looking for some advice on where to shave off pennies

bruceiow

Hi ya,

posting here on advice from mortgages forum :beer:

Ok here is the good bit: married, one bouncing 16 month old and proud owner of a mortgage, head above water.

Bad bit:

We have no space for luxuries and not a great contingency for anything to go wrong - which at some point will happen.

Here is the senario:

Mortage 150,000k @ 1,000 a month

I work full time, my wife currently does two mornings at work and our little boy spends that time at childminders (+ 1/2 hour each side to allow travelling to and from work).

-We do not smoke,
-we do not drink,
-we do not take holidays away,
-we do not have sky tv or any other non free tv package
-We are fixed in mortgage for another 2 years
-We are council tax band b
-Our energy prices are fixed with EON until oct
-We run two small cars
-we both have mobile phones @ £20 a month
-we spend under £50 a week on all grocories/baby items
-we have broadband @ £12 a month
-our childcare is @ £3.75 an hour

-we receive the standard child benefit sum
-we receive a very small tax credit of £40 a month

our problem is small compared to some on here - but even so, we have very little room for manuvure and when the car tax, insurance and mot comes up in one month - we are pretty screwed and it takes some months to recover, only for the next thing to take hold and bring us back again.

it is frustrating and difficult to juggle especially when working in a high stress job and having a young child to commanding most of my time.

my closing points that might help with any advice are:
-Our work patterns are different and we require two cars to get to and from work, we also live semi rural and would find public transport expensive and time consuming.
-We tend to rely on mobile to keep in touch - it is important to our relationship to be in touch.
- I use the broadband to also work from home when demand calls for me to work evenings or weekends.

My main priority is my family, I live for my wife and son and want to make things as good as I can for them. I am pushing boundries at work to help with our future, but feel that I am neglecting somethign somewhere that will help us now.

Any savings I can realise, material or not will help.

I appreicate your time and help.

KPR11

Hi Bruce,

You are a wise man! Well done on getting ready for the scenario if things do go wrong.

I think it might be helpful if you posted your SOA (http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html). This will mean that people can point you in the right direction!

KPR

Tixy

Hi bruce and welcome to DFW

It certainly sounds like you are not living excessively or wasting money in typical luxury areas.

I think it might help you (and us) if you complete and post a statement of affairs - that way we'll see exactly where your money is being spent and whether we can suggest areas you can make savings.

Have you checked your insurances are all the cheapest you can get? and that you havnt double up on any insurance cover (eg PPI). Are you on a water meter or unmeasured?

Have you checked your neighbours are in the same council tax band as you?

Could you get a cheaper deal by combining landline & broadband with one supplier?

Do you drive 'fuel efficently'?

Here is the link to the detailed SoA form - http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

bruceiow

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1650
Partners monthly income after tax....... 420
Benefits................................ 120
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2190
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1000
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 111
Electricity............................. 25
Gas..................................... 25
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 26
Telephone (land line)................... 14
Mobile phone............................ 45
TV Licence.............................. 11.75
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 12
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 80
Road tax................................ 23
Car Insurance........................... 33
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 17
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 179
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 11
Contents insurance...................... 11
Life assurance ......................... 10.75
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1834.5

Assets
Cash.................................... 800
House value (Gross)..................... 178000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 183800

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 150000...(1000).....6.7
Total secured & HP debts...... 150000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,190
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,834.5
Available for debt repayments........... 355.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 355.5
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 183,800
Total HP & Secured debt................. -150,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 33,800

bruceiow

probably worth noting that many of these areas (i.e car maintenance, phone bill, car insurance etc) are paid yearly or quartely..

im thinking i have probably left a few things off there as i dont have 350 left at the end of a month to play with!!!

andys15

Everything looks solid. The reason you dont have that much money left is because you are not budgeting for the car tax, car insurnace etc every month. If you have online banking, open other accounts. Then divide your car tax etc by 12 and put it into the other account, then you dont have big bills in 1 month. You can also buy stamps from the post office which you pay for each month and that covers your car tax too. Like others will say spending diary is a must. I just work ouut all my outgoings for the month and then withdraw cash. The cash sits in a book, when we use cash we write it in the book.

gonzo127

Hi Bruceiow, well when you get home can i suggest you get last months bank statements for both you and your partner and try and justify each and every outgoing on what it was that money went on sometimes this can be a real eye opener just seeing how many 50p newspapers and £1 bottle of pop sets you back each month

the other one would be to start a spending diary this month and write down everything you spend and on what from a 10 pence bag of sweets to a £50 drinking binge this should hopefully show you where this surplus money is going

other things to note when your insuarance renewals come up make sure you purchase them through a cashback site such as quidco as you can get some cracking offers for just buying the 'normal things' you have to buy

for example i got my house insurance the other day, did the normal comparison sites, check the direct ones (aviva and direct line) then i went with the cheapest one giving the cover i wanted and managed to get £45 cashback on top of the cheap quote, this is on many things car/home/life/pet insurance other retail shops play.com etc

misscousinitt

Hi Bruce

All looks good to me - if you don't have 350 left at the end of the month, perhaps you should start a spending diary to see where its going.

Try to put a bit away each month towards car etc...so its not so much of a shock when you pay the yearly premium.

Perhaps the only other thing is the mobiles - I know you like to stay in touch (which is good), but there are some great deals out there at the moment that might be able to shave some pennies off...

I'm sure others will be along soon with some more ideas.

Good luck.

Baileys_Babe

bruceiow wrote: »

im thinking i have probably left a few things off there as i dont have 350 left at the end of a month to play with!!!

Hi Bruceiow, I think I have found a few of those missing pennies.

bruceiow wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Groceries etc. ......................... 200

bruceiow wrote: »

-we spend under £50 a week on all grocories/baby items

£50 a week on groceries is not £200 a month its £217 (52 weeks x £50 divided by 12).

Could you both keep a spending diary of everything you spend, library fines, carparking, coffee, toddler group, snacks, presents etc

bruceiow

thanks for everyones comments - I do keep a diary, I use MS money and import and categorise every transaction that passes through there - are there any reports in there that would help here??

gonzo127

well its great you have already got a spending diary, might it be worth checking the items on your SOA of against you spending diary,

for example do you spend £200 a month on groceries, or is it £200 at the supermarket + a couple of prepacked sandwichs + a extra loaf of bread + a couple of choc bars etc a month

as you can imagine £350 a month is a surprising amount of money to lose each month especially doing a spending diary so i think you need to do some investigation work here