Help & Advice with monthly budget & finances

greenwoodlad

Can anyone help /advise me , we are a couple in our 40's with 3 children (2 teenagers), we are struggling like most families with rising costs / mortgage etc . We have lived in our home for 4 years, we live in a village 8 miles from the City and have purchased a small diesel £30 road tax car in order to cut costs, I am a social worker working on a Night Duty Team 3 nights a week but have taken on 2 extra jobs now and gone self employed part time as a gardener in the summer months to try and make ends meet - i am currently working 75 hours a week , including night shifts, my wife works part time in a supermarket, we never have any money left and live of my extra money & overdraft - we are proud of not having credit cards , we never go out, cant afford a holiday, and just about keep the kids clothed via the next account - we buy our clothes second hand off e bay when we can... costs keep spiralling, the only activities the kids do are swimming lessons & coaching and i don't want to stop them if i can help it... please have a look at monthly budget sheet and comments / advice soooooo welcome:D


Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 3 (eldest son nearly 16)
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1950
Partners monthly income after tax....... 720
Child Benefits................................ 100
Income from 2nd Job............................ 300
Income from 3rd Job ...........................600 ( seasonal gardening jobs ...summer only)
Total monthly income.................... 3670

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1042
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 228
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property)....0
Council tax............................. 200
Electricity............................. 40
LPG Gas..................................... 25
Heating Oil..................................... 150
Water rates............................. 76
Telephone (land line)................... 35
Mobile phones............................ 47
Mobile phone (sons) ..................52
TV Licence.............................. 14
Satellite/Cable TV...................... Cant afford it
Internet Services....................... 34
Groceries etc. ......................... 700
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 160
Road tax................................ 3
Car Insurance........................... 22
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 100
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Swimming Lessons/Coaching .......................66
School Bus fares ( we live in a village)............ 170
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
School Dinners for 1 child................. 60
Buildings insurance..................... 15
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 62
NEXT CARD......................... 175
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment...........................
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund..........................
Total monthly expenses.................. 3491


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 300000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ £305,000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 225000....(1042)......3.95
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 0
Total secured & HP debts £225,000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Next Account.............1700.........175............29.9
First Direct Loan ....16000.......229...........9.1
Total unsecured debts. £17,700


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3670
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3087
Available for debt repayments...........
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 404.00
Amount left ....... 179.00

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 305,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. – 225000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -17,700
Net Assets.............................. 62,300


Credit card debt ...do not have credit cards


We are living on overdraft of £1000 and my income from 3rd job... we do have a little cash left but my income from gardening fluctuates & is only in the summer and I cannot earn this if the weather is bad - any cash left goes on food / daily living costs / maybe a day out with the kids occasionally

Grumpygit

Hey

I don't usually answer posts within this section as I am not in mainland UK so quite a lot of the items that people have aren't applicable however, you've included your Next amount of 175 twice.......once in your expenses and once in your debts - so unless you really are paying them twice you should take one out.

However, do you really have to buy their clothes from Next? Whilst I know that the clothes do wear well, there are cheaper alternatives around.

Your sons mobile is very high - if you are paying for it you should be able to cut it and give even (at most) £20 per month - if he wants more credit then he should get a job to pay for it.

Your groceries are very high - but people will be along to pick on up on that.

If you don't have a credit card, where are you putting the money to pay for servicing/MOT etc

How do you pay for presents, entertaining (I know that you said you don't go out - but never not even for a coffee at the park or icecream when out?) or haircuts?

Good luck

brummiebabe

greenwoodlad wrote: »

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 3 (eldest son nearly 16)
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1950
Partners monthly income after tax....... 720
Child Benefits................................ 100
Income from 2nd Job............................ 300
Income from 3rd Job ...........................600 ( seasonal gardening jobs ...summer only)
Total monthly income.................... 3670

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1042 - gulp!!!
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 228
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property)....0
Council tax............................. 200
Electricity............................. 40
LPG Gas..................................... 25
Heating Oil..................................... 150 - Is that really how much it costs every month??? (I don't use heating oil so have no idea....)
Water rates............................. 76
Telephone (land line)................... 35
Mobile phones............................ 47
Mobile phone (sons) ..................52 - is this for one mobile or 2? Either way it's huge!!! My DS has a new blackberry for £12.99 per month with more than enough mins/texts
TV Licence.............................. 14
Satellite/Cable TV...................... Cant afford it
Internet Services....................... 34
Groceries etc. ......................... 700 - HUGE!!!!!! We are a family of 5 and manage on £400 - some would say that's excessive;)
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 160
Road tax................................ 3
Car Insurance........................... 22
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 100
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Swimming Lessons/Coaching .......................66
School Bus fares ( we live in a village)............ 170
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
School Dinners for 1 child................. 60 - on top of the £700 grocery bill??
Buildings insurance..................... 15
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 62
NEXT CARD......................... 175 - as others have said, you've included this twice
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 - with 3 children you need something here!!
Haircuts................................ 0 - never?
Entertainment........................... - nothing?? No coffees out/occasional trips to cinema??
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund..........................
Total monthly expenses.................. 3491


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 300000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ £305,000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 225000....(1042)......3.95
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 0
Total secured & HP debts £225,000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Next Account.............1700.........175............29.9
First Direct Loan ....16000.......229...........9.1
Total unsecured debts. £17,700


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3670
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3087
Available for debt repayments...........
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 404.00
Amount left ....... 179.00

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 305,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. – 225000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -17,700
Net Assets.............................. 62,300


Credit card debt ...do not have credit cards


We are living on overdraft of £1000 and my income from 3rd job... we do have a little cash left but my income from gardening fluctuates & is only in the summer and I cannot earn this if the weather is bad - any cash left goes on food / daily living costs / maybe a day out with the kids occasionally

Welcome to the boards! These are some of my initial thoughts - your grocery bill is the one are you could really cut back!! Meal plan, shop at Aldi (it's fab!!!) or Lidl, packed lunches (I have an 11 year old - appreciate they don't always want a packed lunch - we have agreed he can have a school lunch 2 times per week, packed lunches the other days.)

Am sure others will be along shortly!! Good luck.:)

triple_choc_chip

Hi

My observations are:

The heating oil: My property has approx the same value as yours and mine is £80 a month - (I appreciate that's not an exact science!) I've reduced this by £30 (From £110) a month just by turning the radiators down a bit and also by setting the timer to end at 9pm - if we stay up late and it gets chilly we use the fleecy blankets! This way I've extended the time between deliveries from 5 months to 8.

Food Bills: I live with a teenager with hollow legs and I spend £40 a week. Timed by 3 and calculated monthly this is £520 for a family for a month. Given that it is more economic to buy larger items to feed several people, you should be able to trim this down further and still eat well. It takes planning and practice but would make a significant difference to your balance.

Telephone and internet - you're paying £69 for both, you should be able to halve this by shopping around.

Clothes for the kids - have you tried ASOS? It's an online shop and really popular with the young un's. It's very fashionable and much less expensive than Next.

Car maintenance at £100 a month - that's huge, you could buy another cheap car every year! In fact it may be even more economical to buy a brand new hatchback on one of those 0% or low finance deals that have servicing included. Then at least you have the comfort of a brand new car without any additional expense.

reallyAnnoyed_2

You can definitely save in groceries and mobile phone.

Your sons's mobile = Consider getting a SIM only contract if you can (if it's PAYG phone) for him and place an out of contract usage limit. These contracts come with reasonable talktime (XXX minutes and YYY texts) and you will have better control over it's monthly bill.

Groceries: £23-24/day. Consider making a weekly/monthly essentials shopping list and stick to it. You may also consider switching to canned vegetables (eg. tomatoes for cooking). This can also significantly decrease your groceries bill.

Cloth shopping: Since you already have £1700 debt on your Next account, there is not much you can do about outgoing £175. However, consider buying from some other stores in future. Next is good quality and all that, you can still buy from Next on their sale days at very reasonable prices.

Barbeduk

It's the grocery shop that stands out the most, you can def cut back there. I do £260 a month for 4 including 3 packed lunches a day and believe me, I'm no domestic goddess! Loads of ideas on the grocery challenge and loads of frugal living tips on the old style board.

Do you have a wood burner/open fire? When we relied on oil we used to keep the log burner on as much as we could, oil was a nightmare then and that was 6 years ago!

You need a present budget. Just think how much you're spending on Christmas and kids birthdays and divide by 12. And entertainment, whilst you and your oh might not go out, you must treat the kids sometimes.

Def ditch next. Give the kids a budget, take it from there.

Good luck, you look like you're trying really hard and I'm sure that with afew more tweaks it'll all balance out.

dancingfairy

Your SOA shows that you have 179 a month 'spare' after debt repayments, also that you have accounted for the NEXT money twice.
I suggest you keep a spending diary - this has 2 purposes - 1 to see if your SOA is correct (or not) and 2 stops you buying things as you won't want to write it in your spending diary!
Also head over to the Moneysaving oldstyle boards on here for loads of hints and tips on how to cut your grocery bill as it's huge. Here are some to get you started:
1) Meal plan (even if you end up having MOndays dinner on Tuesday and switching things around it will still save you money).
2) Batch cooking - make a big batch of say bolognese and freeze half of it for another day.
3) Base meals around bolognese - for exampl you could do bolognese, chilli, lasgane etc etc to keep a bit of variety.
4) Buy own brand stuff where possible - things like kidney beans, tinned tomatoes, baked beans etc where it is not really noticeable and will prbably be used in a dish. Personally I wouldn't buy basic/value meat but pretty much everything else.
5) Try rubber CHicken - ie have Roast chicken one day, then leftover bits for a curry or pie, other leftover bits for sandwiches, maybe use the real scraps for stock or soup?
6) Cut down on crisps/snacks/chocolate/squash/coke etc where possible - make your own cakes if possible as this is what really bumps the budget up.
7) Try and make your own where possible - microwave meals tend to be really expensive - especially as you have a family.
8) You don't have to try all these tips and tricks all at once - even if you just implement one food saving technique at a time until you get gradually used to things.

With your SOA I'd probably say you work at gardening for say 3 months a year and average it all out over the year to give a more realistic picture month by month.
Can you go interest only for abit whilst you try and straigten yourself out?
At the moment your budget is only appearing to balance with the extra summer work you are doing - however a lot of the shortfall could be made up by seriously cutting the grocery budget, taking out the Next double payment from your SOA, cutting the mobile bills, etc.
I'd redo the budget to make it more realistic on a month by month basis and see how it looks and take it from there. You may need to consider doing a debt management plan with someone like the CCCS or National Debtline.
df

dancingfairy

Also what is the secured hp/loan payment? Is this for debt secured on your house? is it for a car?
Will the school bus fares reduce if your eldest is 16? What is your 16 year old planning to do next year? College? job? Perhaps they could pay for their own mobile?
Also your mortgage is huge - this is partly what's causing your problems.
df

paulmapp8306

Groceries & Sons mobile can both be cut (as has been said). Ive got out shop down to £400 for a similar family. Get mobiles on PAYG when you can - that way when youev used your credit thats it - unless you have a little extra to top up then. Kids have to get uysed to that.

Oil - WOW. Thats a lot. I use heating oil, and while I put in £110/month I often take a months break - and currently have £700 credit. My yearly useage is around 1600 litres and I fill every 10-11 months. Heating is set to 19 deg, comes on at 0500 and off at 0730, then back omn at 1500 and off at 2100. Come May I turn it off compeltely and it doesnt go back on until Oct/Nov (dependant on whether). The only oil I use int he summer is for water - - and as we use a dish washer and showers most of the time, its on for 1 hr a day (mid afternoon) just in case someone wants a bath to relax in the evening.

Are packups an option instead of school meals? Youll save, and I assume you eat as a family in the evning so that one child is getting a hot meal anyway.


your internet seem shigh as well - AOL for instance do unlimited (and it means unlimited) for less than £15/month. OK its only 4Meg or so not high speed, but really? unless your downloading a LOT and you need it FAST there is no need for high speed BB. Websites only load as fast as their servers anyway not your speed - it really only effects download times.

£100 car maint is high I think as well. GeneraLLY, £50 mot, £300 for a set of tyres and £150 for brakes. Add another £100 or so for other stuff, and thats £600 or so a year -so nearer £50/month.

greenwoodlad

Thanks for all your advice & replies.. so appreciated:D
I am a newbie and have forgotten to add stuff / messed it up a bit but i will add some info
We have looked at moving/ downsizing (it is a 5 bed house) – but we have lived in the village for years and have friends , we have worked so hard for years to get this house,the kids are settled in schools – other similar properties in the village are not selling or selling at a big loss. We might have to look at interest only – we are part & part mortgage at the moment.
In groceries i meant housekeeping to include, food, packed lunches, toiletries, cleaning stuff, logs for log-burner in winter, and a bottle of wine at the weekend – my wife bakes biscuits & buns most days , we buy shop own brands and use the leftovers – but you’re right there must be more we can cut back, we try to always cook fresh , we don’t get processed stuff like pizzas etc – we thought £175 a week was a tight budget..
My wife works at a supermarket and gets a staff discount also Aldi and Lidl are over 35 miles away?? So we stick with my wife’s store mostly.
We are restricted to Orange on mobile as it is the only network that works – we are in the middle of nowhere – my son’s mobile is on a two year contact and we cant get out of it unless we pay £300.00 but this contract was a mistake in hind sight – all my kids have an orange mobile as we need to keep in touch . Orange will not cap calls & texts which makes it difficult too my 15 yr old son does a milk round 6 mornings a week to get cash for pocket money
The car is never off the road as we work opposite shifts – car covers 24,000 miles a year and we use a local guy we can trust – the service, mot and 2 tyres on our little agila diesel was over £470.00 – we have a service twice a year so £100.00 a month is not far off on running costs.
The unsecured loan (£228 a month) was for a new kitchen and a car
Heating Oil bill – Last year our oil bills were £1800 – we hardly ever have central heating on , we cant afford to but we do have hot water on constantly as we all come in a different times with shift work etc and want a bath or shower
Every day we sit down with an expenditure book & go on the bank account to check what’s going in & out – it doesn’t help as i am waiting for cheques to clear from my gardening customers most weeks
Thanks again to you all – we are trying hard but will have to try and cut back further – i cannot physically bring much more cash in:(

Barbeduk

Really recommend the old style board, loads of cost saving ideas.