SOA for perusal please

chivers1977

Hi everyone,

I have been a member since February and have taken loads of suggestions on board already. Please take a look and see if you can reduce my outgoings anymore. I have put comments next to the entries. We are 2 adults and an almost 1 yr old.

Income
2250 salary jt
68 Child benefit
35 tax credits

I have reduced my hours by 1 day per week and intend to do so for the near future.

Expenditure
Mortgage 715
First Plus 251 (pre-lightbulb!)
Contents 15 (in a flat)
Council tax 101
Water 27 (on a meter)
Gas 15 (just changed to npower)
Electricity 33 (just changed to npower)
Home phone 12 (BT plus Primus 2)
Internet 18 (Telewest as OH does huge amount of downloading)
Sky+ 52 (OH will not cancel as loves sport and films)
Mobile 60 (900 mins 02 ends December, will be going for a cash back deal after then)
Mortgage Protection insurance 35 (17.50 each for 750 cover for accident sickness and redundancy)
OH Level term life cover 89 (he has asthma so loaded)
My Level term life cover 20
Private Med Insurance for baby 25 (OH resisting me cancelling this)
Pet insurance 10 (to be cancelled)
Food & nappies £170
Petrol 80 (I work 30 miles round trip away)
Train pass OH 35
Childcare 280 (using childcare vouchers so I have taken this off the income above as deducted at source - was £420!!)
OH "spending money" £100 - I am very unsociable and don't go out much! but i have reduced this for him by £500 per month!!

Debts
Staff personal loan balance approx £5k @ 6.2% £90 per month

Surplus = approx £80 per month

Forgot to say, annual bonus pays for car insurance, breakdown cover & ground rent etc. Surplus is for clothes, holidays, presents.

Many thanks in advance

OberonSH

Income
2250 salary jt
68 Child benefit
35 tax credits

Have you checked you're getting all the benefis you're entitled to? The entitledto.co.uk website (not sure of exact address) is great for getting an idea of what you could claim

I have reduced my hours by 1 day per week and intend to do so for the near future.

Expenditure
Mortgage 715
First Plus 251 (pre-lightbulb!)
Contents 15 (in a flat) Have you shopped around? A month or so ago, Barclays were offering £50 and match if they couldnt beat quotes. At worst your payment stays the same, and you bag £50
Council tax 101
Water 27 (on a meter)
Gas 15 (just changed to npower)
Electricity 33 (just changed to npower)
Home phone 12 (BT plus Primus 2)
Internet 18 (Telewest as OH does huge amount of downloading)
Mobile 60 (900 mins 02 ends December, will be going for a cash back deal after then)
Mortgage Protection insurance 35 (17.50 each for 750 cover for accident sickness and redundancy)
OH Level term life cover 89 (he has asthma so loaded) Are these insurances not covered under morgage protection?
My Level term life cover 20
Private Med Insurance for baby 25 (OH resisting me cancelling this) If you MUST have insurance, can you not get a bundled family deal cheaper than this?Pet insurance 10 (to be cancelled)
Food & nappies £170 Check out MoneySaving Old Style or tips on how to get this down
Petrol 80 (I work 30 miles round trip away)
Train pass OH 35
Childcare 280 (using childcare vouchers so I have taken this off the income above as deducted at source - was £420!!)
OH "spending money" £100 - I am very unsociable and don't go out much! but i have reduced this for him by £500 per month!!

Debts
Staff personal loan balance approx £5k @ 6.2% £90 per month

Personally I do not like the idea of insurance - paying someone in the hope nothing bad ever does happen. I'd put whatever the payments were into a savings account, then at least if nothing happens in that year to warrant them you could withdraw ay half and throw at debts, plus you're earnng interest, not the insurance company. But that's just me.

Don't forget to ebay, small ad and amazon anything not nailed down. Helps with debt, less stuff to duct and very theraputic.

chivers1977

Thanks for your reply. we are ebaying so much at the moment. I have made about £500 since Feb on ebay and amazon and bags of stuff to go on still.

the level term cover is life and critical illness. What I cannot bear the thought of is that one of us could suffer something like a stroke, survive and the other one to have to pay the mortgage. I have heard that BUPA do cheap medical insurance. The one that I have is a cost share one through work. I get it free and my son is £25. you then have to pay 15% of the cost of the treatment max you pay is £250. need to check if there is anything cheaper if he won't cancel. My insurance cover is staff discounted for contents so can't get cheaper. Nearest quote was £25 per month! we are just waiting for tax credits annual review. It appears that it will be around £35 from the £80 I was getting per month.

thanks for the reply

Annie_Fanny

A few thoughts on your SOA...

chivers1977 wrote:

Hi everyone,

I have been a member since February and have taken loads of suggestions on board already. Please take a look and see if you can reduce my outgoings anymore. I have put comments next to the entries. We are 2 adults and an almost 1 yr old.

Income
2250 salary jt
68 Child benefit
35 tax credits

I have reduced my hours by 1 day per week and intend to do so for the near future.

Expenditure
Mortgage 715
First Plus 251 (pre-lightbulb!) (What is this?)
Contents 15 (in a flat)
Council tax 101
Water 27 (on a meter)
Gas 15 (just changed to npower)
Electricity 33 (just changed to npower)
Home phone 12 (BT plus Primus 2)
Internet 18 (Telewest as OH does huge amount of downloading)
Sky+ 52 (OH will not cancel as loves sport and films) (£52 X 12 = £624. Wouldn't he rather have this in savings? What about a Freeview box? I'm sorry but this amount could pay for a holiday - would he rather spend his time goggling at a box?!! I guess in the interim you could ring them up - if it is in your name - and ask for a reduction...?)
Mobile 60 (900 mins 02 ends December, will be going for a cash back deal after then)
Mortgage Protection insurance 35 (17.50 each for 750 cover for accident sickness and redundancy)
OH Level term life cover 89 (he has asthma so loaded)
My Level term life cover 20
Private Med Insurance for baby 25 (OH resisting me cancelling this) (What's wrong with the NHS?)
Pet insurance 10 (to be cancelled)
Food & nappies £170
Petrol 80 (I work 30 miles round trip away)
Train pass OH 35
Childcare 280 (using childcare vouchers so I have taken this off the income above as deducted at source - was £420!!)
OH "spending money" £100 - I am very unsociable and don't go out much! but i have reduced this for him by £500 per month!!

Debts
Staff personal loan balance approx £5k @ 6.2% £90 per month

Surplus = approx £80 per month

Forgot to say, annual bonus pays for car insurance, breakdown cover & ground rent etc. Surplus is for clothes, holidays, presents.

Many thanks in advance

Keep on trucking!

lynzpower

@ Annie - whats wrong with the NHS? where to start...

One suggestion is if you OH wants sky and you dont, then surely his wages in to the joint account should pay for this enterely?

chivers1977

Thanks Lynz. The way I see it (obviously wrong and biased) - the OH has completely got to grips with the lightbulb. He used to spend more than he earned - really . Now all of his money except for £100 goes into the jt account. He is a typical man, likes beer, football and TV. I think that it might honestly be a false economy to get rid of the sky as he would feel hard done by, go out more and as we all know it would be very very easy to sepnd an extra £52 in the pub per month!!

My OH is worried that if our son had something really wrong with him that the NHS would let us down in terms of waiting times etc.

First plus is the dreaded secured loan with Carol Vorderman. I did know exactly what I was agreeing to but alas I hadn't discovered MSE then and was on maternity leave panicking!!

Is there anything else that I haven't understood that I could cut down on??

thanks

Annie_Fanny

OK ok I am the partner of a doctor who is a staunch supporter of the nhs...but to my mind BUPA et al won't pick you up in the road if you are knocked down by car...they won't treat a lot of pre existing ailments...and you have to pay a premium for that!? - RANT OVER -



Back to you Chivers...

It's just I think you are paying a lot of money for home phone, internet & tv, i.e. £82. I have a package with ntl which costs me about £40 a month (now I only have the basic tv package but still). I did ring ntl and ask for a reduction which they gave me to the tune of £6.50 a month (which is a saving of £78 a year - not much but it's in my pocket not theirs!)

How long do you have to go with First Plus and the staff loan?

You are doing great so far!

A
Xx

chivers1977

Point taken re getting run over! I will keep trying to convince him but something tells me it is one of those conversations that could go into one of those rows that you just don't want. I'll have a go at trying to cancel - have tried before but I think that they know that people like us with the full package won't really cancel!!

19 yrs :eek: :eek: :eek:on the First Plus. You can't really over pay either as ERCs for first 10 yrs (i know, I know:p )

5 yrs for the staff personal loan but is totally flexible so when it is bonus time, if I get one like the year before last - £7500 before tax, I can pay a big wodge off. I don't think that bank staff will this yr taking into account the whole charges thing!!