Not a DFW but still an SOA

BexInLondon

Hi all,

Thanks to this site I am no longer a DFW but a DFPerson! However OH and I are having to get by on a very tight budget until next August when he starts work as a doc. I thought I'd just come on here to see what advice you can offer about any ways to save. It feels as though it's all pared back to the bone, but you never know.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1633
Partners monthly income after tax....... 500 (student loan and NHS bursary)
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2133

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 411.5
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 653 (shared ownership flat)
Management charge (leasehold property).. 123
Council tax............................. 96 (single person discount as OH is a student)
Electricity............................. 75
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30 (estimated as they still haven't sent us a bill!)
Telephone (land line)................... 12.5 (another 8 months to go of 18 month contract with BT)
Mobile phone............................ 30 (2 phones on contract at £15 pm which we never exceed, 17 months left on one, 10 on the other)
TV Licence.............................. 0 (we don't have a TV)
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 15 (BT)
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Charitable giving etc................... 185
Total monthly expenses.................. 1926


Assets
Cash.................................... 900
House value (Gross)..................... 95000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 95900


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 67500....(411.5)....4.88
Total secured & HP debts...... 67500.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,133
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,926
Available for debt repayments........... 207
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 95,900
Total HP & Secured debt................. -67,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 28,400

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

I know our savings are very low but we've been overpaying our mortgage rather than saving, as we can claw it back at any time (there's an extra £2k in there), and in the meantime it's doing more good in our mortgage account than it would be given today's pitiful savings accounts, particularly as it's still pretty accessible in there! OH has an interest free overdraft of £1600 but we're paying that off with his first paypacket so I haven't included it here.

TMoose

Charitable giving etc................... 185

Admirable, but if you're struggling for cash, it might be wise to cut this back.

BitterAndTwisted

I suspect this may be the wrong forum as a lot of folks on here aren't necessarily experts in what you're asking. Have you cross-posted this on the DFW forum as well, as I suspect you may get more experienced, constructive advice over there.

BexInLondon

Thanks yeah, I'm an eejit. Meant to post this on the DFW forum! Graaargh!

Fire_Fox

If you got a water meter installed you'd pay £10-15 a month: if that isn't possible the water company will give you an assessed charge. £200 for groceries for two people can easily be cut back - try the 'Old Style' board (Grocery Challenge, Storecupboard Challenge) and also Weezl74's new thread on the 'How Much Have You Saved?' board about feeding a family of four on £100 a month!

Are you really spending £185 a month on charitable giving or is that a typo???? Even with that you have £200 a month spare - do you know where this goes, has this been used for debt repayments?

BexInLondon

Cheers Fire Fox. We do have a water meter, and our consumption is very, very low, but we haven't paid anything for 9 months as Thames Water didn't seem to believe me when I insisted I existed, so we owe them some money. The groceries - hmmm yes I agree! I think part of the reason we spend so much is because we try to avoid the big cheap supermarkets, but even with shopping locally and organically I'm sure I can cut it down a bit. Just need to set aside a bit of time for some planning.

Yes, the £185 is true. If ever we were in dire straits we'd cut back on that but we're not really. At the moment if we cut back on that it would all go on mortgage overpayments or stupid things like meals out, and that doesn't feel right.

In terms of the spare money, well we've only recently got married and set up home together, so most of the spare cash goes on the stuff we need for the home (and when I say need I mean need - we're talking plates and stuff here) or on mortgage overpayments. Oh and saving up for a honeymoon - I completely forgot to mention £1400 we have in our holiday account!

BitterAndTwisted

Why on earth are you avoiding the big, cheap supermarkets? If you want to save I would have thought that would have been the first thing you would have considered. All sorts of things of equal quality can be had for lots less and you can still shop for your ethically-sourced meat and whatnot elsewhere. I'm specifically thinking about laundry detergent, cleaning materials and basic foodstuffs. My local Lidl has all sorts of cheap veggies all UK grown, if not grown on the doorstep.

Fire_Fox

You give £2220 a year to charity? There are other ways of doing this - shopping on charity websites, 'good gifts', donating to charity shops, volunteering, amending your wills ... I am not saying stop completely as I donate monthly too, but that is more than half of your disposable income! I am concerned that you do not seem to have at least three months wages set aside - if one of you gets made redundant, you fall pregnant unexpectedly or cannot work due to illness or injury ... Support for Mortgage Interest does not kick in for three months and LHA is paid in arrears.

One of the most ethical things you can do grocery-wise is go vegetarian or at least cut back hard on your meat. This should save you a fortune, I spend around £50 a month. I don't know where you live but Asian supermarkets are usually very cheap for pulses, rice, vegetables and spices and fit in with your local ethos. Good halal meat is virtually organic, as antibiotics and growth hormone do not fit with the philosophy.

Bitterandtwisted: there are no ethical cleaning products available in most supermarkets, the Ecover brand was bought out and is now just for show and the own brand 'green' cleaners have virtually the same ethiscore as all the other supermarket products.

BexInLondon

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Why on earth are you avoiding the big, cheap supermarkets?

Loads of reasons (see my thread on the OS board if you're interested). Mainly because I don't like monopolies, because the big chains are very damaging to the environment and our long-term food sustainability, and because I don't actually find them to be much cheaper if you cook from scratch. The £200 for food includes probably about £70 spent by OH on lunches out, and some by me when I've been lazy and not brought lunch into work - so it's actually only £130 on normal shopping. Don't get me wrong, we don't completely avoid big chains, but eco friendly cleaning products etc are far, far cheaper bought in bulk from smaller places. We've got loads of asian shops near us where I buy loads of our basics, and the meat we eat is mainly from the butchers, which is cheaper and better than any supermarket.

BexInLondon

Oooh we cross-posted Fire Fox. Yes I'm all over the asian minimarkets - there are probably 20 within a ten minute radius! We don't eat meat every day, but I don't think we'd want to cut it out completely. As I said above, on reflection our food spending could be as low as £130 a month if the silly unplanned nonsense spending stopped! I'll definitely check out our local halal butcher - he's open til about 8pm! But no bacon to be found there

As for the charitable giving, I thought about leaving it out of my SOA completely as I knew people would pick up on it! I really appreciate and respect all your points of view, but it's something that's really important to us, and other than in an emergency, isn't likely to be cut. I should point out that a good chunk of that goes to our church, which I am very confident would support us in the case of any emergency, as would OH's parents, as would clawing back the £2k we've overpaid on the mortgage. So we do have something of a buffer, just not the textbook one of a big fat savings account! The reality is that if anything happened to stop me working permanently, or if we fell pregnant before OH starts working in 18 months, we'd have to completely change our whole lives anyway as we basically depend on my income and I work for a charity so no enhanced maternity pay or wide-ranging insurance cover like I had when I was a city worker!

chewmylegoff

basically, you have asked how to reduce your non essential expenditure.

the two obvious ways are to spend less on food, and to stop giving £185pcm away.

you don't want to do this because you like to buy local organic stuff, and you like giving money to charity. ok...but really in that regard you might as well have £100 on sky tv on there and then explain that you don't want to give it up because you like watching live football. if you need to save more money, then stop giving £185pm away.

plus i would be surprised if your church started paying your mortgage if you fall upon hard times. maybe i'm wrong...