RE: budget help!!!

monkeymonkey55

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,800.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.37
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.50
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459.03
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.01
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216.67
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,800.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,671.08

Tixy

Hi monkey

Your budget shows you have just over £100 spare each month. Does that feel about right for how your finances are?
Is this budget just for you? do you live alone?

monkeymonkey55 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . 3,800.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.37
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.50
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 56.00 this seems quite high, although I assume your heating is all elec? have you shopped around recently to see you are with the cheapest supplier?
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.00 if you live alone and this is unmetered switching to a meter should save you money
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227.00 do you live alone? do you claim the 25% discount?
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 this looks high (though hard to tell without knowing house value -but shop around at renewal time).
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459.03 repayment or interest only? how much do you owe? what APR? what is your house value?
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.01 may be able to find cheaper by switching around.
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . .. . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . 216.67 Looks very high if just for one. Should be able to reduce to £150 and still eat very well. Some manage on £80 for 1.
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300.00 is this all essential mileage? do you get any re-imbursement from work?
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87.00 do you shop around for this? could you switch cars to a cheaper one to insure?
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33

Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000.00 how much do you owe in total? what aprs? is this minimum payments or what you actually pay each month?
Personal Loan Repayments. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 775.00 how much do you owe? what APR, how long left?
Savings & Investments
Family
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50
Entertainment
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Dentistry . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63.00 this seems quite high, could it be reduced? any cheaper alternatives?

New Clothes . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00 could you reduce this for a bit until your debts are reduced?
Big One Offs
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . 3,800.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,671.08

I've put a few suggestions as to where you may be able to cut back. How much you need to depends on how far in debt you are and how quickly you want to clear it. If you card repayments are only the minimums or a little more then obviously you are in fairly serious debt. If however by paying that much to your cards you'll have cleared them in say 6months you may not need to cut back any futher.

monkeymonkey55

Sorry this budget is for me and my husband. We are trying to clear credit cards and a loan this year - to get ourselves out of debt so that we can look at home improvements next year - and maybe having kids!!!
Will go through comments - thankyou!!

theoretica

As you don't have kids you could also decide to cut down on Christmas, birthdays and holidays. Think about finding ways to spend time rather than cash on gifts.

Newspapers and magazines could be replaced by reading online.

foxgloves

Food could be cut, car insurance looks high....I've just almost halved my monthly payments down to under £17 a month, so you could try shopping around for that, home insurance.....these keep increasing if you stay with the same firm, ours was almost as much as yours when the renewal came this year, I declined it & found one for £25 a month, gym/fitness not really viable to pay this amount out if you have debts to clear, Chsritmas presents, etc, put suitable things away for presents all year round & spend the minimum amount on presents until debts have gone. Could you have a holiday-free year? We've just had one (didn't much like it!) but we had a big bill to pay & apart from buying necessary things like underwear, it's perfectly possible to go a year without spending on clothes. It might not be what most people are used to these days, but the simple fact is that however much you do things like tart cards and change providers, this only saves so much.....the other big bit of getting debts paid off has to be that you only spend on essentials until the debts have gone. There are loads of people on here who have done or are doing just that. And budget. Set a budget as soon as your salary goes in the bank & really track how your monthly spending plans are progressing. When you set it all out on paper in black & white, it's amazing how it makes you more aware of exactly what impact a small overspend a day can do over the course of a month, then a year.

[Deleted User]

monkeymonkey55 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . 3,800.00 (is this a combined income for both you and hubby? - could one or both of you increase your hours/do overtime/get a second job)

Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00 (Are you in contract? If so see if you can reduce a tariff, if you are out of contract look at SIM only deals/PAYG)
TV Licence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.37
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.50 (see if combining with home phone would work out cheaper)
Home Phone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00 (as above)
Electricity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56.00 (Check you're on the best tariff - often online is cheaper)
Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227.00 (see if you can pay over 12 months instead of 10, or alternatively pay the equivalent about off one of your debts during your council tax free months)
Home Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 (Check comparisons sites at renemwal)
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459.03
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.01
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.00 (check comparison sites)
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . 216.67 (Is this groceries for two - if so this can be reduced - pop over to the old style board for help and advice, also try dropping brands, batch cooking, meal planning, sticking to a list etc)

Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300.00 (this is high, is there any way to reduce - compare with public transport, car share etc)
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Car Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87.00 (check comparison sites)
Car Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33

Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000.00 (How many cards - what are the APR's, what's the total amount owed, and what's the minimum monthly payments for each of the cards (THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW THE QUICKEST WAY TO PAY THEM OFF)
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . 775.00 (Again, what's the APR? How much is outstanding? How long left for it to run? And are there any early repayment charges?)

Savings & Investments Do you have any savings? Perhapse consider a small emergency account - even £10/£15 per month until your debts are paid off and then increase this amount to cover any unexpected bills/maintenance).

Family
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00 (check comparison sites)
Travel Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50 (as above)

Entertainment
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Eating Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

Clothes, Health & Beauty
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.00 (what's this for and would shopping around make this cheaper?)
Haircuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Healthcare Cashplans. .. . . . . . . . . . . . 17.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63.00 (If this is gym membership, does it get used enough to warrant paying this amount? If you are regular users compare prices with other gyms and compare)
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00 (stick to essentials only
for now)
Birthdays. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 (reduce for now)
Summer Holiday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67 (is it already booked - consider if you can afford it)
Christmas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 (reduce)

Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 (read the news online)

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,800.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,671.08

The SOA shows that you have a surplus at the end of every month - do you actually have this? If so pay it towards the debt that's costing you the most (has the highest APR), if you don't have it keep a spending diary to see where it goes.

HTH,

Domino9

monkeymonkey55

Hi - thanks for all this - there is a lot for me to look at. I have just done a detailed analysis on our spending in Jan - and we were way over budget - manage to spend over £400 on food shopping!!!! So the key thing is for us to have a budget and stick to it. We are £15k in debt at the minute (not including mortgage) and I have worked out a plan to get us debt free by the end of the year. We have already knocked £30 off our monthly bills - and I have realised that we are just about to come off the introductory offer rates on our credit cards - so I have applied for the barclaycard transfer - the recommended transfer deal through this site. All going well so far - just need to stick to budget!!

One of the things that makes it so complicated for us is that I have an account, my hubby has an account, then we have a joint account and a joint credit card and then I have my own credit card - so many statements to manage!!!