FMOW's SOA & Diary

findingmyownway

Hello everyone

I have spent a long time on here reading the advice given to other people and contributing to other peoples threads. I have had my LBM and made some big changes to the way that I live and manage my money but there is still work to be done. I have almost finished a PhD and so currently take home £1000/month. From October I hope to have a much better paid job (a couple of things in the pipeline but nothing definite). But before then I’d like to make as big a dent in my debt as possible. Here is my SOA:

Mortgage £645.76
Electric £37
Gas £28
House Ins £30.05
Water £30.90
BT £12
AOL £25
Food £250

Total £1058.71

I pay £550/month into joint account to cover half this + a little ‘spare’ for unexpected house/garden expenses.

Gas and electric are with British Gas (just transferred to ‘click energy 2’). They reduced gas DD by £14 last month.

House insurance is on my ‘to do’ list as I know it could be cheaper. Same for AOL - boyfriend pays for full sky package and so maybe we could switch to their broadband too?

Food budgeting has been reduced by around £100 since xmas. I intend to keep working at this. I feed 2 adults, 3 part-time kids and a cat.
The following figures come from my May online banking screen. I have enough cash left in my purse to avoid any other transactions until next week so should be quite accurate:

Mobile £30 (just reduced to £25 as of next month which is lowest tariff)
Gym £39.95
Cash £80
Clothes £50
Presents £42.50 (this is unusually high. had a family 18th, a 21st and my best friend giving birth to pay for this month! Usually nearer £0)
Toiletries £14
Life Ins £5.86
Petrol £35
Car Ins £24

Total £321.31

£550 + £265 = £871.31

I have paid £112 in cc payments this month = £983.31

Income is £1000/month.


Debts:
HSBC Overdraft 0% £2000
HSBC CC £311.95
EGG CC £332.63
Boyfriend 0% £850

Total £3494.58


I guess I just want to see if anyone had any creative ideas where I can make savings. At only paying £112ish a month its going to take ages for me even to pay off credit cards (still infinitely better than minimum payments I guess). I know its easy to say I won’t spend money on clothes etc but its hard in practice. The ‘cash’ covers everything from occasional drinks / cinema / coffee / lunch at work (although I take sarnies most days).

Storm

Definitely see if you can switch to Sky broadband rather than AOL - and if they're not in your area yet there's still some much cheaper deals out there, so this can be reduced!

Check that your house insurance is the cheapest (I have no idea about these things as I rent!) and go through quidco for cashback.

Your toiletries seem high - is it normally £14 every month? That comes to £168 per year! Perhaps you can downgrade some of your brands, especially for things like shampoo and shower gel - they're just soap!

Do you actually use the gym membership? £40 a month could make quite a big difference to your debt repayments.

I've noticed that you haven't budgetted anything for car expenses apart from petrol - if you put aside a bit each month for insurance, tax, mot etc then you'll be able to bear these big costs without resorting to the credit cards

findingmyownway

Storm wrote: »

Definitely see if you can switch to Sky broadband rather than AOL - and if they're not in your area yet there's still some much cheaper deals out there, so this can be reduced!

Check that your house insurance is the cheapest (I have no idea about these things as I rent!) and go through quidco for cashback.

Your toiletries seem high - is it normally £14 every month? That comes to £168 per year! Perhaps you can downgrade some of your brands, especially for things like shampoo and shower gel - they're just soap!

Do you actually use the gym membership? £40 a month could make quite a big difference to your debt repayments.

I've noticed that you haven't budgetted anything for car expenses apart from petrol - if you put aside a bit each month for insurance, tax, mot etc then you'll be able to bear these big costs without resorting to the credit cards

Hi Storm

No, the £14 on toiletries is excessive and unusual. I usually get them for practically free from Boots using various vouchers / glitches. ]

I do go to the gym 3-4 times a week. Really don't want to cancel it

You are right about the car things, i don't save anything for them at the moment. Tax is due July, MOT next March. Just realised i've missed insurance off SOA at £24/month.

Shineyhappy

Are you keeping a spending diary to see where the cash goes?

Also could you avoid buying new clothes for a while and that would save 50 pounds?

Have you looked on the Old School style board for ideas on saving money in the home?

Make sure you sign up to the cash back sites and Pigsback for extra cash/vouchers. I am saving mine for Christmas

findingmyownway

Yeah, i have been on the old-style board and cut our food bill a lot. I cook from scratch most of the time and freeze xtra portions etc.

I have signed up to quidco and have about £100 on its way for various things with sign up bonuses. I do pigsback clicks but most of the free points seem to have gone these days - i don't buy enough online to make a lot from that.

Ta!

RAS

Hi

What are the APRs and minimum payments on the CCs?

savvykaz

Have I missed council tax?

Prudent

You are paying a lot for aol broadband. I pay £9.99 per month. They are usually open to haggling.

findingmyownway

You are right i have missed council tax at £77/month on 'joint' bills.

I need to phone AOL and Dirct Line (house ins) as priorities i think.

findingmyownway

I havent done either of the things i said i would yet :mad:

But.... the good news is i have been offered a job :j :dance: Not got the full details yet, got a meeting tommoro afternoon. Don't start til October which still seems a loong way off but expect to about double my salary

hypno06

Fab news on the job :T and a big woo hoo for the double salary :j

A very different SOA will appear at the end of the year, in the mean time, just need to stay focussed for the next few months. YOU CAN DO THIS!!