£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

angelpye · 20 March 2017 at 10:05AM

Morning ToP, good luck with the birthday prep and baking. Its amazing how much effort goes into just a few hours of fun isn't it? They do appreciate it though

Treadingonplaymobil · 20 March 2017 at 10:53AM

angelpye wrote: »

Morning ToP, good luck with the birthday prep and baking. Its amazing how much effort goes into just a few hours of fun isn't it? They do appreciate it though

Mine love their parties, and the cake is always the most exciting bit. Hopefully this year will live up to expectations!

angelpye · 20 March 2017 at 11:54AM

Makes it all worth it doesn't it when they so obviously appreciate it. My now adult DD still gets a home-made cake and would be most upset if it were otherwise.

Cherryfudge · 20 March 2017 at 12:47PM

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Week 6: Day 2 - we're actually enough under budget (£30 left at the moment) to let DS1 choose a present for each of his siblings too, which I wasn't sure if we would be able to allow this year and would have been a real shame.
...
- we still have £28 left in the family entertainment kitty to get through one last weekend of the month, which will mainly be taken up with parties, so we should end the month on budget in this area...

The bad:
- I think we're going to end up over our food budget this month. Partly due to party food - this week's food shop is set to come in closer to £110 than £75, which will leave us only £45 for the following week's shop, so I expect we'll end up a tenner or more over. ...

May I suggest that as party food is both food and entertainment, some of the entertainment budget goes to help the food budget out?

Hope the party is a great success!

Treadingonplaymobil · 20 March 2017 at 2:06PM

Cherryfudge wrote: »

May I suggest that as party food is both food and entertainment, some of the entertainment budget goes to help the food budget out?

Hope the party is a great success!

That's a very sensible idea! We have a school disco on Friday, which will inevitably result in a hot dog and a juice for each child, but once that's paid for I'll move the remainder into the food budget.

Treadingonplaymobil · 20 March 2017 at 2:26PM

I thought it was about time I redid my SOA, as there's been a fair bit of jiggling around since the first one, and even the ones I did in the early days of this diary seem a bit incomplete or inaccurate now, so I'm posting this as a marker of how my budget will look in April, when the council tax payment drops back down to a normal level (plus 5% rise, boo), and the preschool fees drop down. In May they'll be down to zero, so no doubt I'll repost the entire thing again to show that minor change :rotfl:

All comments and ideas for number rejigging are very welcome.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3 (8, 6 and 3)
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 120 (minimum, can be higher due to SE income)
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2711.86
Benefits................................ 192.3
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3024.16

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 698
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 141
Electricity............................. 51.06 (combined gas and electricity, haven't checked exact split. We have recently checked and this is the right DD for now, but we may be able to reduce in a few months)
Gas..................................... 51.06
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 95 (slight reduction since LBM)
Telephone (land line)................... 20.89
Mobile phone............................ 90 (still immensely high. We are both still very wedded to our fancy iPhones and high data usage, and haven't wanted to compromise this yet)
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 5.99
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 350 (we managed on £320 in Feb, I'm wondering if we could manage £325 in a regular month. March a bit erroneous due to 2 kids parties)
Clothing................................ 0 (kids clothing budgeted separately below. This will go up to £30 for DH and I once the preschool fees drop off the budget, as 0 isn't realistic longterm)
Petrol/diesel........................... 225
Road tax................................ 16.18
Car Insurance........................... 25.22
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 50
Childcare/nursery....................... 50 (only April, then £0, but £30 already spoken for, see clothing budget above)
Other child related expenses............ 71.85 (clubs, likely to go up by another £8.50 in May which will wipe out most of the remainder of the childcare savings)
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 3.5 (dentist)
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 27.07
Contents insurance...................... 0 (included in buildings)
Life assurance ......................... 16.26
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 80
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 55
Holiday................................. 50 (committed until August, could be dropped thereafter)
Emergency fund.......................... 25 (have yet to actually save this, due to unexpected spends! I think those are all accounted for in this new SOA though)
YNAB sub................................ 3
National trust.......................... 9.25
school trips etc........................ 10
Kids clothes............................ 60 (might be able to reduce this at some stage if I find we have a good buffer in this category, but possibly not - three sets of growing feet is expensive!)
School lunches.......................... 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 2382.45

Assets
Cash.................................... 400
House value (Gross)..................... 210000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 211400

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 173454...(698)......3.14
Total secured & HP debts...... 173454....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Barclaycard....................6622.59...150.......0 (minimum now slightly lower, but we are paying at least this)
MBNA...........................9053.14...100.......0 (minimum lower, we are paying at least this)
Parental loan..................20000.....0.........0 (this is still not being addressed, beyond the plan to throw everything at it once other debts are gone, but it does nag at me)
Tesco loan.....................21917.4...377.......10.29 (will let this continue on minimum payment until CCs are clear, although may reassess if we get good long 0% deals)
Total unsecured debts..........57593.13..627.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,024.16
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,382.45
Available for debt repayments........... 641.71
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 627
Amount left after debt repayments....... 14.71

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 211,400
Total HP & Secured debt................. -173,454
Total Unsecured debt.................... -57,593.13
Net Assets.............................. -19,647.13

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Treadingonplaymobil · 20 March 2017 at 2:33PM

And, for the record, this is how I am splitting any additional income that comes in (varies between £0 and £500 extra, so enormously variable and unpredictable. Seems to be trending around the £50 mark since I have started using some of my SE income to build up a buffer for future months in my business account, to ensure that £120 minimum income is totally secure. Hopefully once that buffer is built up it will increase further, but no guarantees due to aforementioned unpredictability!

20% debt
10% holiday (until the summer holiday we are committed to is paid for, so that budget pot can be slashed sooner)
10% my kitty
10% DH kitty
5% remortgaging costs
5% entertainment
5% food budget (I could probably reassign this - it gave me a safety net in the early weeks)
5% house maintenance
5% Christmas
5% birthdays
5% children’s clothes
5% new bike for DS1 (badly needed and not budgeted for elsewhere)
5% emergency fund
5% money towards next month

I feel slightly irresponsible assigning additional income to anything other than debt repayment BUT I also feel that our budget has been slashed SO dramatically since LBM - over £300 knocked off our outgoings - that it makes me feel we are rewarding ourselves for making extra money. Thoughts welcome.

Bobarella · 20 March 2017 at 3:13PM

You are doing great TOP. Half the battle is knowing where you are at all times. I make myself write down everything and reconcile accounts daily. Because I have a horrible habit otherwise of forgetting small costs like the window cleaner (business) or netflix (us) you know where you are to a t and that's going to get you to the finishing line. I have so much faith in you.

I really hope the birthdays will both be fantastic. And that you manage to keep your mind occupied re next week.

Treadingonplaymobil · 20 March 2017 at 3:47PM

Bobarella wrote: »

You are doing great TOP. Half the battle is knowing where you are at all times. I make myself write down everything and reconcile accounts daily. Because I have a horrible habit otherwise of forgetting small costs like the window cleaner (business) or netflix (us) you know where you are to a t and that's going to get you to the finishing line. I have so much faith in you.

I really hope the birthdays will both be fantastic. And that you manage to keep your mind occupied re next week.

I know exactly what you mean about daily reconciling. I didn't add up my spends on Friday (I took cash to meet a friend) until Sunday, and it took me AGES to remember what I'd spent the money on. So easily frittered away, with no memory of it! Sometimes I'm amazed we're not in even more debt...

Bobarella · 20 March 2017 at 4:07PM

I always find cash a funny one to reconcile. Is it better to just write down, £20 cash point and then you know that's a solid amount to take out of the budget or do you bother with writing down every single item bought with the cash?

I tend to lean more and more to being a card tapper

contactless makes it so easy.

£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

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