£14310 off mortgage 2010 lets make 2011 better

sarahevie

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1097
Benefits................................ 700
Other income............................ 120
Total monthly income.................... 1917
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 850
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 74
Electricity............................. 44
Gas..................................... 27
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 10
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 210
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 60
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 30
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 100
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 10
Contents insurance...................... 5
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 6
Entertainment........................... 200
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 25
Total monthly expenses.................. 1868

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 175000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 180000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 138000...(850)......5.99
Total secured & HP debts...... 138000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,917
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,868
Available for debt repayments........... 49
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 49
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 180,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -138,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 42,000
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

sarahevie

A bit about my family. There's me (26), OH (27). DD1 (2) DD2 (3 months). I'm currently a SAHM would like to get back to my previous life in academia (I'm currently still writing up for a PhD - I was nearly finished 2 years ago before I had DD1 but haven't made a lot of progress since (two pregnancies in quick succession there's 21 months between my girls)

My OH works for the minimum wage so has to put in a lot of hours for his wage. Our motivation is to give our girls a better life and maybe a bigger home. We are very grateful for our home we have a typical 1930s end terrace (2 double beds 1 box room) but we currently owe 7 times OH's salary so you can imagine what a drain it is on the finances.

I accept that really I need to get a job, but DD2 was born with a congenital lung condition and hole in her heart so she still has very frequent hospital trips. I was told she wouldn't survive at 12 weeks pregnant, 20 weeks she had 8% chance of survival but she's a little miracle and is doing so well.

I'm hoping my diary will keep me motivated and hopefully help us to make savings where we can. It would be lovely to not always have to buy value (like we do at the mo) and a holiday would be great as well.

SmlSave

Welcome to MFW Sarah

Your SOA shows there should be £49 left over each month, do you find that it disapears or that you actually have it?

Do you have any savings? Its recommended to have emergancy savings of 3-6 months wages. (My savings are practically nil...shhhhhh)

A lot of people here do daily clicks, surveys and mystery shops to bring in extra income - perhaps these might be worth a look.

LilacPixie

Welcome Sarah - I have the same gap between my two girls. They are 2 and now so it does get a bit easier once they both get a bit more independent and you do find some more me time. (says me typing while balamory is on cebeebies).

I do surveys for vouchers to offset the costs of christmas/birthdays and scratchcards too.

My only comments on your SOA would be the £50 for presents, £50 clothing and £200 entertainment a month. Maybe a small saving there to add to the MF pot would be nice but every penny counts as that say.

dimbo61

Well good luck on the MF journey and I have got to say you are very unlikely to be able to move to another lender with your income and the size of the mortgage.
Is it on a long term fix ?
Save up some emergency funds while also overpaying if you can ? 50/50 would be a good start
Enjoy your time with the kids as they soon grow up

sarahevie

We've got £6000 saved up (this was deliberate or it would affect our benefits)

We used to have £30,000 but I was driving a 12 year old car so we scrapped it under scrappage scheme for a brand new one. £5000, then paid £19,000 off our mortgage.

Our mortgage is on a long term fix (10 years) started Nov 2007 (no tie ins after 5).

Our main problem with the house is that we bought it peak of the market with only a 10% deposit.

On the positive, we stretched ourselves for the house because it is fairly large (1050sq foot) and therefore we don't need to move now. Our three local schools are all outstanding ofsted and OH works 5 minute walk away.

dimbo61

You are doing the right thing so if you do have spare money over £6K then OP the mortgage and good luck

katsu

Hi Sarah,

Well done for posting your SOA. When people are not in debt it is more a matter of opinion and preference as to making savings, so in the hopes some of my thoughts are helpful I've made suggestions below.

sarahevie wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1097
Benefits................................ 700
Other income............................ 120
Total monthly income.................... 1917
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 850
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 74
Electricity............................. 44 not sure what is right for your size household. Have you checked you are on the best tariff via a comparison site (use quidco/tcb for switching cashback). My library lends free owl meters so you can check your consumption
Gas..................................... 27 have you blocked all draughts, foil behind radiators, lined curtains etc for winter?
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 10 wow!
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 15 If your phone is by 02 they do this for £7.50 - checked Martin's articles for the best deal on this?
Groceries etc. ......................... 210
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 60
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 30
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 100 guess this is something unavoidable
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 10 again this looks good - don't forget to do a comparison at renewal time as you get cashback for that via quidco
Contents insurance...................... 5
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50 I think you could bring this down. I did Christmas gifts for 23 people for ~£180 last year. Do you do surveys for vouchers, buy in sales all year round etc?
Haircuts................................ 6 wow again
Entertainment........................... 200 Are you using the best deals like Orange Weds at cinemas? Could you cut this back a bit by using vouchers etc?
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 25 have you got this going into an ISA or other top rate savings account?
Total monthly expenses.................. 1868

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 175000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 180000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 138000...(850)......5.99
Total secured & HP debts...... 138000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,917
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,868
Available for debt repayments........... 49
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 49
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 180,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -138,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 42,000
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

sarahevie

Electricity
Gas
Have switched to n power after a uswitch comparison

Phone Line - Switched to Primus

Internet - we live in an area where we can't get channel five and internet provision is similar our Virgin account is the only one that has ever been reliable so OH won't let us swap.

Car insurance due this month so need to do a comparison.

Aim for this week two no spend days. Not sure how it's going to work but worth a shot.

SmlSave

Good luck with your NSD's this week

sarahevie

Had my first no spend day.

Went to see my friend locally. Was brilliant our girls played together whilst we chatted.

Then came home and Monday is my housework day. (Everyday is housework day but I try and blitz on a Monday after the weekend) Two loads of washing, scrubbing finger marks off the walls. Tidying up the girls bedrooms.

Have been invited for drinks and nibbles on Thursday night - so another no spend day hopefully!

Tomorrow isn't going to be so good as I have arranged to meet a friend for lunch going to try and make it fairly MSE though as we're going to the 'free' local children's centre in the morning.