Where to save? (SOA included)

papermoney

I have no idea where to start. We are in the process of remortgaging due to me going full time at work so I have based the SOA on the new mortgage figure. I have tried to include everything I can think of. Sky could be something that's goes but i'm not sure where else I can cut down. According to the SOA we have money left over at the end of the month but i'm not sure where it is as I haven't seen it I am assuming this is what we spend on emergencies like when we had to phone a plumber etc.

Any suggestions welcome.




My salary - £2,050
Partners salary - £800,00
Child Benefit - £134.80


Total - £2984.80

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £809
Council Tax - £118
Gas - £65
Electric - £80
TV License - £10.99
Sky £58.00
Internet and Landline (used for business and tied in) £40
Mobile Phone £20
Food - £300
Car Insurance - £29.83
Petrol - £80
Car Tax - £15
Child Care - £100
School dinner money (child 1 )£40
School pack lunch (child 2) £36
My dinners £40 (£2 a day)
Union - £18
TV insurance - £7.99
Fridge Insurance - £2.99
Laptop Insurance - £6.99
Dishwasher Insurance - £2.49
House Insurance £11.98
Water - £27.00
Clothing - £30

Loans
Parents - £283 (27K 15 years left, need to find the %)
NR - £220 (owe 15k 4.79%)
Inland Rev £35 a month (owe £3000 as they overpaid me in 2002)

Credit cards
£500 (Virgin 0% interest until June 2011) £100
£2034 (Amazon 0% interest until May 2011) £150
£1988 (Egg 18.9%) £50

Total: £2792.26
Spare money £192.54

papermoney

Just seen that this is not on the MSE format - will try and transfer it over when I get 5 minutes peace from the child who doesnt want to sleep!

miggy

Do you need to buy dinners at work? Could you take a pack up instead?
If you are using your home Internet and landline for business, can you claim some of the cost back from your employer?

downnotout

Off the top of my head, why do you have individual insurance for every appliance? could this not be combined? do you really need laptop insurance or dishwasher insurance?
Secondly can you not cut down on your lunch expence? how is is this paid, is it buying out or cost on top of the grocery bill? if it is part of the grocery bill, then that needs to be looked at.
Do you really need to spend £30 a month on clothes?

As for where the pennies go, keep a daily spending diary. £2.50 a week on a magazine is £130 a year.

papermoney

miggy wrote: »

Do you need to buy dinners at work? Could you take a pack up instead?
If you are using your home Internet and landline for business, can you claim some of the cost back from your employer?

Thanks for the reply. I could take a pack up but I normally eat with the children (am a teacher) and they are only £2 a day which seems to work out cheaper than pack lunches (although I am basing this on a few years ago so may be worth doing again )

The internet and landline is paid through my husbands business - he is self employed but we put the money into the bank monthly ready to pay the TAX off at the end of the year.

It's actually a real pain, we are tied in for another 2 years even though we are not getting what the company said we would (download speed) but as it was done over the phone, they will not believe we were told differently so will not allow us to cancel the contract without a very heavy penalty charge.

lesalanos

sky has got to go

papermoney

downnotout wrote: »

Off the top of my head, why do you have individual insurance for every appliance? could this not be combined? do you really need laptop insurance or dishwasher insurance?
Secondly can you not cut down on your lunch expence? how is is this paid, is it buying out or cost on top of the grocery bill? if it is part of the grocery bill, then that needs to be looked at.
Do you really need to spend £30 a month on clothes?

As for where the pennies go, keep a daily spending diary. £2.50 a week on a magazine is £130 a year.

The laptop insurance I need to keep - I use it daily and at work and so far ive needed it repaired twice. The dishwasher insurance could go though.

My lunch is on top of the grocery bill - but i'm going to try pack lunches for a bit and see how that effects things

Clothes wise, it's not really me its the kids, i'm hoping they stop growing soon, some months are cheaper than others because they do not need things. I try to use ebay and charity shops as much as possible. My eldest starts secondary school next year and the uniform prices are horrendous (luckily I have a year to save yet).

Thanks

Tixy

Hi

Is this 2 adults and 2 children?

papermoney wrote: »

I have no idea where to start. We are in the process of remortgaging due to me going full time at work so I have based the SOA on the new mortgage figure. I have tried to include everything I can think of. Sky could be something that's goes but i'm not sure where else I can cut down. According to the SOA we have money left over at the end of the month but i'm not sure where it is as I haven't seen it I am assuming this is what we spend on emergencies like when we had to phone a plumber etc.

Any suggestions welcome.

My salary - £2,050
Partners salary - £800,00
Child Benefit - £134.80


Total - £2984.80

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £809
Council Tax - £118
Gas - £65 looks quite high. have you checked you are with the cheapest supplier? best tariff? try reducing your usage?
Electric - £80 seems very high. do you use a lot of elec? does it inlcude any arrears? again check if you can find a cheaper tariff and/or supplier (the online tariffs are usually quite a bit cheaper)
TV License - £10.99
Sky £58.00 def could consider dropping to a lower package.
Internet and Landline (used for business and tied in) £40
Mobile Phone £20
Food - £300 if this is 2adults & 3children it is possible to do for less (some do for £200 including all packed lunches etc). Maybe try to gradually cut to say £250 by meal planning for the week before you shop and trying to some 'lower' brands.
Car Insurance - £29.83
Petrol - £80
Car Tax - £15
Child Care - £100
School dinner money (child 1 )£40 consider a pack up instead?
School pack lunch (child 2) £36 is this part of your grocery shopping or bought seperate from school or something?
My dinners £40 consider taking sandwiches/pack up?
Union - £18
TV insurance - £7.99
Fridge Insurance - £2.99
Laptop Insurance - £6.99
Dishwasher Insurance - £2.49
House Insurance £11.98
Water - £27.00
Clothing - £30
Car maintenance, servicing, MOT, tyres
Haircuts
Presents xmas & birthdays
Entertainment (days out/meals out/cinema/rent dvds/kids playgrounds?)
Holiday?
Emergency fund (eg for when you have to phone the plumber!) - maybe £20 per month or so?

Loans
Parents - £283 (27K 15 years left, need to find the %)
NR - £220 (owe 15k 4.79%)
Inland Rev £35 (owe as they overpaid me in 2002) £35 balance (not £35k?) or £35 repayment each month?

Credit cards
£500 (Virgin 0% interest until June 2011) £100 reduce payments to this as its no interest (you have 12months to pay £500)
£2034 (Amazon 0% interest until May 2011) £150
£1988 (Egg 18.9%) £50 up payments to this as its costing the most

Total: £2792.26
Spare money £192.54

Hi
I've put in some other possible areas your money is going. I would think it will be a good idea for you both to keep spending diaries to try to track down where else the money is going during the month. Make sure you write down everything you spend (even 50p on sweets or a newspaper). Either carry a notebook, or use a spreadsheet or www.spendingdiary.com)

Also take a look at the snowball calculator (www.whatsthecost.com) as there are more efficent ways to pay off your spending - you should be paying the most to the card charging interest.

Hope some of these suggestions help.

miggy

Okay, I see how you mean with the Internet/landline.
It may be worth doing costings on the dinners again although food seems to be getting more expensive. £2 a day doesn't sound much but it's £10 a week, which in school terms is probably about £360 a year. Of course you wouldn't manage to save all that by switching to packed lunches and, teachers' days being what they are, the hassle it saves you is probably worth it, but have a look at the 'Old Style' thread for very low-cost but good recipes.
As has already been said, keep a spending diary. It will show you where the 'little' bits that add up are happening.
Sky - could you cut back/cut out? Lots of the channels are on Freeview. Why not try keeping a record of which channels you are actually planning to watch for a while (not the ones you find while looking for something worth watching).

papermoney

Sorry I should say that it is 2 adults 2 children (going up to 3 children for 3 days a weeks)

The child 2 lunches are pack lunches but we have to pay the school for them, we have no choice as it is a condition of the school (child is a pre schooler, so this may change when she starts 'proper school as he mum should be entitled to free school meals)

The Inland Rev is £35 a month repayment (I owe them about 3000k over all) I will amend the OP

Thanks Tixy - I will look at the suggestions.

miggy

Papermoney - don't stay up all night! You'll think more clearly in the morning.

Here is a hot chocolate to help you sleep. :coffee: