Fat, forty and financially f**ked
Comments
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Good luck, it looks like you are making a good start.
Just a couple of Q's and comments about your SOA:
£110 a month on Council Tax? Does this include arrears?
Holiday Fund- Sorry but while you are in such dire straits financially, this should be going straight to debt instead.
If your husband isn't generating an income from the business, he needs to either find employment, or withdraw the children from childcare and he has to have them instead.
I'm sorry to say that i don't see huge improvements being made until your husband accepts that he has to bring an income in, in the form of paid employment. That's not to say the business is over, but he needs to do a paid job as well.1 -
Signed off work for rest of week so will be posting lots but hopefully means I can get really organised and focussed for the future.
Meal plan for the rest of the week:
Tuesday - Lasagne and salad. Will bulk out mince with lentils and do one for the freezer too. Have a couple of manky apples so will do a crumble for pudding
Wednesday - Tuna and egg pie, new potatoes and veg
Thursday - Mac cheese and salmon and peas
Friday - Fakeaway night. Will do chinese - have chicken in freezer and loads of veg. Will need to get noodles.
Will make some soup for me to have while I am off for lunches.0 -
Great idea to get organised
If you know that takeaways are one of your downfalls when i comes to spending money, then i would batch cook some meals to freeze.
Maybe once a week or once a month (depending on the size of your freezer) make loads of meals to freeze, so that on the week days you get home late and are feeling tired, you can just ping one in the microwave or put it in the oven.0 -
I definitely used to do the takeaway thing, thankfully we have moved to somewhere no one delivers - it is saving me from myself.
You are making good changes, it helps to realise where the money goes and to think before purchases.1 -
DH takes the kids to school. Child care is £20 per week term time only and should go down or stop in September. The business is complicated by him having a disability which means lots of normal employment is out. He is looking for stuff at the moment and has earned a bit helping out a friend this month. We had a huge blow up over the whole thing last September and we have set really clear boundaries. I know this will sound like excuses but without going into to much detail we can't change much around it for the next few months You'll have to trust me on this!
Holiday savings obviously not happening, sorry, should have made that clearer. Nor are haircuts other than about £20 every two months for the barber. I cut DS1's hair currently. And it shows. DD and I will need to go soon but trying to hold off for a bit longer.
Council tax is indeed £110 for 10 months of the year.1 -
Our freezer is a bit small to be honest. We freeze a couple of 6 pints of milk each week as this is cheaper than topping up locally and this uses up about a 1/4 of the space. I would like to get a separate freezer as I am a capable cook and used to work in a cafe so good at batch cooking but not sure where we would put it at the moment. I normally homebake lots of stuff for lunches and wrap individually so the kids can grab one in the morning but that hasn't happened for a while.Will do that this week while I am off work.
Thank you for taking the time to reply, folks. Feeling really positive!1 -
Theamazingshrinkingwoman wrote: »DH takes the kids to school. Child care is £20 per week term time only and should go down or stop in September. The business is complicated by him having a disability which means lots of normal employment is out. He is looking for stuff at the moment and has earned a bit helping out a friend this month. We had a huge blow up over the whole thing last September and we have set really clear boundaries. I know this will sound like excuses but without going into to much detail we can't change much around it for the next few months You'll have to trust me on this!
Holiday savings obviously not happening, sorry, should have made that clearer. Nor are haircuts other than about £20 every two months for the barber. I cut DS1's hair currently. And it shows. DD and I will need to go soon but trying to hold off for a bit longer.
Council tax is indeed £110 for 10 months of the year.
Sorry to hear about your husbands disability. It may be worth doing a check to see if you are both getting any and all benefits you are entitled to. Can/does he get PIP or any other disability benefits etc (not asking you to answer, thats personal, but just for you to think about).Theamazingshrinkingwoman wrote: »Our freezer is a bit small to be honest. We freeze a couple of 6 pints of milk each week as this is cheaper than topping up locally and this uses up about a 1/4 of the space. I would like to get a separate freezer as I am a capable cook and used to work in a cafe so good at batch cooking but not sure where we would put it at the moment. I normally homebake lots of stuff for lunches and wrap individually so the kids can grab one in the morning but that hasn't happened for a while.Will do that this week while I am off work.
Thank you for taking the time to reply, folks. Feeling really positive!
We have a small freezer too, so cant often batch cook/freeze meals.
Keep an eye on local selling sites on FB or maybe check out freecycle, for a chest freezer. I have a tiny 2 up 2 down terrace, with no space for one unfortunately!0 -
Hi.
Well done for posting your SOA.
Most of your costs seem reasonable, however one thing that stands out to me is that Holidays, entertainment, haircuts, presents and contact lenses are consuming almost half of your total salary.
Also £180 on petrol at current prices is about 3 large or 4 small tanks full of fuel every month. Is this correct?
Reducing fuel usage by 25% and eliminating the items above for just one year would pay off both your interest bearing Credit Card balances. (Though I appreciate that eliminating them all may not be feasible)• The rich buy assets.
• The poor only have expenses.
• The middle class buy liabilities they think are assets.
Robert T. Kiyosaki0 -
Thanks for the comments Vacheron. We are not currently spending these amounts on holidays etc but think this is a realistic amount going forward. We spend about £300 at Christmas for absolutely everything including any extra food. The rest of that amount is DC's birthdays and presents when they are invited to other birthdays. Also includes party expenditure for DC. We are generally regarded as very frugal when it comes to birthdays - no party bags, homemade cakes etc
Might do a 'current state of emergency SOA'!
Fuel is for two cars and I think I have overestimated how much. Have downloaded a free spending tracker to my phone so will see how much it is over the next few weeks. I am hoping to start cycling to work again after the Easter break but currently signed off with chest infection/asthma so not a good time to start right now! Although I am saving on fuel by not going to work...1 -
This is what I am planning up until the end of June. I will then redo SOA and see where we are. We have no family birthdays coming up and any presents for parties the kids have been invited to will come out of supermarket shop.
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1000
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 740
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1740
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 364.3
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 110
Electricity............................. 36
Gas..................................... 36
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 39.8
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 0
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 29.4
Groceries etc. ......................... 350
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 180
Road tax................................ 40
Car Insurance........................... 30
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 6
Childcare/nursery....................... 70
Other child related expenses............ 20
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10.4
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 15
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 49.56
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1428.58
Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 180000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1500
Other assets............................ 4000
Total Assets............................ 185500
Secured & HP Debts[/b]
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 39100....(364.3)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 39100.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Capital One CC.................1400......22.95.....30
HSBC CC........................4100......105.......17.4
HSBC OD........................500.......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........6000......127.95....-
Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,740
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,428.58
Available for debt repayments........... 311.42
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 127.95
Amount left after debt repayments....... 183.47
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 185,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -39,100
Total Unsecured debt.................... -6,000
Net Assets.............................. 140,4000
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