Time for honesty and balance the books!
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Posts: 11 Forumite
I have just completed budget brain for first time and am now sat in shock! My husband and I both have good jobs and should not have money problems - but as you will see below, we are spending more than we earn and this is obviously why we are in debt and not reducing it. Our daughters are 19 and 21 and both work. I love holidays and probably this is where I need to cut back, but we don't drink or smoke and think of these are my indulgence - time for honesty and to balance the books. Think I will go back to budget brain and see what I can reduce.
Have read lots of threads and am totally in awe of peoples ability to cut their debts - now its our turn.
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,500.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 926.00
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.00
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273.20
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287.27
Savings & Investments
Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Education & Courses
University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One-Offs
Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,500.00
Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,897.80
Have read lots of threads and am totally in awe of peoples ability to cut their debts - now its our turn.
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,500.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 926.00
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.00
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273.20
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287.27
Savings & Investments
Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Education & Courses
University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One-Offs
Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,500.00
Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,897.80
0
Comments
-
I have just completed budget brain for first time and am now sat in shock! My husband and I both have good jobs and should not have money problems - but as you will see below, we are spending more than we earn and this is obviously why we are in debt and not reducing it. Our daughters are 19 and 21 and both work. I love holidays and probably this is where I need to cut back, but we don't drink or smoke and think of these are my indulgence - time for honesty and to balance the books. Think I will go back to budget brain and see what I can reduce.
Have read lots of threads and am totally in awe of peoples ability to cut their debts - now its our turn.
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,500.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 926.00
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.00
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273.20
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287.27
Savings & Investments
Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Education & Courses
University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One-Offs
Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,500.00
Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,897.80
HI
I just had a quick scan through your SOA, a couple of things stood out for me where you may be able to cut back
1. Meals at work - can you take a packed lunch instead?
2.£50 a month for hair, can you reduce this??
Obviously the amount for holidays is a large amount but the rest of your SOA seems fair enough to me0 -
It is sometimes a bit of a shock when you first do that budget and see it all there in black and white - huh?I know you say you like your holidays (don't we all?!) but £3,600 a year on holidays for the pair of you when you admit you are worried about your money situation.....?
Just saying~~I am debt free~~0 -
The problem is that you are paying £1,060.47 on debt repayments and then a further £926 on your mortgage bringing your debt repayments to just shy of £1,987
Your income is £3500 (is that exactly?) leaving £1513 for everything else. Thats where you are overspending. Need to reduce your debt levels.
What are your credit card amounts outstanding v credit limit and APRs? Same for the loans.0 -
I have just completed budget brain for first time and am now sat in shock! My husband and I both have good jobs and should not have money problems - but as you will see below, we are spending more than we earn and this is obviously why we are in debt and not reducing it. Our daughters are 19 and 21 and both work. I love holidays and probably this is where I need to cut back, but we don't drink or smoke and think of these are my indulgence - time for honesty and to balance the books. Think I will go back to budget brain and see what I can reduce.
Have read lots of threads and am totally in awe of peoples ability to cut their debts - now its our turn.
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,500.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 926.00
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.00
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273.20
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287.27
Savings & Investments
Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Education & Courses
University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One-Offs
Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,500.00
Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,897.80
Are you getting the best gas/ electric deal?
It seems to me that you are spending quite a bit on food for 4. Particularlya I imagine that the two children eat away from the home too?
Food and household £400
Eating out £50
Meals at work £43.33
Almost £500 a month is high. This is a good area to focus on.. Pop over to old style board and see if they can help. They are great at advising on where savings can be made. It seems like a quick win.
Sorry if it seems harsh but...there is also a great deal being spent on 'non essentials'/ socialising £195 pet month including the gym and sky tv which is quite high when you consider that there is an additional £300 per month for holidays. It may be worth considering if all of these are necessary or if they are being used to their full potential. Again it may be possible to save more here.
Hope to help0 -
Do your daughters not pay any housekeeping?~~I am debt free~~0
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Well, ok. The SOA is pretty bad at the moment, but you can fix it relatively easily with some effort.
Your daughters seem to live with you but dont seem to be paying rent? Why?Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,500.00
Excellent start then.
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 Why? Are you sure you need this? Why are you paying £720 a year for a phone?
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00 Depends if you want TV or not.
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00 ? It may only be £5 but still...why?
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 And again
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
What are you heating? Half the street? I have a 3 bed (4 storey) victorian terrace and my combined heating and gas bills are £60 a month. Turn stuff off.
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00 Good Lord why? £120 a year better give you some very useful additions to be worth it.
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Why two separate insurances for what is effectively the same thing?
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00 This would be questionable for two adults and 4 children. Do you have a big family?
Savings & Investments
Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Yeah...not one single penny saved, anywhere?
Ah...right...here's the problem....
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 £360 a year?
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 Shop for food, for essentials, for things you need...but never for fun.
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00 An extremely expensive hobby at £660 a year you dont have.
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 Um? Again...you dont have this available.
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 Every month? Really? Yet you are only allocating £10 to dentistry...what happens when and if you need dental help? On the plus side, your hair will be beautiful. I'm being facetious, but this is exactly the kind of priority issue you have to overcome and quickly.
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 So, again, your hair and your face will be perfect, but you'll have to borrow big bucks if you are unfortunate enough to require a filling.
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 For the cost of this, you could instead buy excellent private health insurance...priorities...again.
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 Every month? Are you sure? What are you doing to go through your clothes that quickly.
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 But you already have an entry for new clothes above, or are you telling yourself porkies.
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00 You think this is a wise use of your money?
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00 Or this?
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 So, you must be using some of this to pay for things like annual insurance and MOT costs right? You really dont spend £600 a year on Christmas do you?
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33 Why?
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00 But you already buy food at work...why do you need this entry too?
Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,500.00
Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,897.80
So, taking this objectively, you are going into debt at the rate of almost £400 per month every month, or £4800 a year. Eventually, you are going to run out of money and in the not too distant future. As above, your priorities are somewhat skewed towards entertainment and personal fulfillment rather than things that you actually need to survive. You spend money on holidays and nothing on savings. You spend money on Gyms, but next to nothing on a dentist or health insurance. Your food bill is very high indeed at £400 and I suspect that it is entirely spent on two people and no children which is even worse. Some of your bills are unnecessary such as mobile phones, a PAYG will be far better value. You should shop around for gas and electricity because at £150 a month, you should have a nice credit saved at that rate.
You have made a good start, but now it is time to actually do something about it.Debt Free! Long road, but we did it
Meet my best friend : YNAB (you need a budget)
My other best friend is a filofax.
Do or do not, there is no try....Yoda.
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Is your mortgage life insurance 3 times the payout of your other life assurance? If not, why is the premium so high? May be somewhere you can shop around and save money without any cut to what you get.
What do you get for the bank account fee and is it really worth it?
What does household maintenance cover? I doubt it is high enough if like me you put boiler servicing, roof repairs, redecoration and new washing machines into this category.But a banker, engaged at enormous expense,Had the whole of their cash in his care.
Lewis Carroll0 -
Hi DazlaHI
I just had a quick scan through your SOA, a couple of things stood out for me where you may be able to cut back
1. Meals at work - can you take a packed lunch instead?
2.£50 a month for hair, can you reduce this??
Obviously the amount for holidays is a large amount but the rest of your SOA seems fair enough to me
Thank you for reply and you are right I could start taking lunch to work - I have it at work as we have a canteen and know we will close if people don't use it - need to toughen up and think of myself rather than other.
Again with my hair a friend comes to the house and has done for about 20 years - will give this some thought.
Thanks again
DD0 -
Hi Theoreticatheoretica wrote: »Is your mortgage life insurance 3 times the payout of your other life assurance? If not, why is the premium so high? May be somewhere you can shop around and save money without any cut to what you get.
What do you get for the bank account fee and is it really worth it?
What does household maintenance cover? I doubt it is high enough if like me you put boiler servicing, roof repairs, redecoration and new washing machines into this category.
Many thanks for reading my post.
Mortgage insurance is critical life insurance and other insurance is to cover loans. Have looked in to reducing critical life and couldn't get cheaper before, but this was a few years ago so will have another look.
My bank account fee is with Halifax Reward and I do use travel insurance and mobile insurance, again will double check if could get these cheaper than the £10 a month.
Household maintenance was just really a guess - probably need to give this more thought too.
So pleased I have done a budget, has made me think - but need to give it more work
Thanks again
DD0 -
Hi FireWyrmWell, ok. The SOA is pretty bad at the moment, but you can fix it relatively easily with some effort.
Your daughters seem to live with you but dont seem to be paying rent? Why?
Excellent start then.
[/COLOR][/B]
What are you heating? Half the street? I have a 3 bed (4 storey) victorian terrace and my combined heating and gas bills are £60 a month. Turn stuff off.
Why two separate insurances for what is effectively the same thing?
So, taking this objectively, you are going into debt at the rate of almost £400 per month every month, or £4800 a year. Eventually, you are going to run out of money and in the not too distant future. As above, your priorities are somewhat skewed towards entertainment and personal fulfillment rather than things that you actually need to survive. You spend money on holidays and nothing on savings. You spend money on Gyms, but next to nothing on a dentist or health insurance. Your food bill is very high indeed at £400 and I suspect that it is entirely spent on two people and no children which is even worse. Some of your bills are unnecessary such as mobile phones, a PAYG will be far better value. You should shop around for gas and electricity because at £150 a month, you should have a nice credit saved at that rate.
You have made a good start, but now it is time to actually do something about it.
Many thanks for looking at my budget, really appreciate the advice you have given - it is just the kick start I need.
I had missed a few things off budget and have now redone it - girls do pay board and had forgotten this - but had also forgotten annual payment for two timeshares, so they equal each other out - have looked at trying to get rid of timeshares, but seem to be tied in for next 40 years!
Will take your advice on the areas you have suggested - need to sit down with hubby and discuss our lifestyle and get our debts paid off.
Hubby works away all week so we do rely on mobiles to communicate and he uses while he is away as he is a lorry driver - but will get him to look if PAYG would be better.
Need to plan more for food - have a T*sco delivery every week and daughters go on and add what they want too
Need to plan whole life more
Thanks again for feedback - know what I am doing this afternoon
DD0
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