My SOA - Quite shocked!

Squirrel1980

This has probably been the most eye opening thing I have ever done in regard to my finances.

I am shocked by how much I spend on groceries (and I think I have to admit that I based this SOA on a quieter month than usual).

I would be interested in any opinions and tips on how to save more money. I have written below some things I think might be a good idea but your opinions on these would be very much appreciated!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1489.18
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1489.18
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 361.3
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 50
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 72
Electricity............................. 20
Gas..................................... 20
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 25 (This includes internet)
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 220
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 160
Road tax................................ 2.5
Car Insurance........................... 40
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 18
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
Weight Watchers......................... 10
Work Union.............................. 25
Total monthly expenses.................. 1261.17

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 90000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 94000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 84698....(361.3)....3.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 84698.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit Card....................2718.81...140.......0
Total unsecured debts..........2718.81...140.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,489.18
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,261.17
Available for debt repayments........... 228.01
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 140
Amount left after debt repayments....... 88.01
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 94,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -84,698
Total Unsecured debt.................... -2,718.81
Net Assets.............................. 6,583.19

I forgot to add my student loan onto this, but given that its taken directly out of my wage it is factored into that.

My plans to save money:

Cancel Weight Watchers subscription
Cancel landline and internet
Switch to an Interest Only mortgage (which they have estimated would reduce my monthly mortgage payments to £240, saving me £120 a month (roughly)
Defer my student loan for a few years (if possible)

Squirrel1980

Also... this doesn't include that I'm £2000 overdrawn!!

.........

Depressing

tommytynan123

1. Never ever be depressed. Think +ve
2. L/Line and I/net - I wouldn't
3. Only hit the supermarket once per week and write down what you are going to buy. Read through it 2 or 3 times before going and you will be amazed at what you cross off. Some 'own' brands are good.
4. Use ebay for clothes / pressies. I have got some real new and used bargains. (New for pressies) 2 eg A briefcase with RRP of over £40 I got for 1p (new) for son b/day. New casual boots for other son normally £20 - £30 I paid under £2. New hiking boots/trainers for son normally £20 - £25 I paid under £1.50

Squirrel1980

Yes you're right, its the groceries, gifts and clothes that are costing me way above what they need to be costing me... and also, probably the quickest thing I could make changes to.

I'm thinking I could cancel my internet because I can still access it at work and via the 3g on my phone if I really need to. But I would really miss being able to quickly hop on the internet to check my bank balance and statments and, as you mentioned with ebay etc, the internet can be a good source in making and saving money. (I have to admit, I've spent the last 10 mins wondering if I could live without the telly....! I wish I could say I could but... realistically there's no way!!)

I've been reading through other posts in this forum and I'm going to consider these things too...

- Switch car insurance provider (and maybe stop paying monthly?)
- As soon as I can, switch mobile to pay as you go - do they allow that on iPhones?
- EARN MORE MONEY! Seems so obvious now, but I can work privately (ie. outside of the NHS) and, although stressful and tiring, that would earn me a good 200 a day at the weekend or 50 in the evenings.
- Keep track of everything I'm spending... I've been advised by a few people to draw out real money at the beginning of the week and leave all cards at home and only spend from this cash... Perhaps this is the best way of budgeting the groceries!

NeverAgain_2

Keep the proper internet at home and bin the stupid smartphone would be a reasonable compromise.

A £15.99 PAYG Nokia will make calls, do texts, has a camera, play MP3s etc etc.

I wonder about the union subscription, only you will know your business, but many unions these days seem very good at meetings and conferences for paid officials, but useless when it comes to looking after a member in difficulty.

Your mortgage at just over a quarter of your income, should be manageable, but things will be tight elsewhere, as you are finding.

Going interest-only for a while may not be a bad idea, provided you honestly, really, truly, use the money to pay off the credit card and overdraft.

de1amo

i should think your mortgage company will require proof that you will have some sort of 'savings' instrument before letting you go onto interest only.

bouncydog1

I wouldn't even think about going interest only on your mortgage as by embracing the debt-free wannabee culture, you should be able to get your spending under control.

Get shot of your mobile, and go PAYG, reduce your groceries spend by 50%, get rid of the weightwatchers and try and reduce your fuel costs - that should give you £200 per month.

Go over to the old-style board and see how people manage to feed their families on a lot less than you currently spend. I think there is also a thread for weight loss, which would probably give you the support you get from going to weight watchers. Losing weight is all about burning up more calories than you take in as you know - so you could eat only sausages for instance, provided you exercised to burn up more than the calories in them!

If you trim costs by above you should be able to get rid of your credit card bill in just over a year without putting all £200 per month towards it. As you see the balance reduce down each month that will give you more incentive.

Pollycat

Hi Squirrel
you should be able to cut quite a bit from your grocery spend (our average spend over the last 60 months - yes, I really am that anal ) for me & OH is less than £170 per month.
That includes all cleaning stuff and beer & wine.
And it incldues all the bits of stuff like the odd pint of milk or loaf of bread.
And we eat very well indeed.

But, you need to be organised and plan your meals and (if possible - do you have a freezer?) cook in bulk.

The Old-style board does have some really good advice.
If I buy packs of mince, say 400gm, I buy 4 and split them into 5 portions of 320gm (just over 3/4lb each), which makes it cheaper per portion/meal.

Do you buy premium brands e.g. Heinz beans?
Check out Martin's downsize challenge.
I can't find the link to it but the idea is to drop a brand:
if you buy premium, drop to own brand
if you buy own brand, drop to saver

If you can't tell the difference: great but if you can: just step back up.
I will not compromise on toilet rolls, coffee and tea!
However, I buy these when they are bogof or half price.
Can I admit that I have 70 Quilted Velvet toilet rolls in my garage - but they were all bought at half usual price or less. :T
Same with Kenco Colombian & Costa Rican - quite often this is on offer in Co-op or Tesco, so I stock up then.

Water rates @ £40 per month:
Are you on a meter?
If not, is this an option?
We are on a meter and pay just over £20 pm.

I also think you can reduce your £50 pm clothes spend and possibly your £30 pm gifts.
Who do you buy for?
It might be an idea to ask if they'd agree to only buy token presents or even drop it altogether - they might even welcome the suggestion.

What is the £50 per month under 'rent'?

I wouldn't give up the TV or internet at this stage.

Do you buy take-away coffees from Starbucks or glossy magazines or new lippys?

You might be spending money that's not included in your SOA so maybe that's another place to check out.

Good luck.

lvm

I have an iPhone and have only ever had it on PAYG (given my poor credit history I would have never got a contract anyway).

I top up £15 a month and I get 500 texts and unlimited 3G and Wifi - and I can use the £15 for calls if I need to. The good thing is the calls are never too expensive so I've currently got over £70 in credit that I think O2 would let me put towards a bill when I eventually will be accepted for a contract phone.

Also...with regards to the groceries. Do you buy a lot of junk food? I'm just taking a guess seen as you're on Weight Watchers as well. The best thing I do is I have a credit card with a £260 limit and I use this only for petrol and food so once I hit the limit, that's me. I used to withdraw £100 on payday to last me the month for food and that definitely helped too.

With regards to the CC you've got - who is it with? If an MBNA kind of card you could give them a call and ask if they have any 0% balance transfer deals you could take £2k from to get rid of that overdraft. Only if you're paying for the overdraft though and you have a £2k limit available.

Seems like you're in an excellent position so hardly any changes are needed - just some small tweaks that would save you a bit extra!

Good luck!

orangesmartie

Your SOA looks similar to mine. Groceries - I buy in bulk and batch cook - but i never can resist the odd pastry etc. But this can save a lot of money. Best thing i ever bought was a slow cooker (9.98 in currys) and i bung casseroles etc in there and leave it then portion them up to put in the freezer. Have a look on the Oldstyle board, they have fabulous ideas on making meals stretch. The other thing I found is that by portioning up the meals to go in freezer boxes, the portions were smaller than I would dish up on a plate, but still filling, so good for the pocket and good for the waistline. Pollycat has lots of good ideas to help save a bit of money here and there.

Your water rates are really high for a single person. Are you getting your single person discount? I live in Devon where our water authority is the rip off South West Water. I pay £13 a month and I'm still in credit every quarter (That's the lowest they allow the DDs apparently). So give them a call and make sure your a) getting your discount and b) adjusting your payments to a better level.

You also appear to have a small surplus at the end of each month - do you actually have this? If not, start a spending diary and see where it goes - it'll be make up here, magazine there, chocolate bar or even car parking etc - its amazing how much money we unconsciously spend every month.

If you want to reduce your telephone internet, take a look at Martin's tips. Last summer I switched to Plusnet internet at £6.49p/m with 4 months free, which actually made the cost £4.33p/m and switched my home telephone to Primus for (i think) £8.99p/m. I don't use my home phone a lot (i really have it for BB access) so I haven't had a bill over £10, so if that's an option for you, that will save you another £10p/m.

Your mortgage is a really good price so I wouldn't change to interest only if you can avoid it.

On your mobile phone do you use all the minutes/texts int hebundle? If not, phone them and ask them to drop down a package. They don't like it if you are in a contract but they will do it - they'd rather get some money than none. Just tell them that money is tight and you are making cutbacks. I did this with 3, even though I was only 3 months into a 24 month contract - and my original monthly cost was £20 and i dropped to £15 - saving myself another fiver and even if i go slightly over the limit one month..its still significantly cheaper than overpaying every month.

Consider also whether you can drop down on your present fund from £30p/m - this equates to £360 per year (on the other hand you may have a big family).

woofwoofwoof

The one thing on your SOA that is very necessary is buildings insurance and you don't seem to have any. This is more important that contents insurance so maybe have a look at that.