Lbm!!

catkin1508

Hi all,
Yesterday was a NSD for me as had to wait in for a parcel to be collect, however whilst pottering I decided to do our SOA and oh my gosh it's actually beyond scary I nearly dropped down dead

After our actually essential bills I can now see where our 'spare cash' had been going!! In two months We have withdrawn £865 from ATMs, I have spent £810 at tesco ( that's after the food shop- just popping in with my 2yr old to get out of the house!!!) £259 in eBay, £90 iTunes, McDonald's £70, asda £51. I've left of the pennies but my god- never thought about just popping it on my debit card but my god!!!

Right now I've looked at it what's he next step? I've done our budget but hubby gets paid weekly- any suggestions for how to budget?

Also any suggestions for things to keep a 2yr old entertained? That are free- now I've seen our mistake its time to make the change :T

catkin1508

SOA

Monthly income: £3500 approx (self employed scan drop to £2500)
child Benefit: £83.00

Total : £3583

rent: £750
council tax £131
Oil £75
electric £40
water/ sewerage £75
dog insurance £28 -3 dogs
life insurance £16.69
cancer ins £9.08 – 2 people
family savings £10
Jaiden savings £20
public liability £17.80
mobile phone £140
home insurance £13.17
car insurance £47.58
van insurance £132.78
TV license £11.00 (£37.48 per quarter)
Tool insurance £12.78
BT £77.06 (phone/TV/Internet)
RAC £16.56
A/S/U £22.06
Food: £200 p/m inc nappies,dog food
petrol £120.00
parking £5 (£2.40 college parking, lift share so pay twice pm)
activites jaiden £40
MOT/Car Tax £48.33 (2 vehicles)


Total: £2,199.09 £549.77 p/w

current debt:

vanquis £1350 £60
vanquis £1000 £60
lloyds overdraft £400 £15
aqua £1350 £60
next £497 £50
very £132.65 (last payment OCT)
La Roudete £61 (last pament OCT)
Mum & Dad £500

ladybez

Hi Catkin. Some of the items included in your SOA look like business expenses i.e. Public Liability ins, possibly Van ins and Tool ins. If that is the case they should be kept separate from personal expenses.
As for free/cheap ways of keeping 2 year old entertained, look for play/toddler groups and also storytime sessions at library. Mine also used to enjoy organised nature walks around the local country park. Try looking on Netmums for your local area for more ideas. hth.

catkin1508

Yeah my husband is self employed so we pay these monthly also, it all comes out of our bills account, should I move these direct debits to a separate account?
It all gets so confusing but as I deal with the money or not as it seems from our bank statements! Lol

R_P_W

I think it might be a good idea to keep your husbands business income and expenses seperate from both your personal accounts. I'm not self employed myself but I would imagine it will make it easier to have that clear divide when it comes to tax returns etc.

Your mobile and BT costs seem very high? Does this include any business expense? Also did it read it right that you have spend over £800 in Tesco in 2 months (not including your food shop)?

ChopinonaBudget

Hi Catkins,

Well done on taking that big step, I know it's scary but it needed to be done and at least now you know where all you stand and where all your money has been disappearing to!

You'll get far better expertise than mine to advise on your SOA, but one glaring point is your mobile bills are £140pm. Is this a mistake or you do you owe back payment on contracts? Because this is HUGE! You could get a PAYG for next to nothing and knock at least £100 off this easily.

As for you being paid weekly, I know that feeling very well, so I understand your problem with budgeting. I get paid in a mixture of daily (even more peculiar) and monthly (but not every month, it varies depending on how many term-time Saturdays there were in the previous month, so sometimes £0, sometimes £1000) and get tax credits 4 weekly.
I've got a system of budgeting which looks very complicated but it actually quite easy - I work out how much I have coming in each day/week/month (I multiply each student by the number of times I teach them in a year,either 39 or 30, depending on which medium I teach them through), add the lot up, divide by 12, and use that figure as my monthly income. Some months, I'll bring in less than I need and I'll overspend, but other months I'll bring in more than I need and I'll underspend, so over the course of the year it works out as a perfect average.

If you don't know where to start with this, then take last year's income from your self assessment return instead, adjust it if your income has dropped or risen this year on average (look at the figures for the same months in previous year) and use that.

This is the only way I can survive with a budget - I literally earned bog all over Summer, my work is seasonal, when the kids aren't in school I don't teach much, but without my yearly average figures, I would have been trying to budget with an income that wouldn't even have covered a single month's rent. November, however, I will have about £500 surplus, which will sit in the bank and gradully build up on top of other month's surplus till I get my drop in income again next Summer

I hope this helps,
Good luck,
Shop around for a better mobile!

Allypops

Well done on making a start. I think you may need to provide a few more details in order to get the best advice though. Could you fill in the standard SOA at http://www.stoozing.com/msoc/soacalc.php
The APRs on each of your debts is useful and you'll need to think about things like haircuts, clothes, entertainment, christmas/birthday spending etc. Try to be realistic - if you have taken out all that cash, spent all that in Tesco and MacDonalds are you really going to be able to drop to £200 per month immediately? That's a big drop to make straight away (Soome of the Old Stylers do manage on that level of spending though so have a look on that board)
Go over previous earnings to see what the average has been over the last couple of months or so (try 8 weeks, add all 8 divide total by 8). To get monthly pay multiply by 4.33
My DH gets paid 4 weekly so I know what you mean about budgeting being tricky when your not paid per month.

Anyway, if you can fill in the SOA at the above link I'm sure you'll get some good advice.

tallyhoh

does hubby have a business account? not totally sure but are his business expenses not deducted from his tax bill?. His accountant should be able to advise you.

catkin1508

Okay I will set about filling out that link- thank you by the way for the link :0)
Yes sadly £810 in tesco is correct, my problem is I pop in daily and get bits here and there and as its usually between £9-£16 per day it adds up plus I do our £50 food shop as well!!
My husband has spent the money in adds and McDonald's on food whilst working so a lunch box will now be being packed!!!
I might up our food spend to £70 p/w as we usually run out of the basics like bread and milk so could buy these and freeze and no need to go into the dreaded 'Big store' then.
I'll quickly re-do and re-post our mobiles our contract I've tried to decrease but we need to wait till April 2013- but I think I could manage with a PAYG it's only me and little man and most of the time we are home anyway xx

dancingfairy

Well according to the above you have 1,400 to pay your debt with a month. Your debt repayments are clearly less than that a month so where is the rest going? If you do a spending diary you can identify (and work on eliminating) it.
Best of Luck
df