Our SOA

maginot

Oh and although domino gives some excellent advice, you wouldn't be able to claim council tax discount if just one of you are working. If there is more than one adult there is no discount, however if the person is exempt e.g. Full time student you could get the discount, or if earnings weren't high enough for the other partner working there may be some benefit to help cover the full cost. However this is unlikely due to your SOA.

tallyhoh

I thought your grocery bill was really high- then I spotted you also pay £60 school lunches:eek:

£400 a month is vast, pop over to the old style board for ideas on reducing this.

ntb1

gem68 wrote: »

think you should pay car loan off completely with the cash you have.
Spending diary definately.
Good luck.

thanks, yes we are looking at stopping school dinners next half term

out buildings insurance includes contents.

gas/elec have just changed, so think its about as low as it can go. we are looking at things in the house, as it has gone up but think this is due to drier (stoped using) . have reduced the time the heating is.

ntb1

tallyhoh wrote: »

I thought your grocery bill was really high- then I spotted you also pay £60 school lunches:eek:

£400 a month is vast, pop over to the old style board for ideas on reducing this.

thats the big discussion point, oh wanted it a £400.00 we really need to work on this bit, we do cook from scratch most days and very little waste, but do tend to buy meat from local butchers, veg from local fruit & veg - we need to keep a spending diary on our food bill cause i think we can reduce it further without reducing the quality

ntb1

Mikazaru wrote: »

Have you counted the secured loan payments twice? If so you should have about £1100 a month left over which would clear your credit cards within 5 months by which time the secured loan would be almost paid off.

the secured loan isn't if you know what i mean - i put it in the wrong place first time its just a bank loan for car

ntb1

gem68 wrote: »

think you should pay car loan off completely with the cash you have.
Spending diary definately.
Good luck.

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1896 Any way to increase over-time/second job - may look into it
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1037 If you know that your OH will be getting redundancy can they start looking at future employment/retraining oportunities now?

We think if it happens about 4-5k and hopefully would get another job, but we do live in a rural area and not so easy but.

Try working out an SOA for what the new financial situation excluding this income and see how you would manage

the plan is to live the next 6-9 months on my salary and use my 0h to clear debt and possibley sort some savings

Benefits................................ 134.8 Is this the benifits that you currently recieve? How would the redundancy affect this - try an new SOA with what this would be, and see how you could manage

Child Benefit - so shouldn't be affected by redundancy

Other income............................ 45.41 what's this? Any way to increase? child tax credit. i do also get a bonus twice a year but have left this out as one its not guarnteed and two it would pay for a holiday next year if no other option

Total monthly income.................... 3113.21

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 118
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 227.2
Council tax............................. 156 If only one of you was earning, you would get 25% discount here - not sure about any benefit dont think so
Electricity............................. 30 This seems okay, but Gas seems high - do a comparison and see if you can get a cheaper deal (often online and duel fuel is cheaper), also go through cashback sites (eg Quidco, topcashback) and see if there are any incentives to switch

i may have got the split wrong between gas/elec they have both gone up in the last few months, i have just switched to Eon in the last couple of weeks and used quidco. thanks
Gas..................................... 60 see above, also, switch the thermostat on your boiler and heating down a degree or two - you will never notice, don't leave things on standby, energy saving bulbs, switch off lights in empty rooms etc temp already max 18, hace reduced the time the heating is on, have already got mostly low energy bulbs execpt kitchen and bathroom which have 12v halegon and would love to moe to led but need to sort what we are spendign first.
Water rates............................. 30 seems reasonable, are you on a meter, if not consider if this would be cheaper

not on a meter, will look into this
Telephone (land line)................... 35 what does this include? Internet, home phone and pay-for TV? If so get rid of the pay-for TV and you should be able to get home phone and internet for around £20 per month

this is internet & homephone we cant get the really good deals from sky or orange in our area sadley
Mobile phone............................ 5
TV Licence.............................. 12.43
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0??
Internet Services....................... 0??
Groceries etc. ......................... 340 I think that you can make savings here - meal plan, batch cook, drop brands, try lidl/aldi, only buy what you need and make a list before you go -this is my big one to get down as we should be spendin less this is 60,00 less than other half wanted so bit of work to do.
Clothing................................ 100 this is very high, stick to essentials only - buy in sales, when offers are on, keep and eye on the "grab it" board for especially good offers - this is more for long term budgetry purposes than the next 6 months
Petrol/diesel........................... this seems low - do you really need a car? - again maybe not, i have a company car and only really use the 2nd car for a few things during the week, its a subject may need to broch - currently oh works in the local school about 300 yards from home so car only moves to go shopping, takes kids to dance/guides etc but these are usually shared so it could go.
Road tax................................ 15
Car Insurance........................... 22
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25 do you actually save this somewhere for when it's needed?

yes- its goes into a seperate savings account as pay for all in one go.
School Dinners............ 60 pack lunches are likely to be cheaper - agree
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0 never? - kids on free perciptions, dentist is below in an extra line - i go once a year to local nhs and only cost £16.00 so would come out of the £160.00 sppends...
Buildings insurance..................... 12 does this include contents? if not consider if it is worth getting
it does include contents.

Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 60 you can probably cut this back, buy throughout the year when things are on offer, only buy for close family - i would agree this is a big discussion point for me and oh
Haircuts................................ 33 go an extra week or two in between cuts, look at the local college to see if they offer cuts with trainees for very cheap - struggle with low cost options as fairly rural we have already reduced to me every 6 weeks, wife 4 times a year and kids twice a year. - but it could be less will look at local college option as could tie with trip to supermarket etc as its 15 miles away.
Entertainment........................... 40 what does this get spent on? Is it good value? can you get the same or similar cheaper elsewhere? - pub etc and yes its not needed but needed a little bit somewhere
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Cash (kids trips. spends etc)........... 160 this seems a lot? what does it get spent on? Use vouchers. deals and offers like groupon for days out/meals out
Christmas Fund.......................... 70 in addition to the presents above? This is again a lot! - it is and we seem to buy presents for a lot of people
Dental Cover (DD1 &2 /OH)............... 33
Pension ................................ 52
Union................................... 19.56 is this necessary? -currently i think so (i hate unions) but until the things finish with oh will keep
DD2 Savings (PO)........................ 100 perhapse reduce for now - again this is a discussion point between me and oh
DD1 Savings (CIS)....................... 101 as above - this one is harder as is a endowment type policy with life cover so would be the last to go
Endowmrnt 2............................. 55.55
Endowment 1............................. 60.51
Plumb Cover............................. 10
Gas Cover............................... 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 2102.25


Assets
Cash.................................... 2800 what is this to cover? once you remove MOT, Xmas and other accounted for spends is tere anything left? If so overpay the most expensive debt - the cash is in a long term savings account for dd2
House value (Gross)..................... 250000
Shares and bonds........................ 21000 Is it worth cashing these in? -bits of it possibly but not sure we need to cash it all in yet. keep it in reserve
Car(s).................................. 500 - this should be £5000.00 not 500 and yes we could and will look at getting rid (possibly)
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 274300


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 77000....(118)......1.6 Very low! Lucky you!
Total secured & HP debts...... 77000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description........ - have you stopped spending on the cards, if not do so now so as they can get paid off - yes
............Debt......Monthly...APR
CC1............................2900......30....... .0 Is this a 0% deal, and if so when does it end, and what will the APR be then? - 0% 22months - 18months to run
CC2............................1800......35....... .0 As above as about 0% 15months - just moved to a new one
Car loan.......................1363......227.2.....8.8 Are you allowed to make penalty free overpayments here? yes wee can its got 6 months to run, i will see if its any benefit to clear this first.
Total unsecured debts..........6063......292.2.....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,113.21
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,102.25
Available for debt repayments........... 1,010.96
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 65
Amount left after debt repayments....... 945.96 Do you know where this goes? If not keep a spending dairy and note down all your spends form the bigger things like HP and mortgage to the small things like a carton of milk and a newspaper - after a month or two you will know exactly where it goes. - spending diary good idea, most of the extra goes on weekends away etc, which will stop for the next year or two depending on what happens.

I think that you are in a great position to be debt free in a matter of a few months, do you know when your OH is likely to be made redundant? If you make a few cut backs in your SOA, you could be debt free in 6 months or even less. - our aim is to be clear and saved a couple of k if we can by the time anything changes.

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 274,300
Total HP & Secured debt................. -78,363
Total Unsecured debt.................... -4,700
Net Assets.............................. 191,237

Standingtall

Hi NTB1. Just a small point I wanted to pick up on and that is the wisdom (or not) of stopping school dinners. What I found when trying this was that the packed lunch food I would buy at the weekend, intending it to last the week, would all be eaten by the Wednesday as the kids would pick at it. Ultimately, therefore, it became a false economy! As I say, this is just my opinion but is worth thinking about.

merlot123

I too had the problem where the kids would eat the packed lunch stuff by mid week until I stuffed 10 packets of crisps, 10 cereal bars, 10 apples in a carrier bag and hid it in a cupboard.

If you use rolls, freeze them and take out the required number each night, therefore said children cannot eat them.

I also get frozen chicken pieces/slices from Tesco, and take the required amount each night from freezer and make chicken mayo, either for a sandwich or chicken for the cous cous salad.

Plenty of ideas for packed lunches on old style, its doesn't have to be sandwiches, cous cous salad is really easy and cheap to make, I usually make a batch and store it in the fridge, hidden behind the veg, the children wouldn't look beyond the veg:D

merlot123

iolanthe07

I think your finances are pretty healthy, tbh. Your debt is easily manageable with a bit of careful planning and budgeting. You should be fine - hope your OH doesn't lose his job, though.

ntb1

Standingtall wrote: »

Hi NTB1. Just a small point I wanted to pick up on and that is the wisdom (or not) of stopping school dinners. What I found when trying this was that the packed lunch food I would buy at the weekend, intending it to last the week, would all be eaten by the Wednesday as the kids would pick at it. Ultimately, therefore, it became a false economy! As I say, this is just my opinion but is worth thinking about.

Schools dinners is an interesting one, as i can see what you are saying interms of costs, we normally reduce the school dinners in the spring and summer anyway, may keep it at the current but reduce after feb half term when it starts getting warmer