Just cant seem to get rid of this debt!

RAS

sysadmin wrote: »

Thanks

Ok clothing we tend to get when we go food shopping as its normally from asda or tesco etc. My OH is quite good and isnt hung up on designer labels so we tend to pick bits and pieces up when we go shopping..

In which case you budget for food shoping is incredibly low. How much have you actually spent at ASDA and tesco in the last 3 months?

sysadmin wrote: »

Both cars are less than 3 years old so fortunately dont need MOT's yet and are still under warranty. As for car tax we just tend to find the money when they are due. but i have them both spread 6 months apart (march and september) so they dont all come at once.

That is a maybe but you still need to BUDGET for the cost ever month, even if you do not put the money aside in a separate account.

elsiepac

sysadmin wrote: »

Ok clothing we tend to get when we go food shopping as its normally from asda or tesco etc. My OH is quite good and isnt hung up on designer labels so we tend to pick bits and pieces up when we go shopping.

Does the above mean that your "food" budget is actually covering clothes as well? That would account for it being a bit higher than expected.

sysadmin wrote: »

Both cars are less than 3 years old so fortunately dont need MOT's yet and are still under warranty. As for car tax we just tend to find the money when they are due. but i have them both spread 6 months apart (march and september) so they dont all come at once.

I don't want to be rude but I think you've missed the point a little bit here with the car budgets.

Whilst you don't need to MOT the cars, what happens if you need a new tyre on one? They're expensive and £50-100 is a lot to find all at once.
Even if you just put £15 a month aside for these little contingencies at least it would give you a buffer rather than you suddenly being short one month.

Same point, but with rather more emphasis for the Car Tax. The above was a "just in case" budget. Car Tax is a known cost - why make yourself short in the months where you are going to pay it, rather than just put a small amount aside each month? If they both cost £180 for a year, that's only £30 a month in total, and you NEVER have a big payment out that scuppers you!

That is exactly the kind of thing the SOA and budgeting is for, to prevent you having to suddenly fork out a load in one month, because you have planned and prepared for it.

Sorry if this came out a little harsh - good luck

LC x

sysadmin

lol RAS says the food budget is incrediable low and Elsiepac says its high.

Ok to clear thing up a little, our weekly spend on FOOD items is usally around the £40 - £50 mark. Then we may pick up a top or set for one of the kids each week which adds probably £5 - £8 ontop

RE car budgeting. I can totally see where your coming from so will have a good look too see what I can afford to put away for this each month.

RAS

sysadmin wrote: »

lol RAS says the food budget is incrediable low and Elsiepac says its high.

If you are buying lots of clothes, then the budget is low.

Based on what you are saying, your children have very few clothes - 17 items a year each?

sysadmin

RAS wrote: »

If you are buying lots of clothes, then the budget is low.

Based on what you are saying, your children have very few clothes - 17 items a year each?

Plus what they get for birthdays plus Christmas.
Plus what their grandparents buy them...

Believe me they have way more clothes than I do lol

FireWyrm

OK, what RAS says is spot on. You say that you think you have about £400 per month after everything else is spent and that you believe this is accurate. Dollars to doghnuts, you're way out because you're still sliding into debt. It really is a very slippery slope and most people on here will tell you about having to be on guard every single day. I'll give you an example.

Here is my general SOA from January and what I would have told you if you had asked me then :

Food : 300
Petrol : 100
Gas : 60
Elec : none
DD's combined : 800
Rent : 750
CC : 60 per month (2500 outstanding)
Loan : 178 (4500 outstanding)

I know the above is really really rough but it's for illustration only. However, since I busted my overdraft of £1500 in January and again in March by £700, I had my lightbulb moment. It was actually standing at the checkout in Tesco trying to buy a month's shopping 2 days after payday and having just had my debit card declined which meant (from experience) that the overdraft was sitting around the £2200 mark. I paid on the credit card (£321) and hastily left the store. When I got home, I decided to start getting a grip on this mess. I logged onto the bank and looked at the disaster that was my finances and found that indeed my overdraft was sitting at 2200 and change. Now, I get just slightly more than that in salary, so, here I was 2 days after payday with a whole month to the next one, totally bankrupt.

I vowed to get myself out of this mess, and so, my first order of business was to get a true idea of where we were. Before I even thought of getting a budget app for my phone, I printed off my statements for the past 3-4 months and started analysing it. Do you know what I found? I found £80 - £120 every month in cash withdrawals which had no explanation but were probably food related. I found £200+ in general visa transactions, again, no real explanation and no recollection which was more shocking. The previous month, my OH had spent £900+ at the local CoOp, mostly as £20 to £30 transactions every day! It's so very very easy to do, you would be horrified. Now, I'm not saying that this is what is happening, but to some extent, it must be for you to be in a bit of a state. I suspect your actual situation is far worse than you think. SOA's are nice for a general guestimate of your status, but absolutely no substitute for a real analysis. Once you have a real picture, you can start to make informed judgements about what has to go and what can stay. I found two insurance policy DD's I didnt even know I was paying and for how long I have no idea. I found an online gaming subscription that should have been cancelled years ago! Granted, it wasnt for much - only about £14 a month, but that's £14 I could have used elsewhere.

I take your comment about the hairdresser, but is it honestly necessary. Surely the OH will understand if the figures are presented in black and white to her? However, until you do have your first month's analysis, you cant really argue the point with any conviction, so, my advice is to start there and the rest will fall into place.

sysadmin

FireWyrm wrote: »

I take your comment about the hairdresser, but is it honestly necessary. Surely the OH will understand if the figures are presented in black and white to her? However, until you do have your first month's analysis, you cant really argue the point with any conviction, so, my advice is to start there and the rest will fall into place.

Ok thanks for that. I totally agree that its the odd £20 and £40 cash withdrawal's that tend to go un-noticed and forgotten about and this is probably where the majority of it is going.

I can think of a few things in my head already which over the month probably add up to another £100 which are not on the SOA but could be cut back on....

I need an app lol....

getmore4less

YOur OD and CC are not on the SOA.


Amount left after debt repayments....... 469
Considering you have said you are struggling, are you certain that this figure is accurate?


it might not be spot on but its pretty accurate
Can't be otherwise you would not have the OD.

£800 OD at Xmas that was 5+ months ago.
£300 OD now

£469*5 - £500 == £1845 not accounted for!

You are spending it somewhere

I think you would benifit from a month of extream LBYM(living below you means) and a spending diary.


As for VM, I have phone XL, 10 BB, free TV <£30 inc calls to 08** no. base isa round £27.

Mobiles look if you can cut back the contract to minimum, look for cash back deals or PAYG. next time.

RAS

sysadmin wrote: »

Plus what they get for birthdays plus Christmas.

Sorry to keep harping on, but you have not budgetted anything for Christmas or birthday presents.

How much do you spend per child per event? How many parties do the kids go to that require a £5-10 present? How many other family members do you buy presents for?

FireWyrm

getmore4less wrote: »

YOur OD and CC are not on the SOA.

Didnt even see that....wow.

getmore4less wrote: »

£469*5 - £500 == £1845 not accounted for!

Yes, that's what happened to me gradually over the years of neglect and laziness. I started avoiding looking at the account every month and just saying a 'Hail Mary' when I stepped up to the checkout each month. It was stupid and I only have myself to blame for the mess I found myself in. It's so horribly easy to present the visa debit card at a shop and not even think about it, but 5 of those are a £100. You could easily loose that much on lunches a month. If you then stop for a meal when you are out shopping just once a month, that's another £40 for two adults and two children which puts you in by £140 and that's if you were being reasonably on the ball. I originally started this whole thing by looking for ways to reduce my food bill from £300 to, well less, but the more I analysed, the more I got rid of stuff I didnt need and the more I squeezed from a tank of petrol, I realised how much we waste month in and month out. For instance, my conservative estimate of wasted money over the previous year was in the region of ten thousand! That's a whole bloody bathroom and probably a backgarden too, or perhaps a car, certainly every single one of my debts with room to spare and that's just one year. I've been an adult for 12 more.

Once I got the app on my phone, I found it had the same effect as cash. I didnt want to add any transaction for any reason to it because I had to watch the available balance fall there and then. There was no ignoring it, pretending it wasnt happening. Mental tallies are just a recipe for disaster, it doesnt work and I liked to think I was reasonably competant as an adult.