Am I doing the right thing?

dancingfairy

I think it is always handy to have some savings - especially now as credit is harder to come by - and if you have had problems with the roof I can see why you would be a little worried. Generally though you will be earning less interest on your savings than you will be paying interest on your debts but as I said before it's a balance and there's no point paying off all your debt to get rid of the stress and then being stressed out as you have no money in savings to cover emergencys. As long as the debt is under control and is being paid off I personally would be inclind to have some savings - others may disagree.
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Nishka

GeorgeUK wrote: »

No rent/mortgage?
Electricity & Oil is a bit high - check you are getting a good deal via the price comparison sites (uswitch, moneysupermarket)
Mobile - PAYG?
Satellite - Does this include phone and internet as part of a package? What about freeview?
Groceries - for one month? How many people is this for - just 2?
Have a look at the old style board for meal plans and recipies. Have you moved down a brand?
Need a little for entertainment.

It might be worthwhile keeping a spending diary so you know where all your money is going and can find cheaper alternatives for some spending.

Thanks for your ideas and comments.

No, we have paid off the mortgage on our house so we own it outright - my mum owns 2/3rds and I own a third.

Freeview in our area is a terrible signal - hence the switch to Sky in the first place which is slightly better apart from when it snows or if it's very windy!

It does include broadband (but at a slightly higher rate because we can't get the standard line - again being rural)... (Anyone would think we lived in the middle of the desert!!! )

I haven't included entertainment on the calculator because I suppose this is a luxury and I wanted to see how much was left over - I suppose what I have to do is work out a weekly spending budget and stick to it.

Thank you everyone for the ideas.

It's good to talk about it. I do realise I need to get a grip on my spending.

I think the worst thing I do is I tend to go shopping with my mum on a Sat when daughter is away at her dads and go a bit mad, spending £80ish a time. Which I can't really afford to do ... I have no self control. Okay, that's only maybe 2 x a month but it's still too much really. And hubs does go on a few boys nights out and buys xbox games from time to time etc. I guess it all adds up. :eek:

Nishka

dancingfairy wrote: »

I think it is always handy to have some savings - especially now as credit is harder to come by - and if you have had problems with the roof I can see why you would be a little worried. Generally though you will be earning less interest on your savings than you will be paying interest on your debts but as I said before it's a balance and there's no point paying off all your debt to get rid of the stress and then being stressed out as you have no money in savings to cover emergencys. As long as the debt is under control and is being paid off I personally would be inclind to have some savings - others may disagree.
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That's how I think.. But obviously I have been googling Martins site and reading that you shouldn't have savings if you have debt and it's got me questioning it. :rolleyes:

Jesthar

Hi Nishka, and welcome!

Don't worry, you just landed in one of the best places in existance for chasing the debt blues away. Now, let's have a look:

Nishka wrote: »

Well I did the link and here it is and I feel even worse now because according to this we should have lots of money left over - and we don't!

Obviously i haven't included all my clothes etc spending - which is where I expect the money is going... Perhaps...

I feel really embarassed about it.
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 900
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1300
Benefits................................ 110
Other income............................ 200
Total monthly income.................... 2510

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 128
Electricity............................. 75 - you should be able to lower this - have you looked into switching supplier or tarrif? Also remember to do the little things,like not leaving things on standby. £75 would pay my electricity bill for half the year (though I do live alone!).
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 180
Water rates............................. 65 - is this metered? If so, this is very high - you sure you haven't got a leak somewhere?
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 60 - can you switch to a lower tarriff or go PAYG? My bill is about £5 a month.
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 58 - does this include internet and telephone? Could you cut the package a bit?
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 800 - can you split out petrol from this? And, special diet or not, it is nastily high - is there really no way to lower the costs? What diet are they on?
Clothing................................ 0 - you need to work this one out, I think...
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0 - you mention petrol - no road tax or insurance or MOT?
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 198
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 18
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 7
Contents insurance...................... 7
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0 - do you never go out or buy a DVD?
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 30
Total monthly expenses.................. 1637

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 240000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 240000

No Secured Debt

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Personal Loan..................14000.....137.......6
Egg card ......................3000......75........0
Total unsecured debts..........17000.....212.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,510
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,637
Available for debt repayments........... 873
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 212
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 661 Yay! Surplus! A good start, NOW you just need to know where it goes...

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 240,000
Total Secured debt...................... -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -17,000
Net Assets.............................. 223,000

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

======== Enter any other useful information below ========

e.g. the number of adults & children in the household, the number

of cars included in the SOA or anything else that may be useful.

I think the first port of call for you is a spending diary, especially as you mention cflothes buying as being a potential 'issue' - start to keep a log of EVERYTHING you spend, and you'll soon see where all the pennies slip away!

In fact, as a starting point, hunt out your statements for the last few months and go through them, it will give you a much better idea of where all the money is going, and what you need to cut down on. Once you've done that, you can redo your SoA to reflect this - you should always put absolutely EVERYTHING into an SoA to give you the biggest possible boot up the backside!

Oh, and there is an easy way to curb your shopping trip spending - leave the cards at home and just take a bit of cash with you...

Hope that helps,

~Jes

Nishka

Jesthar wrote: »

Hi Nishka, and welcome!

Don't worry, you just landed in one of the best places in existance for chasing the debt blues away. Now, let's have a look:


I think the first port of call for you is a spending diary, especially as you mention cflothes buying as being a potential 'issue' - start to keep a log of EVERYTHING you spend, and you'll soon see where all the pennies slip away!

In fact, as a starting point, hunt out your statements for the last few months and go through them, it will give you a much better idea of where all the money is going, and what you need to cut down on. Once you've done that, you can redo your SoA to reflect this - you should always put absolutely EVERYTHING into an SoA to give you the biggest possible boot up the backside!

Oh, and there is an easy way to curb your shopping trip spending - leave the cards at home and just take a bit of cash with you...

Hope that helps,

~Jes

Thanks for the help and advice.

I am aware that the food bill is high but we all eat very different things - my mum has crohns disease for which she was on incapacity benefit for many years - now a bit better hence the looking after dd for me, she is a pensioner now.. this might explain why our water bill is quite high - Bowel disease / flushing loo lots etc etc. We even get some redcued rate for this with my mums probs - so this is with the reduction! I also have IBS myself.. We're a poorly lot! I think a water meter would prob make the prob worse. But I will have a check for a leak as well. Good idea.

Due to health probs etc our food menu is diverse! - My mum is on wheat free, fibre free diet for her crohns disease (as prescribed by the hospital) so she eats a lot of the speciality foods which cost a fortune (she can't get these on prescription as she doesn't have coeliacs disease). My mum doesn't have much pleasure in life so I don't want to limit her spending on food esp as she looks after dd for us and we don't pay her anything for doing this etc.

My husband is near enough a pizza only person and is extremely fussy!! He will only eat certain things and won't touch anything green or remotely homecooked. He is almost food phobic to be honest.

I am easy!! I make lots of things from scratch. I am near enough vegan.

Dd will eat whichever meal she fancies from all of us - we pretty much cook 3 separate things every night.

Our only real vices are chocolate- and my mum enjoys a tipple of whisky every evening before bed (which she says helps her pain relief as well - she can't take certain painkillers - thats another story!)

We don't go out too much or hardly ever in the evening. We don't rent Dvds preferring to watch telly - so Sky isn't such a bad buy I guess in that respect.

I do go out with my daughter quite a bit to the cinema or perhaps ice skating or something like that, maybe spending £50ish a go for the family twice a month on the weekends she is with us (she goes to her dads every other weekend).

I am going to sit down later and work out a budget and try and do the dreaded thing of leaving my cards at home each week when I go shopping. It's a terrifying thought!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

GeorgeUK

There are a few shops who's own brand products don't contain certain things in them. I think it was on the old style board i read about this, but wasn't paying too much attention at the time. If you have a search on the board for food allergy or some of the problems, then you may be able to find what others are doing and possibly find somewhere cheaper to shop for it.

Do you have a water hippo? Or something else to put in the cistern so it doesn't use so much water per flush? Some people use a brick or bottle filled with water.