Saving, Saving, Saving... 1 November 2011 at 6:27PM in How much have you saved? 27 replies 9.4K views

Touche

I quite fancy a bloggy type thing to attempt me to motivate myself into saving. I really need to try and get £45k together in 3 years... which means £1111 a month over that time period. Lets see if I can get anywhere close?

I have a few small debts at the moment and will concentrate on getting those paid off first of all.

I've done a quick SOA:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2560
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2560

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 795
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 40
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 40
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 150
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 40
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
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...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1415


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 2000

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Egg CC.........................2309......0.........16.9
Egg CC #2......................750.......0.........21.9
Total unsecured debts..........3059......0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,560
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,415
Available for debt repayments........... 1,145
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,145

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 2,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -3,059
Net Assets.............................. -1,059


This month I've had a little extra cash this month and have a spare £2500 to throw at debts so I'll be paying off the Egg Card #1 in full.

My SOA might seem a little barren but my wife and I have an arrangement. We each pay £795 into our joint current account every month. Then all 'house' expenditure such as gas/water/electricity/council tax/rent/insurance comes out of that account. Anything big for our daughter (eg cot) also comes out of the joint current account. At the end of every month the extra above £2000 goes from the joint current account into a joint savings account. At the moment we have £9000 in the savings account and £2000 in the current account.

For historic reasons I pay the Virgin TV/Phone/Broadband bill myself as I got £150 quidco cashback when we signed up. Over the course of the contract I'll pay around £26 a month which I think isn't overly bad.

We share grocery shopping. She earns a little more than I do and at the moment is on maternity leave with full pay (will change in a few months though when I'll have to start doing overtime).

Touche

So it's started. I actually managed to make a little more money than expected and will be able to pay both credit cards in full before proper payday comes. I've already paid off Egg CC #2 last night but need to money from my side business to come through before Egg CC #1 is paid.

Touche

Awesome

Both credit cards paid in full Feels good to not have that £3000 hanging around my neck... I also owed a mate a grand which I paid just before starting this thead... so I've now paid back £4000 in 2 weeks and am debt free

Although I had significant savings - I got married this year and we've had a little girl. I did my best to pay for it all without dipping into existing savings... finally it's all paid off!

Now the saving can begin again come payday

Sylvia1982

Hello Touche,
Congratulation on paying off your CCs. :T
I will be subscribing to your diary. good luck with saving towards your target goal.

Sylvia

ShazWright

Wow thats brilliant, well done for paying off you CC's xx

tallyhoh

You have £200 in groceries but you share, does this mean you pay £400 a month?

Good Luck!

Touche

Had a great Christmas/new year break. Spent Christmas with the in-laws and the New Year with my parents. Haven't spent very much. The only real expenditure was about £100 in food for the in-laws (I got the turkey and a load of shopping for the boxing day party) and £100 in the sales on new shoes for my wife and I.

Had a shock a few days back when my mum came to me waving a letter from the taxman. It said I'd overpaid by £956 in 2007/08 and was due a refund. A cheque arrived the next day So got home yesterday with a fat cheque to bank

Where am I with saving since starting this thread?

November 2011: £1250 saved
December 2011: £1250 saved
January 2012: £1250 saved already
Total £3750

Current account balance: £2350 (with £1750 overdraft available)
Credit cards: £0


Also having car issues. I drive a 2005 Alfa 156 which has done 130k miles now and the clutch is on it's way out. I've had a quote for £410 which is pretty good as I know it'll be about 8 hours labour and £240 in parts. It'll also need a service soon and the battery needs changing. I'm tempted to just get it all done at the same time, which realistically will be about £800 But at least my current account looks healthy enough to not cause me too much stress.

Touche

tallyhoh wrote: »

You have £200 in groceries but you share, does this mean you pay £400 a month?

Good Luck!

I pay about £200 a month on groceries and do *most* of the food shopping. I'm very careful with grocery shopping and monitor my spending closely by putting it on a reward credit card and paying it all off every month. That way I can see exactly how much I spend in total. My wife has her own income and buys *most* baby things and little bits here and there for us (think occasional few pints of milk).

Between us it's probably around £250 a month.

Touche

So there I was with £2350 burning a hole in my current account... what to do? I knew I'd spend it on some old tat!!

So I decided to buy some gold! The local jeweler (30 seconds walk from my house) is well know for trading in gold so I went and bought 5x new gold sovereigns for a decent price. That leaves me with around £1100 in my current account

Touche

Jamie1975 wrote: »

Ive stopped putting my money in the banks so called top ISA(s). 3.5% in a year is no return, so i studied the stock market alittle! ive put 1k into a company called Sirius Minerals. NOW, your thinking this is risky? mmm course it is, but the government have invested 2.8million in these guys because they have the most potent seem of "potash" in the world! Whats Potash you may ask? its one of the major elements in fertilisers, and India & China have a shortage, and as their growing population requires more food, and their economy keeps growing? the rest is for you to look into. You want an investment then buy these shares, they're 25.5pence each at the moment but I predict they'll be £1+ this time next year, almost 4x your investment, 5 years £4/5+, after that your guess is as good as mine. Our government doesnt pump 2.8million into a Yorkshire mine for no reason. Im not selling this, just saying if you have a grand, then slap it in SIRIUS MINERALS. this WILL be a multi billion pound PLC very soon. Chow. Jamie.

Any investment is a risk. So "no risk" is a rather silly thing to say IMO.

No chance of me investing in Sirius Minerals

Valli

@OP

are you claiming child benefit (just that it's not specified in your SOA)