New recruit: First steps (advice appreciated)

BaconandEggs

Hi all,

I'm a new recruit. I'd like to setup a diary to document my progress on this project, like many of you have done. It appears to have encouraged alot of people.

We are in a our late twenties/(very ) early 30's.

I've already posted a couple of threads on this board, trying to determine a sensible emergency fund and to find the best way to setup a spreadsheet to monitor progress.

I'm planning to overpay £537 this month, and thought the best way to start and decide how much a month to overpay would be to do an SOA.

I'd appreciate any input from people on how we can reduce our outgoings.

I'm not sure if we're paying a little too much for our insurances. What do people normally pay for their:
buildings
contents
income protection
life
insurances?

Would be reassuring to know we could get by if a sprog came along, as this would effectively mean loss of Mrs pay with additional costs (although there may be some savings involved with travel - and we may get child benefit?).

BaconandEggs.


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2045
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1050
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3095

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 492
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 124
Electricity............................. 36
Gas..................................... 10
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 36
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 12.2
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 9.99
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 23.83
Car Insurance........................... 63.75
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 5.12
Other travel............................ 50
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 24
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 18.82
Contents insurance...................... 10.53
Life assurance ......................... 70
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 41.66
Haircuts................................ 23
Entertainment........................... 70
Holiday................................. 145.83
Emergency fund.......................... 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 1686.73


Assets
Cash.................................... 4150
House value (Gross)..................... 134000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 138150


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 101495...(492)......4.19
Total secured & HP debts...... 101495....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,095
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,686.73
Available for debt repayments........... 1,408.27
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,408.27

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 138,150
Total HP & Secured debt................. -101,495
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 36,655

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

Froggy-G

Good luck on your journey! :j

Froggy

katsu

BaconandEggs wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm not sure if we're paying a little too much for our insurances. What do people normally pay for their:
buildings
contents combined for both - around £250 a year IIRC but we have a low rate of contents as we aren't gadget crazy and have buildings accidental damage, but not contents accidental damage. We also only take policies with UK call centres.
income protection don't have any
life don't have any
insurances

BaconandEggs.


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2045
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1050
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3095

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 492
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 124
Electricity............................. 36 higher than ours but your gas is lower
Gas..................................... 10
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 36
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 12.2
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 9.99
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 23.83
Car Insurance........................... 63.75 use comparison and cashback sites at renewal time and make sure you are insuring appropriately - ie. not paying for more miles than you use etc
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30 does this include breakdown cover? If you get that check out Autoaid (see Martin's motoring tab) or autonational via top cashback
Car parking............................. 5.12
Other travel............................ 50
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 24 what is this? is a pre-payment cert an option?
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 18.82
Contents insurance...................... 10.53
Life assurance ......................... 70
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 41.66 I spend half this and give gifts to around 23 people
Haircuts................................ 23 if you want to save here you can check out a local college for cheap cuts from supervised trainees
Entertainment........................... 70 on what (so we can offer ideas)? Looked at the cheap DVD rental offers, vouchers for meals out etc?
Holiday................................. 145.83
Emergency fund.......................... 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 1686.73


Assets
Cash.................................... 4150
House value (Gross)..................... 134000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 138150


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 101495...(492)......4.19
Total secured & HP debts...... 101495....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,095
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,686.73
Available for debt repayments........... 1,408.27
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,408.27 this is amazing - if it is accurate

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 138,150
Total HP & Secured debt................. -101,495
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 36,655

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

Your suplus is so amazingly high that I'd check it feels real, if not you need to adjust the above (or decrease your spends to the above). Some ideas thrown in for you to think about.

HTH

BaconandEggs

Thanks Froggy-g

Thank you again Katsu. Your help is really appreciated.
Our contents insurance seems cheap then. We also have a no frills policy, as the total value of our contents is not high either. It does include cover away from home for phones/laptop/spectacles.

£24 medical=
BaconandEggs sight test =£20/year
BaconandEggs dental (1 or 2 NHS checkups per year) = £32/year
Mrs BaconandEggs sight test and specs £120/year
Mrs BaconandEggs monthly dental plan = £10/month

£23 Haircuts=
BaconandEggs £8/month (usually go a bit longer in reality)
Mrs BaconandEggs £30 every couple of month.

£70 Entertainment=
£35/month sports club/society membership (not gym)
£4 LoveFilm
£31 eating out/takeaways/parking when we visit places/go on walks (driving to walk - mad eh?).


Car insurance - we will do this. We shopped around but will definitely look at cashback.


Is it not a requirement of a mortgage to have income protection/critical illness?
Is there any reason why you do not have those policies?

Electric: Our fire is electric and we have showers (electric) and not baths.

Car breakdown cover: currently with RAC. How would you rate the other breakdown services relative to the AA and the RAC?
We are going to sit down later and do a breakdown of present costs.

I believe the total left for overpayment to be fairly accurate. However, I will have a better idea of this when I've been in this house for 12 months, paying a years worth of bills (I suspect it is a little more energy efficient compared to where we lived before, and our car insurance should also go down due to the location).

Would appreciate ANY feedback to reduce costs further.

Main aims this month: to account for and reduce present expenditure and look into cashback.

katsu

BaconandEggs wrote: »

£24 medical=
BaconandEggs sight test =£20/year
Mrs BaconandEggs sight test and specs £120/year

Sight tests are free at Tesco so that is £40 saved - no need for mrsB&E to get her glasses there unless she wants to. Also, opticians generally recommend a test every 2yrs not 1.

BaconandEggs wrote: »

(driving to walk - mad eh?).

:rotfl:

BaconandEggs wrote: »

Is it not a requirement of a mortgage to have income protection/critical illness?
Is there any reason why you do not have those policies?

Not a requirement - but often sensible. We chose to save an emergency fund and could meet the mortgage and reduced bills on one salary (and believe the other one could find some kind of work within a few months and thus we would make ends meet), have death in service through work, and between OPing and being sensible I'd rather self-insure. If one of us died the other would no longer need a house this size, so we just didn't feel the need.

BaconandEggs wrote: »

Car breakdown cover: currently with RAC. How would you rate the other breakdown services relative to the AA and the RAC?

In general absolutely no worse than these overpriced providers(but I personally would not go with green flag as I heard too many bad stories). I have autoaid and pay £37 instead of nearly £200 to the AA. I broke down, they came, I got towed to my garage of choice, I paid, I got refunded. I'm never going back to the rip-off merchants AA & RAC and I advise everyone I know to look at autoaid or autonational.

BaconandEggs wrote: »

We are going to sit down later and do a breakdown of present costs.

Shopping all year round, stashing bargains etc really helps get costs down.

[Deleted User]

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2045
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1050
Total monthly income.................... 3095

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 492
Council tax............................. 124 you could spread this over 12 months instead of the usual 10 (unless you particularly like the 2 CT free months)
Electricity............................. 36 although neither this nor below is high, check comparison sites regularly (6-12 months) to ensure you remain on the cheapest tariff for your area (e.g. USwitch), and if switching is cheaper go through one of the cash back sites (Quidco, topcashback, onepoll etc)
Gas..................................... 10 as above
Water rates............................. 36 Are you on a meter? If not it may work out cheaper
Telephone (land line)................... 15 Might get cheaper if combined with internet
Mobile phone............................ 30 (Is this for 1 or 2 - if two, although not excessive - check that you use all the inclusive minutes and texts in your package, and if not downgrade or go PAYG (don't pay for something that you don't use)
TV Licence.............................. 12.2
Internet Services....................... 9.99 as above with home phone
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 23.83
Car Insurance........................... 63.75
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30 (is this enough to cover both cars?)
Car parking............................. 5.12
Other travel............................ 50 what does this cover? Would a weekly, monthly, season ticket be an option if train or bus?
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 24
Buildings insurance..................... 18.82 At renewal see if combined building and contents would be cheaper)
Contents insurance...................... 10.53 as above
Life assurance ......................... 70
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 41.66 A good way to reduce this is to buy throughout the year (e.g. for christmas and birthday presents buy things when on offer or in sales and keep them, also make use of vouchers - lots of great things come up on the "grab it" board)
Haircuts................................ 23
Entertainment........................... 70
Holiday................................. 145.83
Emergency fund.......................... 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 1686.73


Assets
Cash.................................... 4150 If this is your emergency savings account, it's usually recommended to have approximately 3-6 months salary saved as a buffer
House value (Gross)..................... 134000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 138150


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 101495...(492)......4.19
Total secured & HP debts...... 101495....-.........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,095
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,686.73
Available for debt repayments........... 1,408.27
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,408.27 You have an excellent monthly surplus and it seems that you will easily be able to make your overpayment target. Do you actually have this at the end of every month? If not keep a spending diary for a month or two to see where you make additional spends.

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 138,150
Total HP & Secured debt................. -101,495
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 36,655

Hi, I've made some comments above, I hope some of them are of use. You seem in a perfect position to be making overpayments. I'm still saving up for my deposit at the moment, but hope to be where you are in a few years time!

Good luck on your mortgage free journey

D9

PS always check cashback sites when doing any online shopping, many retailers offer cashback through these sites

BaconandEggs

katsu wrote: »

Sight tests are free at Tesco so that is £40 saved - no need for mrsB&E to get her glasses there unless she wants to. Also, opticians generally recommend a test every 2yrs not 1.

:rotfl:


Not a requirement - but often sensible. We chose to save an emergency fund and could meet the mortgage and reduced bills on one salary (and believe the other one could find some kind of work within a few months and thus we would make ends meet), have death in service through work, and between OPing and being sensible I'd rather self-insure. If one of us died the other would no longer need a house this size, so we just didn't feel the need.


In general absolutely no worse than these overpriced providers(but I personally would not go with green flag as I heard too many bad stories). I have autoaid and pay £37 instead of nearly £200 to the AA. I broke down, they came, I got towed to my garage of choice, I paid, I got refunded. I'm never going back to the rip-off merchants AA & RAC and I advise everyone I know to look at autoaid or autonational.


Shopping all year round, stashing bargains etc really helps get costs down.

Good idea about the sight tests. I got mine done there last year. She generally needs new specs each year as her prescription has changed alot each year for the last few years.

Will take a look at autoaid. I wonder if they do homestart.

I think, for now - while our mortgage is large, we will carry on with the critical illness etc insurance. Maybe when it is smaller, we will consider cutting these back. It also depends on what our employers pay in certain circumstances. In the past I've worked for companies that do not pay if someone is off work ill. However, we now work at places where there is a little bit of a safety net. We may consider stopping MrsE&B's income protection insurance.

Mrs does most of the present shopping and she's pretty good at finding bargains and putting things away ready for Christmas and birthdays. We will do a breakdown of this later.

Cheers :beer:

katsu

Autoaid's £37 (might be £38 or even 42 now) covers you for everything the top package of around £200 AA/RAC does. Homestarts, roadside, onward travel, tow to garage etc etc.

It is an insurance policy, which works on a pay and reclaim basis if you breakdown. I paid by CC and had a refund a few weeks later. Amazing value and super product. They use local breakdown firms instead of employing staff.

Autonational does not require additional payments when you break down so is more like traditional AA/RAC cover. It uses local firms too.

BaconandEggs

Domino9 wrote: »

Thanks for your input Domino!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2045
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1050
Total monthly income.................... 3095

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 492
Council tax............................. 124 you could spread this over 12 months instead of the usual 10 (unless you particularly like the 2 CT free months)
We pay over 10 months - but I've stated it here spread over 12 already, as it is easier to budget for.
Electricity............................. 36 although neither this nor below is high, check comparison sites regularly (6-12 months) to ensure you remain on the cheapest tariff for your area (e.g. USwitch), and if switching is cheaper go through one of the cash back sites (Quidco, topcashback, onepoll etc)
Got a pretty decent deal with Eon I think. Discount for paying by direct debit and having paperless bills, which reduces electric and gas by around 8% on already decent rates. We will reassess the deal in 6 month though. Cashback appears to be the way forward
Gas..................................... 10 as above
Water rates............................. 36 Are you on a meter? If not it may work out cheaper
We don't have a meter. I think it would be a bit cheaper (although not much based on the water company calculation for our use) with a meter. However, there are definitely plans to increase the number of people living here over the next few years
Telephone (land line)................... 15 Might get cheaper if combined with internet
Our phonline is with BT. Broadband with O2. It would be a little cheaper to have our landline with O2 also. If we change, then we will have to change our broadband package from a standard ("legacy") package, which is not capped and not "shaped" to one of the new packages that is. Does anyone reading this have any thoughts on Sky, which I know will be a fair bit cheaper.
Mobile phone............................ 30 (Is this for 1 or 2 - if two, although not excessive - check that you use all the inclusive minutes and texts in your package, and if not downgrade or go PAYG (don't pay for something that you don't use) This is for 2 phones. One on a sim only contract, with most allowances used, the other PAYG.
TV Licence.............................. 12.2
Internet Services....................... 9.99 as above with home phone
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 23.83
Car Insurance........................... 63.75
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30 (is this enough to cover both cars?)
I believe so, although it is largely dependent on what needs fixing.
Car parking............................. 5.12
Other travel............................ 50 what does this cover? Would a weekly, monthly, season ticket be an option if train or bus? This is for a monthly discount card (daily travel to work).
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 24
Buildings insurance..................... 18.82 At renewal see if combined building and contents would be cheaper)
I wonder if our providers distinguish between combined cover and individual B and C cover... I say this because it did not come up in the questions I went though in getting quotes.
Contents insurance...................... 10.53 as above
Life assurance ......................... 70
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 41.66 A good way to reduce this is to buy throughout the year (e.g. for christmas and birthday presents buy things when on offer or in sales and keep them, also make use of vouchers - lots of great things come up on the "grab it" board)
Great idea. Grab it board sounds interesting. In the past I've tried to avoid sales, thinking that they increase the chance of buying things which aren't needed - but this is the best of both worlds. i.e. buying things that would be bought anyway, at dicounted prices.
Haircuts................................ 23
Entertainment........................... 70
Holiday................................. 145.83
Emergency fund.......................... 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 1686.73


Assets
Cash.................................... 4150 If this is your emergency savings account, it's usually recommended to have approximately 3-6 months salary saved as a buffer
I am keen to increase this (5k for me and 2K for MrsE&B). It is up there on the priority list, but I am choosing to put some of the money left over at the end of the month towards overpaying at the SAME time as saving for this amount rather than putting all this towards the emergency fund. This is mainly because I want to start the ball rolling, and because the earlier we overpay, the more interest we will save. Doing it this way we should still be able to save the emergency fund fairly soon hopefully.
House value (Gross)..................... 134000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. This should be £4250
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 138150


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 101495...(492)......4.19
Total secured & HP debts...... 101495....-.........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,095
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,686.73
Available for debt repayments........... 1,408.27
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,408.27 You have an excellent monthly surplus and it seems that you will easily be able to make your overpayment target. Do you actually have this at the end of every month? If not keep a spending diary for a month or two to see where you make additional spends.

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 138,150
Total HP & Secured debt................. -101,495
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 36,655

Hi, I've made some comments above, I hope some of them are of use. You seem in a perfect position to be making overpayments. I'm still saving up for my deposit at the moment, but hope to be where you are in a few years time!

Good luck on your mortgage free journey

D9

PS always check cashback sites when doing any online shopping, many retailers offer cashback through these sites

Thank you !

babyb06

Welcome!

Some good comments on your SOA. I agree with Katsu - you seem to have a v high monthly surplus - is that real or are there extras you've forgotten to add to your SOA? That was certainly the case for me. If the surplus is real - then wow! You will soon make huge in roads into your mortgage.

I am similar to you - i like the cushion of insurances if anything were to go wrong. WHilst you want to cut down on the excess you need to keep things that are important to you

BabyB

BaconandEggs

katsu wrote: »

Autoaid's £37 (might be £38 or even 42 now) covers you for everything the top package of around £200 AA/RAC does. Homestarts, roadside, onward travel, tow to garage etc etc.

It is an insurance policy, which works on a pay and reclaim basis if you breakdown. I paid by CC and had a refund a few weeks later. Amazing value and super product. They use local breakdown firms instead of employing staff.

Autonational does not require additional payments when you break down so is more like traditional AA/RAC cover. It uses local firms too.

It turns out the Mrs is with autoaid
It's my RAC which is costing loads.
I'm liking the sound of autonational!