Help with cutting down costs with my SOA

the-mango

I try to live fairly frugally I guess it's always good to cut down your costs. I was wondering if you could have a quick look over my SOA and see if there are any glaring areas?


I share with 2 other people but have just put my share of the costs in, hence why some of the figures are a little strange.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned....................

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1275
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1275

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0 - no mortgage
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0 - no rent either
Management charge (leasehold property).. 41.66
Council tax............................. 0 - zero as am a student
Electricity............................. 15.1666
Gas..................................... 15.1666
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 18.3333 - I have applied for a water meter
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 10.5
TV Licence.............................. 0 - don't watch TV except for iPlayer on my laptop
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 7.5
Groceries etc. ......................... 180 - this includes my budget for going out too, I don't differentiate between the two.
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 15
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 9
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25
Haircuts................................ 2
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 389.33


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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,275
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 389.33
Available for debt repayments........... 885.67
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 885.67

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 0

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

Tommelise

From your SOA you do live very frugally

- the question is if you do have £920 left each month?

If not, my suggestion is that you start a spending journaal

the-mango

I keep a weekly budget app on my phone and generally keep to it, that just accounts for the £180. i've just realised I've forgot to put my travel in, that's about £15 a month.

I alos ocasionally have large expenses like buying a printer or whatever, I should probably put them in as a savings fund for those things.

FireWyrm

No, no suggestions. Your figures all look just fine and you have a healthy excess which I assume is true. If this is the case, I would be taking out an ISA and also spreading my savings around.

the-mango

I currently have an ISA which is full from lsat year and this year and I have a First Direct 8% regular saver but that can only have £300 put into it each month. the rest of hte money is just in a 3.2% instant access account

PasturesNew

The only way you can cut down is to stop going out and only eat lentils. Why do you want to cut down? You've a fortune left over.

Th1984

careful on the iplayer you dont watch anything within 2 hours of being broadcast!

the-mango

You can never save enough money though! Never know when I might need it.

I feel I live comfortably at the moment and therefore could maybe cut down

the-mango

Th1984 wrote: »

careful on the iplayer you dont watch anything within 2 hours of being broadcast!

I didn't realise there was a specific time limit?

Th1984

Info here, anything watched within 2 hrs of live broadcast counts as live :-

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/playing_tv_progs/tvlicence

the-mango

Th1984 wrote: »

Info here, anything watched within 2 hrs of live broadcast counts as live :-

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/playing_tv_progs/tvlicence

That seems to suggest that if I wanted to watch a program finishing at 9 I could watch it from 9.01 (if they managed to put it on iPlayer that quickly).
Basically you can watch it without a TV lisence just as long as the program isn't running live on TV at any point when you're watching it.