Any advice gratefully received

Chloe2011

Not sure how long I can go on like this.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet[/b]
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000.00
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). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.43
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.62
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.50
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.80
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.25
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160.00
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.62
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mum Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Mum Housekeeping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.33
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.08
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.17
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.50
Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.83
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Accidential Death Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.02
Postcode Lottery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Computer Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.99
Contents Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.46
TSB Repair Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.25
Cancer Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.90
Homeserve 242783017 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00
Homeserve 16986120. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.83
Homeserve 278853259 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.36
Homeserve 314590204 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.41

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,030.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,091.85

[/font]

Tixy

Hi and welcome

Well it looks like you have a small overspend at the moment so hopefully there may be some places you could reduce your outgoings.

Do you live alone? is this just for you?

Chloe2011 wrote: »

Not sure how long I can go on like this.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet[/b]
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.43
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.62
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.50 home phone & internet, can you look for a cheaper combined deal to save money. these seem very high especially the phone do you make a lot of calls and could you look for a cheaper option (eg skype). Basic home phone & internet can be got for less than £30 combined.
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49.00 have you shopped around for gas & elec recenty (not that yours are that high but its worth checking it out occasionally to see you are on the best tariff or cheapest supplier.
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.80
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.25
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160.00 is this rent or mortgage?
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.62
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 I expect you need something here that you haven't included? (i'm hoping you don't survive of £5 of drink all month and no food!)
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 is this the cheapest you can get? do you get a season ticket or monthly ticket and if not would one be cheaper?
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00 how much do you owe? what APRs? is this just minimum repayments?
Savings & Investments
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 how much saved up?
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 how much saved up?
Family
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Mum Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 is this your money or your mum's?
Mum Housekeeping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 ah - is this for food and groceries etc?
Entertainment
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57.00 can you try to reduce the cost on this for a while?
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.33
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 is this needed? could it be reduced?
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.08
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.17
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.50
Education & Courses
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67 how long do you have to pay this for?
Big One Offs
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.83
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 could you reduce this? take food from home for sandwiches or similar?
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Accidential Death Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.02
Postcode Lottery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Computer Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.99
Contents Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.46 look to see if you can get cheaper
TSB Repair Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.25 what is this for? it is a good price?
Cancer Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.90
Homeserve 242783017 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00 I don't know what these are? are they necessary and a competitive price (and do you need 4 of whatever they are)
Homeserve 16986120. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.83
Homeserve 278853259 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.36
Homeserve 314590204 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.41

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,030.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,091.85

[/font]

Do you live with mum and share costs with her? if the gas & elec and phone & internet are only half of the total cost (and mum pays the same amount as well) then they look high and you should hopefully be able to save by shopping around for cheaper suppliers.

There look to be some areas you can cut back without reducing all your fun spending on hobbies etc. Or perhaps you could use some of your savings to pay back debts or at least reduce the amount you save going forward so that you can balance income & outgoings.

DrSqueeze

My thoughts: target number one is to find £62 worth of savings to eliminate your overspend (which is just over 5.5% of your spending).

Go through each item and see whether you can cut them by just 5.5% to start with. (Some will be easier than others, some you probably can't cut but others you might be able to trim nearer 10% from).

As Tixy says, shop around for utilities (Gas/Elec/Phone) and consider using Ebay for second hand DVDs etc.

If you were to cut your two savings amounts by £5 each, for example, then that only leaves you with an overspend of £52 to tackle.

rising_from_the_ashes

Welcome to MSE!:D

You'll get loads of good advice here but it's quite quiet as hols time!

Chloe2011 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet[/b]
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000.00
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). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.43
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.62 This is quite high - I pay £10/month so have a hunt around for something cheaper
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.50 :eek: Every month! Check the package you're on - I have free evening/weekend calls & it costs around £15/month (covers the odd daytime call) - I think all day free costs around £30/month
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49.00 Elec looks OK but Gas on the high side - have a check around comparison sites
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.80
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.25
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160.00
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.62
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Is this included in your rent?
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mum Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 ???
Mum Housekeeping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 ???
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57.00 Need to cut this out just now - if your overspend is around £60/month this would help a lot!
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.33
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.00 What are these? If a "weekly event" could you maybe go once a fortnight?
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 What are these?
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.08
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Need to include something here
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.17
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.50
Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67 Have you checked that you're not eligible for fees to be paid etc?
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.83
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 Packed lunches!
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Accidential Death Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.02
Postcode Lottery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 Cut this just now until you can balance the books
Computer Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.99 How long left on this - quite a hefty amount per month, how does it compare to the cost of the pc?
Contents Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.46 What's this? You've got house insurance included above?
TSB Repair Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.25
Cancer Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.90
Homeserve 242783017 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00
Homeserve 16986120. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.83
Homeserve 278853259 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.36
Homeserve 314590204 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.41
Why have you got 4 Homeserve policies?

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,030.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,091.85

[/font]

Hi, a few queries from me - if you still live at home and pay 1/2 the bills then obviously the gas/elec/phone/internet bills are even higher than they appear now and should be able to be reduced.

I'm a bit confused about you having mortgage protection insurance etc (which would imply you pay this) but that you don't have any groceries etc in (which would imply you still live at home)?

theoretica

You have a lot of insurances, do you really need them all? You don't seem to have kids so do you really need life assurance? Are any of your appliances covered by more than one policy? Some, if they went wrong, you could either put up without having (eg a dishwasher) replace really cheaply (eg mobile phones can be bought new for £10) or for less than a years premiums with something basic.

Chloe2011

Tixy wrote: »

Hi and welcome

Well it looks like you have a small overspend at the moment so hopefully there may be some places you could reduce your outgoings.

Do you live alone? is this just for you? I live with my Mum who has a state pension.

Do you live with mum and share costs with her? if the gas & elec and phone & internet are only half of the total cost (and mum pays the same amount as well) then they look high and you should hopefully be able to save by shopping around for cheaper suppliers. I pay all the bills except for the Mortgage and service charge for the house which we split between us. My mum also buys the household food which I contribute £60 per month and British Gas boiler and radiator maintenance. I have been able to reduce the internet cost to £5.99 per month and the changed fixed the Gas and Electric. Not sure about the phone as I don't use it so I will have to look into that.

There look to be some areas you can cut back without reducing all your fun spending on hobbies etc. Or perhaps you could use some of your savings to pay back debts or at least reduce the amount you save going forward so that you can balance income & outgoings.

Thanks for your advice. Much appreciated.

Chloe2011

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Welcome to MSE!:D

You'll get loads of good advice here but it's quite quiet as hols time!



Hi, a few queries from me - if you still live at home and pay 1/2 the bills then obviously the gas/elec/phone/internet bills are even higher than they appear now and should be able to be reduced.
I pay the bills. I split the mortgage and service charge cost with my mum. The £60 per month is my contribution to the groceries. I informed the internet company that I was considering leaving and they reduced my internet to £5.99. The TSB repair and the houehold insurance are the same thing. I have entered it twice. The service charge for the house includes buildings insurance so I have to have separate contents. I have also checked the other insurances and I have had them combined to £7.49 per month.

I'm a bit confused about you having mortgage protection insurance etc (which would imply you pay this) but that you don't have any groceries etc in (which would imply you still live at home)?

I am trying to save to pay off the mortgage which is on a fixed term until October 2013 owing £3760 but I have only managed to save £1460.

I honestly don't know what is going on with the phone bill as I don't use it especially as I am paying £10 a month on my mobile.

I have to take my mum to the bank to close the savings account for her as she has lost her papers. The account has been open since 1991 and as it is based on shares I am guessing that it is worth less than what I am paying.

Packed Lunches - I don't think so.

Thanks for your advice. I will keep chiiping away at it.

Chloe2011

theoretica wrote: »

You have a lot of insurances, do you really need them all? You don't seem to have kids so do you really need life assurance? Are any of your appliances covered by more than one policy? Some, if they went wrong, you could either put up without having (eg a dishwasher) replace really cheaply (eg mobile phones can be bought new for £10) or for less than a years premiums with something basic.

The insurances are a bit much and it was not until I sat down and went through everything that I realised I had them all. I have reduced them or had them combined. The life cover is to cover the mortgage.

Thanks for your advice.

Aesop

sorry, why can't you do packed lunches? even a couple of times a week will save money.

You don't have to take sandwiches everyday. Depending where you work, you can have jacket potatoes, things you can heat in microwave, ie if you had shepherds pie for dinner one night, and there was extra, you can take this to work for lunch and reheat in microwave.

You can have wraps instead of sandwiches. Soup and bread/toast.

CH27

Chloe2011 wrote: »

I am trying to save to pay off the mortgage which is on a fixed term until October 2013 owing £3760 but I have only managed to save £1460.

I honestly don't know what is going on with the phone bill as I don't use it especially as I am paying £10 a month on my mobile.

I have to take my mum to the bank to close the savings account for her as she has lost her papers. The account has been open since 1991 and as it is based on shares I am guessing that it is worth less than what I am paying.

Packed Lunches - I don't think so.

Thanks for your advice. I will keep chiiping away at it.

Why not? That's an easy way to make savings.

flippin36

Hi chloe...I understand about packed lunches, it takes a bit of getting used to but to put it into perspective the £60 you spend on lunches equates to a whole weeks worth of shopping for us and we are family of four. You could buy some really nice bread and meat from the deli and still make a huge saving. Give it some thought.