SOA - Can I do better?

Ali-OK

Hi everyone

I haven't posted an SOA before now, as I think I've got things under control, however, Ms. London's post about others spotting things has inspired me to do this and I'm hoping someone will shout if I can do something better than at present!

Here goes...

Income nett £2261
+ Child Ben £68
+ Child maint £280
+ Tax credit £40.25 (goes up to £42.18 in April)
Total income: £2649.25

Outgoings:

Mortgage £811.07 (2 yr deal up in Sept - going for a new one)
Council tax £105 (after 06/07 increase)
Mortgage decreasing term assurance £14.25
Income protection insurance £45.61
Pension £42.90 (goes up to £45.05 1st May)
TV license £10.99
Bdgs/contents insurance £25.22
Bank account charge £10 (this is going after 15th April, but using free travel insurance before then)
Son's saving bond £17.50
Life (term) insurance £18.90 (at least son can pay my debts if I pop my clogs!)
BT line rental £11.00
Sky £15 from tomorrow! (just reduced it from £21)
Mobile £25 (just moved to PAYG, waiting for free SIM to arrive)
Broadband with anytime free phone calls £19.99
Water (metered) £18.00
Car insurance £35.11
Son school dinners £30 (he has packed tea in afterschool club)
Son afterschool fees @ £100 per month
Savings £300 (this is for gas, electric, school holiday childcare, christmas, car maintenance, car tax, etc) Gas & electric on dual fuel BG 2010 fixed - even with a cancel charge should I look at moving this? Works out roughly £35 gas and £17 elec per month
Food shop £80-100
Petrol £100
Window cleaner £7.50 (just dumped him today!)
Wheeliebin cleaner £5 (dumped him on Monday!)
General spend £200 (son/me clothes, shoes, birthday pressies/cards, lottery syndicate at work, PC virus protection renewal, etc)

Total Outgoings £2068.04

Debts

Lloyds TSB Advance 5.5% LOB £10,861.04 - paid £240 this month
Halifax H2X 4.95% LOB £4,467.92 - pay mins @ £101.01 this month
Egg 0% til 1st Nov £7,150 - paid £160 this month

Total debt payments = £501.01 this month

Total outgoings : £2,569.05

I've managed to get my outgoings to be less than my income by alot of the action I've already taken - (plus what's left over in the bank account will also go to pay cc's), but would really appreciate the advice of the great people on here on anything else where I could and should save money.

Downside on top of all this is that I smoke - as the budget has just slammed another 9p on a packet, plus I'm feeling in control of the finances and subsequently worrying and smoking less - it's time to give up. Need to set myself a date - 1st April probably good, gives me chances to read the 'Easy Way on How To' again.

Soz it's so long and thanks for reading

$17mma

Hello Ali- Ok

Your food shop £80-£100 is that weekly or monthly?

Ali-OK

Hi

It's monthly - I'm down to £15 some weeks, I meal plan, use local farm shop for fruit/veg.

Dare I say I used to spend £60 a week (last autumn) ?

Ali

tigerlily

Do you have any more accurate figures for your £300 savings and £200 general spends, it adds up to about £100 per weeks so is quite a big chunk of available cash?
Your food spend added to the amount for your sons packed lunches adds up to a possible £130 per month which sounds a bit high.

Good luck in clearing your debts. :T

wrighty_3

You could get a free PC virus checker at the following:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

And a free firewall at:

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp?dc=12bms&ctry=GB&lang=en&lid=dbtopnav_zass

I work as an IT technician and have used these for years and have never been infected with viruses/spyware (touch wood!!!!)

moozie_2

Just wanted to say hi :hello: and well done on posting such a clear SOA. Made it very easy to read and understand. You have obviously got it worked out well as you have trimmed down and looking for further ways to improve.

I am impressed :T

Best of luck!

$17mma

Ali

Everything looks ok to me.. however I am no expert. Hopefully someone else will be able to point out anything we have missed or over looked.

I would say though check your insurances to see if they are the cheapest.

Well done hun.....:T

Ali-OK

Thanks everyone for your kind and encouraging words - I'm filling up here (silly me!)

Tigerlily - the savings can be broken down as follows (I've only been doing the savings bit since November!)

£135 a week for each week son is not in school = £1,620. Unfortunately I don't have family who can help me on this

Quarterly gas and electric - 2 winter quarters (Jan and April) - £440, 2 summer quarters - £200

£105 for 2 nights hotel in June (close family wedding and not local, no room at their house either!)

I spent £250 on Xmas last year - budgeting the same this year

£150 for contact lenses in June (I'm looking at internet supplies, but my eyesight is deteriorating at the rate of knots recently!)

£150 car tax
£199 car service
£35 MOT
£100 for tyres this year too but I'll shop around
£100 predicted for son's birthday/party

Its all going in an ISA, so what's left over periodically I'll throw at the cc's.

The £200 monthly - difficult to break down to actuals, as its all different each month! Here's a selection of stuff!

(Packed teas come out of the food shop)
£5 lottery syndicate at work monthly
£9 total for son's haircut and my eyebrows! (That is my treat)
£80 on parents anniversary, sis-in-law's birthdays x 2!, father-in-law, mothers day (always alot of birthdays every month and close family)
up to £100 on smoking
£12 on son's school friends birthday presents/cards for parties

Hope that helps!
Ali

Ali-OK

$17mma wrote:

Ali

Everything looks ok to me.. however I am no expert. Hopefully someone else will be able to point out anything we have missed or over looked.

I would say though check your insurances to see if they are the cheapest.

Well done hun.....:T

Thanks and congrats to you on being debt free - truly inspirational.

I'm shopping around on car insurance now (though its due in Sept). I'm pleased with my house insurance (payment shield.co.uk which I hadn't heard of until someone recommended I take a look) and I got it down by £6 a month (£72 a year!)

I've tried to get cheaper income protection, but no luck. I have been toying with stopping this - but I had an operation 3 years ago which took me out of work for months and thank goodness I did have it.

Going to start work on checking the life insurances - thanks for that, I wouldn't have thought about looking at those.

Ali

Ali-OK

Hi Wrighty

Thanks for the IT stuff - Symantec want £64 for 2 yr sub to NIS 06 - ha ha, I'm just about to save that thanks to you!

Ali-OK

moozie wrote:

Just wanted to say hi :hello: and well done on posting such a clear SOA. Made it very easy to read and understand. You have obviously got it worked out well as you have trimmed down and looking for further ways to improve.

I am impressed :T

Best of luck!

Hi Moozie :hello:

I've got excel spreadsheets coming out of my ears!! I tried Martin's but I guess because I've got used to mine, I'm sticking with that and it seems to be working for me!

I mark a 'x' each time something goes out of the bank (I check online daily), I have separate areas for savings and the needs, cc's with payments, interest, etc so and I type in everything I spend. I'm finally ahead of the bank and always have more than the bank says - that is a first!

Ali