My SOA--hope i've done this correctly :)

rising_from_the_ashes

sistafromanothermista wrote: »

Don't but anything new on a monthly basis just once yearly.
Car tax and MOT is done yearly shall i just divide by 4 and enter amount?
Haircuts are once every 3 months not every month

For all annual expenses, you need to divide the total amount by 12 to get a monthly figure. It's really important to put this money aside somewhere each month (and not touch it - which was my downfall) or you end up (like me!) just sticking them on another credit card when they're due (and adding to the debts).

You need to add in something for the missing annual figures: presents (add up what you'd spend on birthdays/Christmas over a year and divide by 12), haircuts, car maintenance, clothing etc.

I'd also suggest an emergency fund is established - household appliances unfortunately don't last as long as they used to and, similar to the annual expenses, if you don't have money set aside to cover replacing one when it breaks, this also tends to just get put on a cc.

A spending diary is a great way of seeing where money goes - the odd £10 here & there quickly adds up.

sistafromanothermista

merlot123 wrote: »

Life insurance is far far far more important than sky or a mobile phone in my honest opinion.

You wouldn't not have buildings or contents insurance would you? So why is Life insurance any different, I do think you should look into it.

Do you not receive child benefit?

Hi i added it too the column below it. I really should look into it...
When we got the mortgage i was a smoker. I quit 6 weeks (and 1 day) ago so i will look back into this life insurance, i think i got too confused with the types then as i was a smoker it was an extra £50 a month we couldn't afford.:o

freshstart11

sistafromanothermista wrote: »

Hi, nothing on uniforms £61 is for both cars 29 for me and 32 hubby. Contents insurance includes buildings insurance too through nationwide.
I agree about the shopping and this is what we're working to reduce, never realised we spent so much to be honest :eek:

only asked as said two children in household so was thinking school uniforms

merlot123

sistafromanothermista wrote: »

Hi i added it too the column below it. I really should look into it...
When we got the mortgage i was a smoker. I quit 6 weeks (and 1 day) ago so i will look back into this life insurance, i think i got too confused with the types then as i was a smoker it was an extra £50 a month we couldn't afford.:o

Well done on the not smoking bit:D

You need basic life insurance for yourself, your partner and ideally Life assurance to cover the mortgage in case one of you dies.

I have basic life cover of £100,000 just for myself (I'm a smoker:( and it cost £10.35 per month with Tesco)

I have Life/Term assurance on the mortgage, £120,000 costing me £23.00 per month.

You need to shop around and if you are confused about the different types, pop over to the insurance board and they will help you. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=21 link to the life insurance board.

merlot123

sistafromanothermista

Tixy wrote: »

Hi

Well done for starting and posting it up.

At the moment it seems to say you have £380 left on top of your minimum payments a month - does that feel about right? do you know where its going - are you making additional payments towards your debts

If you don't have that much spare then there must be costs missing from your SoA.

Some suggestions below



Looks like you are showing a surplus because you haven't budgeted for costs that don't happen every month, maybe try re doing it so you can see what you should have spare after taking these into account.

Thanks i've edited my SOA to take these into account. MOT is minimal as is servicing as mums boyf is MOT tester and sisters boyf owns garage.

rising_from_the_ashes

sistafromanothermista wrote: »

Thanks i've edited my SOA to take these into account. MOT is minimal as is servicing as mums boyf is MOT tester and sisters boyf owns garage.

Sorry but (speaking from experience) you really need to make an allowance for everything - not incl anything is where it's easy to go wrong.

I believe a MOT costs around £50, so for 2 cars, that's £100 straight away - even if a service is done by a friend/relative it's still going to cost something (would think min of £50 as the cost of changing the oil alone has shot up recently and will cost around £30) so there's another £100 - these alone broken down over over 12 months comes out at over £16.50 / month ...... and then there's the cost of any parts.

sistafromanothermista

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Sorry but (speaking from experience) you really need to make an allowance for everything - not incl anything is where it's easy to go wrong.

I believe a MOT costs around £50, so for 2 cars, that's £100 straight away - even if a service is done by a friend/relative it's still going to cost something (would think min of £50 as the cost of changing the oil alone has shot up recently and will cost around £30) so there's another £100 - these alone broken down over over 12 months comes out at over £16.50 / month ...... and then there's the cost of any parts.

Hi, i get MOT for £20 per car so £80 a year total
Service honestly costs nothing (I know id only be lying to myself if i didn't add this into the equation)

Quite lucky as from your post i can see how much it could cost :eek:

merlot123

Why is your mortgage rate so high? 6.8% is steep.

Are you fixed into the mortgage?

rising_from_the_ashes

sistafromanothermista wrote: »

Service honestly costs nothing (I know id only be lying to myself if i didn't add this into the equation)

You're doing really well then - as I said, it will cost around £30 to change the oil so very nice of your sister's bf to do that! (Hope you buy him a bottle of something nice).

As for "normal" servicing costs - mine had a major service in January ...... £249 (and that's much less than my old car was) a minor service is £119.

jgh

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Sorry but (speaking from experience) you really need to make an allowance for everything - not incl anything is where it's easy to go wrong.

Agreed. What I found very useful was going through *every* *single* bank statement over the last five years and work out what *every* *single* payment was. eg:
"CARD HTCHMTR 171.15" - ah, that was the MOT
"ATM MORRSN 40.00" - ah, Morrisons, groceries
"CHQ 000275 150.00" - umm.... ah - boiler repair