SOA - please can you take a look and give me some advice please!

ajbell

How are you planning to pay off the mortgage?
With your income you are in a good position to cut back
And live very comfortably.

Millionaire

Hi, I think you have a good salary so shouldn't be difficult.

I live as 2 adults and 2 kids so have sum idea of what is doable.

Mobile phone............................ 65 - This can be cheaper, Haggle when upgrades are due or look at PAYG. £30 is doable.
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 40 - Don't think you need to get rid personally. I understand where your husbands coming from. I'm a F1 nut as well.Although I pay £30 with F1
Internet Services....................... 25 - Seems expensive? I pay £7.50 per month thru Sky.
Groceries etc. ......................... 1000 - This is humongous. I mean triple what I pay for 2 adults and 2 children. £300-£400 per month is easily doable.That's what mine comes to and I shop at Tesco as well.. Start a spending diary, Don't stock food, Only buy what you need and don't buy stuff on offers unless you need them.
Clothing................................ 150 - Very high IMO, £50-£60 should be doable.


Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 70
Entertainment........................... 150
Holiday................................. 200- These are all high as well, look to reduce.

That is what I reckon. You have easily around £600 per month just in groceries. I don't even buy value stuff and easily do it under £400.

At the end the day it really depends how committed to the cause you are. I reckon you could clear it in 2 years if you really wanted to.

FBaby

your salaries are good. If you are not planning another baby and you are still a good long way from retirement, you don't need drastic actions, just prioritise some things.

Your key consideration I think should be your mortgage. It is just not going to be this way forever and your children are only going to be costing you more, so unless you only work part-time with the potential of increasing your income, you not only need to look into lowering your debts, but most importantly prepare for the future.

You probably don't need to cut out absolutely everything, but you have a lot of leeway to make changes that will have a good impact, groceries being the first one. My family of four spends £450 a month (not including children's lunches, but that of the adults, pet food, cleaning products and miscellaneous) and that's not being particularly careful with our budget (out local and that of my office is Waitrose!!). I have cut a lot though the day I realised that the kids didn't need fancy and various dinners every night and were happy with more basic things and to eat the same weeks on weeks!!

nicnicj

ideally we do want to start paying more off our mortgage of course... we have a £60k endowment (guaranteed amount) to mature in 2026 and hopefully once we've paid our debts off we can start paying off capital.

I work 4 days a week at the mo so there is potential for me to go back to 5 days a week and start earning approx £5k a year more than I do now (at current rates). I took the decision to go part-time as my children are still young and didn't want to be working all hours at the weekend.

the £1000 grocery bill is not just food - that is all toiletries and sundries that we buy at tesco. we do spend A LOT on food and drink though so this is where we need to cut down.
have started a spending diary.

RAS

nicnicj wrote: »

the £1000 grocery bill is not just food - that is all toiletries and sundries that we buy at tesco. we do spend A LOT on food and drink though so this is where we need to cut down.
have started a spending diary.

Sorry but this grocery spend is almost obscene even if it includes toiletries, sundries and clothing. £65 per person is doable, £100 is comfortable.

You really are one redundancy or health problem from disaster and need to address it urgently.

nicnicj

yes ok, which is why we have started to address it and why I've come on here and posted my SOA.

I don't really need people to start making judgements about me... tbh I was probably over generous when I said £1000 a month on groceries - that figure is probably more like £700 but if we entertain a lot in a particular month that figure does go up.

We have careers that are both very safe at the moment but I take on board what you say about health issues.
thanks for your concern.

chesky369

although your general spending is high, it's the interest-only mortgage which will absolutely sink you in the long-term. This is the main thing you really have to address.

HappyMJ

chesky369 wrote: »

although your general spending is high, it's the interest-only mortgage which will absolutely sink you in the long-term. This is the main thing you really have to address.

It's only 1.5% interest. The general inflation rate is higher than that so technically the debt is reducing without paying any of it off at all. It would be the last debt that I would attack. Get all the CC's out of the way first that charge in excess of 20% per annum. Then get rid of the secured debt then finally look at savings account that earn more than the interest rate on the mortgage. I would never pay that mortgage off when I can save and get at least 4% interest.

nicnicj

i know... we are paying £130 per month into an endowment policy that matures in 2026 with a guaranteed amt of £60k so really our mortgage amount is £100k which really isn't that high is it?!

god i've got friends older than me who don't even have a mortgage yet?! I'm only 37.. according to the govt I've got anothe 30 years of working yet!!!

nicnicj

HappyMJ wrote: »

It's only 1.5% interest. The general inflation rate is higher than that so technically the debt is reducing without paying any of it off at all. It would be the last debt that I would attack. Get all the CC's out of the way first that charge in excess of 20% per annum. Then get rid of the secured debt then finally look at savings account that earn more than the interest rate on the mortgage. I would never pay that mortgage off when I can save and get at least 4% interest.

yes I would say that our mortgage is not our priority at the moment with it being at such a low rate, completely agree.
Our credit card debt is our priority for sure.