Not many issues but...SOA

magicdogsbrain

Hello,

This is my first port on DFW - please be gentle. Looking though all the SOA's on the site is very interesting. I realize that some peple on here are in serious trouble and I home they can sort it out with your help.

I don't think I am in dire need of help but would welcome some advice as to what we are spending that is outrageous and what is ok. Looking though the various SOA's on here, I seem to be spending a lot on....

Groceries
TV
Internet
children

I notice that nobody seems to spend anything on kids except childcare. Is that normal ( i.e. no classes/clubs etc)?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2716
Partners monthly income after tax....... 834
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3550

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 460
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 119
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 40
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 31.3
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 50
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 40
Internet Services....................... 50
Groceries etc. ......................... 480
Clothing................................ 60
Petrol/diesel........................... 150
Road tax................................ 40
Car Insurance........................... 33
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 40
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 533
Other child related expenses............ 195
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 20
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 9
Other insurance......................... 25
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 60
Haircuts................................ 30
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 77
Emergency fund.......................... 60
overpayment to mgage.................... 460
new household stuff/furniture........... 90
new car................................. 93
Decorating.............................. 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 3442.3


Assets
Cash.................................... 40000
House value (Gross)..................... 160000
Shares and bonds........................ 5000
Car(s).................................. 8000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 213000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 145......(460)......3
Total secured & HP debts...... 145.......-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Car Loan.......................5000......235.......6.3
Total unsecured debts..........5000......235.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,550
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,442.3
Available for debt repayments........... 107.7
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 235
Amount short for making debt repayments. -127.3

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 213,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -145
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,000
Net Assets.............................. 207,855

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Fortheloveofmoney

You are currently showing a deficit of £127 per month on your outgoings. Is this the case or are you spending less on the other things than you realise?

I would imagine that the reason most people on this board don't have childrens clubs etc is due to the level of debt they have. Most if not all luxuries are taken out of people's budgets when trying to pay back debt.

Fortheloveofmoney

Also meant to say that your internet charges are huge! We only pay £7.34 per month for ours and my hubby works from home in the IT sector so we have to have super duper broadband access (thats as technical as i get :rotfl:)

Tixy

Hi Magicdog

You are right you do seem to be spending loads on media

Landline 20
Internet 40
Satellite TV 50
I.e £110 per month. If you get a combined package you should see a big saving - are you using all the channels you pay for with SKY? Consider dropping say Sports or Films and see how much cheaper it would be. Why is your internet so much? If you have had your package for more than a year you can nearly always save by switching as packages reduce in price all the time. (My landline & internet cost £20 combined from orange - would be £25 if I didn't have a mobile with them - and I'm sure there are even cheaper deals around).

Your groceries are also high, plently of people manage on around £250 for a family of 5, but of course it depends on the ages of your children, if they are teens they will eat a lot more than toddlers. As you say you are not in a huge amount of debt you don't need to be as severe in your cutbacks as some but you could try getting your groceries for say £400 this month and see if you can drop to £350 next month. Try buying store brands, particularly for cleaning products and toiletries, and look on the old style board for lots of tips for cheap, filling, healthy meals from scratch.

Your SOA does show a negative but obviously you are overpaying your mortgage. You should be able to get rid of the negative by spending a day researching new providers and switching deals.

Also in this look at you mobile tariffs, Gas & Elec supplier (your elec is quite high) and all your insurances (although yours don't seem high) What is the other insurance.

In answer to your question on kids classes/activities etc I think some people put them under entertainment rather than kids expenses, and of course some people can't afford for their kids to go to this type of thing.

Is your childcare/nursery cost as cheap as you can get? Is it always this cost or is it high due to Summer holidays? Do you get childcare vouchers in lieu of wages from either of your employers to save tax? If not ask if your employer does this and research if it would be worthwhile.

Is the £93 new car savings for a new car? Is the £5k car loan the current balance or the starting balance? How much longer do you have to repay on this?

Your presents figure is pretty high at £720 per year - you could reduce this by signing up to online surverys/ reviews to earn vouchers (such as amazon vouchers) to be used to by christmas presents.

Hope some of this helps.

Numpty_Monkey

magicdogsbrain wrote: »

Hello,

This is my first port on DFW - please be gentle. Looking though all the SOA's on the site is very interesting. I realize that some peple on here are in serious trouble and I home they can sort it out with your help.

I don't think I am in dire need of help but would welcome some advice as to what we are spending that is outrageous and what is ok. Looking though the various SOA's on here, I seem to be spending a lot on....

Groceries
TV
Internet
children

I notice that nobody seems to spend anything on kids except childcare. Is that normal ( i.e. no classes/clubs etc)?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2716
Partners monthly income after tax....... 834
Benefits................................ 0 3 kids no benefits ?
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3550

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 460
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 119
Electricity............................. 50 have you checked the comparrison sites and CB sites ?
Gas..................................... 40 as above
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 31.3
Telephone (land line)................... 20 look at bundle packages for Sat/Phone/Internet ..I pay £20 for phone/internet
Mobile phone............................ 50 are these the best tarrifs and contracts you can get
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 40 as phone
Internet Services....................... 50 as phone
Groceries etc. ......................... 480 look into dropping a brand, and the OS board
Clothing................................ 60 reduce this for a few months, ebay what you don't need or wear
Petrol/diesel........................... 150 check out http://www.petrolprices.com/
Road tax................................ 40
Car Insurance........................... 33 check Martins article about insurance
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 40
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 533 do you get childcare vouchers?
Other child related expenses............ 195
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 20 as car
Contents insurance...................... 0 as car
Life assurance ......................... 9 as car
Other insurance......................... 25 whats this?
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 60 reduce this
Haircuts................................ 30
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 77 get a cheaper one next year, thanks to MSE
Emergency fund.......................... 60 Good idea
overpayment to mgage.................... 460 ????
new household stuff/furniture........... 90 put this into emergancy fund, and reduce overall
new car................................. 93 ????
Decorating.............................. 50 emergancy fund ??
Total monthly expenses.................. 3442.3


Assets
Cash.................................... 40000
House value (Gross)..................... 160000
Shares and bonds........................ 5000
Car(s).................................. 8000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 213000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 145......(460)......3
Total secured & HP debts...... 145.......-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Car Loan.......................5000......235.......6.3
Total unsecured debts..........5000......235.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,550
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,442.3
Available for debt repayments........... 107.7
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 235
Amount short for making debt repayments. -127.3 need to get that into a plus

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 213,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -145
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,000
Net Assets.............................. 207,855

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

I can sort of understand the overpayments on the mortgage, but
You have -£128 at the end of the month, thats not good
A fair ammount of your money seems to go into "future budget" savings, ie Emergancy fund,
New Car, New Furniture, Decorating, , A total of £293
Put all them into 1 Emergancy fund at £100 a month saves £193 a month
that turns into +£65 over pay your car loan with that

Just a few thoughts from a Numpty:A

Tim_Nicholas

Good SOA, agree with others about Internet, sattellite, phone etc, could defo save on that with a bundle package. Mobile phone seems high too

Also, something I notice you do not have is much of a contingency per month, but you do have good savings..

Prudent

I am a bit confused. Do you have £40,000 in cash and £5,000 in shares and bonds? If so, why not just pay off the debt and put a lump sum into mortagage overpayments.

talana

I agree with Prudent.
You're asking for advice on what you're spending that is outrageous, well £235per month servicing debt is outrageous in my view when you have sizeable reserves of cash. Just clear the debt and have done with it.

You're paying 6.3% apr on that car loan.
What % interest are you earning on your cash savings?

magicdogsbrain

Fortheloveofmoney wrote: »

You are currently showing a deficit of £127 per month on your outgoings. Is this the case or are you spending less on the other things than you realise?

Yes I think I messed up. The income I stated was after everything - including childcare vouchers ( £243 * 2)

I also forgot child benefit

Having said all that, there is no chance that I have a surplus of about £600 - so as well as not including some income I have some outgoings missing. I blame the Mrs

Fortheloveofmoney wrote: »

I would imagine that the reason most people on this board don't have childrens clubs etc is due to the level of debt they have. Most if not all luxuries are taken out of people's budgets when trying to pay back debt.

Point taken - and its hard to know how much good its doing them. Maybe we should all play more with our own kids - just simple walks and games?

magicdogsbrain

Tixy wrote: »

Landline 20
Internet 40
Satellite TV 50
I.e £110 per month. If you get a combined package you should see a big saving - are you using all the channels you pay for with SKY? Consider dropping say Sports or Films and see how much cheaper it would be. Why is your internet so much? If you have had your package for more than a year you can nearly always save by switching as packages reduce in price all the time. (My landline & internet cost £20 combined from orange - would be £25 if I didn't have a mobile with them - and I'm sure there are even cheaper deals around).

I agree - I will call VM on Monday and ask them to remove sports and movies. Trouble is I subscribe to their VIP package with added XXL broadband. One of my kids is 16 and likes the cable box in his room. We love our V+ box. We hardly watch movies or sport.

My son and I use the internet a lot and download a lot There are often three of us all on the internet, downloading and playing games.

As VIP is already a discounted bundle, I don't know if they will take the sports and movies off the price - but worth a try.

Tixy wrote: »

Your groceries are also high, plently of people manage on around £250 for a family of 5, but of course it depends on the ages of your children, if they are teens they will eat a lot more than toddlers. As you say you are not in a huge amount of debt you don't need to be as severe in your cutbacks as some but you could try getting your groceries for say £400 this month and see if you can drop to £350 next month. Try buying store brands, particularly for cleaning products and toiletries, and look on the old style board for lots of tips for cheap, filling, healthy meals from scratch.

My Mrs is a fruit and veg. junkie and I eat mostly ready meals. Perhaps we look into reducing this somewhat.

Tixy wrote: »

Also in this look at you mobile tariffs, Gas & Elec supplier (your elec is quite high) and all your insurances (although yours don't seem high) What is the other insurance.

Its redundancy insurance.

Tixy wrote: »

Is the £93 new car savings for a new car? Is the £5k car loan the current balance or the starting balance? How much longer do you have to repay on this?

Your presents figure is pretty high at £720 per year - you could reduce this by signing up to online surverys/ reviews to earn vouchers (such as amazon vouchers) to be used to by christmas presents.

Yes the 93 is for a new/used car - so we dont have to get a lone again - although its not really enough to cover the car requirements of us both.

That presents figure is for presents and party type food and all extra stuff at xmas and birthdays - so I dont think its that bad.

magicdogsbrain

Prudent wrote: »

I am a bit confused. Do you have £40,000 in cash and £5,000 in shares and bonds? If so, why not just pay off the debt and put a lump sum into mortagage overpayments.

The "cash" is actually money I am offsetting on my mgage - and it is LONG term cash only to be used to buy another house. So its not real cash that I could use in a minor emergency.

The debt I have is 6.3% fixed and my mgage is 3% variable ( 3% is collar, deal is BOE + 0.55 minimum of 3%). I thought that the 6.3% is a reasonable hedge against my mgage rate rocketing.