help with budget

pennypusher

Hi Surreybloke, I can't see anything for benefits, you must get child benefit at least, don't you get tax credits? You need to reduce your spending by about £500 per month. I suggest you reduce the mobile packages, include your cleaning products in your groceries and reduce that to £350 to £400 per month including drinks for the house. Check out Gas, Electricity, pet, House and Car Insurance prices on a comparison site. Get rid of satellite tv and go freeview, get rid of school dinners and meals at work and take packed lunches. Check out the credit card repayments and pay off the highest interest ones first. I think it would be best if you look at every item on your SOA and see if you can reduce them at all. Whatever feels best for you will work.

surreybloke_2

i have updated my SOA as i left off child benifit on the 1st one i submitted.

also looked into tax credits as we haven't claimed them for 4yrs and online calculator shows we can claim £508 per yr....we stopped claiming before as tax man said they had over paid us and wanted £1040.00 back.

have also just applied for a 0% balance transfer card from PayPal

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,255.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 130.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37.91
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407.00
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.50
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Debt Repayments

Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00

Savings & Investments

Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Family

Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.00

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Education & Courses

University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One Offs

Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.33

Odds & Sods

Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,385.00


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,781.74

katsu

Do you have a bank account with the christmas money sitting in it?

I spent £180 last year and gave presents to 23 people - big family here too.

I have over half those people covered for 2010 already - gotta love sales, also charity shops and 99p/poundland type stores. I've not spent full price on anything so far, and have spare gifts in my stash ready for 2011 too. I'll also make a few gifts for christmas. With kids, surely they could do home made fudge in boxes, or gingerbread people or something and delight aunties/nan? Your wife/you could "supervise" production.

£300 per year on birthdays has to drop too.

I recommend a spending diary - start tracking your every spend, get your wife one too. You can do a notebook or online.

Get into meal planning to drop your food spending. Check the Old Style boards for tips on cheaper meals.

Get a freeview box and drop satellite TV.

You look to be £500 out per month, so need to make some serious changes.

surreybloke_2

we have told other adults we wil not be buying for them this yr but my wife has many friends with children and we have god children and she always buys for them..if only £5 each.
we have explained we are short of cash but the kids find it hard to understand when they have friends who go abroad for holidays or get a horse for their birthday and we can't even take them to the pictures.
and your right there are free museums in london but it is the cost of the travel up there by public transport or parking if you drive...last time i went to the science museum it cost me £15 just for 2 sandwiches and some drinks in there( next time i'll think to take a packed lunch)

surreybloke_2

that last reply was to NGlady

NGlady

Ah right, im a northener I don't really know your neck of the woods that well im afraid!
I see what you mean about them looking at their friends and thinking what they have got, but you really can take them to the pictures still Cut down on the grocery bill that week, possibly a few less treats and you will have the money for the flicks When I was younger, I lived in a very affluent area my friends thought nothing of spending the Summer holidays traveling around europe, whilst my parents struggled to give me a week in a carvan at skegness, but believe me, looking back now, I had a much better childhood because the love was there, it was often the kids whose daddys could give them everything well that was given because time couldnt. I dont know your kids ages, but is there a way you can give them a basic explanation of the problems?

savingwannabe

Surrey bloke, hello people have suggested a lot of sensible things. You will see a difference in the next month. I am sure things will get better.

Get the kids on board, give them a spending diary if they are round about 10 years of age. Not if younger as they wont understand. They will hopefully like playing a game especially if you save and they see rewards at the end of the month.

Oh i feel mean. I dont mean to be. My neices (aged 9 +10) grew up in a really rich household but they love bargainspotting now!

Goodluck,

:j

surreybloke_2

thanks to all who have replied on this thread.
this week i will be doing the following

cancel life insurance not connected to mortgage
contact cable company to reduce pacage
contact british gas to see if gas meter is faulty
if no luck there look into changing supplier
shop at lidls for most of shopping

allready done.
changed mobile from £25 a month to £10

NGlady

Just as another suggestion and it may not help, cos really you shouldn't be buying clothes. But, if youre wife/kids if there teenagers really do insist on new clothes why not look at bigwardrobe.com or similar, where for the cost of a postage and an outfit you dont wear anymore you can get a whole new outfit from somebody in the same boat, whose probs worn it once and can't be seen twice i nthe same thing. Might work good in long run

foxgloves

I must be difficult when kids see their friends getting big things & they aren't being given similar, but cheesy as this may sound, learning that we have to 'cut our coats according to our cloth' & live within our means is a very valuable lesson for them. The problem so many people have got themselves into (ourselves included though nearly paid off now) is mostly because suddenly credit became easy and everyone was able to have more or less exactly what they wanted. So many people are now paying for this while the disgraceful behaviour of the banking industry has thrown us all into an economic situation where the job situation is very fragile. Paying down your debts is so much more important to your family's secure future than making sure every child/teen in a large extended family receives presents. Uncomfortable as it may sometimes feel, I think it's very important that children learn that everyone has to budget. When I look back on my childhood, it's the fun things I did with people I remember & many of those cost next to nothing. Best wishes with everything - it's a big start even talking about it.