Struggling - anyone else have this issue when starting up?

rising_from_the_ashes

Hi BR, few comments from me ... just something to think about before phoning - if you can, see if you can incr some things a bit - it needs to be realistic to let you be able to stick to it.

Did CCCS provide any advice on the figures you'd put down?

BlushingRose wrote: »

Mortgage = £662 (although it's actually £622.25)
Water = £20 (although it's actually going to be £60) prev suggestions from others re a water meter are good - try to get CCCS to incr this to cover the extra
Council Tax = £87 (paid over 12 months)
Gas = £66
Elec = £27 this seems quite low? I'm really careful with my usage (don't use TD, only have light on in the room I'm in & hall - both low energy things) and I average £30 / month over the year
Building & Contents Insurance = £30
Telephone inc BB = £50 (although it's actually £51.53)
TV License = £14
Life Insurance = £81 You may be able to save some money on this (obv leave this figure as is) - try the insurances board
Spares/servicing = £15 Is this the car? If so, I think this is a bit low - I allow £35/month and my car's pretty new (still under warranty so shouldn't cost huge amounts if something major goes wrong)
Road Tax = £10
Insurance = £20 (although it's actually £20.33) I'd try to up this figure a bit too - insurances have been rising so you want to make sure you can cover any incr at renewal time
Fuel/Parking = £80 (although for the last two months it's been more like £100) Incr to £100 if this is a more realistic figure - any months you don't spend the full £100, put the extra aside and try to save up for a treat etc (make the journey more pleasant)
Food/Toiletries/cleaning = £280 See if they'll let you up this a bit
Pets = £20 Is this realistic (depends on how many) - mine average out at £50/month for the cats (2) and the same for the dog
Clothing & Footwear = £20 Incr a bit if you can..
Professional fees = £31 ??? sorry don't know what this is
Medicines/prescriptions = £10
Dentist = £10 Realistic for 2 of you? I'd say more like £20
Newspapers/mags = £20
Entertainments = £20

Missing

• Emergency Fund - this is really important as you'll have no access to credit so you need to be able to set money aside to cover things that break down etc
• Haircuts
• Presents / Christmas

Hope that helps

BlushingRose

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Hi BR, few comments from me ... just something to think about before phoning - if you can, see if you can incr some things a bit - it needs to be realistic to let you be able to stick to it.

Did CCCS provide any advice on the figures you'd put down?



Missing

• Emergency Fund - this is really important as you'll have no access to credit so you need to be able to set money aside to cover things that break down etc
• Haircuts
• Presents / Christmas

Hope that helps

Thanks. I'll have a proper look tomorrow. We already hand over £421 to CCCS, with these increases I'm not sure we'll be able to hand over anything!

The CCCS didn't advice us or pull us up on any of the amounts

BlushingRose

New thread (just to make things easier, hopefully!) here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/51057861#Comment_51057861