Finally posting SOA - any ideas welcome

Numpty_Monkey

Hi sashanut:hello:

A few things about you SOA
firstly well done for posting it:T

a few things do jump out as has been mentioned,


1) Car Tax Insurance, Maintence MOT is that the yearly total for the 2 cars £800 for both or £800 for each

If you pay them annually can you pay them monthly and budget for them
That works out at
Based on £800 (both cars) = per month £66.67
Based on £800 (each car) total £1600 = per month £133.34


Vigin £114 per month what package are you on?
phone them up and tell them you are going to Sky unless they can give you the 3 for £30 offer or a hell of a reduction:T (i'm not upto date on Virgin but check their website) If they do offer you a new contract sign up for the minimum package:D (thats all you are contracted to have) and then upgrade or downgrade packages if you want

Gas and Electric - i think you should post about this on the utilities board having 4 meters in 1 house seems very wierd to me, the regulars:A on there will have better knowledge than me

take care hun its not as bad as it looked when you posted your SOA:A

Horace

£114 is a lot for Virgin - are you paying extra for pay per view films? These can soon rack up the bill. The 3 for £30 package that they have is good and there is still a good selection of channels to watch.

As has been said before 4 utility meters is a lot - are you sure you don't live in a house that was once converted into flats? As suggested before I would be checking this over on the utility board.

Taking in lodgers is a good idea especially if you can find business men who go home at weekends so that you do at least get some peace.

Personally, I would ditch both cars and then buy one economical car. It may sound like granny teaching you to suck eggs but do you keep your business finances separate from the home? if you say you are facing a VAT bill, have you not put money away to allow for that? If you have creditors who are not paying - take steps to chase them up.

See if you can cut down on the amount you spend on food - look at the moneysaving oldstyle board for hints and tips on shopping, cooking etc.

sashanut

Numpty_Monkey wrote: »

Hi sashanut:hello:

A few things about you SOA
firstly well done for posting it:T

a few things do jump out as has been mentioned,


1) Car Tax Insurance, Maintence MOT is that the yearly total for the 2 cars £800 for both or £800 for each

If you pay them annually can you pay them monthly and budget for them
That works out at
Based on £800 (both cars) = per month £66.67
Based on £800 (each car) total £1600 = per month £133.34


Vigin £114 per month what package are you on?
phone them up and tell them you are going to Sky unless they can give you the 3 for £30 offer or a hell of a reduction:T (i'm not upto date on Virgin but check their website) If they do offer you a new contract sign up for the minimum package:D (thats all you are contracted to have) and then upgrade or downgrade packages if you want

Gas and Electric - i think you should post about this on the utilities board having 4 meters in 1 house seems very wierd to me, the regulars:A on there will have better knowledge than me

take care hun its not as bad as it looked when you posted your SOA:A

Many thanks fopr the help & support - I do feel better having put it down in black & white although like others before me am not sleeping well!! yes I got a few things wrong with the SOA!! The total for the cars is per year - not per/month doh! The Virgin deal does seems a lot to me - this is for phone calls, cable internet access & of course the TV. We do not pay per view films - once a year maybe! - but we do have the sports package as that is our entertainment & only rarely we pay per view for a boxing match (DH & DD not me!)

The meters are because they were put in here in the 1970s I think - no it was never flats but because there are separate outside power supplies, I will try on the utilities board but I can never get quote from uSwitch etc because our circumstances are so different from other peoples, it is very frustrating.

Our situation re the business is that we have really only one customer; we should invoice on the 1st of the month for the previous & get paid 6 weeks later - in theory! In practice they always hang it out a least another 2 weeks, which was not so much of a problem when the money was better. Now it really makes life difficult as we have bills that are paid at specific times & often the money is not there. I am permanently moving money back & forth & trying to keep up but finding it very hard. Some months we have been paid under £1000 & when the mortgage is over that plus all the other bills we fell into arrears. (3 months) have caught up with that now thank goodness but it was a struggle. Re the VAT have thought about deregistering but the hope is that business will pick up towards autumn - this time of year is traditionally our slowest - so DH wants to keep up with it & of course we can claim back all our VAT on anything we can. Also DH would never have lodgers - he works from home writing & can't even bear workmen!

Sorry for the long rambly post, but all suggestions are very much appreciated, thank you all.

I am trying to get the food budget down as much as possible too, not doing too well but am growing my own & making all food from scratch.:rolleyes:

littlemissmoney

If DH works from home, could you try and manage with just one car?

tyllwyd

Have I understood it correctly - you both work for your own business but it has only one customer? It sounds a very risky situation, and as you say, if they mess around paying you, it makes life very difficult. (I'm freelance, and I know exactly how it feels when invoices don't get paid on time.)

On the face of it, I'd say your top priority should be to try to get some extra work in from other clients, or maybe for one of you to try to get a PAYE job, so that if this one customer goes bust/reorganises the work away from you/does't pay on time, at least there is another income stream coming in.

And if the house is a huge burden on you, is downsizing an option?

klane

Also re that Virgin 3 for £30 deal (we have it, no complaints so far) - have you come across Quidco.com yet? It's a cashback site - go have a look and sign up. If you search for Virgin in the merchants search bit, they currently offer £100 cashback for new customers. So not only will you massively cut your monthly bill down, you'll get £100 back too within a couple of months.

Definitely see where you can use quidco for buying via (it's saved/made me nearly £300 in 2 months).

klane

Sorry also, there has GOT to be a way to get your gas/electric down. PLEASE post on the utilities board! I'm horrified at how much that costs you a month.

How many rooms is your house? Is it double glazed / heat efficient? Any ideas why you have 4 meters? That seems bizarre... maybe that can be resolved? Hopefully it's not a case that your 4 meters are all charging you for the whole house, so it means you're paying 4x.... With bills like that, I'd almost be demanding someone from the elec / gas co came out to do a "site visit" or something to explore your options. I don't know if they do that (Utilities board again might be more helpful) but it's got to be worth a telephone call to find out (ask to speak to a manager).

4littleone

Re the meters, you can get an electrician to come and survey the site to see if all 4 are being utilised by you, which can go etc. I think this should be one of your priorities.
Re cable tv, if you can't afford it you don't need it. Go free view, you can still watch sports on the internet and hook it up through the tv. You need to speak to Virgin and downgrade your package this month as they need a months notice to change. Phone and internet should cost you about £20-£25 all in. I barred outging calls to mobiles as well which saved me a huge amount of money.
Re your partner not wanting to rent out - tough! You need the money, as it's such a huge house can you not separate an annexe, put in a granny flat type arrangement with a separate entrance. A proffessional looking for a weekly crash pad wouldn't cause noise etc but will pay well for a good sized room.
Water rates are high as well, put a hippo in the toilet cistern, check meter rates etc.

TotallyBroke

Monthly income after tax................ 3600
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 75
Other income............................ 750
Total monthly income.................... 4425

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1113
Secured loan repayments................. 400
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold flat)...... 0
Council tax............................. 189
Electricity............................. 237 If DH works from home can you claim tax rebate against utilities. I don't know but some clever person might do
Gas..................................... 145 ditto
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 66 ditto
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 0
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 114 reduce this
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 150
Road tax................................ 300 = 25pm
Car Insurance........................... 300 = 25pm
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 200 = 16.67
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 3476 = 2743

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 775000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 7500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 782500

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 149578...(1113).....0
Secured Debt.................. 635......(400)......7.66
Total secured debts........... 150213....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
A&L credit card................8739......167.......24.95
M CITI.........................1925......44........1 6.6
P CITI.........................1215......36........1 6.6
EGG P..........................1602......33........19. 9
EGG M..........................12876.....258.......17. 9
VIRGIN P.......................2866......52........15.94
VIRGIN M.......................9308......145.......0
M&S............................1374......35....... .20.9
LLOYDS AIRMILES................7406......149.......21.94
LLOYDS PLAT....................6380......128.......18.94
Total unsecured debts..........53691.....1047......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,425 4425
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 3,476 2743
Available for debt repayments........... 949 1682
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 1,047 1047
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -98 = 635

I've changed your car figures. It might be an idea to repost SOA with corrected amounts.
At a quick glance it would take 3monthly payments of £35 and 2 months of £635 extra amd M&S paid off!!!!
Check out Snowball calculater it'll tell you the quickest & cheapest way to pay.

Good Luck

shadydaz

Have you had a chance to sort anything out yet sash?