Hi all, I'm posting this case study, mostly to get the figures down somewhere sensible, and get some expert opinions on where I'm screwing it up.
I'm 41, in a relationship with my OH who is 46, and we have a 9 year old daughter. Living in rural south Devon.
Basic income:
My job, 45 hours a week on £10 an hour, which gives 450 a week, or £23400 a year
OH employed work, a few hours a week at the school our daughter goes to, £112 a month after tax(not sure what before tax is) £1344 yearly
OH self employed carer usually around £100 a week. £5200
Pre tax, the only thing I can find is a workplace pension that means 1.78% of my wages goes into a pension plan with slightly less from my employer. It started last march, and theres about £500 in there so far.
Theres also income from stable liverys, 4 horses at £50 a week. total £200 a week, £10400 a year. (We try to keep stables accounts separate from personal ones, but frequently move money back and forth to cover large bills)
No property or investments. I have a stakeholder pension with about £2000 in it, I havent paid anything into it for years, and it lost 2/3 in the credit crunch of 2008.
My OH has mentioned a similar pension or 2 but again no money going into them right now. Since we cant do anything with them til we retire we haven't really worked out the details.
Adjusted Gross income:
works out at £40344 (Finding this hard to believe, but we don't usually take the income from the livery into account as it sucks the same amount away)
Taxes:
Wages £23400, less tax and NI of £4,105.32, leaves £19,294.68
OH, since I don't know the before tax figure, her yearly take home is £6544
Since the stables doesn't make any profit or pay us, we dont pay any tax on it.
Expenses.
Rent £92.66 a week, £ 4818.32 yearly
Council tax £119 a month £1428
Water £68.06 a month £816.72
Electricity £30 a week (not an exact figure, but we recently had a smart meter fitted so we can see our usage and costs, currently between £10 and £15 a week, but will go up in winter estimating high) £1560
Mobile phones
Mine £37 a month still 10 months left on the contract, then going cheap sim only
Hers £20 a month 18 months left on contract
Mobile broadband £20 a month (no landline, ad looking into it to see if we can get it cheaper than this). £924 for all 3
Car tax £41.11 for both cars £493.32
car Insurance £85.53 for both cars £1026.36
Fuel £40 a week (estimated, she does a lot more miles than me, school run and caring for different people in villages all over the area) £2080
Car maintenance £200 a year for both cars (MOT and whatever work needs doing to pass, varies from year to year)
TV license £12.37 a month £148.44
Food £100 a week (struggling to get this down and we don't splurge on food) £5200
Clothing minimal, we buy clothes when we need to replace something OH is losing a lot of weight now shes got her health issues under control and still has plenty of smaller sizes she can use as the weight comes off. 2.5 st since may :) probably £100 a year mostly school uniform.
Total £18471.76
Stable expenses:
Hay 15 bales a week £4.50 a bale £3510 a year
Bedding 5 bales a week £9 a bale £2340
Feed 5 bales a week £10 a bale £2600
Farrier £50 every month £600
Insurance £5 a month £60
We have someone who helps out for £30 a week (hesitant to lose her as its handy having someone else ready if we go away) £1500
fuel for tractor and generator £30 a month (includes petrol for strimmer etc £360
Total £10970 yearly
Nonessentials
I do karate £30 a month £360 (facepunch due here i know, but its basically my only break from work and the horses)
OH slimming world £4.95 a week £257.4 (needs to get the weight off and is doing much better since the docs solved her sleeping issue in May.)
Total £617.40
Liabilities
Loan, £12512.12 started november 2017 paying 275.09 a month cant remember the exact interest, but over 20% (scheduling appointment to get better interest now credit scores are up) current balance £11831.48.
costs £3301.08 a year. 75 months remaining
CC £40 monthly I haven't seen any paperwork for this, balance should be £500 ish APR unknown. We agreed that it was for one thing to boost her credit score and then was put away, I have to assume thats whats been done. £480 per year
Assets
Effectively zero
2 cars
My 98 Ford Fiesta 1.25 inherited from her father when he passed on last year
Her 04 Alfa 147 2.0 bought outright for £450 last february (difficult to sell because of gearbox issues that would cost more to fix than its resale value, but don't render it unusable)
I'm sure technically our horses are assets, but since we can't get rid of them due to family issues they're effectively worthless.
There are other outgoings but it's difficult to nail them down to a particular thing as the bank statement only lists where it was spent, not what on. Must ban OH from ebay!
Calculations
in 40344
out 37945.56
leaving 2398.44
or 199.87 per month which we never seem to see because im sure there are other expenses that i haven't nailed down yet. Random coffees, treats for little one etc.
Short term goals, getting debt free to sort the future out.
Mid term goals getting the stables transferred into our name and building a cabin there to live in to reduce costs while we save for retirement.
Long term goals travelling the world having enough income to pay a minimal expense lifestyle and drive an RV across america seeing as much as possible.
We are planning to sit down in a week and get our finances sorted out. I've just cancelled Amazon prime and kindle unlimited so thats £16 a month less. I have several boxes of books in the shed that haven't been read for years, and a good library on kindle/google play books. Personally I want to get my shit sorted out, but it seems like I have little spare time once the daily mechanics of life are sorted out, and weekends seems to be taken up by stopping my OHs mother from losing her shit. We have 3 properties to take care of but seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time at MILs. All I seem to hear is how much needs to be done, but I'm constantly being taken away to deal with trivial nonsense.
I should also mention that our daughter was born with a major heart defect and needed open heart surgery at 6 days old. You wouldn't know it to see her running around now, but she will need another op in 2 - 4 years time. Luckily the first time round OH family was in a financial posistion to support us, but since FIL passed, they can barely meet living expenses. If I thought I could get them to agree I'd look into a case study for all 5 of us, with options to sell the large house that they live in and use the money to put up 2 or 3 cabins at the yard.
Our home maintenance is trivial, rented so the landlord fixes big things also small enough to keep clean with minimal effort, which suits me. MIL house, large and high council tax. They get help with living expenses due to being retired and one of them is disabled and has decent private pension from previous job. Somehow I seem to end up doing the mowing there, and any heavy lifting, being the only physically fit adult. Yard, 9 acres of field, barn with 9 stables in, no mains water or electricity, so water has to be pumped up from a well via generator. Also generator provides light during winters early evenings. Another short term plan is to sell the old tractor slowly rusting away to fund large generator installation. Also clear quite a lot of junk accumulated by FIL during his eventful career (apparently he liked making bombs as a hobby).
Anyway I've rambled on enough, I know I need to get the little expenses tightened up. Any advice for work/home/future planning balance?
Rewriting this for 2019 based on spending figures for 2018. This is what the transactions from our accounts have reported, and they should be pretty accurate.
I'm 42, in a relationship with my OH who is 47, and we have a 10 year old daughter. Living in rural south Devon.
Basic income:
My job, 45 hours a week on £10.50 an hour, which gives 472.50 a week, or £24570 a year
OH employed work, a few hours a week at the school our daughter goes to, £112 a month after tax(not sure what before tax is) £1344 yearly
OH self employed carer usually around £140 a week. £7280
She's just given up the carers allowance due to her uncle needing more care than she can provide. This means she can pick up more shifts and not have to worry about earning too much. She's also going to be stopping the school job sometime this year, which means more time for care work/horse work that actually pays.
Pre tax, workplace pension with NEST. Calculations based on Qualifying earnings, which means my earnings above the minimum for NI contributions. So I pay 4% of my weekly income less £116, my employer puts in another 2% and tax relief makes another 1%. In April the minimum employer contribution rises to 3%, and my boss is the proverbial ducks arse, so wont do any more than the minimum, and uses qualifying earnings to reduce the amount he has to pay.
Theres also income from stable liverys, 3 horses at £50 a week. total £150 a week, £7800 a year. (We try to keep stables accounts separate from personal ones, but frequently move money back and forth to cover large bills). Also occasional short term full liveries at £150 per week each, but only for a month or two at a time.
No property or investments. I have a stakeholder pension with about £6000 in it, and the previously mentioned NEST which has just over £1000 now.
My OH has mentioned a similar pension or 2 but again no money going into them right now. Since we cant do anything with them til we retire we haven't really worked out the details.
Adjusted Gross income:
works out at £40994 (Finding this hard to believe, but we don't usually take the income from the livery into account as it sucks the same amount away)
Taxes:
Wages £24570, less tax and NI of £4,400, leaves £20,170
OH, since I don't know the before tax figure, her yearly take home is £6544
Since the stables doesn't make any profit or pay us, we dont pay any tax on it.
Expenses. (figures total for last year, I can use these to set budgets for the coming year) Any ideas on how to get OH to stick to them?
Bills:
Phone/Internet 68.98 New landline put in, this is installation and 1st month £18.99 monthly
Rent 4985.43 Set by Housing association but very good for the area
Electricity 645 better than I thought
Council Tax 1193.43 Lowest band
Water 684.42 Set by water board no way to reduce
TV License 149.58 standard charge
Mobile 1168.49 stupidly high, lost the mobile broadband now landline in, and my contract expires in a month so I can go sim only and save £30+ a month
Total 8895.33
Repayments
Loan 6301.08
Credit Card 2000
Ambrose Wilson 2353.32
Total 10654.40 This is what we’ve cleared from debt in the last year
Horses:
Total 8009.08 According to transactions I've tracked for livery income we made more than this last year, but I have to base this years income on current liveries. I'm also breaking the costs down for this year, hay, bedding, vet etc.
Home:
Home DIY 71.28
Home 119.43
Furniture/Garden 82.42
Food 6110.67
Appliances 7.50
Total 6391.30
Transport:
Running costs 261.80
Transport 423.44
Parking 185.60
Fuel 3900.11 Some of this will be fuel for the yard generator too, I've started tracking it separately for this year
Total 4770.95
Enjoyment:
Holidays 52.00
Hobbies 661.50 (£400 of this will be my karate)
Gifts 251.84
Entertainment 379.17
Enjoyment 1661.63
Dining/Going Out 1060.85
Cash 630.00 probably withdrawn to pay horse bills but no way to tell
Lunch/Snacks 257.35
Total 4954.34
Other:
Untagged 204.82
Transfers 582.61 probably direct transfers to farrier/vet etc
One offs 356.56
Business 1.00
Bank Charges 57.61
Contents Insurance 26.40
Prescriptions 104.00
Car Insurance 878.35
Pool Stuff 47.00
Pet food 3.59
Family 1376.12
Medical 269.20
Health other 327.10
Clothes 257.70
Appearance 137.14
Total 4629.20
Grand Total 48304.60
Current debts
Loan £8400 20.5% APR
Card £1000 39.5% APR (extortionate! Need a balance transfer card here and NOT FUCKING USE IT.) Half of this is for horses since early December, the rest is Christmas and excess on a car accident OH had at the beginning of January. We cleared £1800 at the start of December, which was at least twice what I thought it was. I now have online access to this and the stable accounts so I can see where the moneys going, even if I don’t have any influence on it.
Assets
Effectively zero
1 car
My Fiesta has just impressively failed its MOT (Over £700 repair before labour)
Her 04 Alfa 147 2.0 bought outright for £450 2 years ago (difficult to sell because of gearbox issues that would cost more to fix than its resale value, but don't render it unusable. Hooray for google, and fixing cars for a £20 part off ebay rather than the garage charging £600 to replace an entire gearbox)
I should also mention that our daughter was born with a major heart defect and needed open heart surgery at 6 days old. You wouldn't know it to see her running around now, but she will need another op in 2 - 4 years time. Luckily the first time round OH family was in a financial posistion to support us, but since FIL passed, they can barely meet living expenses. If I thought I could get them to agree I'd look into a case study for all 5 of us, with options to sell the large house that they live in and use the money to put up 2 or 3 cabins at the yard.
Our home maintenance is trivial, rented so the landlord fixes big things also small enough to keep clean with minimal effort, which suits me. MIL house, large and high council tax. They get help with living expenses due to being retired and one of them is disabled and has decent private pension from previous job. Somehow I seem to end up doing the mowing there, and any heavy lifting, being the only physically fit adult. Stable yard is a separate property, 9 acres of field, barn with 9 stables in, no mains water or electricity, so water has to be pumped up from a well via generator. Also generator provides light during winters early evenings. Another short term plan is to sell the old tractor slowly rusting away to fund large generator installation. Also clear quite a lot of junk accumulated by FIL during his eventful career (apparently he liked making bombs as a hobby).