Phil's Journey

Phil3822

Hi all

I have created this thread with the primary purpose of saving some money for some key things which I will go into further.

I also need to loose weight and stop spending money on food which I hope this thread and your comments and inspiration will help me do.

I created this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3370620
from this thread I decided I should start some sort of diary/blog.

This thread will not just be about saving. I will also be talking about my weight loss journey, fitness and general targets.

Anyway, a bit about me. I am a 26 year old male who is married with an 8 year old step son and a 2 year old daughter. I earn £28930 and my wife is self employed part time and earns different amounts each week.

We both have seperate accounts and my wife pays for life insurance, shopping and petrol as well as her mobile phone.

I am not sure how I am going to go about this but I will try and create a SOA plus I will blog my wifes income.

Any and all suggestions would be great. My plan is once I have got started I will do daily posts to keep my motivation.

Phil3822

My targets are as follows:

Pay off remaining holiday balance of £1000 by end of Sept 2011
Save £1500 for holiday by Jan 2012
Save £2000 by March 2012

Bit of debt in there I know!

Phil3822

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,800.00
Wifes minimum Income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.37
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.50
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 810.00
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346.67
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.33
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.33
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.21
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173.33
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.67
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.67
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.67
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.67
Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,450.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,088.41

Phil3822

Above is my SOA, feel free to comment. I have put my wifes minimum income. She generally earns a bit more than this which we can save.

My first challenge for next month is to pay the £1000 holiday debt straight off. I am going to pay the £1000 on pay day and try and live on whats left. I know it will take me into my overdraft but then I hope to be back in the green for September.

Phil3822

Am wondering if I have placed this thread in the wrong place? Not much going on here today.

Anyway, today I have spent nothing which is a good start.

I have eaten healthy ish however have had a fair few childrens sweets, I also joined Slimming World today.

Not exercised today.

Not great but I guess it's a start, at least I have not spent anything!

Sylvia1982

Hi Phil,

I have had a look at your SOA and what i have noticed straight away is, you do not have life insurance:eek: and your landline appear abit high.

Good luck with your goals...

Sylvia

Phil3822

The life insurance is under Mortgage life insurance, not sure why I have put it there. It's the one for £16.

The landline is a lot however my wife used it all the time as self employed. Internation calls and premium rate calls etc.

Thanks for your comments.

Phil3822

Bit of a poor day today. Spent money on McDonalds for the family which came to £18 and bought sweets from local shop and a drink for a £5. Not a great start but will treat each day as it comes. No exercise either.

Hovel_lady

Hi, you could put this on the "Savings and investments" board. There is at least one other diary on there.
Best of luck with your plans x

Hovel_lady

Just been reading your other thread and if debt is an issue there's always the DFW board where I do most of my posting and lurking.
Either way the diaries don't just have to be about debt or savings. Write whatever you need to, whatever helps.

Phil3822

Thanks Hovel Lady, not really a debt problem.... yet.... Does seem a helpful friendly board over there though!