Juicygirl's forever home but NOT forever mortgage diary!

juicygirl

Will take a look at the cars. To be honest I know it is an area we throw away money. We change them every few years so never really pay them off completely.

This morning we are heading to the supermarket. Looking at some of the other diaries I can see we spend far to much here ( although this does include cleaning products etc). Only need some basics this week but going to start thinking about meal planning more to keep the costs down. x

getmore4less

You definately need to budget this SOA is just a loads of guesses.

The SOA format is realy for those that have cash flow issues and NEED to put aside for less regular spends but you have plenty of income to to manage the cash flow issues so can budget yearly making sure you have enough aside for the bills when they happen.


I would start with a detailed annual budget and then forcast the next 5 years so the only debt you have from then on is the mortgage, everything else is saved up for.

You might find a tool like MSmoney or similar is better than the SOA or spreadsheets.

Remember a budget is a forward plan of how you intend to allocate income, the trick is tracking to make sure you keep on budget or adjust the plan to match reality.

ON the SOA looking at anual costs
£600+ : Buildings/contents looks very high at over check your cover, I got mine right sown when we reviewed some the cover.

400+ : Mobiles, should be able to get this for near free with cash back.



£750+ : sat/cable review thats a lot without the phone and broadband do you need all those chanells.

Husband car finance .................... 340
Car finance............................. 290
assets
Car(s).................................. 1600

Does not add up. £630pm for cars that are worthless?
thats over 7k a year you could get a new car every year for that?

THese should also be in the unsecured debts.

Should your car be in your business not personal budgets.

Nothing allocated for the things you plan to buy, make a list and add a line for "nice things for the house we want but don't need"

Also add maintanence,

any plans fo the garden, like a BBQ for the summer


I can see that the relatively high income has allowed you to just buys stuff without really thinking about cost value.

A bit of forward palnning and proper budgets will save you loads especialy for the astuff you want.

Identify the purchases and wait they will be on offer at some point thats when to get the stuff rather than now.

As you realise you realy need to review your car habbits these will drain your resources and a bit of frugal motoring will knock YEARS of your mortgage.

I recon with a bit of smart adjustments you could easily have over £2k clear each month after accounting for every thing needed over the next 5 years.

getmore4less

juicygirl wrote: »

Will take a look at the cars. To be honest I know it is an area we throw away money. We change them every few years so never really pay them off completely.

This morning we are heading to the supermarket. Looking at some of the other diaries I can see we spend far to much here ( although this does include cleaning products etc). Only need some basics this week but going to start thinking about meal planning more to keep the costs down. x

£250 for 2 people including all household stuff is only a bit over, nice meals in, saves going out and takeaways.
Reducing waste is a key area to look at.

IS booze include in that total, also now you have the house will you entertain at home more, is the family coming round at Xmas, some of that £250 can go towards those without overspending your budget

juicygirl

Thank you so much for those useful posts getmore4less . A lot for me to think though there. Going to work through it step by step!
Think we are so used to just going with the flow but 'growing up' has really kicked in recently. We really want a family (although that isn't proving as easy as we thought) and don't want to go from comfortable living to breadline. By making the changes now we want to try to increase our security while getting used to living on less.

Off to the hubby's Gran's for lunch now

katsu

juicygirl,

Great to see you being so open to the advice. My DH and I have chatted whilst reading your thread and think you should be able to do really well if you apply the advice and tips - starting with working out a baseline! I'd suggest a glass of wine for you and Mr juicygirl then get your bank statements and add them into the SOA categories - for a quarter or the whole year or just back to August when you got the house. That way you can see that you spent £Y on clothes because you know what they sell in new look/house of fraser/whatever and £Z on random tat because you fed your paypal that money and know you spent it on ebay, £A was spent in furniture land and B&Q so went on house stuff etc etc. You can always add categories.

Then you will have a more realistic assessment of what you spent and can look at ways of reducing it to free up OP cash

adwat

Hi juicygirl

Good news that you get x4 bonus of £900 - if you use these to overpay your mortgage then in order to pay it down in your target 20 years then you only need to regularly overpay £500 per month, from your SOA it looks like this should be quite doable for you. The best thing is that you've made the effort to start overpaying now rather than in say 10 years time, go for the £800 per month now and it can only get easier in time as you benefit from pay rises & promotions. After all you've got a humongous loan to pay down.

getmore4less

juicygirl wrote: »

Thank you so much for those useful posts getmore4less . A lot for me to think though there. Going to work through it step by step!
Think we are so used to just going with the flow but 'growing up' has really kicked in recently. We really want a family (although that isn't proving as easy as we thought) and don't want to go from comfortable living to breadline. By making the changes now we want to try to increase our security while getting used to living on less.

Off to the hubby's Gran's for lunch now

That will save a bit off the groceries enjoy.

It takes time to adjust, especialy when you are used to just doing things.

Challenge all your spends and assumptions one at a time

One approach is to do the extream "living below your means" and identify all the cutbacks and see what you miss the most and put them back.

Another is the relative value, eg : look at that tv package and how much you use it, what could you do with the money that you may enjoy more.

If planning a family then don't under estimate the costs.


katsu idea of a retrospective spending diary is a good idea, see if you can catagorise all the spends over the last 12 months(most people can't unless they allready track)

Net weath Jan 2011 - (net wealth Jan 2010 + income )
will tell you how much you need to remember what you spent it on.

Some will be easy some a bit harder.

The total might be a shock.

juicygirl

Hey all,

Half day at work today After cleaning the house I've decided to make a start on looking more closer at our spends and try to get a budget together. Doubt this will be completed today but hubby is now on board and we'll complete this together at the weekend.

From the quick look I have had so far I can see the 1. I have a bad A**zon habit and 2. I have a bad M & S habit. I thought I was doing well avoiding frivolous spends - we take packed lunches to work, I have cut down on my previously extensive magazine habit etc - but I can see that I place online orders very regularly despite the growing pile of unread books I have. I would also think nothing of treating myself to a nice Marks lunch on my half day but come out with flowers and extra bits and pieces and be £30 down. So today I bypassed and made myself toast and cheese instead.

Getting ever closer to my first overpayment at end of month

dollarsense

you won't regret it. sacrafice now for a better life later

juicygirl

Hi again all,

I started this diary at the start of the year but all my good intentions went out the window when we got the bad news that mr juicygirl and I were highly unlikely to be able to have children of our own without the help of IVF. So the last 6 months have completely bypassed us as we got our heads around that that and saved for the money we needed to have a round of IVF privately.

So now the money is saved and the IVF paid for and due to start later this month and I need another focus in the meantime. Getting a letter from my FA to tell me there was only a year left on the fixed rate got me moving again. So hopefully I will make my first OP on payday.

In the meantime it will be small steps all the way! If anyone is still around thank you for reading again!