surplus, so your surplus will be reduced by £175.

Can you break the 'other essentials' down so we can see what it includes. Have you included breakdown cover, school dinners, 1 swimming or similar lesson for each child.

HTH

Merry_Gentry

Thanks Peachy. :beer:

The £162 includes
* £50 per month for DD2 French horn lessons and hire of instrument,
* £48 car insurance for both of us
* £35 car tax
* £10 my prepaid medical certificate
* £19 breakdown, spares and servicing.

So this mean I can add a lesson each for DD1 and DD3? And omg I can't believe I didn't put in for school dinners :eek: :eek: They're £1.75 per day, so that'll add up...

I will up the shopping to £550 (we only have DD3 once a fortnight)

Merry_Gentry

Holy Mackerel Batman - for three kids, school dinners works out at £114 per month!!! :eek: :eek:

EssexHebridean

Merry_Gentry wrote: »

Holy Mackerel Batman - for three kids, school dinners works out at £114 per month!!! :eek: :eek:

Ouch! Would you be entitled to any kind of help with that Merry? otherwise, time to start making sandwiches I reckon!

Merry_Gentry

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Ouch! Would you be entitled to any kind of help with that Merry? otherwise, time to start making sandwiches I reckon!

Methinks my sandwich making skills will be coming to the fore!!!! :rotfl:

EssexHebridean

Give 'em rolls instead - check out your local Sainsburys on a sunday for dirt-cheap reductions, if it's anything like ours then you should find a weeks worth with ease! You can then either freeze the whole lot and take them out a day at a time to make up, or make them up before freezing. My dad does this for his work-day lunches - has done it for years - just makes a batch up at the start of the week and takes one out each morning. best bit is, it acts as a cold-pack for everything else in the lunch bag! :rotfl:

peachyprice

Merry_Gentry wrote: »

Thanks Peachy. :beer:


So this mean I can add a lesson each for DD1 and DD3? And omg I can't believe I didn't put in for school dinners :eek: :eek: They're £1.75 per day, so that'll add up...

I will up the shopping to £550 (we only have DD3 once a fortnight)

I would, you never know what they're going to come home from school with letters for. One of my sons came home with a letter last week telling me he'd applied for guitar lessons at £8 for 20 mins once a week!:eek: i gave that one straight to his dad!

The school dinners really do add up. Luckily my daughter has packed lunch, but the boys tell me NO-ONE does at their school and they'd be so embarrassed (13yo's!)

Merry_Gentry

peachyprice wrote: »

I would, you never know what they're going to come home from school with letters for. One of my sons came home with a letter last week telling me he'd applied for guitar lessons at £8 for 20 mins once a week!:eek: i gave that one straight to his dad!

Let's just say when I spoke to ex on the phone and said it was his turn to do the whole secondary school uniform bit, there was a shocked silence down the phone!!!! Cost me over £100 with DD1, and no way I can find it again for DD2 :eek:

Merry_Gentry

Second attempt at statement of affairs. Any comments/amendments appreciated :j

Income

Salary : 765 (mine)
Salary : 2371 (ribbit)
Child benefit : 175
Child maintenance : 300 (from my ex)

Total : 3,611

- - - - - - - - - - - -- - - -
Expenditure

Rent : 1,200
Food : 550 (this is for family of 6)
Gas/electric : 89
Water : 40
Telephone (incl mobiles) : 80
Travel : 405 (this includes bus fare for two girls to and from school, H's visits to his DD, parking for me outside work)
Clothing : 75
Maintenance : 450 (CSA)
Council tax : 94
Other essential : 320 (this includes education fees, car tax, insurance, repairs, etc)

Total : 3,303

This leaves a surplus of £308 but my child benefit of £175 is included in that, so our true surplus is actually only £133. Do you reckon either of us will get an IPO???
Any help and/or suggestions appreciated :beer:

Merry_Gentry

Sunday 18th May 2008

Well a sudden flurry of activity means both H and my SOA are complete apart from the income and expenditure bit. We have also been considering various things about the new house.

* Rental people spoke to my HR department, so I know my reference has been requested. We also know H's sister has been contacted as guarantor, and his work place so full steam ahead.

* House fund is very healthy - looks like we are ready to go when they are, especially as they want time for funds to clear before we can get into the house.

* need to find out whether it has a BT line. If it already has, then we can just reconnect - if it hasn't it cost £124.99 :eek: :eek: to connect it!! I almost fainted when I saw that figure :mad:

* looking into changing our internet provider - looks like for us moving to Sky for talk, broadband and TV works out cheaper, but it relies on the BT line :rolleyes:

*not even thought about packing yet :eek::eek:

Have a great Monday everyone - any thoughts on our I&E much appreciated :beer: