Sort out finances after wife lost her job.

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  • Pollycat
    Pollycat Posts: 34,661 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post Savvy Shopper!
    maman wrote: »
    :rotfl:



    That's good. Aldi have really upped their game in the last few years. It's now possible to do almost a full shop there. I'm a convert. I find it's only occasional odd things I need to go to Sainsburys for.

    I looked back at the SoA, you're spending £450 between eating out and groceries, definitely room for saving. If you like bubbles, try Aldi Cremant it's lush. :D

    £550 per month if you add in 'entertainment' which is unsustainable under the circumstances.

    I second (or third) Aldi.
    I do most of my shopping there.
    Great if you can take advantage of the super 6 fruit and veg.
  • monetxchange
    monetxchange Posts: 552 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post Name Dropper Photogenic
    I won’t repeat what everyone else has said, just wish you luck with it. I think you’d both hugely benefit from organising your finances better. Sit down until you have every penny of debt counted up. Then count up every bill you have, then set a budget for the rest. None of this you pay this, she has that, you give her this for that. Get a set budget for food shopping, travel and entertainment for each of you (if you can’t do a joint spends account), transfer it into a separate account for use (Monzo is good). Any left goes onto to the debt and the credit cards are cut up so neither of you can use them. You physically can’t spend any more than you have budgeted then.

    Would also warn against getting carried away on an online shop. I know doing a supermarket shop is a pain. But it’s much cheaper when you see what you’d mounting up and you can stick to a strict list. Plan two weeks worth of scratch cooked meals. Then cook double and freeze it for eating in the third and fourth weeks if you follow what I mean. Bread and milk will freeze too. Though if you must pop into shops for top ups of essentials, again take a list. None of this coming out with a £30 basket at premium Tesco Express prices. If you added up what you both spend on top ups as you haven’t planned anything else, I’d bet you spend hundreds.
    Debt Free: 06/03/2020 Highest Debt: £37,514
  • durzoblint
    durzoblint Posts: 68 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post
    [font=courier new][b]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet[/b][b]

    Household Information[/b]
    Number of adults in household...........  2
    Number of children in household.........  0
    Number of cars owned....................  2[b]

    Monthly Income Details[/b]
    Monthly income after tax................ 5350  (Got a tiny payrise in the last month)
    Partners monthly income after tax....... 3000 (The Mrs got a job! Hurray !!! its a 12 month fixed term role so we have a time target)
    Benefits................................ 0
    Other income............................ 0[b]
    Total monthly income.................... 8350[/b][b]

    Monthly Expense Details[/b]
    Mortgage................................ 871
    Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 525
    Rent.................................... 0
    Management charge (leasehold property).. 60
    Council tax............................. 214
    Electricity............................. 50
    Gas..................................... 46
    Oil..................................... 0
    Water rates............................. 50
    Telephone (land line)................... 0
    Mobile phone............................ 60
    TV Licence.............................. 13
    Satellite/Cable TV...................... 40.5
    Internet Services....................... 35.99
    Groceries etc. ......................... 250
    Clothing................................ 100
    Petrol/diesel........................... 150
    Road tax................................ 0
    Car Insurance........................... 0
    Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
    Car parking............................. 0
    Other travel............................ 100
    Childcare/nursery....................... 0
    Other child related expenses............ 0
    Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
    Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
    Buildings insurance..................... 0
    Contents insurance...................... 25
    Life assurance ......................... 0
    Other insurance......................... 0
    Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
    Haircuts................................ 60
    Entertainment........................... 100
    Holiday................................. 0
    Emergency fund.......................... 0[b]
    Total monthly expenses.................. 2750.49[/b]
    [b]

    Assets[/b]
    Cash.................................... 0
    House value (Gross)..................... 350000
    Shares and bonds........................ 17000
    Car(s).................................. 0
    Other assets............................ 0[b]
    Total Assets............................ 367000[/b]
    [b]

    Secured & HP Debts[/b]
    Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
    Mortgage...................... 209000...(871)......1.74
    Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 24000....(525)......0[b] My car is due for renewal and i will be getting a cheaper car
    Total secured & HP debts...... 233000....-.........-   [/b]

    [b]Unsecured Debts[/b]
    Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
    Barclay loan ..................9112......213.......4.3
    Barclay loan Spouse ...........8000......187.......5
    Barclaycard ...................3000......200.......20.2
    Barclaycard Spouse.............8300......170.......19
    Spouse iphone .................480.......67........0
    Store Card.....................1437......95........0
    Paypal Credit .................900.......100.......0[b] paid off about £600 on this in the last month using some matured employee shares
    Total unsecured debts..........31229.....1032......-  [/b]

    [b]
    Monthly Budget Summary[/b]
    Total monthly income.................... 8,350
    Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,750.49
    Available for debt repayments........... 5,599.51
    Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 1,032[b]
    Amount left after debt repayments....... 4,567.51[/b]

    [b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]
    Total assets (things you own)........... 367,000
    Total HP & Secured debt................. -233,000
    Total Unsecured debt.................... -31,229[b]
    Net Assets.............................. 102,771[/b]

    [i]Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com. 
    Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.[/i][/font]
  • durzoblint
    durzoblint Posts: 68 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post
    Hi guys, a bit of an update! my wife has now gotten a job. So hopefully the plan is to shift from managing our debts to aggressively battling them. she started late in the last month and i had to spot her for this months expenses but the plan is for her to spend 1/3 of her pay on repaying debts, save 1/3 and use the rest for bills and act as disposable income. Its early days and i'm sure there will be some trying times ahead (i've already noticed some deliveries). i've already re-arranged a lot of my expenses and i'm paying much less monthly than i was before. I will also start paying much more towards my loans. 
  • monetxchange
    monetxchange Posts: 552 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post Name Dropper Photogenic
    Glad to hear your wife found work. Great news to take the pressure off. Now is the perfect time to start getting hold of your finances and starting fresh on sticking to a budget to clear your debts. It might be an idea to do an honest and realistic SOA to work out how you can clear this debt quickly and not go back to old habits now the pressure is off.

    Being realistic here is the key. You're both high earners, yet have ran up large debts by spending even more than the sizeable amount you're bringing in. So it's unlikely you're spending as little as a couple of hundred quid a month on groceries, for example. Take that into account when implementing a budget so it's not a massive shock to both you and your wife's systems, leading to it being given up on again. Good luck!
    Debt Free: 06/03/2020 Highest Debt: £37,514
  • Pollycat
    Pollycat Posts: 34,661 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post Savvy Shopper!
    Good news about your wife's job.
    I'd want confirmation of what is in those deliveries before setting your clothing spend at £100 per month.
    Are you sure you have all your wife's debts in your SOA?
  • Andyjflet
    Andyjflet Posts: 551 Forumite
    Photogenic First Post Name Dropper First Anniversary
    I personally think you are going about this the wrong way. Why would you save money when you have debts to pay off ?
    Put £1000 away as an emergency fund then snowball the consumer debt from smallest balance to largest. 
    Baby Step 6/7 - £63000 saved for emergency fund DEBT FREE !!!
  • durzoblint
    durzoblint Posts: 68 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post
    monetxchange said:
    Glad to hear your wife found work. Great news to take the pressure off. Now is the perfect time to start getting hold of your finances and starting fresh on sticking to a budget to clear your debts. It might be an idea to do an honest and realistic SOA to work out how you can clear this debt quickly and not go back to old habits now the pressure is off.

    Being realistic here is the key. You're both high earners, yet have ran up large debts by spending even more than the sizeable amount you're bringing in. So it's unlikely you're spending as little as a couple of hundred quid a month on groceries, for example. Take that into account when implementing a budget so it's not a massive shock to both you and your wife's systems, leading to it being given up on again. Good luck!
    Thank you! Ironically, the figures quoted are fairly accurate. I put £250 on a revolut card in the last month for groceries and there's money left on it. I worked from home for most of February also and the fuel bill ended up as just £44 (my wife's), i still had fuel left over from January and didn't spend any. My conclusion is that i can actually live on a fairly low footprint when i set my mind to it and still afford things i need. I've had to check my time a few times where i've impulsively put stuff in my basket on amazon and then abandoned the purchase after a sense check. I raised about £400 from selling bits and bobs on ebay in the month and there are still quite a lot of stuff i can put up. so discipline and focus will have to be my watch words :):smile:
  • durzoblint
    durzoblint Posts: 68 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post
    Andyjflet said:
    I personally think you are going about this the wrong way. Why would you save money when you have debts to pay off ?
    Put £1000 away as an emergency fund then snowball the consumer debt from smallest balance to largest. 
    I realise that might seem strange, but at the moment i've decided to leave the debts as mine and "hers". My wife having more disposable income means she will spend it. SInce her credit card got cancelled 2 months ago, i've learnt that she has re-activated a new one. 
    In the past year i've depleted a lot of my savings and built up my debts paying off a lot of the costs she has accrued and i'd like to build that back up while paying off the rest of my debts. 
    I'd be happy to accept better suggestions but my wife has resisted all efforts to get sensible with money and i'm afraid the new job (slightly higher salary than below) would embolden her even more to spend forgetting its a fixed term role
  • monetxchange
    monetxchange Posts: 552 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 4 March 2020 at 7:06PM
    I think the main suggestion is to have a trawl back through all your statements (inc your wife's) to see where all your money has gone over the last year, as your expenses are apparently not that high, yet you seem to have got through a minimum of approx £70,000 in salary AND ran up £33,000 of debt. So it must be getting spent somewhere. Once you know where the leak is, you can plug it with proper budgeting in that category.

    As for your wife's reluctance to put any effort into changing her habits, well, good luck. I can't see how well this will work out for you in the future, but I hope you come to a compromise somewhere.

    You'll have £100,000 coming into your household over the next year. You could pay off the debt and save a decent chunk without making much sacrifice to standards at all. I think it's imperative you do this, because if not when you're in such a comfortable position, when?!
    Debt Free: 06/03/2020 Highest Debt: £37,514
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