LBM in 2003.. What have I been doing since??!

brizzledfw

Hi jwil

Well have pulled bread from BM and it looks fab..I think mainly down to my never fails me secret ingredient Vitamin C..2 heaped tsps makes most bread mixtures work out:D Linseed seeds in for well, some more crunchy flavour and just cos they were lurking :rotfl:

jwil

brizzledfw wrote: »

Hi jwil

Well have pulled bread from BM and it looks fab..I think mainly down to my never fails me secret ingredient Vitamin C..2 heaped tsps makes most bread mixtures work out:D Linseed seeds in for well, some more crunchy flavour and just cos they were lurking :rotfl:

Ooh, that sounds good, I must remember that when I eventually get my new breadmaker. Can you buy it in powder form then?

DedicatedDFW

Oooh i never knew about adding vitamin c to bread mix in the maker :cool: You are doing very well brizzle - although i often read your thread and feel peckish :drool: with all the delicious talk of full english brekkie, pancakes and homemade bread

brizzledfw

Hi it is a brilliant bread improver as well as jolly good for you and the powder form is cheaper than tablets. My current tub is from our local chemist but my frugalista mum has got an even cheaper source..think it's meant to be wholesale and I can ask her what the name of the distributor is. The brand she gets is Linus and she gets it in 1kg tubs...she has one waiting for me she says. BTW you do sometimes have to justify yourself trying to buy it..as its used as a blending agent ( so to speak) with grade A d&ugs..well you get the picture..don't say I haven't warned you!!

Me DDFW..well I just love food so no surprise I spend a lot of time writing about it!!

Planning to make berry friands on Wednesday..now they are good. Little fruit Madeleine things. Made with blueberries last time but this time will defrost some AL£I frozen forest fruits and use those in the mixture instead. Much more frugal...

Off on long work journey tomorrow so probably limited posts. Have a fun day guys!

Brizzle

brizzledfw

Hi all

Didn't post on the diary yesterday but kept up the small dfw things so was committed really! Working away yesterday so wasnt online much.

Today have made a small PAD and shelled out masses for a new passport for DD1 and a new driving licence photo card for me..and that was £69 before postage! Then rolled into the charity shop and got 2 pairs of work trousers and a top for £17.. So...pleased about the price but will have to start taking up hems now, so another job to do. Where's your sewing machine when I need it DNMS!!

I have also spent hours on our online account and BudgetBrain updating our budget, outgoings, assets etc. still not sure I have some of the calculations exactly right..it's the termtime ones which are foxing me..as well as the annual ones we have already paid for..but I need to start a pot for them for 2013..I am almost ready to post a SOA..which will be extraordinary reading I predict..and not in a good way. One thing that is debatable is the amount we save..with my dodgy maths I think we save 15% of our net income every month (work pensions go out of gross income).. And yet we have debts. I know the advice of pay off debts first but they are now all 0% CC debts and I worry if we don't pay into these accounts we will never change our ways. We also spend a lot on classes for the kids..£150 a month..and £175 to charities...am I mad? Maybe.

Anyway hoping to chat things through with OH this eve. We should also be choosing tester colours for our front room..first time it will be decorated in 15 years:T and if he seems receptive we can go into the budget as well..I have basically used BB and current account details to look at our spends, subtracted the direct debits and standard sums which are the same every month and then that leaves me with, in theory, what we have as a discretionary spend which is everything from Christmas, entertainment, kids stuff, food, fuel, boiler maintenance etc. it makes sense to me. What it doesn't really take account of, though, is that we usually spend more than the categories indicate:rotfl: and we will need to keep a lid on stuff to keep within budget every month. But I guess we can try. We have much more than lots of people on here and around the world..so feel like I need to just buckle down. There may also be glimmers of light around too..like OH's freelance work which we are still waiting on a decision about, EBay, sale of car etc...but these all need to be carefully allocated, not just sloshed into the current account 'bucket'to disappear without trace..

Anyway..enough of my ramblings..kids due back from school any minute!!

Love to you all

Brizzle

brizzledfw

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,356.10
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 134.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Solar panels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.43
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.17
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130.80
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,484.00
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.92
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.03
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.18
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
PHI (long term health cover) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.11
Wood for stove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Home Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Debt Repayments

Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Savings & Investments

Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92.03
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving into mortgage OP pot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332.00
Girls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105.00

Family

Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59.40
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67.50
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.23
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Children's Extra Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156.00

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.50
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00

Education & Courses

University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Climbing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00

Big One Offs

Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.66

Odds & Sods

Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175.50
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,541.10


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,427.46

Notes:

Have household of 2 DDs and theres also me and my OH

Have calculated lessons, childcare etc on termly basis. We use childcare vouchers for most of our costs. council Tax also takes into account the 2 'free' months.

Some newspapers etc. are for my work. Maybe these are tax deductible. As I now have to do a return, I need to check this. What do you guys think?

Need to investigate whether a fuel card is better as i have high commute costs. The costs here are my estimate for our 1 vehicle. We are selling second as now have a company car. Decided was cheaper and safer.

Main pensions come straight out of salary so not included here.

Paid car and home insurances in full last year. Building up a pot for home one. The car is due in April so need a plan for that.

Not enough going on CC debts..you can see from my sig thatI have some on 0%.. and £1200 pa will not pay them off.. It's OK whilst they are 0% but that will come to an end in November this year. Do I sound as if there is a plan? Well I am afraid there isn't...yet

We regularly go over all these categories..this SoA is my aim. It's not where we have been, that's for sure. .I know we go over these amounts i have indicated..regularly..every month even.. on groceries, holidays, entertainment etc. I am and will be focussing on these. I see no other way? Do you?

Our mortgage is 0.69% tracker above BOE so variable. Scheduled to be paid off in 13 years. Repayment. As you can see, hoping to pay off earlier. Think rate is a good deal and we didn't pay a fee:D

We increasingly batch cook and we always cook from scratch. We spend a lot on fruit and veg, organic milk etc, but are increasingly eating meat..we should cut down on the meat think. We probably spend too much on alcohol but rarely go to the pub.

Babysitting is not just for when we go out, but is the safety net for when one of us is late home, has a work event etc.

Bank account fee includes travel and breakdown insurance

The complimentary therapy item is counselling sessions so non negotiable

Have recently upped life insurance but we also have cover throughout employers. Too much?

Cat is 15 so insurance seems worth the insurance cost.

Mobile phones is for 3 of us. Have freeview so no sky. Internet includes phone.

Gas and electric are from 100% renewable sources. Supplier has bought Direct debits down quite a bit recently and I got money back late last year too. Think it's an accurate reflection of what we use. Don't use a TD.

Have a reasonable work wardrobe at the moment so trying not to spend much there. But do have to be smart. Do spend on haircuts but now try to home dye at least once in every 2 cuts. OH rarely spend on clothes, work or other.

We now go to AL?I for basics.

We do employ a cleaner but cut back on childcare :rotfl:...stressful jobs, OH away a lot, so am I. We needed some help.

Panels probably produce more but wanted to be conservative with estimate as don't have a full years figures yet.

Am sure there's more. Don't want to seem defensive but there are reasons I think for most of what we do...BUT do feel free to challenge ( nicely!:)).. I am really keen to have your views on all of this.

Posting a SoA is a big milestone for me..have never had the guts to do it it before!! :rotfl:

jwil

A couple of points from me - the thing that made me go :eek: was the newspapers/magazines - that is a LOT of money a month. But if some of those are for work, I would certainly look into whether they are tax deductible, I don't know whether they are.

I would certainly look at what the payouts would be for life insurance - if the work one is adequate, and you have mortgage life insurance, do you really need another one as well?

You are also paying a lot in PPI each month - do you need that? I'm looking at the non-mortgage ppi.

There's a lot there that *could* be cut further if you want to, but that's all about how quickly you want to clear the debt.

If you have a reasonable amount of savings though, I would be tempted to put that monthly amount (or some of it at least) towards clearing the debt faster, or at least ensuring that the 0% are cleared before they run out.

jwil

Oh, and I'm REALLY impressed that you get £51 a month from solar panels! :T

DedicatedDFW

Didn't want to read and run but i think between you, you and jwil have identified lots of areas you could look at I am by no means an expert on SOA's though so am sure someone will pop along and find things i've missed

brizzledfw

Hi jwil and DDFW..thanks for popping in.

I think youre right jwil and I will cancel 2 subscriptions on Saturday when I can pop into the newsagents. There are others. One is an annual subscription which I think runs out in April but I wont renew it.. One for a weekly news magazine which I no longer need now I read the papers online I can cancel asap. Thats a saving of £5 a week immediately I think..so cutting the bill in half..very crude maths here..

I will look at the mortgage insurance when I get a mo and check up on work benefits.

The PHI was taken out years ago and is good in that it pays out if we cant do our professions rather than any job..but I have no idea whether we could get it cheaper. Am just conscious long term sickness could play as much havoc with finances..probably worse than if one of us died. Bleak thought but has to be considered!

Please do give me more ideas......really keen to look at things dfferently!! (even if I am also trying to justify stuff;)

The panels are good really..not a big array..but given that we have done £360 over the last 6 months and 3 of those months have been pants..making steadily more though as the days get longer:T so hopefully we will get more than £600 over the whole year. There are dips though..today was cloudy so only 18p:rotfl: