My statement of affairs...

youngmum_2

I was wondering if some of you kind peeps could take the time to look over my current Statement of Affairs. I've tried to include as much information as possible. There are 4 of us. Myself, OH and my 2 young boys. Thanks in advance

Monthly outgoings (paid for with one wage)

Car Insurance £26.06 (OHs - mine paid for in full last year. Due renewed April - thank you. I do realise I need to budget for this now )
Madasafish £17.99
Carphone Warehouse £25.56 (includes line rental)
Car Loan £93.80 (Not due to end till March 2009 - APR 9.4% - £4847.40 total amount payable)
DFS £63.52 (ends June 2008, interest free)
Insurances (Home, Mortgage, Critical Illness etc) £93.02
Mortgage £666.64 (Fixed 5 years, commenced Dec 2005)
Nationwide Loan £177.87 (Ends Dec 2010 - APR 6.7% Total amount payable £8537)
Council Tax £147
Powergen £50.00
Sky £15
Specsavers £15.00
TV Licence £11.37
Account charge £10.00
Gym £42.00 (pd for with Tax Credits)

Monthly outgoings = £1406.28

Weekly outgoings (paid for with other wage + family allowance)

£10 Clothes savings
£70 Food
£45 Petrol (2 x cars)
£20 Ohs "pocket money" - covers his football training, tobacco, work coffee money, papers etc
£10 Gifts fund
£10 Car
£5 Money towards haircuts
£5 My money (for Weightwatchers)
£5 Money towards nights out, DVD rental, takeaways etc
£5 Holiday fund
£4 Misc
£2 Lottery

Weekly outgoings = £206


So folks, what do you reckon?

Edited to mention~~~~> Sorry, I should have mentioned that the first wage which is paid monthly is variable but on average is £1400 so basically covers the Direct Debits with nothing spare!
The other wage (plus family allowance) = £206 a week and as you can see is all accounted for.

All my debts are listed (and now highlighted)

As for water charges, that's included in my council tax

shoe1206

Hi I'm fairly new here so not sure i can offer much advice on your SOA. What i can say is that it looks really realistic, and a good idea to split it into two. Very organised. I aim to get mine looking more like yours.

Skint_Catt

Very organised, but we can't tell whether it's good or bad until you tell us what your income is!!!

And what debts you have at what APR's and min payments etc

Then we can work out if you can do any cutting back?!

S_C

sproggi

A couple of little things,

'Car Insurance £26.06 (OHs - mine paid for in full last year. Due renewed April)'

Is the £26.06 just for oh's car insurance? You will still need to budget each month for your insurance even if you do pay yearly.


I cannot see anything to cover your water.

Sproggi

raq

youngmum wrote:

I was wondering if some of you kind peeps could take the time to look over my current Statement of Affairs. I've tried to include as much information as possible. There are 4 of us. Myself, OH and my 2 young boys. Thanks in advance

Monthly outgoings (paid for with one wage)

Car Insurance £26.06 (OHs - mine paid for in full last year. Due renewed April)
Madasafish £17.99
Carphone Warehouse £25.56 (includes line rental)
Car Loan £93.80 (Not due to end till March 2009 - APR 9.4% - £4847.40 total amount payable)
DFS £63.52 (ends June 2008, interest free)
Insurances (Home, Mortgage, Critical Illness etc) £93.02
Mortgage £666.64 (Fixed 5 years, commenced Dec 2005)
Nationwide Loan £177.87 (Ends Dec 2010 - APR 6.7% Total amount payable £8537)
Council Tax £147
Powergen £50.00
Sky £15
Specsavers £15.00
TV Licence £11.37
Account charge £10.00
Gym £42.00 (pd for with Tax Credits)

Monthly outgoings = £1406.28

Weekly outgoings (paid for with other wage + family allowance)

£10 Clothes savings
£70 Food
£45 Petrol (2 x cars)
£20 Ohs "pocket money" - covers his football training, tobacco, work coffee money, papers etc
£10 Gifts fund
£10 Car
£5 Money towards haircuts
£5 My money (for Weightwatchers)
£5 Money towards nights out, DVD rental, takeaways etc
£5 Holiday fund
£4 Misc
£2 Lottery

Weekly outgoings = £206


So folks, what do you reckon?

JI

You haven't mentioned how much monies that come into the house each month

youngmum_2

Thanks everybody for taking the time to reply. I've edited my original post to clarify the situation

Spendaholic_Chick

Council tax is high - have you checked you're on the right band? I've read a lot lately about people's bands being incorrect and getting a backpayment of monies owed (sadly, doesn't apply to me as I'm in the lowest band anyway!)

Gym - could you cancel or reduce that at all?

youngmum_2

Spendaholic_Chick wrote:

Council tax is high - have you checked you're on the right band? I've read a lot lately about people's bands being incorrect and getting a backpayment of monies owed (sadly, doesn't apply to me as I'm in the lowest band anyway!)

Gym - could you cancel or reduce that at all?

Council tax is correct unfortunately. And I'm tied in with the gym until at least September.

Thanks for replying though

tyllwyd

Have you worked your budget out so it accounts for every penny? Because if so, it is obviously very tight - you haven't included anything for other car bills like car tax, servicing etc, which will cost a fair amount for two cars.

What is £10 bank account charge? Can you get rid of this?

What you haven't said is what you are hoping people will give you advice on - are you coping as you are, or are you falling behind?

youngmum_2

tyllwyd wrote:

Have you worked your budget out so it accounts for every penny? Because if so, it is obviously very tight - you haven't included anything for other car bills like car tax, servicing etc, which will cost a fair amount for two cars.

What is £10 bank account charge? Can you get rid of this?

What you haven't said is what you are hoping people will give you advice on - are you coping as you are, or are you falling behind?

The car savings of £10 a week are for just that. Although I do realise it could be with being a little bit more.

The bank charge I could probably drop. Would mean having to shell out on breakdown recovery which we currently get with this.

I guess I was just hoping peeps could point out any areas at all for moneysaving. I've tried (and I think) we've accounted for everything but there's just no extra left at the end of the day. That was all

sproggi

Have you used the comparison sites to check that you are getting the cheapest insurances?
I managed to save nearly £200 when I did this for my car insurance which also meant that I could (with a tight squeeze) pay the full year instead of monthly, thereby saving even more:D
My house insurance worked out around £50 cheaper and then I went through Greasypalm cashback site and got another £60 back.

I use Quidco, Greasypalm and Pigsback whenever I can to get cashback and vouchers.

Have you checked out the OS (old style) board to try and reduce your groceries? I can now manage very easily on less than £300 a month for 6 of us plus enough pets to open a small zoo! thanks to the tips that I have picked up on there.


Sproggi