Ok so now what?Lost!

iwbus

Good to see a detailed SOA which will help everyone help you. Would be useful to get those APRs in so we can make further moneysaving suggestions!

medman

Here goes, somebody will probably beat me to it but I've had a quick look. There is a lot you can do here to reduce costs, so don't despair and good luck

MM

Tops wrote: »

My attempt at an SOA...bear with me!All figures rounded up.
Me,DH and three kids aged 4,2 and 1.Two dogs and 3 cats.

Outgoings

Mortgage=£655
Council Tax=£108
Gas=£68 Seems very high, switch supplier using QUIDCO link to Uswitch and get £18 cash back
Electric=£83 As above, we pay £42 for both gas and electric in a four bed house!
Water=£42
House Insurance=£19 Do you mean buildings insurance?
Buildings and contents Ins=£32 Looks like you might be double insured on buildings
Car Insurance=£33
Pet Insurance£21
Sky +=£37.00 Consider cancelling, you will still get the free channels through your Sky box and it's FREE, or reduce the package. If you phone Sky and tell them you are going to cancel it they will offer three months at half price if you push them a bit
BT(inc net)=£50.00....
Mobile=free eves and weekends around £40

Total=£1188 bills

Food+drink=£500.inc friends over,kids and BBQs Way too high, get your friends to bring food when they come for a BBQ and look at the money saving old style board for tips, you could easily half this figure by cooking from fresh and reducing waste
Pet food=£80
Nappies/wipes= £40
Petrol=£40
Clothes £20
DHs smoking:mad: =£120 I sympathise, try rollies
Other household stuff=£20

Total=£820



Loan repayment~£219 to black horse~APR 6.9%~outstanding balance £9,400:o
Sky card min~repayment £164~APR ummmm?Balance £5500
Capital One card~min repayment £20~APR?Balance £380
Citi card~min repayment £11~APR?Balance £580
HP on pc~£29~0% APR~balance £600 approx will check!
Student Loan=£10

Debts=£433 Could you apply for a 0% CC or low life of balance CC? if not ask your CC providers to reduce the rate or offer a free period by threatening them that you intend to balance transfer

Total=£2441

Incoming

Wages=£1050
Tax credits=£550
DLA=£264
Carers=£188
Child allowance=£163



Total Out=£2441

Total In=£2215

OOOOPS!!!:o :eek:
And as a result our OD stands at £2500:eek:

http://www.quidco.com/ first register then earn cashback when you switch utility suppliers, it's very easy we've done it twice in the last year and got our costs down.

Also using energy saving bulbs and turning off unwanted lights, only boiling the amount of water you need and washing at 30 degrees etc saves a lot more than you would expect.

david_hellier

Hi and welcome.

It looks to me like a classic case of overspending not monitored. The others will advise on cutting back but according to my figures you have £111.81 per week to spend on food, baby gear, clothes, drink, fags, etc.

To prevent further immediate overspend, write £111.81 in a little note book on a Monday and keep a track of what you spend by subtraction. If you do have any over, then use it towards your most expensive debt. I have included £20pm od payoff, so ignore your bank balance. Road Tax and TVL are also added. There is probably a lot you can cut back on (eg Sky to Freeview). Stop using credit cards for any more purchases or you will not stop overspend. Major cutbacks will be needed, so follow the good advice of the others.

Good luck, the figures are as follows:

income weekly monthly
self 1050.00
partner 0.00
ct 550.00
dla 264.00
carers 188.00
ca 163.00



total 0.00 2215.00 divide by 4.33
£511.16

£511.16 total weekly income

spend weekly monthly
rent/mortgage 655.00
council tax 108.00
elec 83.00
gas 68.00
water 42.00
secured loans 0.00
TV licence 12.00
fines 0.00
home contents 19.00
build cont ins 32.00
car ins 33.00
pet ins 21.00
sky 37.00
bt 50.00
mob 40.00
petrol 40.00
loan b horse 219.00
sky card 164.00
cap1 cc 20.00
citi cc 11.00
hp 29.00
student loan 10.00
car tax 12.50
od payoff 25.00








total 0.00 1730.50 divide by 4.33
£399.35

£399.35 total weekly spend

Start= income - spend = £111.81 per week

sammy115

How much do you spend on food and petrol per week?

Try to keep a spending diary over the next few weeks, it really opens your eyes....

tesuhoha

Just noticed youre spending £20 a week on pet food. Do you have a lot of pets? It just seems like an awful lot of money.

sammy115

Ignore my post - I did read your original SOA - just didn't see it on the one that was done by David (have been up since 2.30am!!!)

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Tops wrote: »

Please be gentle!I know that's probably the most ridiculous SOA ever:o But I do want to change it honestly!!!:cool:

I thought it was a pretty good SOA.

mobiles
sky
ciggies
and food / drinks.

All seem high.

It comes back to the old issues. What is the priority "luxeries" or the families financial security? Also distinguishing between what you need and what you want.

Keep posting and keep cutting costs;)

Best,

chevalier

Hi there
Others have noted about high gas and electricity - do these include arrears? Were your last bills estimated? It may be that you are overpaying and could get this cut, with the actual reading from your meters.

Also if you get dla and carers allowance, do you qualify for the motability scheme? Would that save you on your car costs?
chev

mrsspendalot

Hiya and welcome. I also have 3 kids so similar kind of income etc.

Like has already been suggested, gas, leccy and water seem high, as does your phone.

Food bill is massive!!! I have the same sized family and similar ages (7, 3 and 1) and we have managed to reduce our food bill to approx £35-40 a week by buying value brands (if they are tasty enough to eat), only buying what we need and meal planning really carefully. We are eating good quality meat, fresh fruit & veg in that too. Pop over to the oldstyle board and have a browse. I posted up a receipt from tescos and they made some really good suggestions that have saved me a fortune. nappies and wipes ... are you a member of the Boots parenting club? I just got a voucher from them when DS turned 1 with triple points for huggies wipes and nappies everytime I buy them + one for 300 bonus points - spent £10 something and got a fiver back in points on my advantage card! I only buy wipes on BOGOF offers too.

Tops_3

Blimey thankyou so much.You really are all very helpful:cool:

I've sat down and split the weekly budget into various parts,allocated a set sum of cash to pay for each section.I've got some jars all labelled up and ready to go on Monday.

Something like this~and feel free to tell me if it's a silly idea please!
I'm working on £120 a week to start with which is a HUGE cutback:o

Food=£40
To cover lunches,6 evening meals,essentials.

Pets=£12
I've sat and worked out the necessary spend and got it to £11.11 p.w

Kids=£11
Again worked out the weekly "need" which comes to £10.26

Then £7 to cover extras like sanitary stuff,razors etc

Weekends=£20
We usually spend a fortune on entertaining,BBQs etc so am still allowing the £20 to let us still enjoy the summer:rolleyes:

DH is having £15 cash on a Monday.That is IT for cigarettes,once it goes it goes.

I'm allowing myself £10 and setting the challenge to see what I can save:p

I'm giving £5 a week to each child to buy things like comics etc.Right now I spend ££££S on things they never even play with so I'm determined this £5 budget will be stuck to.

So each Monday I'll take the cash out~NO CARD TRANSACTIONS ANYMORE!!!!
Into the shopping pot goes £70
Into the weekend pot goes £20
Into DHs wallet goes £15
Into my wallet goes £10
And the kids get their £5 in their piggy bank to either spend or save.

That's £120 per week.....Does that sound reasonable?

And I'm ringing round the cards and things today for the APRs,going through all the suggestions you've made so far etc.Thankyou!!