Help with my budget.

sarah0404

Hi, I'm wondering if someone could take a look over my new budget and see if I've missed something. I've always felt skint, and can't believe there is some money left over every month! I've tried budgets before and they never worked very well as I always over spent.

INCOME

Wages: £1039.78 (paid weekly but this figure is calculated for a month, wages can vary a little bit, but not too much)
Child Benefit: £160.25
WFTC: £433

Total: £1633.03

OUTGOINGS

Rent: £215
Council tax: £87
Home insurance: £8.04
Gas: £15
Electric £40 (looking to start cutting this down a bit)
Mobile phone: £25
Phone/tv/internet: £55
TV licence: £10.99
Magazine subs: £15.98
Daughters maths classes: £45

LOANS
AA loan: £85.60 (still owe about £5000 @ 7.9% - i think, still quite a long time left)
RBS loan: £311.42 (owe £22K i think at about 7.5% paying this for the next 100 years or so! Joking, think it is over 7 years.)

Total:£914.03

So I have £719 left.

I've budgeted £200 (£50 a week, family of 5) struggling a bit with this, but hope to eventually cut it down even more.
I've budgeted £40 for "stuff" , which is anything else not covered by the food budget, like stamps, stationary, take away food etc. That's for the month, so £10 a week.

Then I have 2 credit cards.
One is with A&L 0% till end of the year with a balance of £1958.99
The other one is with Egg, 0% till November with a balance of £2472.83

I'm planning on paying £200 a month to each of them, so that leaves me with £79 left over. I can't believe it! Normally I go overdrawn every month. I have totally cut down on buying anything, and sold my car so things should be easier now.

I'm wondering if I should budget this £79 towards something? I'm a bit worried about having such a tight budget though. I'm stuggling a bit with the food budget - was £15 over last month, so it gives me a bit of a buffer. Should I maybe pay £220 to CC each month?

Is there anything vital I've missed? I still can't believe that this budget is going to work!

I know I've not put anything for travel/Christmas and birthdays/clothes etc, but we get free travel on buses, and cycle where we can. I have £700 I inherited in a savings account. I know people will think I am daft for not paying it towards my debts, but it'll only make me debt free a few months earlier. I was planning on using that £700 for all the Christmases and birthdays that will happen over the 3 years that it will take me to become debt free. Plus it earns a bit of interest too. Clothes - I'm not a clothes person. Hate clothes shopping. All my childrens clothes are hand-me-downs from other people. If people give them money for birthdays I put it towards new socks/shoes and underwear. Holidays - don't have them. Holidays with 3 small children are a nightmare!

Does this all look ok? As I said I've never had a budget that actually worked before. The plan with the debt is transfer remaining CC balances at the end of 0% deals to new 0% card. They should be paid off by March 07, then concentrate on the small loan, which should be paid of by Dec 07, then the big loan which should be paid off by Dec 2009!

calleyw

You seem to have covered most things.

So christmas/birthday/clothes will come from the £700 savings if I have got this right.

So it looks ok.

Now I am going to do a bit of Nit picking. As you say even after a budgetting you still have very little left.

Well here are 3 areas that you could cut back on

Mobile phone: £25 - you have a house phone so why so high. If on contract see if you can lower it and once out of the contract go to PAYG.

Phone/tv/internet: £55 way to high. You can get a freeview box for less than £30 and it gives most of the channels that you can get on sky/cable. Internet should only be about £15 a month and standard line rental £11. So what is the other £29 going on TV and calls. Well TV as I said above could be stopped and calls you could use 1866. If you are on cable they charge 3p connection charge and 1p a minute. Normally better than normal cable charges unless you have these free calls trariff. Work out how much the free calls are really costing. Call your provider and tell them that money is tight. And you have to cut back. As otherwise you will go else for your services.

Magazine subs: £15.98 Are these work related. If not then then get rid of them. I don't buy magazines I always get the freebie ones from supermarkets. I know I am sad. But says me money. That I can't afford to spend in the first place.

If you can get your mobile down to £10 and your TV/Phone and internet down to £30 and get rid of the magazine subs that is a saving of £55.98 a month.

It is hard but I hardly ever go out. About once a month my husband and I with my parents go down the pub for a couple of hours before closing time. I drink one or two glasses of bottled water and husband has a pint of that irish muck. We don't have a television. Rather hard if you have children. But that does not mean you can't cut back a bit on the number of channels they have.

Not sure what else to suggest but I am sure that someone else with have some other ideas.


All the best.


Yours


Calley

moongarden

hi, you could put the £79 in a savings account for emergencies and if you don't need to use it by the end of the month you can pay it off whichever credit card will lose its interest free first.

sarah0404

Never thought of putting the left overs in the savings account. I got a new savings account when I opened an A&L bank account. It's not got any money in it yet! I'm just a bit worried there won't be any left overs. I've never had a budget work before. I'm also a bit confused with the weekly/monthly thing. My partner gets paid weekly, which is a bit of a pain really. Some weeks the amount of money coming out of the bank is more than the amount going in. I recently put my overdraft onto my credit card and reduced it to £100. The bank was charging me £40 a month for the overdraft. My OD was £1800 before :eek: I'm really worried about going into the overdraft again.

I just worked out two more outgoings. Nursery: £1.60 a week for snacks/activities. And also if I'm working out food monthly it's £217 for the month.

The phone/tv/internet bill has been cut from £75 to £55 recently. We have the basic TV package, and have down graded the internet connection. OH just signed us up to Talk Unlimited or something like that. I think that is a waste of money as I'd rather just cut the amount of time spent on the phone. We have to keep the package for a month, then we can change it. OH uses his mobile for work. He uses up all his talk time every month. He had a deal where he gets six months at half price. Although for some reason they charge you the full amount and then give you the money back So we should be getting that back soon. He is in a years contract, so can't really change it. I'll make him look for a cheaper deal once it ends. He won't let us get freeview. I don't know why He always says its rubbish. The kids don't watch TV at all. Neither does he! He spends his time online, watching DVDs or playing xbox. So it's only me that watches tv in the evenings. I'd be quite happy to do away with it. Even sell the TV. But he says no way.

He is not quite onboard with the debt free thing. He is already complaining about his "starvation diet". (not starving at all, he's just not allowed to buy pies and chips for lunch at work, or go to McDonalds for lunch or have crisps and sweets) I don't want to push him too much. He was reluctant to get rid of the car because "what would everyone else in the street think?" He is the one who has run up most of the debts. I'm quite worried, wondering how long it will be before he HAS to buy something and puts us back to square one again.

The magazine sub is OHs. Its one of those DVD collection things where you have to collect a million parts to make the full collection. It's nearing the end, so it seems silly to cancel it now and only have a partially complete collection. (I'm hoping it I'll be worth something on ebay when its complete ) It'll be a good saving once it's finished as the money can go towards something else.

calleyw

As I said I was nit picking?

Is you OH self employed? Because if he is not then he should not be using his phone for work unless he is getting the money back.

If he never watches TV what is the point in keeping a cable then. You are paying twice once to have basic channels and once to have channels that are not watched.

I did say getting rid of the TV would not work for most people not even 1% of the population. And I was not implying for to you get rid of it. As most people will not get rid of sky and go we never go out so have to have sky. I was just trying to point out to the many that say that. That others do not even have a telly and I still don't go out :rotfl:

Personally if you can get a freeview signal and you are named on the phone bill. I would get a freeview box and cancel cable. Once it is done tough.

Agreed once the mag sub is finished give it. And start to save the money.

I think you have your work cut out until you get your OH on your side it is going to be very hard.

Probably best on things like lunch is to not work on the money aspect but the health aspect. So if he takes lunches then it is better for him. My husband use to take lunches 4 days out of 5. His treat was to buy his lunch in the staff canteen.

All the best.


Yours


Calley

RichyRich

You say your bank was charging £40 per month for the overdraft? Tell me, was this a charge for the facility or charges incurred for going over your limit or what have you?

If it was "penalty charges", there are a substantial number of threads on here, and the bankchargeshell web site, that suggest it may be possible to get these back as they may be unlawful. I'm no expert, and there's a lot of debate as to whether you should be able to get them back or not, but most people who have tried have been successful as far as I can tell.

The authority on the matter seems to be a user by the name of dchurch24. If you look at his posts you will find the procedure for claiming them back.

HtH
Rich

aimme13

not sure how old your kids are but remember to budget for school trips/events.......my daughter just came home on wednesday asking for £12 for a school geography trip by friday!! had to go to the school to complain and they will except weekly installments, but still have to get the money for somewhere.....also kids birthday partys my son gets monthly invites to other kids party's, i only spend a £5 on presents but all adds up.

domestic_goddess

also if you call sky and le them know you are thinking of cancelling they will reduce your charges by 50% for 3 months to keep you. most cable comapnies do the same too

every little bit helps!

savvy

moongarden wrote:

hi, you could put the £79 in a savings account for emergencies and if you don't need to use it by the end of the month you can pay it off whichever credit card will lose its interest free first.

Yep this is what I do, anything left over goes into an emergency fund. I do this via internet banking, so dead easy to just transfer into an e-savings account. It can be left there accruing interest, and is always to hand for the unexpected, like my flipping tyre last month! :rolleyes:

I think it's suggested that your proper emergency fund should be equivalent to 3 months income, but I have never been able to get anywhere near a months income!

heppy23

sarah0404 wrote:

The magazine sub is OHs. Its one of those DVD collection things where you have to collect a million parts to make the full collection. It's nearing the end, so it seems silly to cancel it now and only have a partially complete collection. (I'm hoping it I'll be worth something on ebay when its complete ) It'll be a good saving once it's finished as the money can go towards something else.

I suspect it won't be worth a lot more than what you paid for it. Hope it is for your sake but it seems like a strange "investment".

boogster

Do you still have one car ? If so what about petrol, insurance, tax for the car ?