Where does all my money go???

life_in_termoil

Help,
Ive just done a statement of affairs and would love to know where all my money goes. I should have a surplus but I dont!!! Any clues how I can up the anti and kick start my savings

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2756.07
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2756.07

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 650
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 121
Electricity............................. 100 (not had a bill for over 9 months so this is why it is so high)
Gas..................................... 46
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 21
Telephone (land line)................... 18
Mobile phone............................ 90 (this is for all 4 of us mine due to expire in October and will be going to PAYG as dont use it!)
TV Licence.............................. 11.87
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 35
Internet Services....................... 25
Groceries etc. ......................... 600
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 85
Road tax................................ 19
Car Insurance........................... 25
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 12.66
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 9.54
Life assurance ......................... 10.66
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 100
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 20
Emergency fund.......................... 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 2119.73


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2300
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 2300

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
DWP............................1886......20........0
wescott........................555.42....9.........0
moorcroft......................1209.26...20.5......0
capital one....................200.......10........34.39
Total unsecured debts..........3850.68...59.5......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,756.07
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,119.73
Available for debt repayments........... 636.34
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 59.5
Amount left after debt repayments....... 576.84

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 2,300
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -3,850.68
Net Assets.............................. -1,550.68

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.



[threadbanner] box [/threadbanner]

Hannah_10

Crikey, £576 missing each month, unaccounted for.

You need a spending diary. Get a notebook (any notebook, Co-Op have got some nice small hard cased ones for 65p) and starting today write down every penny you spend. From a £1.20p paypal transaction to a £120 electric bill, in it all goes. ESPECIALLY the little insignificant things, like a coffee when you're in town or a Mars from the work vending machine. Even put when you put 2p in charity boxes.

After a week you'll be getting the idea where it might be going. After a month you'll know for real.

Well done on your SOA, I can't even do mine yet because I don't know my own spending even as well as you know yours, so that's how come I'm filling out my bright pink Co-Op spending diary for now. I'm finding it a true eye opener, it's hard to believe I spend so much on food outside of home.

Tixy

A spending diary is definitely the answer. Write down everything you spend for a few months (even just 50p at the local shop).
Either use a notebook, a spreadsheet or something like www.spendingdiary.com

Will have a look through to see if there are any obvious costs you have missed. Or where else you may be able to cut costs.

life_in_termoil wrote: »

Help,
Ive just done a statement of affairs and would love to know where all my money goes. I should have a surplus but I dont!!! Any clues how I can up the anti and kick start my savings

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2756.07
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0 You haven't included child benefit here?
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2756.07

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 650
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 121
Electricity............................. 100 (not had a bill for over 9 months so this is why it is so high)
Gas..................................... 46
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 21
Telephone (land line)................... 18
Mobile phone............................ 90 (this is for all 4 of us mine due to expire in October and will be going to PAYG as dont use it!) Can the kids reduce their usage? how old are they? can they get parttime jobs to fund their own phones? Or you say that you will give them no more than £10 credit each each month?
TV Licence.............................. 11.87
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 35
Internet Services....................... 25
Groceries etc. ......................... 600 If you needed to free up more money this is very high - could be halved fairly easily.
Clothing................................ 20 This is quite low for 4 - can you check back what you have spent over the last few months? some of the missing could be here
Petrol/diesel........................... 85
Road tax................................ 19
Car Insurance........................... 25
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10 is this enought for MOT, servicing, new tyres etc? do you have breakdown cover and have you included it?
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0 nothing here? after school clubs? activites? hobbies? pocket money?
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0 annual check ups at least? odd prescriptions? any of the family need glasses or contacts?
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 12.66
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 9.54
Life assurance ......................... 10.66
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 100
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 20 This seems quite low - i would guess some of the surplus may be here
Holiday................................. 20
Emergency fund.......................... 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 2119.73

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2300
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 2300

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
DWP............................1886......20........0
wescott........................555.42....9.........0
moorcroft......................1209.26...20.5......0
capital one....................200.......10........34.39
Total unsecured debts..........3850.68...59.5......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,756.07
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,119.73
Available for debt repayments........... 636.34
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 59.5 are you actually overpaying on any of the debts - if so this could be where some of the missing money is. Do you have an overdraft? don't forget to budget for any interest / charges on that.
Amount left after debt repayments....... 576.84

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 2,300
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -3,850.68
Net Assets.............................. -1,550.68

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

Other possibilites where it might be going -Do the kids take money to school for dinners? do you buy meals out at work? Do you smoke?
Buy lottery tickets? newspapers? Takeaways? DVD rental? These are the types of things people often forget to budget for.

You could also try a retrospective spending diary by working through your bank statements for the last couple of months to see if you have missed out any costs.

Good luck

Jo_R_2

Agree immediately with the other posts about starting a spending diary. Not only will it highlight where the money is going, but IMO the very process of having the diary and knowing you will could be writing down something you are thinking of spending does act (to me anyway!) as a deterrent - makes me think twice.

Would be interested to know how old the kids are, think this would be a big factor in your SOA, my guess is they are teenagers? To me that would also account for the grocery spend, you are averaging £150 a week on food - does this include household stuff like cleaning products, pet food or anything like that? Do you menu plan or maybe include entertaining when you have friends round for dinner or similar in that total? Packed lunches (I actually menu plan for these and buy things like bags of crisps/choc bars/sliced meat/loaves of bread/fruit - accordingly)?

life_in_termoil

thanks for the replies, I will start a spending diary and look through my bank statements.
Last month I did pay off Freemans £133.70 and studio £88.90
I have included in my income child benefit £188 paid every 4 weeks, rent from lodger £400 a month although this will be stopping end of October when she goes to uni, and maintenance of £359.
I dont get council tax or housing benefit but I do get £793 a month tax credits and wages £1016

life_in_termoil

Groceries includes packed lunches, laundry/cleaning and pet foods

life_in_termoil

Meal planning sounds like a great idea, I should do this as I have a well stocked freezer and cupboards but never anything to eat so go and spend money on stuff I probably dont need.

talana

On paper then a £576 monthly surplus.
You also have £50pm budgeted as an emergency fund, but no cash assets listed? Is the emergency fund a plan only at this stage?
If so, that's actually another £50pm to add to the monthly surplus up to this point.

The big cutback to me look like groceries, can save £100s there. After that, presents (halve it) and mobiles (depending on their ages, encourage the kids to start paying for their own)

life_in_termoil

the money in my emergency fund paid off the catalogues so starting from scratch again this month. Also no assets in birthday fund as had a 21st and 18th this year plus the last birthday is next week, so need to start saving again for xmas same as for the car road tax and MOT was last month so that pot is empty too (luckily car passed MOT but its 8 years old now so dont know how long its gonna last for lol)

We havent been on holiday this year but we are all going away for a weekend at the end of the summer holidays. It has only cost me £110 for 2 nights but will need spending money whilst we are their.

Devi

Don't worry - this time will pass and it looks like you are taking some positive steps to address your problems.

Is taking another lodger after the current one leaves an option - the lack of income from that side will impact your "surplus" surely? Agree with everyone else - keep a spending diary and even if you squirrel away £50 a month into an "emergency" fund, it will soon add up.

Triggles

I agree the spending diary is a good idea - it's so easy to go through money without realising it!! Also is your 18yo in full time schooling? Or working? If they are working, how about having him contribute to the family budget? Or at the very least, pay for their own expenses such as clothing, haircuts, mobile.