Can you help me with a list of essentials?

sazzy6

I am trying to work out my budget for when I start my mortgage. I have chosen a mortgage where you can over pay. Here is what I have got upto now:

Council Tax £ 62.22
Mortgage £ 479.73
Insurance £ 42.79
Life Insurance £ 5.00
Utilities £ 120.00
Food / Groceries £ 150.00
TV Licence / Phone £ 46.00
Car Running Costs £ 140.00
Total £ 1,045.74
Take home per month £ 1,547.59

What have I not included? I know I have not put in going out etc... but just the must haves. This way I can start to think about over payments more accurately

epsilondraconis

If you take a look at:

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

You'll see a long list of potential outgoings - you may find it useful.

Good luck with everything.

sazzy6

Thanks for that link-very helpful. I think the only other important one I have missed is medical (teeth and eyes)

The others ones that affect me are all luxery items-that I could, although I probably won't, live without.

:beer: cheers!

Rikki

Have you included your water bill in with your utilities?

Internet?

sazzy6

Yes to water bills and the internet. Does this not seem enough? First house so not sure with prices.

firesidemaid

insurance seems a little high - in the future you can probably get that down to even half that by searching around plus get cashback too from quidco etc.(my b+c this year for a 3 bed detached house was £155).

tv lic/phone again could be a bit lower - who will you be with?

sazzy6

Well I haven't signed up to the insurance yet. It was for contents and buildings insurance with accidental cover. I will look for a better quote now though!

My mobile is £35 per month with O2. I will still have 4 months to go when everything goes through (fingers crossed) and after that I am planning on changing to Virgin for my landline and internet. I will then just have a pay as you go mobile.

firesidemaid

i have accidental cover for buildings, i don't bother with it for contents.

have a look at the insurance tab on the top of the site homepage - there is a sort of tutorial/plan for getting the best deals. i usually go with the cheapest and try and get up to £100 cashback through quidco.

this year the deal i got was so good i didn't worry about the cashback - i even phoned them to check everything was ok (as it seemed so cheap) and when i went over all my details again i got a slightly better quote!

good luck x

galadriel

Hi, I have virgin phone and internet. As a virgin customer you can take advantage of their £10 sim card only mobile offer. 300 minutes to any network and 300 texts per month for a tenner, plus you are not tied into a contract so if you try it and find it's not the right package for you, you can cancel.

sazzy6

galadriel wrote: »

Hi, I have virgin phone and internet. As a virgin customer you can take advantage of their £10 sim card only mobile offer. 300 minutes to any network and 300 texts per month for a tenner, plus you are not tied into a contract so if you try it and find it's not the right package for you, you can cancel.

Thanks for this-I'm not too sure how Virgin work with their mobile service linked to other services, I will have to check it out.

DaLaw78

You can do Internet Phone and Mobile and Cable TV for £40 a month with Virgin I think