Lessons Learned From Spending Diary- Hannah's SOA- (updated)

Hannah_10

Will definately be having more after this one, ok not definately (boyfriend not convinced) but I want more than one this time round. Until I see what sort of baby I get I suppose I ought to say "maybe", but you know what people are like when they're hell bent on something... It'd take a lot to put me off now.

dancingfairy

:j:j:j
Just a thought - why not set yourself a weekly spend target for food out. I'm sure this is a weekly challenge for 'spends' somewhere on here.
Good Luck
df

bottleofred

Hi Hannah,

Having seen some of your advice you've given to other forum members, you don't need me to tell you that some of the things on your SOA are excessively high, so I'll leave it with you to sort out what to reduce in order to generate more cash. The one thing I would say though is the ready meals/take aways are expensive and you can get loads of recipes online for free these days in order to cook from scratch.

Good luck and I hope all goes well with the Baby

Bottle of Red

ViolaLass

This may not be practical, but is it an option to spend more time with your nephews and nieces rather than buying them things? It's just a thought.

Also, are you using Gumtree and Freecycle for things you need now? They may not be as nice as you'd like (though sometimes they might be) but even if it was just 'something for now' it would buy you time to deal with your debts.

Hannah_10

dancingfairy wrote: »

OOO - does that mean that you can pay your car insurance off and cross of one of you debts and update your signature? how exciting :j - one less to tackle and you will have an extra bit of money to put towards the next one. :j
df

Job done, all paid and gone up to 16.77%

Hannah_10

ViolaLass wrote: »

Also, are you using Gumtree and Freecycle for things you need now? They may not be as nice as you'd like (though sometimes they might be) but even if it was just 'something for now' it would buy you time to deal with your debts.

I cost estimated to buy all the kit again at £3k-£5k... Then thought er NO WAY! So my sister (she's a legend) and I have been on a bit of a mission...

Thanks mainly to her I have now accumlated everything I need for the baby, for the most part two sets (one for boyfriends house). I only still need monitors and a nappy bucket. Everything else from the car seats, to the highchair, the bottles, cot, moses basket, bags and bags of clothes for either gender up to about 24m, washable nappies, you name it... EVERYTHING is found.

If the worst comes to the worst I will have to actually buy the monitors and bucket new (about £40) and my total spend on the baby (excluding a new food processor) will have been under £120. :eek: You gotta love my sister! :happyhear

I'm due a maternity grant from the government soon as well, that's going on the debt and all.

LilacPixie

you tried your local council or nappacino? someone may have a spare bucket of quite often companies send councils products for demo's so they may have one. Other than that freecycle.

Will you really need a monitor? will you need one right away? I kept my kids in my room for 1st 6 months so didn't really need it.

Hannah_10

I think I will yes, I wont be able to sit down for half an hour without one, I'll be fretting. Which I know I shouldn't, but I know I will. Lets not rush though, I still have a couple of months and some might well turn up on Freecycle or to my sisters unofficial appeal around her local area. If none do there's always time for a charity shop or eBay bargain.

Mind you though, since I'll have had £690 in government grants and only spent £120 of it on the baby, then got what would have cost me £3k-£5k new for that £120, I'm not too worried! :cool:

Will do a post in a bit with what a few axe-falls of my own on that SOA, as if it wasn't mine!

Hannah_10

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 855.4
Other income............................ 49.38
Total monthly income.................... 904.78

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council Tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 30.58
Gas..................................... 20.78
Oil..................................... 0
Water Rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 26.14 << Room to adjust, could be £25
Mobile Phone............................ 4.52
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 15.65 << Check end of contract date a set up tart-alert, too high.
Food.................................... 127.3 << Could be lowered, try for £100 in the first instance.
Ready To Eat Food, Meals Out and Snacks. 102.5 << What! Set this to £20, a fiver a week.
Toiletries.............................. 22.71 << Too high, start using up the stockpiles and set budget at £20 here too to start.
Cleaning and Household Products......... 20.99 << There has got to be potential on this one, set to £16 initially.
Household Goods......................... 64.66 << just be careful, £60 limit from now on
Clothing................................ 20.4
Petrol/Diesel........................... 41.68 << Can be reduced, try to keep this to £35
Road Tax................................ 10.55
Car Insurance........................... 25.52 << Gone! Yay! Needs to appear in SOA, but in reality is gone.
Car Maintenance (including MOT)......... 4.52 << Will be higher than this after todays £16.06p in parts. No new estimate yet.
Car Parking............................. 5.33 << This is only a high-summer figure, out or season this ought by rights to be £3 (hospital parking) only.
Breakdown Cover......................... 5.49
Other Travel............................ 2.71
Childcare/Nursery....................... 0
Other Child Related Expenses............ 13.3
Medical (Prescriptions, Dentist etc).... 3
Pet Insurance/Vet Bills................. 10.16 << Make more use of the PDSA schemes, requires research, no estimate.
Pet Equipment eg. Collars, Tags......... 5.56
Pet Food................................ 13.23
Buildings Insurance..................... 0
Contents Insurance...................... 10
Life Assurance ......................... 0
Other Insurance......................... 0
Presents (Birthday, Christmas etc)...... 40.57 << Aiming for £30 here
Haircuts................................ 9.04 << If I don't want to compromise where I get it done I need to go less often for a dry cut (cheaper) instead.
Entertainment........................... 22.37 << Not high, but need to be making sure I have read the books and watched the DVDs before I buy any more. Cap at £25.
Holiday................................. 6
Emergency Fund.......................... 12.65
Carer................................... 69.24 << I think perhaps I could cut this back to £40, will try, experimentally only in the first instance.
Charity Giving.......................... 27.62 << Needs to be capped at £12
Stationary and Postage.................. 15.89 << Be aware of the need to reduce, sometimes awareness is enough.
Lottery................................. 4
Total monthly expenses.................. 809.17

Assets
Cash.................................... 220 << Now gone
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 650
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 870

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Electricity Arrears............110.45....20........0
Gas Arrears....................599.03....0.........0
Water Arrears..................463.48....0.........0
Rent Arrears...................624.28....20........0
Bank of Sister.................280.......20........0
BISL (Car Insurance)...........249.03....0.........0 << Now paid
Aviva..........................105.12....0.........0
Moorcroft/Orange...............539.65....0.........0
Old Overdraft..................2268......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........5239.04...60........- <<, Now under £5k (see my DFW diary for accurate figure)


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 904.78
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 814.66
Available for debt repayments........... 90.12 << If all new targets are met then this will become £295.85 :money:
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 60
Amount left after debt repayments....... 30.12 << Ought to be none, as all spare money after SOA does go on debts.

So that's it, instead of having £90.12 to pay debts off with I think I ought to be able to up that to £295.85 ideally.

In reality no one's perfect and shaving £50 a week off my spending is not going to be in the slightest bit easy. In particular this dreadful habit I've developed of eating ready made food while out of the house is going to be hard to curb. I never did this when I had a family! The ready to eat and convenience foods figure should be zero. To be fair to myself I will allow myself a fiver a week so at least I can have a cafe cup of tea or a bar of chocolate sometimes. (Maybe even a Subway meal if I am very careful the rest of the week).

We shall see if I can keep it up!

If I can get a 28 month with £200 spare for debts (starting on Tuesday for ease of accounting) then I will be satisfied with that for an opener.

Tomorrow I shall sign up to some food spend challenges and maybe the no toiletries one too.

ViolaLass

This looks like a really excellent start, well done. You're clearly aware of what needs to happen, which is a big part of the problem usually. Good luck!