SOA Living adjustment

newbutold

Cross posted before, sorry.

Are you utilising your £60 mobile each month. I tend to use my mobile, lots of free minutes, and only really have the landline for broadband and the odd phone call that I can't use my free minutes for.

HappyMJ

mummyofboys wrote: »

I just estimated the entertainment to be honest as I don't currently budget it in..maybe where I am going wrong.

Christmas £760 is for presents £300 for my kids, 100 for their birthdays ( 50 each), xmas food/decorations/trip to santa. 16 other people immediate family ( i have huge family )

I think my actual sky bill is around 60 the rest is on phone package/mobile costs/ 0845 numbers which i always seem to have to ring for companies. I will shop around I am out of contract with them which is good.

Not due a renewal untill October, It only went down by £6 per month last time. I can't believe how expensive a car is

There is no need to call anyone on 0845. Go to the website saynoto0870 and find an alternative number or write a letter or email them. Stop using the landline to call mobiles. You should use a mobile with some inclusive minutes to call mobiles.

rising_from_the_ashes

Sorry but you could def save £100 off the children's Christmas presents ..... any chance of sitting down with some family members and seeing if you could reduce the number of presents? They may be in a similar position where things are tight.

PasturesNew

mummyofboys wrote: »

£200 Food shopping - £100 saved
£20 sky and phone - £100 saved

I found you £200 extra.

mummyofboys

Thanks everyone,

I guess I am just feeling sorry for myself! I don't think I can cut my shopping as my son requires a specific diet and that budget also includes cleaning products/nappies/toiletries.

I will ring sky tomorrow and defo need to adjust to using my mobile and I have never heard of that say no to 0845 so thankyou for that.

PasturesNew

mummyofboys wrote: »

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Entertainment........................... 80

Nobody needs £50x12=£600 for Xmas. Should be able to do it for £25x12 easily.
£80 entertainment/month is more than many spend in a year. Give it a miss while the weather's nice.

That's another £105 saved.

mummyofboys

I doubt I could it for £300 per year... I have 16 people just with mums/dads brothers and sisters. Plus birthdays for my sons too... I think that is really unrealistic?

I didn't think 80 was bad... I mean its easily spent £20 per week on a family of four, even if we go somewhere free which we often do their is parking/ petrol or public transport.

rising_from_the_ashes

mummyofboys wrote: »

I don't think I can cut my shopping as my son requires a specific diet and that budget also includes cleaning products/nappies/toiletries.

Honestly try the Grocery Challenge - as I said earlier

" families of 4 who manage (and well, I'm still learning on this front!:o) for £220/month incl toiletries, household cleaning stuff, nappies etc".

Even if you can get £50 off here it will help - it's trying to shave bits off here & there .... they do add up and do honestly make a difference:)

FireWyrm

Ok, I'm going to wade in here.

When the others say 4 people for £220, they are being generous in my book. I run a tight budget of £150 a month for two adults and two children. We're on a self sufficiency drive this year and slowly beginning to change our habits. I've made bread for years now because you can buy 1.5K of flour incredibly cheaply. Biscuits, cakes, sweet things are all made. My newest ventures are brewing and cosmetics like soap, creams and bath products, none of which are hard to make and are actually a fraction of the cost in the shops. A new batch of beer went on tonight and mead, raspberry wine and coconut rum are all planned for later in the month. I believe I can reduce our food bill even further by making consumables such as jams, preserves, chutneys etc...all planned for later in the year.

You maybe thinking that I'm barking mad, but there's method in the madness. I'm just warming up for Christmas. This year ladies get a basket of homemade bath and cosmetics while the blokes get beer and wine, all made for pennies. Children are getting small token toys but mostly craft projects. I may bulk out the hampers to include jams and preserves later in the year, but that depends on whether I pull my finger out or not.

I work full time and I run a busy household. I practically stopped watching TV at the beginning of the year and devote evenings to practical projects. I'm working on the husband to ditch the TV since I recon a full box set of any series he cares to name is far cheaper than the sky subscription per month.

I'm also exploring the possibility of selling my soaps if they work out well. The cost to return ratio is extremely good and you don't have to work all that hard to achieve it. A 1.2K standard loaf of Castille (olive oil) soap is about £8 to make. That gives you 10 bars which you can sell at about £3.50 a piece. You do the maths. Before anyone mentions HMRC, yes, you need to declare it, but you can make 8K per year personal profit before you start having to pay tax on it. That's a lot of soap sold. If you stay relatively little, they won't notice you at all, but a £100 profit a month is a relatively easy goal I think. There are other things to explore also. Hand creams, face creams, moisturisers...why buy them, you can make them all for a fraction of the cost.

Cooking...learn to cook. We as a nation are being royally ripped off my supermarkets touting time saving ready meals. They arnt saving you time and they barely qualify as food. For instance, I saw a 'ready meal' of a chicken breast wrapped in a single piece of bacon and topped off with a thin cheese sauce in sale for £5.60!!!! Flaming nora, that's an absolutely stupid price to pay for what you could make yourself.

Likewise, Lasagne which is a family favourite. You can buy a 500g 'family' meal for £4.50 or you can make enough to feed 4 people for 2 whole days for the same price. Others might remember my instructions for how to feed 4 people for 3 days with 1 chicken. All this is very easy to achieve with a little planning and you needn't feel like a kitchen skivvy either.

Also, your utilities are huge...£61 is a lot for a month.

katsu

mummyofboys wrote: »

Hope this is better, however as I am already through the year and havn't split the loan up through the year or paid for christmas ect monthly I do need to spend the loan in September on xmas - just spend part of it

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2 how old (roughly is fine) One in nursery one at school?
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1062
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1100
Benefits................................ 570.5
Other income............................ 190 so you don't yet have this money until Sept so your budget is only at £7 surplus in real terms.
Total monthly income.................... 2922.5

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 550
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 76
Electricity............................. 61how much longer to clear the arrears? All stuff turned off at night, no standby, no lights on in empty rooms etc?
Gas..................................... 61 as leccy. Is the heating now off?
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 62
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 60 Who is not in contract? Cut one of them down (or both). EG for £10 on a sim only deal you can get 300 minutes and unlimited texts on giff gaff (runs on O2). If necessary/relevant consider if you can sell your more expensive handset and get a cheaper handset,
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 120 Sorry, but you are struggling to make all your costs fit in the month so this needs to get reduced. Use the sayno to 0870 website to list all the calls, and work out what is the cheapest way to make them, maximise use of inclusive mobile minutes and reduce your sky spend. Ask yourself if this is really worth £1440 a year.
Internet Services....................... 18 this can be cut to around £10 - check for deals with your mobile or phone line.
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 as advised, make a budget, meal plan and you can get this down - aim for £250 for June, keep all receipts and get to £250 or less by tracking and planning.
Clothing................................ 0 you mentioned uniform in May and as your kids grow I expect you do buy them clothes. Use charity shops and ebay etc where possible to keep this down.
Petrol/diesel........................... 150
Road tax................................ 19.6
Car Insurance........................... 135
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 600
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 19
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50 yes you can reduce this.
Haircuts................................ 10 well done.
Entertainment........................... 80 Aim for a free entertainment every other weekend - walk to the park and play with a ball and the kids, then walk home?
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
school dinner........................... 36
football club son/husband............... 40 this is part of your entertainment activities so you are spending £120 on entertainment plus £120 on sky so you are spending £240 per month on entertaining yourselves.
Total monthly expenses.................. 2479.72


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 900
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 900

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
overdraft......................2000......40........0
ISME...........................700.......26........0
ISME...........................500.......56........0
HMRC TAX CREDITS...............3000......28........0
halifax credit card............800.......20........0
lloyds credit card.............2000......30........0
lloydstsb loan.................100.......20........0
Account charge.................0.........25........0
Total unsecured debts..........9100......245.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,922.5
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,479.72
Available for debt repayments........... 442.78
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 245
Amount left after debt repayments....... 197.78 You don;t yet have the loan so need to save £190 until Sept and I think your SOA is still light on some areas.

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 900
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -9,100
Net Assets.............................. -8,200

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Well done for looking at this. To make changes, you need to do some things that make you uncomfortable. As you are studying full time your lifestyle will be more constrained until you are earning again, so you need to make some savings to break even, and then to reduce your debts.

Xmas - for around 20 people I spent £167 ish last year. I could have spent less if I needed to. I do this by:
* sales. I get pressies all year round and box and store.
* charity shops - buy new or nearly new but still new looking toys, books etc. You get an interesting book for <£1 in new condition and that is perfect for an adult relative.
* crafting - you can make so much stuff and if you have kids they can help make "art" which you can frame for older rellies (ie a "portrait" of nana)

The family have no idea how little I spend!

Birthdays, similar logic applies. Also, if you have a littlie, I'd not look to buy them lots of stuff for £50 - they don't really need it.