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Mortgage free by the time I'm 40
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In fact am just going to post my SOA on here as the DFW board scares me a bit
Incomings
OH wage £1579.10
My mat pay £527.53 (only for 1 more month then £0 til I go back to work)
CTC £80
CB £120
Total Incomings £2306.63
Outgoings
Mortgage £685 (interest only)
Council tax £115
Home/contents ins £25
Water £34
Mobiles £50 (I know this is TONS but they are both iPhones, they are our luxuries)
Landline & broadband £17.50
Joint life ins £8
Pet ins £29.35
Car maintenance £25 (could do with increasing this)
Car ins £40
Tax/MOT £25 (could do with increasing this)
Credit Card £50
Child Trust Fund £10 (should be £20 when we set DS2s fund up)
Xmas £25
Holiday £40
Birthdays £15 (could do with increasing this)
Diesel £160 (doesn't usually cover it)
Groceries £240 (trying to reduce this)
Food at work £20
Gas/Elec £99
Total Outgoings £1763.40
Realistically we should have a good amount of money left every month, but every single month something seems to come up that we haven't budgeted for. Plus we are in our overdraft a fair bit this month so we don't actually have the full amount of our incomings available IYKWIM
Advice/comments would be really appreciated.Mummy to 3 fabulous boys all under 4 :eek:0 -
Its really good that you have savings for things like mot/xmas etc.
Once you are back at work I guess things will look better financially? do you have childcare in place ready? (another expense!) Cant wait until my lot are old enough to look after themselves lol (only about 5 years to go, not that I am counting!)MPs left feb '08 276- Dec 13 36 :T MB Jan 10 ~ £82,377 Dec 13 ~ £29987
EMFD was Feb 32 :eek: NOW Dec 2013 its Dec 2016
MF new target Dec 16 REACHED!! :j0 -
My only comments are:
CB - Do you not have a bit more than that? I get £132.80 but it is about to go up another £2 per 4 weeks. Woohoo.
Gas and elec seems a bit high to me. We are paying £28 for elec and £64 for gas currently, but we just arranged to switch and we'll be paying £72. I think our set ups are fairly similar with being at home all day and we probably have similar uses of things like WM with both having small kids. Worth a look at.
Other than that, you have more coming in than us but bigger mortgage which cancels it out. I can see why you are worrying as it is worrying me too. I keep thinking we will come badly unstuck at some point soon. At least you are trying to make it all work by having savings. The unexpected gets us all.
Garden costs you mentioned earlier. We spent a little more than that last year making our garden more useable by adding a decking. We ended up doing all the work ourselves and it was really hard going with a 1yo and 2.5 yo crawling all over where we were trying to dig out and build. I don't regret it though as it makes it easier and more pleasant for us all to use the garden. Boys in particular really want to get out in the garden and play, so i think it is a necessary investment in the future for both your boys. It will make life so much more pleasant and manageable for you so i say go for it.0 -
Its really good that you have savings for things like mot/xmas etc.
Once you are back at work I guess things will look better financially? do you have childcare in place ready? (another expense!) Cant wait until my lot are old enough to look after themselves lol (only about 5 years to go, not that I am counting!)
I'm not sure that we will actually be better off when I go back... Well not straight away anyway. I will be working 22.5hrs a week (assuming HR agree my hours) and I'm not 100% sure what I'll come out with, but it will be around £1000ish. We will be paying out £600 a month in childcare for both boys. Our child tax credits will go down to the basic £40 a month and of course I'll lose my £500ish maternity pay, so apart from the unpaid bit we will be worse off!!
However, my DS1 turns 3 in the January after I return, and in the April he will qualify for funding for nursery, so it will start being worth it then. We qualify got childcare vouchers too which means we can get the £243 a month each taken out before tax.
If anyone has any kind of formula for me to work out how much I'll actually come out with that would be fab.Mummy to 3 fabulous boys all under 4 :eek:0 -
cha97michelle wrote: »My only comments are:
CB - Do you not have a bit more than that? I get £132.80 but it is about to go up another £2 per 4 weeks. Woohoo.
Actually you're right it is £132.80. That's great that it's more than I thought, but slightly worrying that I've been losing track of what's coming in.
Gas and elec seems a bit high to me. We are paying £28 for elec and £64 for gas currently, but we just arranged to switch and we'll be paying £72. I think our set ups are fairly similar with being at home all day and we probably have similar uses of things like WM with both having small kids. Worth a look at.
Ours was £72 a month up until last month, but then because of keeping the heating at a constant temperature whilst DS2 was tiny they said we have to up the DD. I know that it will be back down again in a couple of months as exactly the same thing happened last year.
Other than that, you have more coming in than us but bigger mortgage which cancels it out. I can see why you are worrying as it is worrying me too. I keep thinking we will come badly unstuck at some point soon. At least you are trying to make it all work by having savings. The unexpected gets us all.
Garden costs you mentioned earlier. We spent a little more than that last year making our garden more useable by adding a decking. We ended up doing all the work ourselves and it was really hard going with a 1yo and 2.5 yo crawling all over where we were trying to dig out and build. I don't regret it though as it makes it easier and more pleasant for us all to use the garden. Boys in particular really want to get out in the garden and play, so i think it is a necessary investment in the future for both your boys. It will make life so much more pleasant and manageable for you so i say go for it.
Thanks, that's what I was thinking. It will be great for the boys to be able to play out in the garden more, and it will mean we can just spend weekends pottering in the house and garden rather than feeling like we have to take the boys out and entertain them.Mummy to 3 fabulous boys all under 4 :eek:0 -
Oh yes, the other MAJOR thing I forgot to mention in my SOA is that we currently have an interest only mortgage. We moved onto this when I went onto maternity leave and at the moment we can't afford to move back onto repayment.
We don't have a 'plan B' when it comes to paying off the mortgage, i.e. we don't have any investments or anything like that, so we really need to make all the OPs we can now to bring the amount down ASAP.
We have around 18yrs left to pay it off, and we could extend it to 22yrs if we needed to.
*I don't like to talk about it much as I panic like anything that we won't get it paid off*Mummy to 3 fabulous boys all under 4 :eek:0 -
I'm not sure that we will actually be better off when I go back... Well not straight away anyway. I will be working 22.5hrs a week (assuming HR agree my hours) and I'm not 100% sure what I'll come out with, but it will be around £1000ish. We will be paying out £600 a week in childcare for both boys.
wow thats £120 a day! I only just earn over that in a week! I take it you mean £1k a month for 22.5 hours a week? which means you are paying £2400 a month in childcare :eek:MPs left feb '08 276- Dec 13 36 :T MB Jan 10 ~ £82,377 Dec 13 ~ £29987
EMFD was Feb 32 :eek: NOW Dec 2013 its Dec 2016
MF new target Dec 16 REACHED!! :j0 -
wow thats £120 a day! I only just earn over that in a week! I take it you mean £1k a month for 22.5 hours a week? which means you are paying £2400 a month in childcare :eek:
OOPS!!! Meant £600 a month. Will go and edit
oh and yes around 1k for the 22.5hrs. I'm lucky I am pretty well paid for what I do, which is why I'm going back, as if I ever want to go back full-time it will definitely be worth my while.Mummy to 3 fabulous boys all under 4 :eek:0 -
I was gonna say haha! I was scratching my head then! thats good money, which is why I am studying to better my career as well.MPs left feb '08 276- Dec 13 36 :T MB Jan 10 ~ £82,377 Dec 13 ~ £29987
EMFD was Feb 32 :eek: NOW Dec 2013 its Dec 2016
MF new target Dec 16 REACHED!! :j0 -
I was gonna say haha! I was scratching my head then! thats good money, which is why I am studying to better my career as well.
I have just sent off an application form to apply for an Access to Higher Education course. Fingers crossed I'll hear something soon.
What are you studying? I'm going to pop over to your diary now and have a noseyMummy to 3 fabulous boys all under 4 :eek:0
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