My SOA

Money~Bunny_3

I'd be so grateful for comments on below. I have been reading here for about 6 mnths and have come far! Perhaps I can do better - you are all so helpful and expert about SOAs! I don't have any debt but am looking to cut back so I can save up for my wedding

I rent a house with three students in a semi-unpleasant part of London that none the less has stupidly high house prices :mad:

All costs are monthly & most are based on a rounded average over the past 3 months of keeping a spend diary.

Outgoings

Rent: £320
Contents insurance: £23.63
Council Tax: £83.50

Water: included in rent
Gas bill: £12ish (not yet had a bill)
Electricity: £7.50
Internet bill: £5
PAYG mobile: £16
TV license: £3.12 (between 4 people over a year)

Food: £80 (too high! I am trying to reduce this to £60 or less)

Eating out: £14 (average bumped up by Xmas) Usually about £10
Coffees/Snacks: £60 (I know! it's huge. I've been much better recently and I hope I'll be under £24 this month)
Drinking out: £22 (bumped up by Xmas) Usually about £15
Cigarettes: £8 (have already decided to cut back)

Travel (trains, tube, buses): £120 (vast! :eek: I buy a monthly travel card (£90) and visit my fiance at least once a month (costs £14.50 on the train)

Pot For Nice Things (frivolous spends): £5.11
Hobbies (sewing, crafting): £12

Christmas works out to: £15 a month over 12 months
Birthdays work out to £10/month over 12 months

Clothes (new & charity shop): £32 (have decided to cut back on this already!)
Toiletries: £20
Charity donations: £8.66
Magazines: £4
Haircuts: works out to £12.50 a month
Household items (batteries, stamps, washing up liquid etc): £11

Income

£950 from full-time job (will be looking for new one in June)
£10 from occasional e-bay/amazon sales

I'm already thinking, I spend HOW MUCH? amazing to see it in black and white! Thanks so much for any advice, I find this forum really inspiring and useful.

Callisto

Hi Money bunny,

The most obvious cuts I can see would be to stop buying magazines and donating to charity. Also see if you can keep to 10 a month on your mobile and cut the coffee/snacks by half, thereby freeing up 48.66 a month (sorry no pound sign on keyboard!)

Hope that helps, I am also saving for wedding and am constantly torn between whether I should buy myself an extra treat or put it in the wedding fund!

Annie_Fanny

I think you are doing really well but you should definitely ditch the fags! I think in your situation rather then cut back much more and ending up feeling deprived I think you need to look at increasing your income by getting a better paid job or by getting a part-time job. You could look at getting a part-time job and put all this money towards your wedding. Is this feasible at all?

Good luck!

Annie

Money~Bunny_3

Thanks Callisto and Anne for the quick responses!

deprived I think you need to look at increasing your income by getting a better paid job or by getting a part-time job. You could look at getting a part-time job and put all this money towards your wedding.

That is a great point and I am going to increase my earnings/get a second job. However this is my first job out of uni in a field notorious for paying low wages to newbies (publishing!). If I leave too soon I'll miss out on some vital experience when the book I'm organizing the research on is written, edited, sent to production, proofed, etc. But then I'll be able to get a job paying at least £18k I HOPE!

I'm not sure about taking on a second job, but I'm looking into freelance proofreading and research. I can do a lot of that anywhere.

to stop buying magazines

I've just bought my last Private Eye - from now on I'll ask to borrow my boss's once he's read it. I'm also going to read Media Guardian online rather than buying every Monday for the jobs pages.

You should definitely ditch the fags!

The fags - yes they are stopping! I happened to be in a Walkabout when they started doing an Alan Carr event and big presentation. I ended up listening to all the people who found it almost impossible to quit and realised I should stop before it becomes entrenched.

Thanks for the pointers, I feel much less unsure now!

Money~Bunny_3

BUMP in case anyone has more ideas

tryhard_2

hi
have you joined pigsback? u can get boots vouchers as rewards - may cut down £20 pm spent on toiletries. your food/coffee/eating out budget amounts to nearly 20% of your income. see if you can reduce that.
good luck