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I've new to this site and I've jusy completed the budget planner and I'm shocked. I'm a single working parent and my overspend is just over £800.00 a month. I dont smoke, drink heavily, I dont even go out all that much yet in the last 12-18 months, I have noticed my salery is not covering my living expenses. Other than my mortgage I don't have any other debt but it's the credit card that is the big problem - I'm careful about wjat I spend but it creeps up every month.
PLEASE can someone give me any advise?
Monthly Income Details[/b]
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . 1,132.48
Income from Self Employment (before tax) . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 374.70
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.55
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 0.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.17
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37.61
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395.01
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 31.64
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 10.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.42
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt RepaymentsCredit card repayments. . . . . . 1000.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Family
Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 43.33
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.50
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
EntertainmentSatellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 0.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 0.00
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 0.00
Education & Courses
University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
Big One-Offs
Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67
Odds & Sods
Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,507.18
Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 2,383.68
PLEASE can someone give me any advise?
Monthly Income Details[/b]
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . 1,132.48
Income from Self Employment (before tax) . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 374.70
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.55
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 0.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.17
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37.61
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395.01
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 31.64
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 10.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.42
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt RepaymentsCredit card repayments. . . . . . 1000.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Family
Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 43.33
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.50
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
EntertainmentSatellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 0.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 0.00
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 0.00
Education & Courses
University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
Big One-Offs
Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67
Odds & Sods
Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,507.18
Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 2,383.68
0
Comments
-
How many children do you have and how old?
How much is outstanding on your credit card, is the £1000 you have quoted repaying it in full or not?
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33 - What is this for?
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . 40.00 - You can' t afford this with an £800 shortfall. How much have you got saved?
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 43.33 - What is this?
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... . . . ...... . 43.33 - What is this?
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . ............. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 - And this?
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... . . . . 10.00 - can you afford this?
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... . 50.00 - and this?
0 -
OK, things that jump out at me are.....
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
- Are you employing a cleaner? Why? You can't afford this.
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.00
- These seem very high. Have you shopped around? Are you paying off old utilities debt?
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37.61
- Again, seems high, have you shopped around?
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
- This seems very low for all food and household items. Is it realistic @ less than £20 a week for 2 people?
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 31.64
- Is this with your lender? Chances are you can get it cheaper elsewhere.
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
- Why nothing in here?
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 43.33
- You can't afford this right now, I'm sorry.
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
- You can't afford this either. Reduce it to £15 for a dvd / pizza night. Have free days out.
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
- No point in saving if you are in debt. How much do you have saved up just now?
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
- What are these?
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
- You can't afford these.
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67
- £800 a year on presents for one kid? In your financial situation this is ridiculous, I'm sorry. Reduce this to £200. £100 for presents and £100 for other Christmas related expenses.
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.00
- £6 a month on cigarettes?0 -
Credit card repayments. . . . . . 1000.00
If thats right theres the problem. If you can give details of balances and interest along with minimum payment amounts it could be an easy fix by altering what you pay to each of them.
You may need to consider having a look down you list and deciding what you can do without (may only need to be a temporary)
What jumps out at me is:
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Each of these I would look at reducing / removing at least short term. depends exactly what you have included though. £43 sounds a lot for a bottle of cleaning fluid, but you may have to pay a someone to clean for whatever reason.
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Generally there no point saving when you have a lot of debt. However if this is not flexible enough to stop immediately or is any sort of scheme that incurs penalties for stopping saving you may not want to stop it straight without considering carefully.CHALLENGES MAR'14:
CHALLENGES 2014: £1-a-day#43 £84/£365; £3350k BY MAY £2700/£3350; £1500 BY JULY £0/£1000
EMERGENCY FUND £0/£2500; 2014 MFW #61 £0/£2500; CC £290/£2270
2014 SUMMARY (POAYD 2014 #120 £3074/£12485 24.6%
101 MONTHS... MORT: [STRIKE]£63,000[/STRIKE] £66850 | LOANS: [STRIKE]£26,000[/STRIKE] £0 | CARDS: [STRIKE]£33,000[/STRIKE] £1980
0 -
PS are you actually putting this money aside each month for kids clothes, Christmas, car insurance etc so you have the cash to pay it when the time comes OR are you just putting it all on credit when you need it?0
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If £1,000 a month is a minimum payment, even if the minimum requirement is 5% (aren't they more like 2.5%) that would mean your credit card balance is £20k!!! At a 2.5% minimum payment that doubles to £40k - so as per above comments, if £1,000 is your balance, your SOA is a massive amount more manageable and sensible - an £800 overspend would be reduced to balancing and you would still be able to make a sizeable £200 dent in your credit card each month!0
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I've new to this site and I've jusy completed the budget planner and I'm shocked. I'm a single working parent and my overspend is just over £800.00 a month. I dont smoke, drink heavily, I dont even go out all that much yet in the last 12-18 months, I have noticed my salery is not covering my living expenses. Other than my mortgage I don't have any other debt but it's the credit card that is the big problem - I'm careful about wjat I spend but it creeps up every month.
PLEASE can someone give me any advise?
Monthly Income Details[/b]
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . 1,132.48
Income from Self Employment (before tax) . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 374.70
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.55
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33 Expensive!!
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 0.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.00 Are you on the best tariff?
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.00 As above
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.17
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37.61
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395.01
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 31.64
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00 Seems very low
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 10.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.42
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt RepaymentsCredit card repayments. . . . . . 1000.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Family
Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 43.33
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.50
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
EntertainmentSatellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 You might need to lose this
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 What's this?
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 You can't afford this
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 0.00 Never?
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 0.00
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Never?
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 0.00
Education & Courses
University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.00
Big One-Offs
Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67 Halve this
Odds & Sods
Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.00 Quit!
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 Stop this if possible
Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,507.18
Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 2,383.68
Few bits from me above.
HBS x"I believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another."
"It's easy to know what you're against, quite another to know what you're for."
#Bremainer0 -
Hi all,
Many thanks for all your comments...here are my responses to your queries... I have 2 children aged 16 and 12.
The cleaning amount is what I've calculated I spend each month on household cleaning items like Flash, bleach etc and I do try to shop around and get the cheapest.
The regular saving of £40.00 is what I put in my children's account - £20.00 each.
I've just cleared the £1000 off my credit card - the tip on here was to pay it off quickly to avoid high interest rate charges.
I have to give my children pocket money - they are good and don't demand a lot but I still need to give them something.
Family days out are things like trips to the swimming baths, dvd etc
Hobbies = paying for my sons fishing trips
Gas and Elec - I've just transferred to a fixed tarrif so will hopefully see some savings, although we do seem to use a lot at home
The £800 for christmas was what I estimate I spent last year on everything - not just 1 child! It was the cost of presents for all the family and food. This year I've decided that I'm not going to buy for adults, instead look at some homemade gifts - I love cooking so will make pickles and chutneys and will just buy for the children.
Hope this covers everything - I know there are areas I need to cut down, £10.00 on drinks - is not a lot each month and but I realise it soon adds up, as does the cost of eating out..
D0 -
You can't afford to be saving money for your kids if it's contributing to your debt I'm afraid.
Good decision about Christmas.
Replace the days out that cost with free trips, there are plenty of things out there that don't cost. Parks, museums.....even my local independent cinema puts on free showings of kids films on weekend mornings.
Re pocket money..... I see your point, but your son already gets fishing trips, tell him he can use his pocket money for this? I know it's hard not being able to give your kids everything you want but your overspend is HUGE and you need to make cutbacks.
It's worth sitting down your eldest and having a chat to him about your finances, so he understands.
You spend £43.44 on cleaning products....... a MONTH???
Really? How? Without being rude, do you have some form of OCD?
I spend £5 a month tops (well apart from washing machine liquid) and manage to keep a clean home. Only buy what you really need and buy supermarket own brands instead of brand names.
I think you can easily clean a home with the following, along with a couple of cloths.
- Washing Up Liquid (OK, I have to admit nothing compares to Fairy, but I pick it up when it's 2 bottles for £1.50)
- Bleach
- Antibacterial Spray
- Cream Cleaner
- Glass Cleaner
You can buy all of the above for less than £1 each. I find the Tesco "Daisy"? range fantastic, and I also visit Home Bargains and £1 shops for great value products.0 -
You feed yourself and two kids for £80 a month? I am genuinely impressed.0
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So if that £1000 credit card repayment has cleared your balance, you won't be paying it every month and therefore don't have an £800 shortfall.
Is this right?
0
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