earnings/outgoings breakdown!

Irishorangutan

Hi All,

as I mentioned in a previous post, I am trying to sort out my finances over the next year or so.

A quick background before I give you my outgoing/incomings breakdown:

I'm 23, engaged, living with fiancee. Left uni 3 years ago, set up own Music business. First 2 years slow, year 3 has been much better, hence now in a position to start paying off things.

Earnings are an average, some months are higher, some are lower, but over 6 months, this was my rough average.

You will notice some utilities are under business. I work from home so phone is generally used for business, though I will be a getting a skype number for certain things.

Finally, add 1000 to the total debt on my signature to allow for my fiance's overdraft. It's no interest, which is good as she's a student, but of course, would like to pay it off too.

here it is!! A bit nervous, but if you have any areas where you think I can cut down expenses, please let me know!

Outgoings

Personal Payments

Rent – 400
Council tax – 80
TV License – 10.99
Loan Repayment – 50.00
Barclaycard – 100.00
Electric – 56.00
Sky Digital 21.25 (for next 3 months)

Total: 718.24

ESTIMATES
Food/Essential shopping – 200.00 per month
Mobile phone 25 on PAYG
Fiance Mobile phone 10 on PAYG
Football/Tennis 35 per month
Eating out 25 per month
Car Tax – 14 per month average
Car parking permit – 3 per month av
MOT/Service – 25 per month av

Total: 337.00

Business Payments

British Academy membership – 9.69 per month average
Phone bill – 35 a month. Using BT line and call 18866 – must get down
Equipment Insurance – 11.63 per month
Magazine subscription – 4.50 per month average
Musicians Union – 8 per month average
National Insurance – 9 per month average
Broadband Tiscali 2mb – 17.99 per month
Yellow pages subscription/advertising – 39.84 per month
Misc business expenses, website etc - allow 100 per month


Total Business Monthy Outgoings: 235.65

Total Personal Monthly Outgoings: 1055.24 approx

Total Personal and Business Monthly Outgoings: 1290.65 approx

My Earnings (after tax (25% goes to ICICI bank), before Business expenses)
1600 approx

Fiancee’s Earnings (before any Student loans!!) 800 approx

Total joint earnings before Business outgoings: 2400 approx



Never done this before but any areas I can cut down on? I'm paying 25 - 30 on PAYG a month, should really get a contract. And i'm using my BT line itself too much, the breakdown was 17 pounds on BT 18 on call18866. Not so good. Used to be 20 for the total!

Thank you very much in advance.

Let_Robinson_Sing

Rent – 400
Council tax – 80
TV License – 10.99
Loan Repayment – 50.00
Barclaycard – 100.00
Electric – 56.00
Sky Digital 21.25 (for next 3 months) Freeview????

Total: 718.24

ESTIMATES
Food/Essential shopping – 200.00 per month
Mobile phone 25 on PAYG
Fiance Mobile phone 10 on PAYG
Football/Tennis 35 per month - (((Probably can cut down on this too, if one of you goes to the Football go to the ground a few hours early and see if the players have any spare tickets left as at some games i manage to get free tickets of the players)))Eating out 25 per month - (((Cut down on this, its not a necessity to live, Tesco cheap meals :P)))
Car Tax – 14 per month average
Car parking permit – 3 per month av
MOT/Service – 25 per month av

Total: 337.00

Business Payments

British Academy membership – 9.69 per month average
Phone bill – 35 a month. Using BT line and call 18866 – must get down
Equipment Insurance – 11.63 per month
Magazine subscription – 4.50 per month average (((Can you go without this for a bit?
Musicians Union – 8 per month average
National Insurance – 9 per month average
Broadband Tiscali 2mb – 17.99 per month (((Cant you down grade to 512kb for the time being if its cheaper)))
Yellow pages subscription/advertising – 39.84 per month
Misc business expenses, website etc - allow 100 per month

Irishorangutan

thanks for your help.

Sky - I like sky too much.

football/tennis - this is actually me playing football and tennis rather than watching. I'm very lucky in that i can get free tickets to all games and also to the cinema for entertainment.


Eating Out - I doubt it is actually as much as 25 per month to be honest, but I do think it's nice to go out once in a while. We always use the SPREE books which give you one meal free, making it cheaper.

Magazine - this is a business based mag that I use regularly. I only signed up two months ago, as I was spending more buying it individually every month.

Broadband - I was paying 17.99 on Tesco for 512 and changed to Tiscali early this year. I would opt for TalkTalk's deal with phone and broadband but i'm under contract. I wouldn't want to go down from 2mb as I use it a lot for music transfers, with my business.

Thank you for the suggestions, it's something to think about.

Annie_Fanny

Account Total Debts Notes
Business Account 1232.03 (Is this an overdraft? What is the APR?)
Personal Account 977.68 (As above)
Barclaycard Credit 2003.74 Repaying 100 per month (What is the APR?)
Mum’s Loan 1500 Repaying 50 per month (Is your mum charging any interest? Any chance of delaying payment and using it to pay off the debts with the highest APR?)

Total 5713.45 debt

Have you heard of snowballing? This can help you to target your debts more effectively....
http://www.whatsthecost.co.uk/snowball.aspx

Irishorangutan

add 150 per month for petrol to my totals!

Annie_Fanny

Irishorangutan wrote:

thanks for your help.

Sky - I like sky too much. (Don't we all? Do you think this attitude will get you out of debt?)

football/tennis - this is actually me playing football and tennis rather than watching. I'm very lucky in that i can get free tickets to all games and also to the cinema for entertainment.


Eating Out - I doubt it is actually as much as 25 per month to be honest, but I do think it's nice to go out once in a while. We always use the SPREE books which give you one meal free, making it cheaper.

Magazine - this is a business based mag that I use regularly. I only signed up two months ago, as I was spending more buying it individually every month.

Broadband - I was paying 17.99 on Tesco for 512 and changed to Tiscali early this year. I would opt for TalkTalk's deal with phone and broadband but i'm under contract. I wouldn't want to go down from 2mb as I use it a lot for music transfers, with my business.

Thank you for the suggestions, it's something to think about.

What are your plans to get you out of debt?

Irishorangutan

Business accoutn - yes it's an overdraft. It wasn't high but I can't remember the actual amount. However, i'm hoping to transfer to Abbey's business account and maybe transfer this to a 6 month 0% credit card.

Personal account - overdraft yes. However, i've just been accepted for an A&L account - the premier online one, and can transfer across to that.

Barclaycard credit - again, I'm not sure but I want to transfer to 0% if possible. any ideas who is good? never done that before.


Mum's loan - thank you that is a good idea. I will ask her. She's not asking for interest - my only concern is that it may be on one of her credit cards - hope it's still a 0% one! she's quite good at that kind of thing tho.

thank you!

Annie_Fanny wrote:

Account Total Debts Notes
Business Account 1232.03 (Is this an overdraft? What is the APR?)
Personal Account 977.68 (As above)
Barclaycard Credit 2003.74 Repaying 100 per month (What is the APR?)
Mum’s Loan 1500 Repaying 50 per month (Is your mum charging any interest? Any chance of delaying payment and using it to pay off the debts with the highest APR?)

Total 5713.45 debt

Have you heard of snowballing? This can help you to target your debts more effectively....
http://www.whatsthecost.co.uk/snowball.aspx

CLAPTON

in summary

your total income is 2400
total outgoings 1290

leaving you a surplus of 1110 per month

so ..do you actually have that much left ....if so you can clear all your debts in six months.
if not, then you need to consider where its all going..

Irishorangutan

On the SKY issue - I have achieved reducing this to half price for 3 months, and will after 3 months review the situation again.

A bit unfair to question my attitude. This is a fairly massive thing for me to publish this on here. Also, my earnings have recently changed, and as you will see, i'm now earning more than i'm spending and can afford to re allocate money to paying off debts.

Firstly, i've changed all my accounts to better paying ones. I've opened one single saving account for purely Tax money.

Secondly, I'm looking at getting those expensive credit cards on to 0% ones.

Thirdly, i'm looking at all other ways of cutting down. Our shopping account is pretty low I think for a couple with two pet kittens. I'm attempting any way to cut down, but I feel I have temporarily achieved this with SKY, getting 3 and a half months half price.

Irishorangutan

CLAPTON wrote:

in summary

your total income is 2400
total outgoings 1290

leaving you a surplus of 1110 per month

so ..do you actually have that much left ....if so you can clear all your debts in six months.
if not, then you need to consider where its all going..

Yes, that is the summary. However, please be aware that this has only just changed. I'm self employed, as anyone who is self employed will tell you - the first 3 years aren't easy. I've now started, for the first time, to earn more than i'm losing and have guaranteed work for the next couple of years at this kind of average monthly rate.

I'm simply trying other ways to reduce costs, to miminise the time it will take to pay this back.

CLAPTON

if the summary is broadly correct, then congratulations for doing so well. hopefully this will continue so you will be able to repay the debts and build up a healthy savings account to protect yourself from any temporary downturns.
given your situation, i think your spending is quite reasonable although it always pays to be review the spending regularly.