Work full time, but cant keep money. want to save n make my gf and baby proud :(

Muesli

Just an idea, don't wait til next payday, start the spending diary tomorrow! Just writing down what I was spending made a difference as it made me stick to my budget. It's surprising how much small purchases add up without you noticing.

Another thing that I find easier is to have a weekly budget rather than monthly. I just tallied up our bills, rounding up for ones that vary, and I divided the remainder by 4.3, which is the average number of weeks in a month and that gave me a weekly budget so I know the max I can spend each week, which means we don't run out of money in the run up to pay day!

MFWannabe

DaddyWhitts wrote: »

Yes i did spend more than i earnt, I have really always been bad with money as there was only me but now the baby is here I know i need to get my act together and I keep saying ill do it this month, then the month after and so on but it needs to be done NOW.

I did an SOA and have pasted it below.

Thanks.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1000
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1000

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 55 - You really need to get rid of this and go payg or drop to minium tarriff
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 250 - You could reduce this
Clothing................................ 150 - this needs to be seriously reduced; that's a huge amount to spend every month
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 110
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 100 - what is this for?
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40 - Could you reduce this to £20 per month?
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 40
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 825


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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Overdraft 1....................600.......20........10
Overdraft 2....................400.......20........10
Overdraft 3....................400.......20........9
Total unsecured debts..........1400......60........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,000
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 825
Available for debt repayments........... 175
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 60
Amount left after debt repayments....... 115

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -1,400
Net Assets.............................. -1,400


Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.


P.S although it says i have cash left over, that is not the case, i think alot gets spent on rubbish (e.g buying easy meals on my lunch break instead of making it and taking it in and buying treats which i know needs to stop) i often end up lending off parents as you can imagine is very embaresing every month and unfair!

Hi
I've made some comments above. Do think again about putting your overdrafts into a loan as the interest on £1400 loan would be pretty high. The best thing you can do is try and clear the overdrafts. think about opening a Basic bank account with no overdraft facility that you can get your wages paid into. This should be seperate to any of the ones you have debts with. Then you can treat these overdrafts as debts. Don't tell any of them you are doing this though as they can currently use 'offsetting' which means they could take the money you owe them from your wages at any time.

You didn't include the £80 per month in your soa that you say you are putting in savings. Stop this for now and put the £80 per month towards paying overdrafts instead. Once these are paid you can start this again. There's no point putting money in a savings account if you are then using overdrafts every month or borrowing off parents.
If you keep a spending diary and make some cutbacks you should be able to get rid of these debts quite quickly and begin to save properly.

artybear

Hi in regards to the groceries maybe this website will hep you?

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/

The premise is too feed a family of four for £100 a month, so pretty easy for you to halve your budget at least. You seem like you are trying to do the right thing.

Good Luck to you xxx

missworks2jobs

DaddyWhitts wrote: »

I have started getting £80 put in a savings account every month, i have 3 overdrafts i cant get out of so next month ive decided to get a loan to pay them off so i can get rid of them with one monthly payment.

Well done you for making the first step and wanting to sort yourself out. I dont want this to sound like i'm picking on you or anything..BUT. If you're in overdraft you should not be putting money into savings. You'll get absolutely nothing for it in interest, and that money could be used to pay off the overdraft sooner meaning lower overall interest, and less likely to rack up more charges.

Also only get a loan to pay them off if its going to cost you less - if that makes sense. If the loan APR is higher than your overdraft APR then you're going to end up paying back more. If you used your £80 savings to pay off the overdraft would it get rid of it any faster than taking out the loan (i.e. loans can be 3-5 years before you're rid of them). You might also want to consider whether the monthly payment for the loan is more than the overdraft payments/charges individually.

Hope that helps and wasn't too patronising or anything, I know you're wanting some money put aside, but you have to think long term and overall. There's no point having £50 savings in the bank if you're £50 overdrawn AND getting charged £30 for being overdrawn. Yes if you used the savings to pay the £50 overdraft you'd have no money...but you wouldn't owe an extra £30! Do you see what I mean - I know its a simplified and lower amount but I think things are much easier to understand if you make the figures smaller.

missworks2jobs

DaddyWhitts wrote: »

P.S although it says i have cash left over, that is not the case, i think alot gets spent on rubbish (e.g buying easy meals on my lunch break instead of making it and taking it in and buying treats which i know needs to stop) i often end up lending off parents as you can imagine is very embaresing every month and unfair!

Have you tried the October no spend on lunches challenge!!
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2769142
Its basically people trying not to spend money on lunches and bring from home. Some really handy tips & ideas and mostly people patting each other on the back for not spending a fortune - if you think about it £4 a day on a sandwich & coffee is £20 a week, or £80 a month - there's your £80 savings money!:D

Primrose

I'd definitely agree that it makes more sense to clear your overdraft before putting money into savings as longer term it will be less costly for you.
Taking packed lunches to work will help reduce your spend. I assume your partner is not working at the moment, with a small baby, so hopefully she will have a little more time to research and cook cheap meals. Menu planning will definitely help as you can often get special deals on groceries, and for example safe fuel as well by looking a double lot of mashed potatoes one day and for example use them in a different way the following day, i.e. corned beef hash or savoury cheese & potato bake.

With a small baby you need to keep your home warm, but check out some of the other threads in the Old Style section here for hints to save on fuel bills. There are a lot of canny experienced people posting on there who will be only too happy to share their knowledge and tips.

theoretica

Is the £250 a month food just for you or for two adults and a baby? If it is not all food for the three of you it is very high.

You have made a good start- I have a few suggestions on cutting down on general/rubbish spending.

Set yourself a plan with your SOA and a budget for non-essential general spending: entertainment, clothing and treats. Don't make it unrealistically low, but something you can live with. You might want to take this out in cash every month (or week) and leave your cards at home - if you only spend cash and see how the money in your wallet goes down it may help you remember you can only spend money once.

With non-food treats and clothing never buy when you see an item- only if you still want it enough to go back a couple of days later.

With food what is the cheapest sandwich or equivalent you could get for lunch? When you can't be bothered to make something can you confine yourself to the boredom of that repeatedly, or something like instant soups and oatcakes that you could take in without preparing and maybe leave a stash in work.

You can ask your bank to reduce your overdraft limit. Try to reduce it by £200 a month and it will be gone sooner and more cheaply than a loan.

wherediditallgothen

Have been there and done that as far as taking a loan out to pay off overdrafts goes.

Would never do it again and wish I had never done it in the first place.

firesidemaid

it's possible to clear those overdrafts in 3 months!

Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 55
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Clothing................................ 150
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Othertravel............................ Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 100
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 40
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0


If you reduce your mobile bill to £20 a month - you can get unlimited internet, texts and at least 600mins for that.

cut the groceries in half - you can make sandwiches for a week and freeze them even! make sure you have a stock of crisps/biscs/fruit etc at work.

stop spending on clothing for 3 months, reduce pressies to £20 a month. you can still have lots for entertainment and save £500-£600 per month!

stop taking cash to work - then you can't spend it. i hate having to buy food at work. i had to do it for the first time today in ages - i bought a baguette and cut it in half so i could have half today and half tomorrow. i had crisps, fruit, yogs and choc already in my locker at work.

remember, when you have a place of your own there will be a lot more bills to pay/consider.

good luck:D