Time to budget..

Simon_Pugsley

Good Evening all, and thanks for taking the time to have a look at my situation.

At present I am managing to make all minimum payments, however that sinking feeling every month dipping into the overdraft every month is getting a little tedious.

Just looking for any tips, any easy ways to save a little more money every month.

I have dumped both mine and my girlfriend's credit cards on the same box, both egg together, both mint and so on..

One question i wanted to ask is this, how easy is it going to be for me and my partner to get new 0% cc next summer, as this is the time when most of the cards are due to expire.


Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1440
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1000
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 320
Total monthly income.................... 2760

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 710
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 130
Electricity............................. 25
Gas..................................... 25
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 37
Telephone (land line)................... 18
Mobile phone............................ 90
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 38
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 200
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 200
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1945

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 179950
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 179950

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 143000...(710)......5.75
Total secured debts........... 143000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Virgin.........................3271......25........0
Egg............................7000......150.......0
Mint...........................6800......150.......0
Nationwide Overdraft...........1000......0.........12.9
Abbey Loan.....................10000.....188.......15.9
Egg Money......................1500......35........8
Barclaycard....................3700......90........0
Total unsecured debts..........33271.....638.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,760
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,945
Available for debt repayments........... 815
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 638
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 177

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 179,950
Total Secured debt...................... -143,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -33,271
Net Assets.............................. 3,679


Thanks everyone...

poorandindenial

Hello there :wave:

Right, before I tell you to reduce your groceries and mobile phone bill (rest assured Iwill be doing that) there are a few other things to say.

You say that you are only just making payments, but you have nearly £500 surplus each month - you NEED to keep a spending diary so that you know where this goes and you need to stop buying stuff you don't need.

If you pay all of your minimum payments on time and manage your debt well then you will probably be able to get a 0% cc. If you can reduce a big chunk off your debt then that will help but do close cards down as you clear them so that it doesn't look like you have lots of credit floating around. Then six months before you want a new card try to keep things looking good, don't close cards, overpay where possible and you should be fine (I got a 0% deal in June)

FInally, to motivate you to work out where all that cash is going, pop the details of your debts into the snowball calculator www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx and first off see how long before you are debt free if you are just doing minimum payments, then see how long if you can relocate the £470+ that you should have left over

Right am off to give your SOA a bit of a pulling apart

Back in a mo

poorandindenial

Simon_Pugsley wrote: »

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1440
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1000
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 320
Total monthly income.................... 2760

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 710
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 130
Electricity............................. 25 this looks quite good, will it still be enough for winter)
Gas..................................... 25this looks quite good, will it still be enough for winter)
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 37 (meter or fixed charge?)
Telephone (land line)................... 18
Mobile phone............................ 90 (this has GOT to come down, are you on contract you CAN spend less)
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 38 (go freeview or do a combi deal with a landline; sky do tv, internet and phone with free off peak calls for £30)
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 (how many is this for? you can probably shave at least £100 off this)
Clothing................................ 30 (you can ditch this for a bit)
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 200 (what does this cover?)
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 200 is this CSA payments?
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1945

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 179950
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 179950

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 143000...(710)......5.75
Total secured debts........... 143000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Virgin.........................3271......25........0
Egg............................7000......150.......0
Mint...........................6800......150.......0
Nationwide Overdraft...........1000......0.........12.9
Abbey Loan.....................10000.....188.......15.9
Egg Money......................1500......35........8
Barclaycard....................3700......90........0
Total unsecured debts..........33271.....638.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,760
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,945
Available for debt repayments........... 815
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 638
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 177

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 179,950
Total Secured debt...................... -143,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -33,271
Net Assets.............................. 3,679


Thanks everyone...

The good news is you have a surplus (se above note though) and the reality is you can save a LOT extra each month - well over £200, maybe £300 if you want to, it depends on how much you are willing to compromise your lifestyle for a while and how soon yu want to be debtfree (see last post re: snowball calculator)

Simon_Pugsley

Hi, thanks for the sharp reply... One at a time..

Electricity and Gas are cheap, I am very careful with turning things off, and if truth be told, me and my partner are not in the house during the daytime..

Water is not a meter, I have done the comparison, and i could save £50 a year, but i did read somewhere that is can reduce the value of your property y doing so.... is that true

Mobile is two contract mobiles. Mine is coming to the end, and i will be switching to T Mobile for £20 a month. My wife's is contract for another 15 months at £35 a month

Groceries is for two adults and two cats and one child during school holidays, we have been really careful recently, down-branding and so on, but will look at this.

Clothing has been ditched, but wanted to average it out over the year.

Other travel works out at £5 a day, 5 days a week over the month which is £100, plus i run nightclubs and have no option but to get a taxi home every Friday and Saturday which is the other £100 a month.

The £200 child costs is a voluntury payment to my daughters mum.

Am i making lame excuses for things here, someone tell me if I am..

Simon_Pugsley

You said dont close cards, why is this?

poorandindenial

Sorry I meant do close cards but not just before you take out more credit as it can look a bit odd and too much activity can make them twitchy,

Close them to try to make sure you haven't got loads of unused credit floating around your credit report but not just a month or so before you get new ones if you see what I mean.

Sorry am a bit tired so might not be making much sense

poorandindenial

Simon_Pugsley wrote: »

Hi, thanks for the sharp reply... One at a time..

Sorry, I don't mean to be sharp, it is always tough to be on the receiving end of a SOA going over. Oooh or did you mean sharp as in quick?? both are probably fair

Simon_Pugsley wrote: »

Electricity and Gas are cheap, I am very careful with turning things off, and if truth be told, me and my partner are not in the house during the daytime..

^^^^^^ is excellent!

Simon_Pugsley wrote: »

Water is not a meter, I have done the comparison, and i could save £50 a year, but i did read somewhere that is can reduce the value of your property y doing so.... is that true

Not competely sure, I know that post sale they can't choose to change back to fixed so I guess it might put some people off but am not sure what the overall effect would be - might be worth a google.

Simon_Pugsley wrote: »

Mobile is two contract mobiles. Mine is coming to the end, and i will be switching to T Mobile for £20 a month. My wife's is contract for another 15 months at £35 a month

Check out PAYG too, often it can be cheaper but it depends on how much you use

Simon_Pugsley wrote: »

Groceries is for two adults and two cats and one child during school holidays, we have been really careful recently, down-branding and so on, but will look at this.

Check out the moneysaving old style boards for advice on meal planning etc, it is amazing what those women (and a few men) can do with a tight buddget

Simon_Pugsley wrote: »

Clothing has been ditched, but wanted to average it out over the year.

OK

Simon_Pugsley wrote: »

Other travel works out at £5 a day, 5 days a week over the month which is £100, plus i run nightclubs and have no option but to get a taxi home every Friday and Saturday which is the other £100 a month.

Could it be cheaper if you got a season ticket for travel? (obviously not for the cab, am guesing they don't do season tickets)

Simon_Pugsley wrote: »

The £200 child costs is a voluntury payment to my daughters mum.

OK, was just checking as people can hide all sorts in those 'other' fields

Simon_Pugsley wrote: »

Am i making lame excuses for things here, someone tell me if I am..

I don't think so but keep an eye on yourself - if you think you migth be making lame excuses then pop on here and we will tell you if you are, probably the biggest area I would say to focus on are the groceries and the mobile phone.

Like I say it is up to you really what you are and are not willing to compromise on, you are in a strong position because you have a surplus (I do too). I allow myself way more leway than other people on her allow themselves (and in many cases they have no option) but then I know that the knock on is that my debt free date will be a little longer coming. Do have a play on the snowball calculator, it should help to demonstrate what the trade off is for various things.

Simon_Pugsley

Sorry i was not suggesting you were sharp, just fast in your response... haha

Simon_Pugsley

Thats all great thanks, there is a slight twist to my story, i will post it after i have met the wife from the train station..

DoWhatULove-LoveWhatUDo

Simon_Pugsley wrote: »

Mobile is two contract mobiles. Mine is coming to the end, and i will be switching to T Mobile for £20 a month. My wife's is contract for another 15 months at £35 a month

Depending on who needs a mobile phone the most have you considered that you could take over the contract and your wife have a V cheap £5 every other month PAYG which is used for personal safety rather than socialising?

Am i making lame excuses for things here, someone tell me if I am..[/quote]

I'm quite certain we would.