HELP!!!!!!!! please

cushion

:(
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,284.00
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) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.46
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.63
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.17
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.95
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,272.00
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.67
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Bike tax. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Bike insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112.82
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.67
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.67
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,284.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,495.03

ryan86uk

Stop smoking, take a packed lunch, get cheaper BB, go on pay as you go, reduced hobby spending, get rid of sky and have freeview.

No longer living outside your means.

cushion

Hi, thanks for that. Income is both husband and myself. Working on the smoking! Already take packed lunches, Broadband includes home phone and line rental (just changed to it as it was a lot cheaper than the one we had) Admit hobby spending includes both our motorbikes (thinking of selling mine to cut spending and just keeping hubbies). Sky should be double the price but phoned and got deal but means I have to keep for 12 months - freeview not available in our area yet! I am trying very very hard here but am struggling to know what to do first and would really appreciate any help. I also have autistic son which is draining both financially and emotionally.

Lucy1010

cushion wrote: »

Hi, thanks for that. Income is both husband and myself. Working on the smoking! Already take packed lunches, Broadband includes home phone and line rental (just changed to it as it was a lot cheaper than the one we had) Admit hobby spending includes both our motorbikes (thinking of selling mine to cut spending and just keeping hubbies). Sky should be double the price but phoned and got deal but means I have to keep for 12 months - freeview not available in our area yet! I am trying very very hard here but am struggling to know what to do first and would really appreciate any help. I also have autistic son which is draining both financially and emotionally.

Hi Cushion

You will save a lot of money by stopping smoking.... easier said than done as I have recently stopped but it was due to this forum and as a result I am saving a huge amount of money and feeling much healthier too.

I dismissed an OP when she suggested this to me at the time of starting a topic asking how much people lived on but I will never ever be able to thank her enough for steering me in the right direction. Check out the giving up smoking thread in the debt free diary... not sure how to post the link, can someone help please??

cushion

Thank you so much for that. I am trying hard on the smoking thing. Husband doesn't smoke and I have successfully cut down - next step is to actually give them up!! Quite a frightening thought but it really has to be and will be done.:eek:

ryan86uk

Your welcome! Sorry for the short initial message, seeing as you were a low posting user thought I would see if anything develops in the thread before giving a more informative answer.

I'm not too sure exactly what you could do in order to help your situation. I do have a few ideas that may help.

As you mentioned get rid of the bikes, why not both? Admittedly you probably enjoy biking but there is no point having something if you can't afford to run it?

How many cars do you have in your household and if more than 1 do you need more than 1?

Good news getting sky cheaper but you could of maybe considered freesat? That would save you £36!

I think £200 a month is quite high for hobbies, personally. What are your hobbies?

Bank account fee? - Do you use the features you are paying for?


Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82.00

^^ I get that for £60 a month and that includes both life assurance and payment protection. Have you tried shopping around for that?

ryan86uk

cushion wrote: »

Thank you so much for that. I am trying hard on the smoking thing. Husband doesn't smoke and I have successfully cut down - next step is to actually give them up!! Quite a frightening thought but it really has to be and will be done.:eek:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Allen-Carrs-Easy-Stop-Smoking/dp/0140277633

Amazing book! Worked for me.

Lucy1010

ryan86uk wrote: »

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Allen-Carrs-Easy-Stop-Smoking/dp/0140277633

Amazing book! Worked for me.

The book is good and it worked for me but I did go back to smoking.... the only thing I found was a support network and it exists right here.... let me try to link to it as I really want you to go there and read for yourself... I want to help you in the same way people have helped me

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2957492

cushion

Many thanks again, I would hate to get rid of my bike but if needs must! Hubby needs his bike and I just want mine so its mine that must go until I can afford it again - at least that will save one lot of tax and insurance. We only have 1 car, which I have to use for work. Hobbies include the bikes etc - when I actually put it down on paper I realised just how much it all costs - quite frightening really when you see it in black and white. Now I think about it - no I don't get anything by paying extra on the bank account. Will change the account tomorrow! The Mortgage payment protection is actually a critical illness and redundancy cover thingy. On reading the gen I find that you practically have to be dead to claim. Think that is another £82 per month I can save. I thank you for taking the time to help

cushion

I have just had a look at the thread - wow I shall be spending a fair amount of time reading and by the looks of it an awful lot of support. I had no idea just how much support I would receive and I thank you for that x

saltnvinegar

Hi Cushion

Welcome to the MSE DFW forum!

My thoughts on where you could save money below

cushion wrote: »

:(
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,284.00
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) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90.00
This is high, even for 2 people and no land line (cos of the free minutes). Can you reduce your contracts? Move to a PAYG? How long left on the contracts. You need to reduce this to at least £45. Ditch the smart phones is thats why this is so high and get a basic phone and text! Try to aim for £60 (savings so far £30)
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.46
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.63
This is expensive. As you have no home phone is this a 3G card or something? Look to get this down to £15 a month (savings so far £42.63)
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.17
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.95
Whats this for? Do you have some sort of banking package. Review if so as they frequently aren't good value for money and you can get the same services for half the cost. Better still ditch it all together (Savings so £55.58)
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,272.00
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67.00
VVV High, shop around, check to ensure you have cover that is excessive and you don't need. I know you can get good cover for half this (savings so far £89.08)
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82.00
VVV High, shop around, check to ensure you have cover that is excessive and you don't need. I know you can get good cover for half this (savings so far £130.08)
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.67
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Bike tax. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Sorry this is a luxury, its got to go (savings so far £140.08)
Bike insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Sorry this is a luxury, its got to go (savings so far £165.08)
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236.00
Can you switch to a 0% card or one with a lower % rate? This may save you some money
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165.00
Whats this for, the car or bike? :?) If its the bike and you sell it will this pay off the HP? Maybe save yourself £165 a month.
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112.82
No point putting money into a pension while you are in debt. Can you reduce payments temporarily? Another potential saving.
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Sorry but the kids are going to have to get a pay cut. Reduce this by at least half if not more. (Savings so far £190.08)
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
I'm afraid you've got to ditch the bike, if not both. This expensive hobby is ham stringing you at the moment if you include the tax/insurance/running costs/petrol too (savings so far £390.08)
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33
Is this for contacts? Seems a bit high. Do you work for an employer where you do VDU work? Many companies now offer a free eye care policy where every 2 years you get a free eye test and glasses if you use a VDU. Ok they may not be designer but needs must....
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
You're struggling financially. Gotta ditch this. (Savings so far £406.75)
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125.00
You're struggling financially, so this has got to be looked at. £1500 for your annual holiday is a bit steep when you're overspending by almost £200 a month. Can you look at a camping holiday? Cottages 4 you if you book early do some great deals too. Cut this in half and you can still have a nice family holiday, just not so extravagant (savings so far £469.25)
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
You and OH may have to cut back a little for Christmas and just buy a couple of things for your son. Reduce this by half (savings so far £494.25)
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.67
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.67
Sorry, easier said than done I know but quit! (Savings so far £515.92)
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,284.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,495.03

So making the changes I highlighted above reduces your outgoings by over £500 a month. Not including the other areas which I didn't include in the savings there is potential to cut back even more.

Look at each area, decide whats the easiest things to cut back on and start there, but there is lots of room to manouvre in your budget and get your outgoings under £3k a month leaving you surplus to pay off your debts more quickly.

Best

SnV