Spending, saving, snogging and smiling!

Burlesque_Babe

Snaggles wrote: »

And yet he has had 3 other relationships since then, the most recent of which seems to be a long term one.

blimey - the most recent one must be at least a week then in comparison to the others :rolleyes: He really does know what he wants, doesn't he :rolleyes:

Snaggles

Hellooooooo!

Well, it has been a little while since I updated this, hasn't it!! :rotfl: In fact the day after I last posted, I met Mr Sunday, and things (relationship-wise) kind of went from bad to worse, but am at a point now where I'm starting to recover and have a date with a seemingly lovely guy this evening, which I'm quite excited about, despite having horrible stomach cramps and backache, which are ridiculously early.

Aaaaanyway, the reason for ressurecting this was to post my new SOA, because it could do with some work :rolleyes: and I need a place to keep track of it, so will be back shortly with that!

Hope everyone in diaryland is well. xxx

jinky67

Bloody Hell you are still alive :rotfl:

Snaggles

Household Information
Number of adults in household.......... 1
Number of children in household........ 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax.......... 386 (childcare, pension and sharesaves are deducted at source)
Benefits................................ 681
Other income (maintenance)......150
Total monthly income...............1217

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 250
Council tax............................... 65
Electricity................................ 39
Gas......................................... 55
Water rates.............................. 33
Telephone (land line).................. 25
Mobile phone............................ 35
TV Licence............................... 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 25
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Petrol/diesel............................ 100
Car Insurance............................ 50
Other child related expenses......... 20
Contact Lenses.......................... 15
Buildings insurance....................... 9
Contents insurance...................... 9
Life assurance .......................... 21
Other insurance......................... 29
Entertainment............................. 5
Tax Credits repayment...................9
Total monthly expenses............ 1071



Total monthly income.................... 1,217
Total monthly outgoings.................1,071
Amount left................................... 146

From the amount left, I transfer £40 a week into a separate 'spending' account, which has to cover clothes, entertainment, presents, haircuts etc. So immediately that gives me a problem because that leaves a £27 per month shortfall.

I also haven't any room in my budget for car tax and MOT. I've always managed to 'find' the money for those from somewhere, for example, I get a small bonus in March of a couple of hundred, and recently have had sharesaves maturing annually, but there wont be a sharesave maturing in 2010, so I need to bear that in mind and try to find room in the budget to save towards those. Think I should be putting about £35 a month away.

So, just £62 a month to find.....easy peasy!

My phone contract is due for renewal next month. PAYG is no good for me, I use my phone too much and end up topping up far too often, but I will look for a cheaper contract which will help a bit.

I also really should do something about the amount I spend on TV/internet/landline. It totals £65 a month, and I'm sure it could be reduced, but whenever I've looked at reducing the package, the person that loses out is always Ryan, because we would have to cancel the channels he really likes. When we didn't have a TV for 4 months, he was really good about it, but I still feel pretty crappy about it, because Natasha would still have her favourite channel (CBeebies) and I'd still have internet. We don't have a BT line to the property, so can't have a lot of the cheaper packages that are out there without paying a hefty connection fee first.

Should also note that 'groceries' actually means 'all household shopping', so covers toiletries, cleaning products, some clothing, nappies, etc etc.

Need to make a 'to do' list I think and start tackling some of the above!

vandanfc

"I also really should do something about the amount I spend on TV/internet/landline. It totals £65 a month, and I'm sure it could be reduced, but whenever I've looked at reducing the package, the person that loses out is always Ryan, because we would have to cancel the channels he really likes."

What channels does Ryan like ? Isn't Sky £17.50 a month plus £1 for each extra pack you choose - you pay £25 ?

How much is your line rental ? I assume that you have a package with someone ? Would simply paying the line rental and using a prefix dial code not be cheaper (18185, primus telecom, etc)?

Who is your broadband with ? I have a deal with Madasafish for about £7.50 a month, only gives 5gb download allowance, but generally I find this plenty - if I go over it is only another £1.96.

Added together these could probably save you another £20 or so.

Are you paying arrears on you gas/electric as they seem high ?


You have also included £250 for mortgage twice - is this correct ?

Your income is more than your outgoings, so why are you short, or have I misread something ?

vandanfc

If you think having bt would help have a look at this:

http://www.serviceview.bt.com/list/p...Impl337855.htm - offer has been extended to 31/12/09 as confirmed by BT rep in post below.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...&postcount=509

Snaggles

Hmmm.....could get a lovely shiny new phone from Orange for £35 a month, with 900 minutes and unlimited texts (so would barely need to make any landline calls), plus internet access, for £35 a month, same as now, with £150 cashback via quidco, which would pay for my car tax...

Can't work out whether that's a good plan or not. It would mean a smaller shortfall per month without increasing my outgoings, BUT it's a 24 month contract so I would still have to find car tax money next year.

I do use my phone a lot, for internet, texts and calls, so I'm not sure if a cheaper contract is a good idea, or whether I will just be fooling myself and end up paying even more because I'm using more than my allowances.

redsquirrel80

Hi Snaggles, good to see you reviving your diary

Not sure I can add any advice on the SOA - you already know you need to look at phones and TV etc. Are you doing as much as you can to keep energy bills down, just those little things like turning lights off and keeping draughts out? (know that maybe sounds a bit silly but I keep having to remind myself about turning lights off! )

Snaggles

vandanfc wrote: »

"I also really should do something about the amount I spend on TV/internet/landline. It totals £65 a month, and I'm sure it could be reduced, but whenever I've looked at reducing the package, the person that loses out is always Ryan, because we would have to cancel the channels he really likes."

What channels does Ryan like ? Isn't Sky £17.50 a month plus £1 for each extra pack you choose - you pay £25 ?

Hi Vandanfc, thanks for your comments.

The internet/landline/tv is £65 in total, not sure what the actual breakdown is, so these were just guesses. Sky would be cheaper but can't afford the £125 connection fee I would have to pay. Likewise with many of the prefixes - as far as I understood it, you have to have a BT line to use these?

Are you paying arrears on you gas/electric as they seem high ?

No, I'm not in arrears, this is just what it costs.

You have also included £250 for mortgage twice - is this correct ?

Lol, nope, sorry! Have corrected now. The figures are right but I thought the mortgage wasn't shown on the list because it was on a different bit of the spreadsheet.

Your income is more than your outgoings, so why are you short, or have I misread something ?

I've explained that underneath the SOA - whilst I can cover the bills, I have two kids, and can barely manage to cover all the extras they need (clothes, entertainment, school trips, haircuts etc etc), and I've nothing in the budget for the big annual things like MOT, car tax etc.

I have paid off a LOT of debt over the last few years and don't want to get back into the same position, which is why I'm tackling it now.


Edit: I can't access your links by the way, sorry - it just says they are broken. Not sure if its my computer of if the links aren't working.

elantan

snaggs i didnt know you had a diary i mustve been coming on when youve not been here