My SOA

malkyh

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1684
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0 (my wife doesnt work as she looks afte the children)
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 200
Total monthly income.................... 1884
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 384
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 118
Electricity............................. 44
Gas..................................... 55
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0 (included in 60 internet services)
Mobile phone............................ 65 (two contracts, one for me at £35 and one for my wife at (30) although both end in November and will be ditched for cheqper contracts.
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 60
Internet Services....................... 0 (included in 60 above)
Groceries etc. ......................... 0 (My wife buys the shopping with child tax credit money)
Clothing................................ 0 (I get clothes at christmas and birthdays, I dont buy my own)
Petrol/diesel........................... 300
Road tax................................ 2.5 (£30 a year)
Car Insurance........................... 30
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0 (My wife covers these
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0 (Free)
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 15
Buildings insurance..................... 7
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 10
Other insurance......................... 46
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 5
Haircuts................................ 0 (My wife cuts what I have left)
Entertainment........................... 80
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Child savings contributions............. 20
Horse livery etc........................ 150 (we have 4 horses and getting rid is not an option)
Total monthly expenses.................. 1433.5

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 110000
Shares and bonds........................ 200
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 113200

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 75000....(384)......4.99
Total secured & HP debts...... 75000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................6900......170.......9.9
Credit card 1..................3000......70........0
Credit card 2..................400.......5.........17.9
Total unsecured debts..........10300.....245.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,884
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,433.5
Available for debt repayments........... 450.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 245
Amount left after debt repayments....... 205.5
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 113,200
Total HP & Secured debt................. -75,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -10,300
Net Assets.............................. 27,900

Hi all,

Above is my up to date SOA. Can anyone help me analyse this and suggest some savings as I am always skint with a growing credit card bill.

Thanks,

rising_from_the_ashes

malkyh wrote: »

Telephone (land line)................... 0 (included in 60 internet services)
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 60
Internet Services....................... 0 (included in 60 above)

What is included in the £60?

It's steep if just for landline/broadband - as a comparison, I pay less than £20 and never reach my download limit (and am online a lot:o).

If Sky or similar incl, I'm afraid it's really not an essential - and extra £40 may not seem a lot, but it's nearly £500 / year so a fair chunk.

Apart from the mobiles, everything looks pretty OK and I can't personally see a lot of room to reduce things by much - although check how much your wife is spending on groceries etc as these are usually the areas where cuts can be found.

Is there any way to up the household income? (overtime, 2nd job, job for wife etc)

Re horse livery - if that's for 4 of them, you're doing pretty well!:)

Squidge123

Do you need to spend that much on satellite? You could get a freeview box and save that money completely. Why is your petrol so high? Is there a way you could cut that down?

There the only things I can see but someone else will probably be able to come along and see things I haven't

malkyh

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

What is included in the £60?

It's steep if just for landline/broadband - as a comparison, I pay less than £20 and never reach my download limit (and am online a lot:o).

If Sky or similar incl, I'm afraid it's really not an essential - and extra £40 may not seem a lot, but it's nearly £500 / year so a fair chunk.

Apart from the mobiles, everything looks pretty OK and I can't personally see a lot of room to reduce things by much - although check how much your wife is spending on groceries etc as these are usually the areas where cuts can be found.

Is there any way to up the household income? (overtime, 2nd job, job for wife etc)

Re horse livery - if that's for 4 of them, you're doing pretty well!:)

Thank you for your comments.

The £60 is for Virgin where I get TV, landline and broadband. The TV is the XL package as this is our enjoyment as we rarely have cash to go out. I reduced the TV package to the basic a couple of years ago and we lost most of the channels we enjoy so I had them reinstated. The broadband is the cheapest, and the landline includes free 08 numbers (for our doctors etc), well, for a fee anyway which is cheaper than ringing the numbers.

The mobiles are set to end in November so I will be looking at a cheaper package.

My wife gets £40 a week in benefits, that goes on her Direct Debit for her life insurance, shopping, clothes for kids, bits and pieces for Christmas. She already struggles so no room for reduction.

I have a second job just now (on a Saturday) She doesn't work as child care costs would swallow up the majority of what she would earn. I don't want her working at nights as I'd never see her and that is not what I want our marriage to end up like.

No scope for overtime at my work.

We are lucky that we are on a farm with the horses and the livery is very cheap. It does fluctuate a bit in winter dependant on how much straw/hay we use but the £150 is an average. We have one of the horses out on loan which helps reduce the bill.

malkyh

Squidge123 wrote: »

Do you need to spend that much on satellite? You could get a freeview box and save that money completely. Why is your petrol so high? Is there a way you could cut that down?

There the only things I can see but someone else will probably be able to come along and see things I haven't

Thanks for your reply.

The satelite cost includes the TV, phone and broadband costs, and is currently in contract. We do like the XL TV package as this is most of our social life as we rarely have cash to go out.

We live out of town, so the fuel costs are rather high. We tried to compensate a bit by purchasing a diesel with only £30 road tax and cheaper insurance.

rising_from_the_ashes

malkyh wrote: »

The broadband is the cheapest, and the landline includes free 08 numbers (for our doctors etc), well, for a fee anyway which is cheaper than ringing the numbers.

Note your comments re the tv package & know exactly where you're coming from - I had to give up Sky for 7 years while I paid my debts back and can honestly say it was one of the hardest things!

However, I couldn't justify spending the money when I had debts to clear. I do now have basic package back (£21) and that's my total entertainment budget!

My landline is £12.49 / month on anytime calls (incl 0845 / 0870) and broadband is currently £6.49 / month (1/2 price for 12 months).

malkyh

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Note your comments re the tv package & know exactly where you're coming from - I had to give up Sky for 7 years while I paid my debts back and can honestly say it was one of the hardest things!

However, I couldn't justify spending the money when I had debts to clear. I do now have basic package back (£21) and that's my total entertainment budget!

My landline is £12.49 / month on anytime calls (incl 0845 / 0870) and broadband is currently £6.49 / month (1/2 price for 12 months).

I totally understand where you are coming from. On paper, yes, once out of contract, if I was to chop it right back I would save some cash. However, I would rather try to reduce something else by the £40 or so per month (maybe start driving a bit like Miss Daisy) than sacrifice the TV which we would miss more than changing gear that little bit quicker

tallyhoh

malkyh wrote: »

My wife gets £40 a week in benefits, that goes on her Direct Debit for her life insurance, shopping, clothes for kids, bits and pieces for Christmas. She already struggles so no room for reduction.

:eek:I thought I did well but how on earth does your wife manage on £40 a week?? just buying food out of that would be a struggle:eek:

malkyh

tallyhoh wrote: »

:eek:I thought I did well but how on earth does your wife manage on £40 a week?? just buying food out of that would be a struggle:eek:

She struggles. She hunts for the bargains, and we do get a lot of the 'value' brands and reduced foods that need eaten that day. I do have to chip in sometimes when she is really short.

rising_from_the_ashes

Is there anyway you could do a car share with someone?

Even if you're out in the sticks it may be possible - 3 people at my work all live a long way from the office (in different directions) & meet at a park & ride car park part of the way there & then use one car for the rest of the journey.

malkyh

I don't actually use the car for work, I have an annual season ticket for the train (paid for me). The car is used for running back and forwards to the stables, my wife using it for school, shops etc and for when we visit family etc at weekends.

I've started chucking things on Ebay again, and we are arranging a 'Jack and Jill' sale for some of the kiddies things. These are all short term fixes though, and I really want to get a more long term approach to having some extra cash. (along with most others on here)

It's annoying as I was made redundant in 2009 and received £14,000. I used most of this on paying off all my debts (apart from mortgage) and for our wedding. 3 years later I have another loan and two credit cards.

I really should have kept some aside in a savings account.