SOA question

tbourner

On the SOA should I fill in what I currently spend or what I would expect the cost to be?

For example; car maintenance (MOT). We don't spend anything a month on this generally, maybe something every few months, and we don't save anything to go towards MOTs, we just dip into our overdraft when it's needed.
So should I put 0 in that box? Or should I work out the MOT costs and roughly how much we spend in a year and divide by 12? Or should we start saving a bit each month and then put that amount in the box?

honeybear_2

I don't know about anyone else (or if there's a definitive for this question) but when I did my SOA I divided any of my occasional costs by 12 so there was a monthly figure, even if I didn't spend that exact amount every month

tbourner

Well I did that on my first SOA and everyone said I needed to redo it cos it didn't make sense - I think everyone assumed I was putting that much each month into a savings account for that purpose!

honeybear_2

Oh! Maybe add notes to the SOA explaining it? I had to clarify a few of mine but no-one complained - seems a bit mean to me

GeorgeUK

For annual costs or presents etc, it is best to work out roughly how much you spent last year and divide that figure by 12 so that people can see how much ir would have been if you had pput money aside for that cost.

The purpose of posting up a SOA is to see how much money you spend rather than how much you would like to be spending or hope you are spending. From seeing the current status people can then offer comments on how savings can be made. If you used different figures, they may assume that you can't save anything more when perhaps you could.