can you help me save some cash????

Pennywise2012

Ok, so on your new SOA you had £1600ish left over, but you forgot to include the payments made on your unsecured debts.

But your TOTAL unsecured debt is only £1700ish. (plus your overdraft and any fees relating to that, which you haven't put on).

If you have just a month of actually sticking to the figures you put in your SOA, with no belt-tightening, and throw the excess at your unsecured debt, you'll be left with £100 of debt plus however much the overdraft costs.

After 2 months of just sticking to your budget, you should be able to clear the remaining unsecured debt and the overdraft.

After 3 months of sticking to the budget, you've got £1600 extra cash. Your budget is pretty generous in terms of entertainment and general 'living well', so you should find it easy enough to save the money rather than feeling the need to treat yourself.

The only way this doesn't add up is if you've made a mistake somewhere on the SOA, which should come to light pretty quickly if you stick to your spending diary.

You're earning good money, and you should be able to have a nice lifestyle from it. All it needs is a few months of budgeting and trying to get into the habit of knowing where your money goes.

It's good that you've realised that things are running away from you this early on, because it's easily fixed at this stage. :beer:

gazzad11

Just to let you all know i phoned virgin and managed to get my £45 a month deal down to £30 i think it was DCFC79 who told me to give it a try so thanks for that.

pleasedelete

I have a charge card or use a credit card set to full monthly repayment. Everything except direct debits go on there. We take out very little cash. The statement comes once a month and we can see exactly how much we have spent and it gets paid off straight away.

This really worked for us as it stopped small spending but also it is very easy to budget as just 1 day a month when money goes out of the bank.

gazzad11

I do that with a tesco credit card the only problem i find is i tend to spend money on it then see that i have money in my account so spend that then find i go overdrawn by £1000 or more when the bill comes in.
I am still going to use it but will be alot more aware of what i am spending.

KiKi

gazzad11 wrote: »

Just to let you all know i phoned virgin and managed to get my £45 a month deal down to £30 i think it was DCFC79 who told me to give it a try so thanks for that.

Well done on your reductions so far!

You may find that a month is a long time to try and keep a diary, so update every week if you can, just to get some encouragement and support.

Good that your wife's on board, too.

DCFC79

gazzad11 wrote: »

Just to let you all know i phoned virgin and managed to get my £45 a month deal down to £30 i think it was DCFC79 who told me to give it a try so thanks for that.

Yes i suggested giving it a try, worst they would say is nothing they could do. Well done getting a reduction.

catwoman73

Hi OP

It looks like you both work full time and you have two children. Is the £450 the allowance you receive for the foster child and do you have to pay any childcare for either of the children?

Agree with the other posters that you are obviously leaking money big style to an as yet unidentified source. Is your wife on board with the spending diary?

mildredalien

In your original information you put that one wage was from self employment before tax, but in the new SOA it says income after tax - which is correct? Do you need to save up and pay your taxes on that income during the year, and if so is this accounted for in your SOA?

Good luck with your spending diary, you'll be amazing at what you fritter away each month! Make sure the entire family are accounting for any spends that come out of the income you have included in your SOA.

gazzad11

The £450 is rental income from a house i bought in may 2012. Its one of the reasons why my money problems started i invested £10k doing the property up and paying £4100 deposit. However fingers crossed i can sort my overdraft and debt by the end of january 2013 and hopefully make my money back on the house in 2 years. This is a pension vehicle for my wife as she is self employed .

gazzad11

my wifes income does not get taxed due the taxation relief for foster carers