My SOA - struggling atm!

sunday_girl

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 2 actually have two cars and 1 motorbike - want to sell one car (appx £900) but need to pay for repairs to the other one before we can!
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1626.66
Benefits................................ 555.74
Other income............................ 150 expenses
Total monthly income.................... 2332.4
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 624.7
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 123 10 months
Electricity............................. 48
Gas..................................... 50
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 51.19 10 months
Telephone (land line)................... 21
Mobile phone............................ 43.5 2 phones, one contract ends in summer and my husband has just been given a business phone so can reduce by £35 in around July
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 12.99
Groceries etc. ......................... 420 inc nappies and dog food
Clothing................................ 40
Petrol/diesel........................... 160
Road tax................................ 23.5
Car Insurance........................... 50.5 for 2 cars and one bike. will reduce by £19 if we can sell the 2nd car
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 20 clubs/school trips etc
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 30
Buildings insurance..................... 21.26 building and contents combined
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 18.87
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 40
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 25 we don't have one at the minute but need to include one in the SOA to start saving one up
Total monthly expenses.................. 1920.63

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 3000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 117488...(624.7)....4.09
Total secured & HP debts...... 117488....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Natwest Loan...................10953.....221.6.....10.4
Natwest OD.....................2600......35........19.9
Barclaycard....................2790......43........15.9
Ousba..........................240.......49........0 due to finish July
Total unsecured debts..........16583.....348.6.....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,332.4
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,920.63
Available for debt repayments........... 411.77
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 348.6
Amount left after debt repayments....... 63.17
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 3,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -117,488
Total Unsecured debt.................... -16,583
Net Assets.............................. -131,071
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.[/font]

Been here a while so have tried to preempt some queries in red. Although we are showing a small surplus, we are struggling every week due to some money coming in monthly, some weekly and some 4 weekly! (the figures I have given are averaged over 12 months) and also includes an expenses figure which relies on my DH's paperwork being submitted and expenses paid in time.

Any advice would be most welcome,thanks

Tixy

Hi sunday girl

I don't think on the whole your SoA looks too bad in terms of expenses etc.

Have you tried shopping around for gas&elec to check you are with the cheapest supplier?
Have you considered a combined phone & internet package (I think the cheapest is around £20 combined)

How many pets do you have (regarding insurance & food?)

I would think the grocery figure is the area you may be able to reduce the most. Hopefully by meal planning, shopping around, drop a brand challenge, cooking from scratch etc you may be able to reduce this to around £300. Perhaps try to knock off £10 each week and see how low you can get it.
As you mention nappies I have seen people recommend Lidl nappies as being 'as good as branded ones' not sure if you've tried them.

Have you started a spending diary? If not this is usually a good idea so you can fine tune your budget.

Good luck

Pippilongstocking

Hey goodluck there

I'd have to agree with Tixy - the grocery bill is the area I'd really hit hard as well

Can you shop around for internet/phone as you've got a fair bit going out on that -

Otherwise you seem really switched on!

Good and fun spending diary is here www.spendingdiary.com

sunday_girl

Tixy

Thanks for your comments, I've tried to be realistic with the figures and am trying hard with meal planning and don't think I am spending as much as £420 on food/household stuff but didn't want to underestimate. I haven't checked gas and electric suppliers all that recently so will have a look at that again.

I have two dogs, the figure includes £10 for pet insurance for one of them (the other is 13 and unisured now as the premiums were getting ridiculous). Their annual injections, kennel cough etc are about £150!

I am just starting a spending diary again as I know there are alway extras that fall outside the budget. That's the problem...it always seems just about doable on paper but in reality it's just so difficult to budget and we seem to be living on nothing most of the time!

sunday_girl

thanks fayjmck

re the phone/internet I had a look at this before but struggled to find a good deal, and I think I am tied in with the landline for a while with BT but will check on that. I know my DH wants to change our broadband but he's worried about unreliability so I haven't changed that in a very long time as if he picks a new service it will probably go up! Can anyone recommend a reliable and cheap broadband provider?

The groceries - I am baking my own bread daily again and making lots of cakes etc and this week we have still spent nearly £100 ( and that was with a £12 off voucher from Sainsburys) and we are almost out of everything again! Have used Aldi and Lidl in the past but trying to shop online with Tesco again now so I can see what I am spending and get the clubcard points! Will be Sainsburys for the next few weeks while I have the vouchers though. I don't buy all that many brands and am careful to look at the price of everything but I still struggle to get the cost down. Oh and I am meal planning too but every meal has to involve meat or fish as DH feels cheated otherwise. If I am honest a fair bit is spent on alcohol (some for me, but mostly for DH). He has the equipment for home brewing so he is planning to start that going again.

gonzo127

i also want to say well done as you seem to be hitting the ground running

agreed you can probably shave some off your groceries i usually say to aim for about £60 per person per month however as ever some people do it on less and others think i am being to low i just use it as a guide of what to aim for so for 5 people £300 would be a good aim

gas and electric do not to far out for a family of 5 but always worth checking, remember to get your usage in KWH for both and also use a cashback site such as quidco if you do swop

it might be worth while phoning your mobile company to see if they will drop you onto a cheaper tarriff anyway as the worst they can say is no and you only have 4-5 months left on it anyway

i know financially this is not the best idea due to APR's however i feel motivationally you should try and use your remaining £60 to pay of Ousba as quick as possible as that would only take you 3 months to have it paid off fully and be able to mark one off and get a quick 'yey me' feeling although even if you dont you will have it paid of by July so its 6 of one and half a dozen of another

sunday_girl

Thanks Gonzo

Yes, I think it's the food and drink I really need to try harder with, I tend to go through a phase of being really motivated and quite disciplined and then let it go again!

Good plan on the mobile. I will be having DH's current phone as I broke mine (still paying £8.50 for the contract though!) and he is on a business tarrif which I don't need so they might change it if we ask them.

Not sure about Ousba - it's a budgeting loan for the Open University and I think there's a penalty for paying it off early but I will dig out the paperwork and check again - would be great to have the £49 a month back in the budget.

raq

Tixy wrote: »

Hi sunday girl

I don't think on the whole your SoA looks too bad in terms of expenses etc.

Have you tried shopping around for gas&elec to check you are with the cheapest supplier?
Have you considered a combined phone & internet package (I think the cheapest is around £20 combined)

How many pets do you have (regarding insurance & food?)

I would think the grocery figure is the area you may be able to reduce the most. Hopefully by meal planning, shopping around, drop a brand challenge, cooking from scratch etc you may be able to reduce this to around £300. Perhaps try to knock off £10 each week and see how low you can get it.
As you mention nappies I have seen people recommend Lidl nappies as being 'as good as branded ones' not sure if you've tried them.

Have you started a spending diary? If not this is usually a good idea so you can fine tune your budget.

Good luck

definately lidl and aldi nappies are fantastic. huge value for money as well compared to asda/sainsbury brand

finnigan

Hi Sunday Girl

I'm battling my own soa and am obviously not much good at it otherwise I would be sorted out so I'm not qualified to comment on it .

What I can help with is the nightmare of income arriving in odds and spots, all my income is 4 weekly and my outgoings are monthly. I use the calender that is part of MS outlook on my lappy. Each income is coloured green and scheduled as an all day event, on-going and 4 weekly. Each outgoing is coloured red and scheduled in the same way. I set it up by going through the last few bank statements and scheduling each event as I came to it. Events can be scheduled weekly, monthly, 4 weekly and you can see instantly where you're at by keeping it in monthly view.
I now add school dates in yellow (5 in 4 different schools :eek:).

The only thing it can't cope with is 10 monthly payments like the council tax but I'd rather budget it in, theres always something needed!

WASHER

My council tax is £150 per month and is payable 10 months of the year, but I always budget my council tax over 12 months, the extra £150 p/m for two months comes in handy for school uniforms and general repairs to the house etc.

sunday_girl

thank you for your suggestions....

I think i need to do something similar with the calendar finnigan that's a really good idea to see what should be in an out every day. I don't have office unfortunately but may be able to find something similar in google apps? OMG to the school juggling - I find it a lot to remember with just one school!

Washer - my council tax and water are over 10 months so march is a good month as I don't have to pay either (thank goodness)! I hope I can put some away towards those kind of expenses but it just never seems to happen - the car needs diagnosing (probably over £100 just to tell us what's wrong with it!) and then repairs on top of that - even though in theory they are in my budget, it just seems so hard to actually put any money aside because there's always something (e.g. last month left over tax from 08-09).