Not currently in debt

Indecisionismymiddlename

Hi

I just really want to join in because we're trying to save a lot of money from our monthly outgoings and save to buy a house.

We've been in debt several times and managed to pull ourselves out but we've used earnings to do that rather than savings and I think it's time that we started to learn house to use money appropriately rather than frittering it.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details for two adults and two children.
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,000.00
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). . . . . . . . . . . 146.03
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.88
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.33
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229.17
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000.00
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Debt Repayments

Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.71
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86.67
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67

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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00

Odds & Sods

Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,146.03


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,843.76

So I'm looking at building up some savings (probably around £5,000) for when we need clothes or for Christmas etc and then we'll try to start to put something away for a house.

We're self employed and sold our house in January 2008. We've been in rented ever since but have been served notice on our property by the landlord as he wants to live in it himself. We sunk the equity in to the business and are now looking for it to return it. we reckon there's £210k there so it's going to be hard work getting it out. I'd like to work hard here to do that too.

We've got to be out of this house in May.

We won't be able to buy something until late on in the year and are hoping that houses continue to fall in value and that we can find somewhere OK to rent for the time being.


I've done a few things that have made great savings:

1. watch our current account daily (we were suffering charges due to ignoring it :mad:)
2. got the mobile phones down from £60 to £35 per month
3. got the food bill down hugely. This needs more work and where I'm going to be focused.

Please wish me luck and your comments etc would be gratefully received.

mildredalien

Hi Indecision, congratulations on becoming debt free!

A couple of things:
- do you really need £5k for clothes and Christmas?? That sounds like a lot to me....
- your internet bill seems pretty high at £60 - could that be reduced?
- £100 a month on days out also seems pretty expensive - are there any free local parks/attractions that you could go to?
- that food bill is pretty high - how many people are you feeding? have you checked out the old style board for tips on cheaper meal planning etc?

Good luck with your journey

kdenty

I agree with the above.

Also notice you pay pet insurance but no pet food? Is that correct?

Could you get a package that combines internet with phone for a lot less?

I'm in debt and have cut down on shopping, eating out and grocery bills.

You car maintenance and insurance seem high when you multiply the figure by 12. Are you running 2 cars on this? If it's just 1 car then it's expensive.

Indecisionismymiddlename

Hi

2 cars, 2 adults, 2 children.

To be very honest, I don't have a clue what we spend on clothes or on days out. I just put a figure in and we'll see over the coming months whether we need it or not. It'll be worse over Easter and summer holidays - it's such a long time.

Food includes cat food, as well as cleaning stuff etc.

We get internet and tv together. Will be hard to persuade dh to cut the tv package down as he's wanting to get hd and I won't let him!

Not at all sure why I've put £15 for pet insurance. It's £8.67. Just got 1 cat.

Hopefully i'll be able to do this again in 2 months time and have much more accurate figures. Once we've moved again!

[Deleted User]

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details for two adults and two children.
Income from Employment (after tax) . . . . . . . 3,000.00 Any way to increase? Overtime? Second job? Check the "up your income" board for ideas
Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146.03

Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00 For how many phones? Even two and this can be cut back - if in contract see if you can reduce the contract, if out of contract, look and SIM only and PAYG - there are some v good £10pm deals to be had
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.88 (12.37)
Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 This is high, what does it include - you should be able to get home phone and internet combinde for approx £20pm - shop around
Home Phone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00 as above
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 What does this cover? Is it good value?
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 As above
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.33 Will this go down now in the warmer months?
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 Check you are on the cheapest tariff for your area (Uswitch), and if switching is appropriate go through the chasback sites (Quidco, topcashback, onepoll)
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229.17 (Are you paying this over the usual 10 months, if so ask your council if you can spread it over 12)
Home Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 For contents onlt this is quite high, shop around at renewal
Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000.00 Is this competative for your area?
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00 How many does this need to feed - possibly savings to be made here - drop brands, meal plan, batch cook, shop at cheaper supermarkets (Lidl/Aldi) - have a look at the old style board

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67

Debt Repayments

Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.71 How much is owed? What's the APR?

Savings & Investments

Mini Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 If you are just begining to save and not yet got any savings, I would look into the best ISA's available as a starting place - have a look on Martin's main site for info

Family

School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 Every month?
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86.67 How many is this for?
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00

Entertainment

Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00 What does this cover? Keep you eye out for vouchers and deals
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 Again, keep an eye out for vouchers and offers

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67

Big One Offs

Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00 Every month?
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00

Odds & Sods

Regular Charity Donations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00

Total monthly income . . . . . . . . 3,146.03

Total monthly expenses . . . . . . . 2,843.76

I've done a few things that have made great savings:

1. watch our current account daily (we were suffering charges due to ignoring it :mad:)
2. got the mobile phones down from £60 to £35 per month
3. got the food bill down hugely. This needs more work and where I'm going to be focused.

Hi,

I have made some comments above, I hope that at least some of them will help you.

Set up a regular standing order or similar for your monthly surplus into a cash ISA as a starting point on the savings.

D9

Indecisionismymiddlename

I'm very confused about ISAs - can we take the money out when we need to for paying the car tax or whatever? I need to read up on them

mildredalien

Did you live particularly frugally while you were paying off debt? Its understandable to want some of life's little luxuries when you can afford them, but every little thing adds up either when you are paying off or saving up!

How long do you plan on saving up for? Now, I don't have much experience of this (far more used to paying than saving :rotfl:) but I'd imagine knowing how much you need and by when should help you figure out how much you do need to cut back on - and then you can decide where the cuts come from.

dancingfairy

I can help with the ISA question -generally you can take money out of an ISA when you want (unless you get one that specifially says 30 days notice or 60 days notice or whatever). The problem is that the maximum you can put in in any one year is limited. I'm not sure what the current limit is but I will illustrate the issues - say the limit is 3,600 this tax year - you put 3,000 in to your ISA so you will only be allowed to save a further 600 pounds this tax year - you then pay a large car bill and take out 1,000 this leaves you with 2,000 in the account - however you still can only pay in the 600 as it's the total amount paid into the account which is important - not how much is in there. ISA's generally work best over a period of time because they remain tax free so in some ways using them as a general savings account isn't the best way of using them but as long as you remain within the rules then fair enough and the interest rates can be better than normal savings accounts.
P.S I have presumed you are talking about cash ISAs as the stocks and shares part is different. With stocks and shares as the value can fluctuate you really want to be leaving the money in long term as otherwise you run the risk the day you want the money the shares have gone down.
df

[Deleted User]

This years current limit is £5,100. Next years (from 6th April 2011), the limit is £5340.

Take a look at Martin's explanation and also advice on the better paying ones: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-cash-isa

Also, take a look at this thread for updates and discussion on current best ISA's: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/401374

D9

CH27

Keep a detailed spending diary for every penny you spend.

Indecisionismymiddlename

Hi

Thanks for all the comments. It's a bit difficult to try to set an aim and then work out how much each month as we're very seasonal and so some months are worth more than others.

We are trying to keep our income stable (ie the 3k per month) so that we learn to live within a budget rather than just spending without thought and the business digging us out of a hole.

The exercise i'm doing at the moment is to learn how to come and how to manage money sustainably over a long period of time.

In the past we've done this obsessively and then given up and gone back to our old ways because it was too severe for us to cope.

I'm trying to go for a middle ground now where no one feels hard done by.

It sounds like I want a cash ISA. I'll sort that then. Thank you all very much.

Once I have a full month's spending I'll be able to see how things are going. Problem with April is the Easter holidays. They're barely at school in April so we'll have to pay stuff to keep us all amused!

thanks again