Our outgoings - are they reasonable?

[pinkreadingcat]

Firstly, I'm new so apologies if this is not something I should post or it should be somewhere else.

I am spending a great deal of time working out our income/outgoings with a view to hopefully convincing hubby of the need to go for an IVA.

I have completed the MSE budget and want to get advice/opinions on whether our amounts are acceptable within an IVA or whether anything jumps out as too high.

This is for 2 adults and 4 children, one aged 14 and three under 10's. I'm not sure how it all works so I don't know if particular things in the budget would just not be acceptable?

Many Thanks, Becky

Rent: 795
Contents ins: 25
Council tax: 190
Water rates: 23.24 (meter)
Gas: 120 (inc arrears)
Electricity: 75 (inc arrears)
Home phone: 19.50 (inc 2 lines -one for dh work)
Sky/Internet: 47 (no BT broadband so sky only option!)
TV license: 11.95
Mobile phones: £50 (for 2)
Life insurance: £58
Household/food: £410
Sandwiches/coffee out: £30
Breakdown cover: £8.33
Rail/bus: £56 (including eldest's bus pass to school)
Car/van maintenance: £66 (very old car )
Car/Van insurance: 66
Car/Van tax: 40
Parking: 12
Petrol/diesel: 200
Dinner money: 43.30
School trips: £8.33
Educational trips/books: 78
Children's clubs: 40
DVD rental: 10
Pet costs: 20 (not including food)
Big days out: 30
Books/films/music: 8
Cinema trips: 20
Haircuts: 6
Optical bills: 8.33
Make up: 3
New clothes(adults): 5
New clothes (kids): 21
Childrens shoes: 10 (youngest has to have special shoes due to medical condition)
Christmas: 40
Holiday: 40
Birthdays: 13
Replacement applience/sofa etc: 8
Charity membership: 2
Newspapers: 17

[Julie]

Hi pinkreading cat and welcome to the forum....fab name!![:)]

First of all you've done the right thing by listing all of your expenditure. This should show you and hubby if you are struggling or not??

If you decide to go forward with an IVA, some of those allowances would need to be reduced/ not allowed at all. For example, you are not allowed anything for Christmas, birthdays, holidays etc....harsh I know but there are no allowances that I know of for those.

How do your outgoings compare with your incomings?

[kallis3]

You can't claim any more than £21 for Sky, not sure about the internet thoug, things like Christmas etc will have to be taken from anything you manage to save from other allowances. Newspapers I believe is £5 per month.

Gas and electric arrears should be included in your IVA as far as I am aware, but I could be wrong on that.

[MrsKnight]

Welcome to the forum
And well done on thinking of everything.
Some of the allowances would be reduced or not allowed for xmas n birthday.
But looking at yours you could have increases in other areas such as haircuts - Eyes n Dental??
Some items may not be allowed as an IVA life as I know it is not supposed to be a easy one n you have to scrap n find for things that are not within budget x
But I think its great you have though of everything x

Jan in my last phone review they accepted 22.50 being my Sky package - it has gone up since the CCCS thingy x

[kallis3]

That's a bit better Lyns!

Becky, I doubt they would allow DVD rental and you may find that you have to fund makeup from your housekeeping allowance, or from any savings you can make elsewhere.

The thing is to submit exactly what you spend - your IP will check through and tell you what is allowed and what isn't.

Hopefully Melanie or Andy will be on later to give their opinion.

[pinkreadingcat]

Thanks for that information. We don't spend loads of money on social or beauty sort-of things so hopefully we won't feel the pinch too much.

Our sky does include broadband and phone calls - but we have no choice as BT doesn't provide broadband here which means we can't have talk talk or any of those providers who use a BT line. :-/

Total outgoings (not including credit repayments): 2808
Total income: 2901
DIFFERENCE: £92

Our total debt is 38,000 not including the gas and electricity. Unfortunately we have around £7000 of available credit left so we could conceivably struggle on for a few more months before hitting the floor iykwim.

I think having looked more carefully I may have underestimated some such as childrens clothes and shoes and food/housekeeping but as I've not been keeping track I have estimated. However yesterday I had to get my youngest a pair of boots (he needs particular boots as he has a medical condition) and they were £40 and my daughter only has a pair of crocs at the moment which is obviously not good in winter and she also needs a pair of boots - cheapest we can see are £20.

I'm not sure whether our best option is an IVA or bankruptcy to be honest.

Thanks for all your help,
Becky
xx

[kallis3]

Things like boots for a medical condition should be allowed.

Just put everything down, speak to a professional and they will advise you as the best way forward.

[Julie]

Its great that you are thinking of everything, well done.

There doesn't seem to be a lot left to enter an IVA but an IP will be able to advise now you have a clear picture of your circumstances. Contact a couple and see what they say....www.iva.com is a good place to read reviews before deciding who to contact. Some IP's post on here and they have excellent reputations.

An IP will go through all your options, including BR. Do you have any assets or would your jobs be affected if you went down this route?

[MelanieGiles]

That's a very reasonable budget - it looks frugal in some parts but as others have said there will be areas which will need adjusting. Why don't you have a chat with an insolvency practitioner to see the sort of budget that could be presented to your creditors, and then you might be able to persuade your husband to rething his plans and become a little more realistic.