Any ideas on were to make cut backs.

nodenus

I really need to save for a car and find a way to reduce my budget, any ideas please?
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549.00
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). . . . . . . . . . . 632.67
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.45
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240.00
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69.33
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59.05
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.67
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.67
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.67
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
after school activtes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.67
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.67
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
driving lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86.67
Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.01
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67.17
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,181.67

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,421.34

UnderPressure

Hello

OK straight away I can see you have put council tax twice with 2 different amounts??

ALso birthdays, summer holidays and christmas are all well and good but you have budgeted over £150 a month for them???????

Sure there is other stuff there where did you get that soa from?

nodenus

the council tax is in there twice as I'm paying 83.00 extra per month to clear my debt with them. Yes your right i will look at the budget for Christmas etc to see if that can be reduced.
I got the SOA on this site a link to Budget Brain.

theoretica

Before you start trying to save for a car (and have you looked at how much insurance will cost you?!) you must stop getting further into debt- which means cutting your spending by £250 a month. How long until your council tax arrears are paid off?

You could make serious savings on Holidays, Christmas, Presents, TV, Home Phone, Mobile, Eating out, Days Out, Pocket Money, Bank Account fee, and how near are you to passing your driving test?

nodenus

theoretica wrote: »

Before you start trying to save for a car (and have you looked at how much insurance will cost you?!) you must stop getting further into debt- which means cutting your spending by £250 a month. How long until your council tax arrears are paid off?

You could make serious savings on Holidays, Christmas, Presents, TV, Home Phone, Mobile, Eating out, Days Out, Pocket Money, Bank Account fee, and how near are you to passing your driving test?

I'm contracted to the phone and the sky for another year, i have another year until my debt with the council tax is clear,:( and The contract with the phones aren't up for another 8 months:eek:
As for the driving test at least 6 weeks!! If you can explain how I can reduce these i would be gratful.

I have a 300 overdraft with Halifax, with costs me 12.00 per month. instead of £1 a day so i have to keep the fee:mad:
It makes me mad..!!!

DarkFallout

You pay 138 pounds for phones and sat TV and it drives you mad.

There are a lot of people in the world living with this money a month or two.

You have 200-300 pounds in going out, eating out, winter holiday, summer holiday, birthdays etc.

One year you might miss one holiday and buy less expensive presents for birthdays.

Few months without going out are not a tragedy as well.

dancingfairy

You're overspending by about 250 ish pounds a month. You do need to either accept that as you are doing your driving you will get in debt to do it or reoragnise your priorities regarding holidays and presents etc and decide what is actually most important to you.
Maybe not cut the presents and holidays out completely but look for much cheaper alternatives.
Good Luck
df

theoretica

Maybe you can't afford a car for another year.

Ring the phone/TV companies and explain you are in dire financial trouble and simply can't afford them, and they might let you out rather than having you default. You really need to cancel the TV and go pay as you go on the mobiles (£5 a month max use them for emergencies- not chatting!)- offer to send back the handsets too.

For the rest I suggest you start with your income and subtract the things that are necessities or legal priorities (rent, council tax, food, heating/water, council tax arrears) At this point you have just under £500 left to cover everything else- is rail/bus to get you to work? This and your other debts take you down to £340.

How are you going to divide £340 over all the rest of your life? School costs, phones, TV, driving, clothing, special occasions... It can be done, but you will need to cut out a lot.

nodenus

Thankyou for your advice I will have to make cut backs looks like the bread line is somewere im going to staying for along time yet...

basmic

I could look at stopping, or reducing, the following:-
Mobile Phone(s) - £70.00
Bank Account Fee - £12.00
School Trips - £21.67
Pocket Money - £21.67
after school activtes - £13.00
Satellite/Digital TV - £38.00 (freeview?)
Family Days Out - £21.67
Books/Music/Films/Computers - £8.67
Eating Out - £20.00
School Fees - £5.01
Birthdays - £43.33
Summer Holiday - £67.17
Christmas - £40.00

TOTAL - £382.18

I would review the following:-
driving lessons - £86.67 (find somebody cheaper at, say, £73.61/pcm (£17/lesson)?)
Meals at work - £5.00 (is this only £5/pcm?)

nodenus

So i reviewed the budget again and i have made more cuts, I will make pack lunch for work, reduced my shopping budget to £90 Christmas, hoilday and birthday money reduced to £15 each month, with out having to cut back on sky and phone and made more cost cutting... now turns out there's an under spend of 34 per month....:T I know the food budget has taken a hammering but my daughter stays at her nans 2 days a week while I'm working...and I have downloaded a meal planner so i know what meals I'm going to be eating over the next two weeks. I know its summer but the slower cooker is making a return to the kitchen, (i really fancied a stew the other day)

I wanted to up my hours at work and work full time. instead of 16 hours. so I went to the entitled to web site put in all the information required and turns out I'm worse off:( because my wtc get reduced how does that work!!!!