Newbie looking for some advice before it spirals

A question about : Newbie looking for some advice before it spirals

Hi,

I am new to here so Hello to you all.
I am beginning to worry about money and bills since moving last year into my new house I have had to take out loans etc as I had quite a few jobs on the house which have needed to be done unexpectedly

I am just seeking a bit of advice on things I could do to either 1) earn more money outside my Mon-Fri 8-6 job, or 2) how could I cut these bills back further - I have cut back lots already mainly groceries/ clothes etc...

I have completed one of the SOA's to help illustrate my financial situation, although I forgot to put that I'm Ј1750 maxed out on my overdraft facility (of Ј1750) my Nurse registration fees Ј100 per year and Ј198 subscription to the RCN for union & insurance fees ... Just feel like it is beginning to get out of control a bit now and I don't want it to have negative consequences later on my 3 children.

Any constructive advice would be appreciated... Thank you.

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 3 plus 1 dog
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 1400
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 900
Other income............................ 200
Total monthly income.................... 2500

Monthly Expense Details[/b]
Mortgage................................ 536
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 150
Electricity............................. 35
Gas..................................... 75
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 49
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 87 - 3 Phones stuck in contract until Nov 2015
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 60
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 650
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 40
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 200
Other child related expenses............ 100
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 10
Buildings insurance..................... 10
Contents insurance...................... 5
Life assurance ......................... 18
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40
Haircuts................................ 15
Entertainment........................... 40
Holiday................................. 50
Emergency fund.......................... 0
school uniforms......................... 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 2467.12

Assets[/b]
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 140000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1500
Other assets............................ 0[b]
Total Assets............................ 141500

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 88500....(536)......3.59
Total secured & HP debts...... 88500.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
loan...........................8100......230...... .5.5
Total unsecured debts..........8100......230.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,500
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,467.12
Available for debt repayments........... 32.88
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 230
Amount short for making debt repayments. -197.12

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 141,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -88,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -8,100
Net Assets.............................. 44,900

Best answers:

• I'm sure someone with a lot more experience will be along soon, but I found that cutting cable tv subscriptions and drastically cutting grocery bills to be the biggest saving I was able to make. There are threads on here that may be able to help you do this too.
• THe figure for water rates seems high, are you on a meter?
• Hello. Your food bill seems very high, how old are your children? Are they almost adults and eat a lot? With some careful meal planning you could halve that.
  Do you qualify for a single persons reduction on your Council Tax?
  Can you do without the satellite and cable TV. Go onto Freeview?
  Ilona
• Hiya,
  Is your council tax based on 10 or 12 monthly payments? This equates to Ј1500 (based on 10) or Ј1800 (based on 12) per year. If at Ј1500 per year, could you ask the council to take the payments over 12 months, making your monthly payments Ј125.
  Also, start a spedning diary to work out what you are actually paying out, that way you can see what you are spending on essentials and niceties
• you could definitely benefit from working to cut down your monthly groceries.
  Have you thought about switching supermarkets? With meal planning you could easily cut this down.
• Well done for posting
  You need to include your Ј1750 overdraft with APR, your Nurse registration fees of Ј100 per year and Ј198 union & insurance fees to your SOA
  The good thing is that you should be able to cut more down to break even:
  Entertainment........................... 40 - cut down as much as possible
  Holiday................................. 50 - every month??
  Telephone (land line)................... 15 - do you still need this
  Satellite/Cable TV...................... 60 - you can't afford this
  Mobile phone............................ 87 - 3 Phones stuck in contract until Nov 2015 - no possibility to change this?, try calling- they can only say no J
  With planning you should also be able to get your grocery bill down quite a bit. Start aiming for Ј400
  We are 5 (2 adults, and 3 children 16, 13, 7) in our family, and my budget for groceries was Ј 350-400 a month. The next year my eldest DD is away to study, so will only visit on weekends. Since we have to fund this, we have had to look at our budget. Our grocery budget for August was cut to Ј 300 - but I have only used Ј 195 so far this month.
  We have still eaten well, but I have been very careful to take advantage of any offers and loss leaders. My meal plan always have a soup day( with a pudding) , a vegetarian day( often indian), a pasta day, and a quick egg based meal like tortilla, pancakes with stuffing / or baked potatoes with salad. We don't eat much meat and don't miss it.
  Come around to the old style board for some inspiration. Here are some ideas to get you started:
  Batch cook if you have a freezer
  Lasagne or moussaka - make one to eat- and 1-2 for the freezer, so you have a meal for a busy day
  Lots other ideas on this tread: Once a month cooking:
  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=663989#post663989
  Use a slow cooker, recipes here:
  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=1332010#post1332010
  Lots of other recipes and meal plans here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=235198
  Join the grocery challenge:
  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5043534
  Link to JackieO's miser's online cookbook - cheap recipes compiled by a very wise user of the old style board:
  https://www.dropbox.com/s/4owxi9d3oa...My%20Miser.doc
  Oh and keep track of you money. We use the free version of this App: https://goodbudget.com/
• Thank you everyone for your advise :-)
  My kids eats tons they are 9, 14 & 15 but I tried other lower price supermarkets and they refused to eat it as it wasn't named brands, ended up costing more nipping to the local shop to top up with named brands!
  Water rates are the set rate for the council tax band in the area, will get a meter once the eldest children go to university though I think.
  My council tax will reduce to 1250 with single discount over the year just I owed some for a few months missed when I moved :-(
  Tommelise thank you for those ideas and links will deffo be looking at them... If you can manage on so little every month for food.
  My kids will have to get used to some changes think I can reduce my cable package from October too just stuck in a 12 month contract there too. Holidays might have to go for next year too :-(
  All your advice is greatly appreciated... time to get all this sorted before it gets worse. Thank you everybody :-)
• my other half was the same, and hated the fact we didnt buy brands. But he's over that now, as we get twice as much for half the price!
  I used clear plastic storage for some stuff too, so he didnt notice. But he's converted now.
  If you can't afford to be picky, get the kids to pay for the branded stuff! They will soon change their tune. It's only food, im sure they would rather have money for other things...or thats how I see it.
  Lidl and aldi are great for stocking up on staples. especially when on offer, and XL packs.
• You have made a good start by facing up to your situation. Now that you know that you will have to get rid of the TV package and the mobile phones (when you can of course) and sort out your food bill you are on your way. So many people have been where you are now and sorted themselves out and with a bit of help and support from those one here there is no reason why you can't too.
  Before you know you will be helping out someone else!
• first I see your line rental is Ј15.00 PER month . Try if you can pay a 1 off up front line rental with BT it will work out about I think Ј11.00 per month then.
  2nd suggestion which I done keep the brand name boxes somewhere when finished then put the cheaper market brands in the branded boxes without the children seeing , if the do not notice the difference happy days , mine are 6 and 8 they never noticed and do not know , hence food bill down!
  Debbie x x
• Hey Jac,
  Totally agree with the other posters. If you try non-branded stuff, often there is little difference, and if you don't like them from one supermarket, they may be ok from another. Even if you go 'down' one brand e.g. from weetabix, to supermarket own but not value brand, then I doubt anyone would notice. Also, mixing brand with non-brand can be good e.g. washing up liquid etc at first, then switching over to fully non-brand a bit at a time.
  I would probably just switch all at once, but if you're getting resistance, this might be a gentler way of going about it
  Loads of luck btw and I wish you all the best x
• I see you are a nurse )NMC and RCN reference - so is there any way you could do bank/agency on days off?? I know only too well how hard juggling a full time job with kids is (i have 4 and trained as a nurse when oldest 2 were 1 and 2) but some agencies pay stupid amounts particularly for weekend nights and bank hols
• 15, 14 and 9 are old enough to be understand that you can't afford everything. Would they rather have mobiles or Heinz ketchup? Would they rather have cable or go on holiday?
• I agree - it was amazing what my older 2 started to eat when they had to pay for it themselves - my eldest now only shops in Al*i! - buy what you want and if they dont like it ask them to buy thier own! my second daughter doesnt eat very much i cook but she buys bits herself or amends things like using plain pasta and adding cheese instead of bolognese - she doesnt like vegetables at all - and i refuse to cook without them!
• You do find that a change in brands is noticeable (I did) But then they found things the preferred - Lidl tomato sauce is 69p, heinz about Ј2 and they prefer Lidl (probably more sugar!)....
  The change came because we went into Europe more (we bought a house) and the brands in Lidl and Aldi tend to be European. I don't know how you would sell that, but if they see it as 'German' or 'French' rather than 'inferior' it works!
  I did a bit of agency nightwork - ridiculous money, so worth it if you can squeeze in a few and target the money.
  Get the kids at home to cook - and shop! - they get a much better idea.
  I would get rid of the satellite system.
  In france we have Freeview - and at home have bought (OH says 'invested) in a ridiculous motorised thing that gets us satellites all over the world - it did cost about Ј400 I think, but you don't pay any subscriptions at all.
  It's over Ј700 a year for your tv. With stuff available online to watch (you can plug the computer into your tv probably) and Freeview and other options you can knock that off the list fairly easily.