budget - argh - loads more than I thought

gymsam74

Hi all - this is for a family of 4 any help on cutbacks I may not have though of gratefully accepted (holidays, christmas, birthdays and lunches are all obvious ones - packed lunches all the way already)

this exclude our childcare costs as we both take vouchers through work so it comes out of our salary at source

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,100.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 70.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.92
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.99
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.42
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Debt Repayments
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00
Savings & Investments
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.00
Family
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.67
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.56
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Big One Offs
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.50
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.50
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166.67
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,170.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,307.89

herewegoagain2010

Not a expert, but your benefits seem a little low. How many children do you have and what are their ages? I get £132 Child benefit and £41ish tax credits. Can your children take packed lunch too. I've saved a fortune by doing PL and they both get to sit with their friends too. I found that my eldest wasn't really eating 60% of the meals, so at least you know you can give the things they like.
Good luck x

isy1011

Im sure that you can pay for playgroups with vouchers too. Do I take it that you have no debt then?

166 a month on summer holiday. Too much when your outgoings exceed your income im afraid.

Tixy

Hi gymsam

Obviously you need to be making some cutbacks as your expenses are higher than your income. You might not need to make all the suggestions below but they are all things to consider considering you have at least £140 to find.

gymsam74 wrote: »

Hi all - this is for a family of 4 any help on cutbacks I may not have though of gratefully accepted (holidays, christmas, birthdays and lunches are all obvious ones - packed lunches all the way already)

this exclude our childcare costs as we both take vouchers through work so it comes out of our salary at source

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,100.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 70.00 this looks too low? is this child benefit? should be more than this? have you checked if you cab get tax credits?
Monthly Expense Details
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00 this looks high, should be able to reduce this quite a bit for a family of 4, some can manage on £200, but maybe set a target of £200 to start. Try meal planning for a week before you shop and try the drop a brand challenge. For tips on cutting costs here have a look at the oldstyle board.
Debt Repayments
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00 how long do you have left to pay this? are you paying interest on it?
Savings & Investments
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.00 what is this? how much is saved? what APR are you earning?
Family
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.67
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.56
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00 have you considered reducing the package?
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 what are you spending this on? I always think this is an odd category as even if its fun you must be buying something with it? clothes? items for the house? toys?
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00 could reduce this
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 and this
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 are these essential? can you do home versions instead?
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 could try reducing this
Big One Offs
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.50 this is high, cut back here
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.50
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166.67 you can't afford 2 holidays a year unless you can get your budget to balance. Even if you do go, could you find something cheaper to do?
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.00 could stop this
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 could stop this

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,170.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,307.89

There is some scope to make sufficent cutbacks. You only have the HP as debt repayments in, do you have any other debts? overdrafts etc? If you haven't any debts then is doesn't look like your figures can be right as by this you should be getting further into debt each month or draining any savings you have each month.

theoretica

Parking, satellite TV, eating and drinking out, newspapers, coffees and household shopping stand out to me...

gymsam74

Hi everyone

I've filled in the desirable figures and reduced much of the above as suggested (not holidays at present as I want to try and keep them if at a reduced level - the winter ones are the cost of flights to see my parents who live abroad we go twice a year about £300 in flights or ferry when we go for 4)

Dropped lunches, coffees straight away, will call sky tommorrow - can only get sky where we are or freeview, eating out was 1 meal a month and drinking 1 night out for DH and 1 for me but they can go

The food includes laundary and cleaning although I agree is too high - have been checking out the frugal boards

We have no other debt, have used some saving to pay for holidays in the past year but do not want to keep accessing savings for this as not essential - the hp is our suite which is interest free

Agree with the cutback on birthdays - DH has a large family and at £10 a person plus his birthday and the kids that is where this comes from same with Christmas 35 present to buy this year!

gymsam74

I think I have forgotten the child benefit and need to add this in, sorry all, it gets paid into a different account and I use it for the kids savings and clothes so forgot about it and thought I'd checked and double checked

gymsam74

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,272.00[/b]

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,311.30

looks healthier but still an overspend £39 so will be applying all the cutbacks
on the desirable we should be able to save / pay off mortgage an extra £400 a month at least

gonna try to sort the bank account for piggybanking tomorrow and give DH cash pocket money - he'll love that:rotfl:

Naomim

gymsam74 wrote: »

Agree with the cutback on birthdays - DH has a large family and at £10 a person plus his birthday and the kids that is where this comes from same with Christmas 35 present to buy this year!

Hi and well done for trying to look at your budget before you get into any dire straits.

We have a rule in our house that we only buy birthday presents for kids, no adults and I will buy a birthday present for (close) friends children but no Christmas presents. Christmas presents are for family children only. (My two plus inlaws and my two Godchildren)

Maybe you could suggest this?

Naomi x

Swans1912

Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Worth £180 per year??

Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.00
Down twice??

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00
£19.50 is the cheapest pack... downgrade

Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
All the above you don't need......

Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
cut these... maybe keep the meal as a treat


Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
seems excessive?


Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.50
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67

Kids only? Agree with family to help you out

Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.50
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166.67
excessive if you can't balance your books even if it is flights


Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
not needed

Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
charity starts at home

Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.00
cut also

Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
cut also

good luck

Norfolk_Jim

If you want to hold onto basic Sky, when you call them to cancel they will ask why - if you tell them you are having a tough time with the finances and need to make savings they will very likely offer you a range of reductions and a reduction in number of packages - so for example you might go from a full package to minimum package and 50% off for 3-6 months or any combination in between.
Getting rid of Sky is the default advice but if you find it too much to give up its worth being aware of this before speaking to them