running out of money

Tracey04

i know most of us are in the same boat, but what do I do. I'm not in debt..yet..for the first time in my life its beggining to look that way
Any ideas from you out there would be helpful, but before I start giving explanations I don't want you to think they are excuses Im just painting the picture.

OK then where do I begin

money coming in pays all expenses like mortgage, bills, car and food etc(these already are down to the minimum I can spend.


But I have nothing else left and I mean not one spare penny.. I know they are all luxuries and you will be laughing thinking what are these . i have never been filpant with money but here goes,
no clothes, no glasses, no haircuts( and I only go twice a year for a dry cut),no christmas or birthday presents not even a card or anything for my children,I carn't even afford to park the car!, no holidays( I'm used to a fornight in the sun) not even one day trip a year, no meals out I dont drink much but not even one bottle of wine I can afford.

I work the most I can but have 2 primary aged boys to bring up alone so working extra is not an option.

My mum says just tighten your belt for a year , but how and I carn't see that making much difference to the year after when the bills have gone up and still no extra cash.

Sorry for moaning but I do not want to get in a mess, hoping to save myself befor I begin to sink !!!

I now know what living on the bread line means!

Thanks for listening any help appreciated Tracey

MinniMe_2

Post a SOA and we can all help together and see what we can do

Tracey04

what is a SOA ?

wigginsmum

Statement of Affairs - list all your income and outgoings in general terms per week or month, and people may be able to suggest some ways of making some savings.

mleonard79

Hi tracey04

Sorry to hear things are so tight for you. Like the above poster said an soa is a statement of affairs. The best place to post this is on the debt-free wannabe board, there's lots of clever moneysavers on there that can pinpoint ways to save money. Read the below thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280 and take things from there. Hopefully you'll get back on track soon!

Regards

Michelle

Tracey04

My SOA

Monthly Incomings:

£1115.11 inc wage, WFTC, CSA

Total - £1115.11
Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £274.18
Council Tax - £65.83
Gas - £33.62
Electric - £21.68
Water rates - £22.60
TV License - £10.92
Phone - £18.08
Internet - £14.99
Mobile - £2.50
Household maintance - £30.00
Food - £216.50
Pet Food etc - £10.00
Car MOT /maintance - £8.33
Car Insurance - £25.55
Petrol - £86.60
Car repairs - £10.00
Life Insurance - £8.44
Investments/policies - £74.30
College books etc - £4.17
TV licence - £10.54
Church - £4.33
Car loan ( to Mum)- £100.00

so I had £61.95 left.


these are the figs I came up with per month
garden - £1.25
eating out - £8.33
drinking out - £4.17
meals at work - £2.00
park and ride / parking - £4.17
mothers/fathers/easter day - £5.00
cost of christmas - £57.92 (2 children plus 13 family members)
cost of birthdays - £37.50 as above
cost of weekend break - £16.67
cost of holiday - £166.67
cost of electrical - £21.67
clothes and shoes -£25.00
hobbies - £6.25
families day out - £8.33
haircuts - £8.33 ( if I have it highlighted)
optical - £8.33
chemist /tablets - £5.67

total short -£325.31 per month

Family allowance is kept separate, for school uniforms, their clothes, clubs, haircuts etc. Nothing left if not I go over alittle with this also.

Any ideas????

auburnette

I don't have much to offer in the way of advice, but just wanted to offer some hugs. It sounds like you are already being very careful with your money - I'm sure the wise moneysavers on this board will be able to come up with some new ideas though - so don't be too hard on yourself, it's not like you are being frivolous.

Just a question - you have TV license listed twice under your monthly outgoings, one at 10.54 and one at 10.92. Is this correct? You're paying for 2 TV licenses?

Tracey04

sorry I only have one tv licence at !0.54 so end total should be -£314.39.

Thanks for noticing

kuohu

Hi Tracey,

As others have said, the gurus on the Debt Free Wannabe board really are the experts at shaving down budgets to an absolute minimum. But, as you have said, you're pretty much close to that mark already. Just a few comments from me, please don't take anything the wrong way...

tracey04 wrote:

My SOA
Monthly Incomings:
£1115.11 inc wage, WFTC, CSA This is quite a low wage - is there any way that you can move to a better job?

Total - £1115.11
Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £274.18 Very low rent BTW
Council Tax - £65.83
Gas - £33.62
Electric - £21.68 Admittedly I am single but my gas is £5 a month and my electric is £20 a month. Possible to save a tiny amount here maybe?
Water rates - £22.60
TV License - £10.92
Phone - £18.08
Internet - £14.99
Mobile - £2.50
Household maintance - £30.00
Food - £216.50 This seems high. The people on the DFW board and the Old Style board will halve this figure.
Pet Food etc - £10.00
Car MOT /maintance - £8.33
Car Insurance - £25.55
Petrol - £86.60
Car repairs - £10.00
Life Insurance - £8.44
Investments/policies - £74.30 If you do not have enough money per month to live on then there is no point saving if at the same time you are slipping into debt.
College books etc - £4.17
TV licence - £10.54
Church - £4.33
Car loan ( to Mum)- £100.00

so I had £61.95 left.


these are the figs I came up with per month
garden - £1.25
eating out - £8.33
drinking out - £4.17
meals at work - £2.00
park and ride / parking - £4.17
mothers/fathers/easter day - £5.00
cost of christmas - £57.92 (2 children plus 13 family members) Do you really spend almost £700 on Christmas? I think if you want to cut back then this sixty quid is an area where you can.
cost of birthdays - £37.50 as above as above!
cost of weekend break - £16.67
cost of holiday - £166.67 Assuming 2 holidays a year for you and 2 kids I think there is room to reduce this. Maybe one big holiday abroad and one UK one?
cost of electrical - £21.67 Electrical? What is that? You've already budgeted home electricity. Is it budgeting to replace home electricals like TV or stereo? If so forget it and replace as needed.
clothes and shoes -£25.00 Again there's nothing wrong with this figure but if you did want to cut back then £25 a month can maybe become £25 every 2 or 3 months.
hobbies - £6.25
families day out - £8.33 You've already covered for holidays and weekend breaks. Days out budgeted too?
haircuts - £8.33 ( if I have it highlighted) Colour your hair at home?
optical - £8.33
chemist /tablets - £5.67

total short -£325.31 per month

Family allowance is kept separate, for school uniforms, their clothes, clubs, haircuts etc. Nothing left if not I go over alittle with this also.

Any ideas????

hobo28

Phone - £18.08 - Do you NEED a home phone or could you make do with just mobile? Also, have you tried alternatives like Tesco home phone?

Household maintance - £30.00 - What is this?

Food - £216.50 - Where do you shop? Have you tried places like Aldi? We shop there and have a family of 6. Our bills are usually £60-£70 so yours seems high for 3.
L
ife Insurance - £8.44 - Do you NEED this?

Investments/policies - £74.30 - Agree with kuohu. No point in continuing this if it means getting into debt.

Finally how much do you NEED a car as it is costing you over £230 per month. Could you walk kids to school or get a bus to work? Its costing you about £7 per day and accounts for about 20% of your outgoings.

inkie

Hi Tracey04

Thanks for posting you SOA as it means it can be looked at objectively. I'd like to add - have you ever considered having yr hair cut/coloured at your local college - I go there and it costs me £2 for a wet cut. With regard to holidays - the most that we spend for accomodation is £150 for a week - and we have stayed in some decent places for that by shopping around. When we go we self-cater and do lots of free things - sounds a bit tight, but I would rather do this and go more frequently!

Mothers/Fathers day and easter add up to £60 per year - I am sure that this can be shaved further by making Home made goodies for easter (tastier and a lot more original) and same for mothes and fathers day.

Have you thought about holding car boot sales/ e-baying to ear a little extra income you can do this to suit.
Hope you can see a way forward

HTH