Hi Can I have some advice please?

sensiblespender

Hi just wanted some advice really this is our outgoings & incomings

Mortgage owed £46,500 and 17 years left
No credit cards or other debts at all.

Husbands outgoings monthly

Mortgage £360.46
Boiler (incase it goes wrong £3.17
Council tax £124.00
Virgin Media(includes broadband, calls & tv £50.00 approx)Goes up if I talk too much!

Husbands wages in hand each month after tax £1156.22
This lot comes too £542.62

Leaves £613.60 Hubby buys petrol & food


My outgoings
tv license £11.95
Dental practise plan me & hubby £30.00
southern water £42.21
car insurance for both of us £49.70
life insurance for £15.00
gas £22.00 (this will go up as its too low)
electricity£28.00(this will go up as itrs too low

total direct debits £198.57

this is paid from child benefit £125.40 9 2 children)
tax credit £270.00

So i am left with £196.57 which goes on bits and bobs shoes etc for the kids, clothes from car boot sales etc

we spend about £50.00 roughly a week on food, car has needed work on it.
Can I make any savings anywhere ??. Also I have no savings between us me & my hubby not a penny and this does bother me as we have no emergency fund. We dont go out we dont eat out havent had a holiday. Are we classed as poor finacially? Even though we have a lot of equity in house about £200,00. it doesnt mean much as we have to live somewhere and are not high wage earners. Wouldnt move away as my family are here. Should we be able to live ok on this?. Can you help me with regards to how much I should save, should we be ok living on this?. I am trying not to compare myself to others , swing a few roundabouts!

this is paid out of child benefit

annie123

total income £1500 per month you should be able to get by with that, many here have less.

If hubby has £600 and spends £200 on food where does the rest go? cant spend £4oo on petrol

poorandindenial

Hi there sensible spender

Welcome to the MSE boards...

I normally reside on the debt free wannabee board where going through I&E (or statement of affairs - SOA) is our bread and butter.

You might find it useful to use a template like this one www.makesenseofcards.com (click on statement of affairs calculator) so that you can make sure you don't miss anything, we often find that people find it useful. It will come back with a figure for how much you should have left at the end of the month, if you don't have what it says you should then you might want to keep a spending diary so that you can see where money is going

All the best

sensiblespender

Hi thanks for the replies. Hi annie about £25.00 a week roundabout £100.00 a month goes on petrol. Husband drinks at home on weekends and does smoke about 3 ten packs a week(much to me nagging and saying quit). We never seem to have any left it just seems to melt away and dissapear.
thanks for the makesenseofcards.com website I will try that out. I think I need to keep a spending diary and try other things out

annie123

that means he is frittering away your would be savings/holiday/fun time out

I would look at the debt free wanabe board, lotsof useful ideas and very friendly people. you dont have to be in debt to use it.
I do think it will take both of you to make a change happen.

good luck

teacup_2

Thanks Annie, I will take a look on that board. I think we both need to keep track of our spending. It is so easy to frit it away on different things without realising. I would like to try not spending on some days , its hard not to sometimes when running out of foodie bits etc

[Deleted User]

call Virgin and say that Sky are offering a better deal. I got nearly £20.00 per month knocked off my bill last year and its now down to around 335.00 per month for cable,phone,and broadband.Its worth a go

miserly_mum

Hi Teacup.

My suggestion is that both of you sit down some evening with a pen and paper and actually put all your incomings and out goings down in black and white.

My partner and I don't have his and hers money it all goes into the "pot". I deal with all the bills, Direct debits etc as I am at home with the children all day and have the time to do it. The list of our basic bills is the same every month and includes everything. Groceries,nappies, Insurance, Utility D/Ds petrol,OH lunches at work,£1 a day Xmas savings,Mortgage etc

Every month we total up OH wages, tax credits and child benefit. We take away the basic bills from the combined total and thats what we have left to spend.

We then discuss any essential purchases needed that month. Maybe one of the children need new trainers or a tyre for the car or its Mum in laws birthday or whatever. We work out how much is needed for each purchase total it up and take it away from the spending money.

What's left is Family Money to do with as we please. We also have a few drinks at home at the weekend and OH is a light smoker. The drinks and cigs come out of the family money. As does taking the kids out to swimming or cinema etc.

We very rarely spend all of our Family Money every month(except maybe around Xmas time) as everything we need from day to day has already been budgeted for. Whats left over just sits in the account until next month and so on.

Just knowing all our basic needs are covered in our budget really does give us peace of mind and we can actually enjoy spending what we have left because we know its not needed for anything else.

I also find it takes away the urge to "splash the cash" as money is there if we want it.

Teria

I think men are better at frittering than women. I normally spend between 20 - 30 on food each week for myself and my daughter, depending on where we shop. My partner came shopping at the weekend, and the weekly shop came to 81.00! And he had the cheek to moan at me! To be fair, I'm going back to college tomorrow, and I did buy a heap of stationery, but when I added it up, it only came to just over a fiver. I've no idea where the extra 50.00 went, the cupboards don't look any more full than usual!

teacup_2

thanks jackie o , i will give that a try and see how i get on! Fingers crossed.
Hi miserly mum, that sounds like a great system you have going there. Do you have seperate savings or can you be disciplined to let it sit in the account and not spend it. I am more sensible then my hubby, he is a bit more frivolous(probably spelt wrong!). Even though the money is in seperate accounts, I have done that as he used to get confused with what was coming out when as we are always close to the mark everymonth . So I set the majority of direct debits to come out of mine. But he does seem to have more control over the bank card! and will happily run off and buy beers here and there. I do think we need to control the way we spend it as at the moment all those daily spends add up.
Hi Teria, I totally agree hubby done shopping this week and food was ok but I manage to get meals !!!, he gets cheese savouries:rotfl: and pickled onions! ok but its nice to have a few dinners!!
I am going to try and get a better deal now.

[Deleted User]

In 40 odd years my late husband only went shopping once for me .I had just come out of hospital after giving birth to our first daughter circa 1967 and I asked if he would get some stuff on a list for me to save me going out in the freezing cold with our new-born it was mid December .I asked for bread, spuds, milk, eggs ,bacon ,and sausages ,not hard one would think .he came back with smoked salmon, a bottle of wine and some chocolates .He said it was to celebrate !! he had blown the weeks housekeeping in one fell swoop. I appreciated the thought, but it was a long following week.In those days he got paid weekly.He was a bit daft at times, so I did forgive him eventually as his heart was in the right place.But he was never asked to do the shopping again. Bless him, he did mean well.