** Wish I was a money fairy **

mooomin

Housework*Fairy wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1104
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1181
Benefits................................ 175.8
Total monthly income.................... 2460.8

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 465
Council tax............................. 83 (paid over 12 months)
Electricity............................. 41 (recently increased from £32)
Gas..................................... 70 (recently reduced from £91) What are you doing to keep those bills down? Do you turn off lights/unplug appliances at night etc? Small things will make a difference! Look at switching to a cheaper supplier, and don't forget cashback I got £150 for switching earlier in the year via Quidco and am saving pennies too.
Water rates............................. 39.8(paid over 12 months)
Telephone (land line)................... 13
Mobile phone............................ 84 (2 x £35 + DS1 at £14) Jings. Can you reduce your bill? How old is DS1? Old enough for paper round/chimney sweep duties?
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 40 (please see below) My (many!) thoughts are below
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 350 Get thee to Old Style! In seriousness, reduce to £300 this month and challenge yourself to reduce it further next month. Too much too soon will cause you to rebel. Does this include toiletries/cleaning stuff?
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 240 Cripes.
Road tax................................ 31.5 Do you put this/insurance cost away every month or do you panic and put it on a credit card?
Car Insurance........................... 110
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 Add an amount for this or the next MOT will end up on your credit card
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5
Buildings insurance..................... 11.7
Contents insurance...................... 10 Get a quote and see if you can reduce this.
Life assurance ......................... 21.32 Is this for your mortgage?
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 You need to budget for this or you'll put it on a card.
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 50 What does this cover?
Holiday................................. 0 Hmmm....not saving for the holiday but still have accommodation etc to pay for???
Gym..................................... 36 Are you using this? If not, cancel it - it's money you can't afford.
Weight watchers......................... 19.99 As above! If you're not getting the value from it then cancel until you're in a better position. You could also volunteer to help at your local meeting which means you get the meetings for free (That's what I do!)
Total monthly expenses.................. 1758.68


Assets
Cash.................................... 0 No savings hiding anywhere?
House value (Gross)..................... 125000
Car(s).................................. 2000
Total Assets............................ 127000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 89000....(465)......2.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 89000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Natwest 1......................4300......86........16.9
Natwest 2......................900.......18........16.9
HSBC...........................1950......47........14.9
Catalogue......................300.......20........20
Tesco..........................2100......50........16.9
Halifax 2......................3200......37........12.9
Halifax 1......................3200......37........12.9
Total unsecured debts..........15950.....295.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,460.8
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,758.68
Available for debt repayments........... 702.12
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 295
Amount left after debt repayments....... 407.12 Where is this £400 going? What do you fritter on through the week/month?

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 127,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -89,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -15,950
Net Assets.............................. 22,050

Created using the SOA calculator at.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

I pay to Virgin £66 which is mates rates and I get the top broadband, phone and TV packages (whatever they are) plus an extra set top box and sky sports. Football on TV does keep my sons and husband occupied at the weekend. £40 telly + £15 internet + £13 phone is £68 That's a hell of a lot of money to pay every month. We pay £35 with virgin for phone, internet and medium telly. We don't have the sports stuff, but Mr F tends to find sport via the internet if he's bothered. £68 per month is £816 per year :eek:

I don't put anything away for the car but if I were putting away, then those are the totals I would have to put aside. So if you're not putting away for the car then your surplus is probably over £500 but you're still overspending.

What I have (ha) tried to do is have the bills money taken from one account, and then I use another for spends. Stuff like clothes and birthdays I just take money from the spends account to pay for it. Of course it hasn't worked. I get terribly confused about budgeting.

Out of the leftover money I also pay the following
Mum £20 (this is for her feeding my kids after school before I get home)
DS1 bus fare (£22) - 90p per day
DS1 & DS2 football club = £24 per month
DS1 & DS2 athletics club = £16 per month
DS2 after school football = £10 per month
Newspaper bill = £14 (I owe three months - eek)
My lunches = £22 (I work in a hospital and get a 2 course hot meal for £1 per day) That's £128 out of your surplus already, this should all be in your SOA!

I'm sure there is loads I will have forgotten.

Also up to £1100 overdrawn in one account, and up to £1800 in the other.

Oh Fuhk. That's up to £18500 already, so much for the guesstimate of £14.5k.

Tough love is above.

You need to figure out a better way of budgeting that's going to work for you. I use savings accounts online for budgeting. I know that Hypno used to use actual envelopes with cash in them, but I hate having money in the house in case I end up getting burgled :rotfl::rotfl:

If it helps, here's what I do each month:

1. Get paid (Woo!) Feel rich for ten minutes. Then start transferring money

2. Transfer cost of direct debits for the month into the bills account. This just ticks over throughout the month as I know how much money goes out of there each month.

3. Transfer money for groceries into Groceries savings accounts. When I spend money in the supermarket I transfer from this account to cover it.

4. Repeat as above for Entertainment, Christmas and Car Fund (to cover MOT/repairs when it happens, Fred The Fiat doesn't need his first MOT until next year)

5. Anything leftover goes into a spends account, and this is for me to fritter as I see fit. I also make my PADs from this account which go towards paying off my loan for Fred early.

I know that some people wouldn't want to be *rsed with transferring money like that, but it works for me because I have to log on every day to check all my balances. Once the money's gone in each one it's gone. If I have anything left over at the end of the month, it goes towards a debt repayment (there's normally money in the entertainment account, I don't get out much ) I leave the Christmas/car funds to roll over monthly.

Ooft this is a long post, sorry bout that....:o

FullTimeBadMan

You know what we're going to say- cancel the Virgin, the internet, all the boys' clubs, the gym, the weightwatchers, the mobiles, all those unnecessary creature comforts and you're saving nearly £200 a month. 1/10 of your entire monthly income goes on unnecessary expenditure.

Oh! And mobile phones. That brings it up to over £250 a month! Over 1/8 of your income!

mooomin

FullTimeBadMan wrote: »

You know what we're going to say- cancel the Virgin, the internet, all the boys' clubs, the gym, the weightwatchers, the mobiles, all those unnecessary creature comforts and you're saving nearly £200 a month. 1/10 of your entire monthly income goes on unnecessary expenditure.

Oh! And mobile phones. That brings it up to over £250 a month! Over 1/8 of your income!

I would be less harsh than that, although the point is valid. If you can rein in your spending generally then you should be able to still allow the boys to have their clubs, just reduce the sports package and you will still have telly/internet. You won't need a landline as you've all got phones

PS...I don't consider the internet to be an unnecessary comfort, it's essential for communication (free instant messaging/skype for example instead of landline) and can be an excellent moneysaving tool as well - think of cashback sites, survey sites and online coupons.

Housework*Fairy

I can't sleep. I'm a great believer in 'things will look better in the morning' but I can't get off to sleep :-( I just have this massive pit of dread in the bottom of my stomach.

I accept that we'll have to cancel the holiday and lose the flight money, but DH has gone mad. He's had a drink tonight so I don't feel that I can talk sensibly to him. He did say he would try and find a better job but there are no jobs out there.

Although saying that I have just applied for a scale 5 NHS job which I am fairly sure is earmarked for someone, but I guess if you don't ask you don't get.

I'm definitely going to do what Flyin Fresian has suggested and have separate savings accounts linked to the current account for Christmas, Car and groceries. It's a good idea and will force me to log onto internet banking every day. HSBC have made that a pain since they introduced the secure key and I have got lazy about logging in daily.

I've just done my own SOA on a scrap of paper in a format easier for myself to work out and it's really not looking pretty. I've got tomorrow afternoon off work, and DH is off all day so I will sit down with him tomorrow and show him what goes out and comes in.

I'm going to try and persuade him that selling his car might be a good idea although it will be blooming awkward without it.

I've had a chat with myself saying "C'mon, don't get disheartened, it might take ten years to pay off......" but as I'm only paying interest on the CC's even doing that would mean finding an extra £150 per month.

I'm going to try and tackle the catalogue bill as it's a relatively small balance but it would mean I were £20 a month better off there. WW will definitely get cancelled as will the gym, although in my notice period I have to give a month's notice so will still have to pay the payment due this month, so already next month that is £56 a month better off, £77 if I include sky sports.

As for the kids activities, I just cannot bring myself to cancel their sports. We never go anywhere and football / athletics do provide us with 'entertainment' when matches and meets are on. Neither of them tend to pester me for stuff. DS1 does have a Sunday paper round which is £4 per week which is then money he's not asking me for. I don't think £14 on a mobile phone contract is bad at all!

mooomin

Housework*Fairy wrote: »

I accept that we'll have to cancel the holiday and lose the flight money, but DH has gone mad. He's had a drink tonight so I don't feel that I can talk sensibly to him. Speak to him today when he's sober. Can you send the kids to a friends house for a few hours so you get peace?

I'm definitely going to do what Flyin Fresian has suggested and have separate savings accounts linked to the current account for Christmas, Car and groceries. It's a good idea and will force me to log onto internet banking every day. HSBC have made that a pain since they introduced the secure key and I have got lazy about logging in daily. It works for me anyway...! If it doesn't work for you then try another way - there will always be something that works for you

I'm going to try and tackle the catalogue bill as it's a relatively small balance but it would mean I were £20 a month better off there. WW will definitely get cancelled as will the gym, although in my notice period I have to give a month's notice so will still have to pay the payment due this month, so already next month that is £56 a month better off, £77 if I include sky sports. Well done with making the savings! :T Paying off the catalogue will be good because it's high interest, and it's always nice to get the boost of paying something off in full. Just remember - once it's paid off CLOSE THE ACCOUNT. You don't need to keep it "just in case".

As for the kids activities, I just cannot bring myself to cancel their sports. We never go anywhere and football / athletics do provide us with 'entertainment' when matches and meets are on. Neither of them tend to pester me for stuff. DS1 does have a Sunday paper round which is £4 per week which is then money he's not asking me for. I don't think £14 on a mobile phone contract is bad at all! £14 isn't bad for a phone contract (and is certainly less than mine! ) I think that you can do this without cancelling their clubs, well done for cancelling the stuff you don't need :T

Morning


You seem to be in the right mindset, just try and keep it up. Getting motivated and sorting things out is easy at the start, but the boring hard slog can be hard. Don't forget to log on here for support and advice when you need it. Xxx

Housework*Fairy

I managed to snatch a few hours sleep last night. DH is now sober so I have asked if we can have a proper talk about money later on. I need to know how much the car is going to cost to get back on the road and then I can work out a plan of action.

I've logged onto bills account and I used the debit card for petrol on Wednesday and there's a debit card transaction pending for £2.66, so I have transferred that over from the spends.

mooomin

Housework*Fairy wrote: »

I've logged onto bills account and I used the debit card for petrol on Wednesday and there's a debit card transaction pending for £2.66, so I have transferred that over from the spends.

You could always cut up the card for the bills account and only use the spends card? It might stop any confusion

Housework*Fairy

Housework*Fairy wrote: »

After running diagnosis they said it was a faulty fuel pipe which is a specific fault on our car (Vectra) and upon googling this I found a watchdog article from 2009. The garage said they will get back to us with a price for repair but does anyone know if Vauxhall will be likely to 'help' (anything is worth a try)..

Possibly some good news on the horizon. Vauxhall have said that our car is one that she have been recalled and have booked it into a Vauxhall garage for Monday to have the regulator replaced for free. Hopefully this will fix the problem but I wont hold my breath because we really aren't that lucky.....

Husband was dispatched up to the gym with a cancellation letter for my membership which he handed in. I knew I had to give a month's notice and had worked tomorrow's payment into my budget. However within minutes the gym rang me and told me to cancel the DD straightaway because they actually take 2 months payments when you join, as so many people were not giving a month's notice and cancelling their direct debits. So I have cancelled the DD which I now don't have to work into this month's budget :-)

Weightwatchers have been contacted. Luckily the money gods were smiling down on me again and because I have cancelled it before 5th October I don't have to make another payment to them.

However all is not good because I have found my catalogue bill and although the balance is currently £349, it looks like there's BNPL to be added so balance is nearer £600 :-(

I'm going to stop taking out the Bills money card with us and providing I have added up correctly on my spreadsheet the bills account should run itself on the money that is paid in there.

Spends money will have £1200 available (including overdraft) which will immediately be for petrol and food for the next 4 weeks and whatever else NEEDS to be spent on....

mooomin

Housework*Fairy wrote: »

Spends money will have £1200 available (including overdraft) which will immediately be for petrol and food for the next 4 weeks and whatever else NEEDS to be spent on....

Good news on Fat Club and the gym

£1200 is a vast amount for spends. Can you try only using cash for groceries, maybe keeping a groceries purse in the house that is all you use for the supermarket shopping, and leaving the kids with Mr Fairy when you shop so there is no pestering?

Keep every receipt between now and the next time you get paid, and then you will have a realistic idea about your monthly groceries budget and petrol spends (i.e. do you really spend £350 or is this a figure you pull out of [strike]your *rse[/strike] thin air?)

Housework*Fairy

flying_fresian wrote: »

Good news on Fat Club and the gym

£1200 is a vast amount for spends. Can you try only using cash for groceries, maybe keeping a groceries purse in the house that is all you use for the supermarket shopping, and leaving the kids with Mr Fairy when you shop so there is no pestering?

Keep every receipt between now and the next time you get paid, and then you will have a realistic idea about your monthly groceries budget and petrol spends (i.e. do you really spend £350 or is this a figure you pull out of [strike]your *rse[/strike] thin air?)

You are loving calling him Mr Fairy aren't you :rotfl::rotfl:

Yes,it is a figure from thin air. I usually do a big shop on a Saturday at Lidl and Farmfoods and £86 is what I spent last week. The £350 does include cleaning stuff too.

£1200 isn't really a lot. In reality it's £100 credit plus an overdraft. I was only £72 away from the overdraft limit last week. However I've not shifted anything to a separate savings account for Xmas / Care etc.. because I thought it would be better off not paying interest on what I go overdrawn on, if you know what I mean? I also haven't withdrawn any cash yet for the work lunches, mum etc...