Getting started but feeling daunted!

Dragonrider

I sat down with OH last night and talked him through our finances as he doesn't really have a clue. Felt a bit bad because I ambushed him after a nasty long day at work, and he was quite quiet afterwards! But he does agree with overpaying, and with the targets I have set, and this makes me feel like I'm not trying to do it all on my own.

Using financialbliss's spreadsheets, I have worked out that our first OP of £400 has shaved one month off the mortgage term! It's amazing to see that immediate effect, and makes me so determined to keep going. I want to see that MFD coming down!

Hope everyone has a good weekend - I'm hoping for a complete NS weekend, as OH is on-call. I'm going to see one sister's new rented flat tomorrow (she's making us a cream tea - yumm), and another sister is coming to our house on Sunday. So with dog walks and playground visits, the girls will be quite happy and exhausted all weekend! Hopefully!

Dragonrider

katsu

Dragonrider wrote: »

Here's my SOA.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,648.00
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). . . . . . . . . . . 124.80
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 check if you are on the best deals for your usage and consider using a cashback site for your next deal
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 no TV? We don't have one so you are in good company
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.89 check you need the inclusive items on top of line rental when you already have mobiles
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.76 just for your information we pay around £20 pcm for a two bed semi - gas CH, no TV, electric hob and oven, washing machine no dishwasher, electric shower, energy saving bulbs throughout.
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.17 I have just fixed these for a year, and once the insulation is in, I am hoping these are going to go down significantly
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38.81
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.38
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,149.90
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.64
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.67
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.42
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.92
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67 This is based on a full service plus change of cambelt this year, so hopefully this is artificially high
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.42 Autoaid will drop this to £38 a year or autonational £66 for 15 months plus cashback at TBC. Switch now and see a big saving
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.67
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,120.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.32 We have a big dog (Rhodesian ridgeback) and a cat, with Petplan
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.92
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00if you shop at tesco look at the tesco vouchers for strada, cafe rouge etc.
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.67
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67 lovely precise number
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86.67 guess this is DH and that some packed snacks from home aren't very suitable? If you tried that I'd aim to reduce say his vending machine type snacks or cans of coke rather than hot meals.
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,772.80

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,170.54



Aaaah! I knew things were tight, but I didn't think we were overspending by this much. :eek: Where else can I cut things down?

Thanks in advance for your help...

Thanks for posting. Some ideas above where you could make relatively painless savings. Your thermostat should be at 68 degrees C. Consider having a boiler service. I have mine serviced annually and it really made a difference once we got it running properly.

dancingfairy

Your childcare is taking a big chunk every month - can you get family/friends to take them sometimes at all? Can you get childcare vouchers through work to help with the costs?
Best of Luck with the OP'ing
df

Dragonrider

Thanks katsu, some really good tips. Our breakdown cover is due to renew this week, so I have been researching and I think we will go with Auto Aid. I have also done an analysis of my mobile use, and typically am using a lot less than I am paying for, so I am going to try and renegotiate this. Also you make a very good point about the landline - at the moment free anytime calls but we don't really need that with mobiles! I'm hoping that after our discussion the other night OH will drop his spending at work....

Thanks also, dancingfairy (like the name!), I've forgotten to adjust for childcare vouchers. Unfortunately I live near London, and childcare is horrendously expensive! I haven't got any family close enough to help out regularly, although lots of volunteers for emergencies, which is lovely. That cost is for a nanny - doing my research, nurseries work out more expensive for 2 kids, and the childminders round here want £115 per day!!!! :eek: So a nanny works out cheaper, amazingly enough, and I have the convenience of not having to get the girls out of the house in the morning

Hope everyone is enjoying the sunny evening!

Dragonrider

Onecoincloser

hi dragonrider....you are doing so well, you should be proud of yourself!!!

just a thought regarding dh job....i worked for a year in something that made me totally miserable....decided at that point that there is nothing in life worth being miserable for....dh felt the same (he was desperately unhappy in his job at the time) and we went from an income of over 150k per year to less than 15k.....:eek::eek::eek:

yep, we have been through some really tough times, but despite that we are so much happier than we ever were and, perversely, we are closer to reaching our mortgage targets than we ever were!!!! :D:D just remember that life is for living....yes, being mortgage free lets you live that much more freely, but true happiness cannot be bought, regardless of what you do.....

Dragonrider

Thanks, onecoincloser, I think that's the conclusion we are gradually coming to, but it is really encouraging to hear someone else say it! Money does seem, at first sight, to make life much easier, but it depends what your priorities are, doesn't it?

Thanks again,

Dragonrider

katsu

Dragonrider wrote: »

Thanks, onecoincloser, I think that's the conclusion we are gradually coming to, but it is really encouraging to hear someone else say it! Money does seem, at first sight, to make life much easier, but it depends what your priorities are, doesn't it?

My DH was admitted to hospital for emergency treatment a few years ago and reflecting on that time helped me make some life decisions. My number 1 priority is DH, then my family. I love working but I choose jobs that don't take me away from home too much as I want to be with him. Deciding what you want in life, both of you, is essential as life is too short.

Dragonrider

Aaaargh, why is it that children seem to be able to intuitively work out when you need to sleep, and then do their absolute best to prevent you getting any?! I'm going back to work in 2 weeks, and was chuffed because DD2 (8 months) has gone through until 6am for the last couple of nights. However DD1 discovered last night that she can get herself out of bed and come into our room in the middle of the night.... If she comes in with us she wriggles and kicks and talks and generally doesn't sleep or let me sleep either (OH oblivious to it all), but last night every time I took her back into her own bed she was at my elbow again within a couple of minutes. So we were both awake from 2-4am last night, and surprise surprise she's tired and very grumpy this morning.
Oh happy days.

cha97michelle

Harsh one with the kids keeping you awake. You'll have to be really strict with her. I would keep her awake all day today so she is dog tired tonight and then hopefully will stay in bed. Don't make it fun at all for her and you might nip it in the bud quickly. Easier said than done i know.

Poor you. You must be shattered today.

Dragonrider

Hmmm, did my absolute best to exhaust the girls today - long dog walk, swimming this afternoon - but it's just so hot that it took me a long time to get them to sleep, and they're both lying there now in just nappies! I'm going to have to sneak in and try and put some clothes on them so that they don't wake as it gets cooler...:o

OH and I are taking on some DIY this week. Our house used to be 3 bedroom, but the previous owners knocked the boxroom through to one of the doubles to make a big L-shaped master bedroom. Now we're going to try and put it back! Wish us luck!

And I turn 31 next week Not that it's preying on my mind or anything.