My Update

domestic_goddess

Hi all. I am just looking for advice on where I can cut back. I have just gone from full time to part time at work to spend more time with my kids and although we have lost income I think I have adjusted our budget accordingly. I would appreciate advice if anyone can help me tweak our budget a bit.

Here we go then:
SKY £36
WATER £29
BT £25
TV LICENCE£11
COUNCIL £103
MORTGAGE £382
AOL £25
VODAFONE £50
liFE INS £5
HOUSE INS £20
ELECTRICITY £84
MY CAR INS £28
OH CAR INS £43
============
816
============

HALIFAX CREDIT CARD BALANCE £4200 MIN PYT £80
BARCLAYCARD BALANCE £300 MIN PYT £8
TESCO CARD £300 MIN PYT £8.00
HP AGREEMENT £267 MIN PYT £10 (HOPING TO PAY OFF THIS MONTH)
MOTHERCARE CARD £300 MIN PYT £13.00
=============
119
=============

816 + 119 = £935

INCOMINGS
Me £850
OH £666
CHILD BENEFIT £115

=============
1631
=============


1631 - 935 = 696

OUT OF THIS I PAY PETROL ON TWO CARS £130 (ISH)
FOOD SHOPPING (2AD + 2CH) £200

THAT LEAVES APPROX £366

THE ONLY THING THAT IS NON NEGOTIABLE IS THE SKY. WE HAVE THIS HALF PRICE FOR THREE MONTHS AS WE SAID WE WERE GOING TO CANCEL BUT THIS IS OUR LUXURY.

HOPE I HAVE INCLUDED EVERYTHING. I THINK I HAVE ALREADY CUT DOWN WHERE I CAN AS WE HAVE REALLY TRIED TO CANCEL EVERYTHING THAT COULD BE AND SAVE WHERE WE COULD WHEN WE DECIDED I WAS GOING TO CUT DOWN ON MY HOURS.
SORRY FOR LENGTH OF POST

lynzpower

Hello & welcome.

Do you usuallly have £366 left over then at the end of the month? If you do, then you can throw this money towards the highest APR debt ( im guessing thats mothercare?)

tyllwyd

Are you entitled to any tax credits at all, in addition to Child Benefit?

domestic_goddess

I am hoping that all will go according to plan and I will have £366 left but this is my first month of part time so not too sure yet. If so I will def pay mothercare off. I am not sure of the apr but I am sure it is huge!!!

Also am not sure about tax credits when I notified them of my new salary they put it down as £5000 less than it will be so I just got an award notice saying I would get £220 a month and I couldn't see that being right so rang them and found out their mistake. They are goingto send me out a new notice but cant confirm payments until I have last years p60 to check if I was paid right last year.

charlie007

can you cut down on the voda. bill, 50 pounds seems a lot and also could you and oh share one car? we are looking at the practicalities of one car and it won't be that hard!

nadnad

your AOL - for broadband I assume? there are cheaper broadband packages than that around I'm sure - we're paying £18 per month with NTL, but even thats not the cheapest.

Have you looked for other telephone packages? Do you need to spend £50 on mobile phones? is this pay as you go or contract? and if contract then are you using all that you're paying for?

£84 per month on Electricity seems ridiculously high!! we pay about £25 and even then we build up credit. Check around for other providers. Also double check you haven't been overpaying paying and have built up a credit.

Your OH earns less than you do and I assume you have posted your Part-time income. Does he work full time?

With you £366 I would pay off HP in one go this month.

Pay off Mothercare in one go next month

Pay of Tesco card following month. Barclaycard after that.

Then you'll have £39 per month - throw this at the Halifax card. I assume its on 0%?

domestic_goddess

My oh does work full time 39 hours a week and that is his wage. ridiculously low considering how hard he works.

My phones are on contract with vodafone and although one cant be cancelled until october I can cancel the other one and go PAYG.

My electricity is stupid. I have no gas at my home and my bills for twelve months after I moved in were based on an estimate. Recently they finally got around to coming to take a reading and have now sent a revised bill. My monthly uasge is around £66.00 and I am paying back what should have been paid the 12 months prior also.

Mrs_Optimist

sickofhavingnomoney - keep on at the tax Credit Office - my husband gave up his job in October to retrain and is now a full-time student. We have two kids living on my wages of 957.00 per month (I work part-time) and 116.00 child benefit. We sent everything off to them P60's etc etc and our previous payments of 35.00 per week (based on my husbands previous income as well as my own) stopped suddenly. I rang a couple of times and they said they wold write to me but I heard nothing. I called again 2 weeks ago and the guy I spoke to said that they were waiting some information from us with regards to our P60s. I very politely (!) pointed out that they had already received this information and he ckecked our details and said - yes we have received it, someone didn't do their job properly and input all the relevant information in to revise our payments. We are now 225.00 per month better off as a result. Persist, Persist, Persist - they will not backdate it!

nadnad

sickofhavingnomoney wrote:

My oh does work full time 39 hours a week and that is his wage. ridiculously low considering how hard he works.

My phones are on contract with vodafone and although one cant be cancelled until october I can cancel the other one and go PAYG.

My electricity is stupid. I have no gas at my home and my bills for twelve months after I moved in were based on an estimate. Recently they finally got around to coming to take a reading and have now sent a revised bill. My monthly uasge is around £66.00 and I am paying back what should have been paid the 12 months prior also.

i think you'll be alright - you're doing all the right things and should be able to get all the smaller debts paid off by say September. Leaving you with just the Halifax £4200 - you didn't say if it was 0% if its not then do a balance transfer asap.

once the smaller debts are paid then I would pay the £80 you're paying now plus the other £39 (for the other debts) per month off the Halifax and keep switching to 0% until its paid off - that gives you your £366 for yourselves and will take care of unexpected bills, birthday presents, and the odd treat.

Your situation isn't too bad and you can cherish this time you will have with your kids, at least you know if you ever need to you can go back to work full time.

Good luck and have fun with those kids of yours. :j

Spirited_2

One thing that might be a good (if somewhat scary) idea is to total up all your annual bills (for things that you pay irreguarly, like on Christmas, MOTs etc) and divide them by twelve to get an accurate figure for your monthly living expeses. Martins budget planner can help you as it will do the figures for you.

roswell

I know you say sky is non negotiable but 36 * 12 = £432 ... do you really get that mugh value a year out of it,,, or on reflection £30 for a freeview box paid once will pay for itself in less than a month.

remeber to multiply bills byt 12 (months) or 52 (weeks) to find out the true cost of everything. eg Car insurance for OH is £512 is this due to no no claims or an expencive car ? could it be down sized ?

Look at reading your own meter for electric every time a bill comes in and inform your electric supplier of the reading this way estimates will be more accurate in future.