Baby on the way and SOA

Compingchris

Hi all and thanks for looking at my thread. I've posted our SOA below. Hopefully I've included everything. Just to let you all know we get our tv, broadband, phone and phone line through sky for the price below. Clothing bill is high because she works in a clothing shop and has to buy their clothes when they change collections. We also only pay for her life insurance as I get it through work for free. I also pay 6% of my wage into a work pension,with my employer paying an extra 18% on top of that. I could stop paying that and gain that extra £150 per month. I'd rather not do that as once I stop I can not rejoin the scheme.

The misses and myself are expecting our first child and we couldn't be happier. We've always managed our money well and thankfully never needed any credit apart from the mortgage. We save regularly and usually over pay the mortgage. The only time we don't over pay is when we are saving to buy something specific like a holiday or a weekend away or something for the house. I like to keep saving so that we will have a nice little nest egg when we need it. With my misses due to go on maternity leave in 8 months I'm starting to think if we will be able to cope financially. We have always lived within our means and never done anything extravagant. Sounds boring when I write that down, but that's the way we like it. I'm not sure what benefits we will receive, if any when our baby arrives, so I'm planning on it being nothing, then anything will be a bonus. Do you guys have any ideas where we can cut back/get extra money? I don't get paid for any overtime that I do so that's not an option unfortunately. Obviously the food bill will go up when he/she arrives, but we will save £100 a month on my misses train ticket.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Household Information[/b]\
Number of adults in household........... 2\
Number of children in household......... 0\
Number of cars owned.................... 1\
\
Monthly Income Details\
Monthly income after tax................ 1805\
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1200\
Benefits................................ 0\
Other income............................ 0\
Total monthly income.................... 3005\
\
Monthly Expense Details\
Mortgage................................ 965\
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0\
Rent.................................... 0\
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0\
Council tax............................. 165\
Electricity............................. 44\
Gas..................................... 44\
Oil..................................... 0\
Water rates............................. 10\
Telephone (land line)................... 0\
Mobile phone............................ 35\
TV Licence.............................. 12.12\
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 36\
Internet Services....................... 0\
Groceries etc. ......................... 160\
Clothing................................ 80\
Petrol/diesel........................... 160\
Road tax................................ 15\
Car Insurance........................... 23\
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20\
Car parking............................. 0\
Other travel............................ 100\
Childcare/nursery....................... 0\
Other child related expenses............ 0\
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0\
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 5\
Buildings insurance..................... 6\
Contents insurance...................... 6\
Life assurance ......................... 7\
Other insurance......................... 0\
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20\
Haircuts................................ 5\
Entertainment........................... 30\
Holiday................................. 0\
Emergency fund.......................... 150\
Total monthly expenses.................. 2098.12\
\
\
Assets\
Cash.................................... 3000\
House value (Gross)..................... 260000\
Shares and bonds........................ 0\
Car(s).................................. 3000\
Other assets............................ 0\
Total Assets............................ 266000\
\
\
Secured & HP Debts\
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR\
Mortgage...................... 197000...(965)......4.14\
Total secured & HP debts...... 197000....-.........- \
\
Unsecured Debts\
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR\
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........- \
\
\
Monthly Budget Summary\
Total monthly income.................... 3,005\
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,098.12\
Available for debt repayments........... 906.88\
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0\
Amount left after debt repayments....... 906.88\
\
Personal Balance Sheet Summary\
Total assets (things you own)........... 266,000\
Total HP & Secured debt................. -197,000\
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0\
Net Assets.............................. 69,000\
\

asparagus1968

wow, impressed, can you adopt me?

think you may get child benefit at £81 a month but not sure what the cut off salary is.

all I can suggest is make sure you always shop around for best deals, use cashback sites, I really recommend www.topcashback.co.uk

menu planning is great.

I also use a cash back credit card, I ONLY use it for petrol, pay it off in full every month and earn 3% cashback

you could look at the up your income board for things you and wife could do in spare time?

weel done so far, and congratulations on little one coming

Compingchris

Hi asparagus1968 and thanks for the quick reply. We already use topcashback and quidco, but never thought of the cashback credit card. I will have a look into it. I've just thought that the misses could sell her old work clothes to earn some extra money. I just wish I could get some paid overtime. That would help out.

ellesbellesxxx

CONGRATULATIONS on expecting a baby!


Your SOA looks good to be honest!


Do you have that 900 left over each month? Or is that what you use to overpay mortgage? You could just put as much of this aside as possible for time being in order to cover yourselves...good equity in house already.


I guess your good lady won't have to pay for clothes when off on mat leave too so that's money saved? Good plan to sell on old ones!


You could even save money on phones - giffgaff do sim only deals - I pay 7.50 a month !!!! Have you got any old phones you could recycle???


Good luck:)

Compingchris

Hi ellesbelles. Thank you. I would put a smiley face in but I can't see it on my pad. We do have around £900 left each month. We put £250 towards the mortgage, save some and spend the rest on an extra night out here and there.
Good point not having to buy the clothes and the phone contract. Her phone is now up for renewal so she could change to giffgaff. My phone is paid for through work so I'm all sorted. We did have an old iphone, but it literally blew up yesterday. It was on the coffee table and the back popped off and the circuits all came out. It wasn't even on. Weird?

ellesbellesxxx

Not under warranty? Alas!
mobilevaluer.com will still give you a quote for broken phones...even for a broken iphone4 it's quoting around 40!!!

[Deleted User]

Compingchris wrote: »

Hi ellesbelles. Thank you. I would put a smiley face in but I can't see it on my pad. We do have around £900 left each month. We put £250 towards the mortgage, save some and spend the rest on an extra night out here and there.
Good point not having to buy the clothes and the phone contract. Her phone is now up for renewal so she could change to giffgaff. My phone is paid for through work so I'm all sorted. We did have an old iphone, but it literally blew up yesterday. It was on the coffee table and the back popped off and the circuits all came out. It wasn't even on. Weird?

EE are offering a great deal via their shops atm £16 month for unlimited calls/text/data maybe a better deal than giffgaff

HelenRachel

Hi thanks so much for posting this. We're in a very similar situation right down to the new baby on the way! I was working out our budget and to be honest were paying similar amounts but rent instead of own and I was thinking 'oh gosh that's loads of money - were really irresponsible with our cash!' but seeing your budget and the comments makes me feel so much better! Like we're actually quite good with money!

cms-help

How long has your wife been with her employer? If long enough, she will receive maternity pay for 39 weeks.

Child Benefit is 81.20 every 4 weeks (if you earn less than 50k then no impact, if more then it changes how much tax you pay).

Skinnylatte

Do not what ever you do stop paying in to your pension. That's a great deal you have there with your employer contributions.
Congratulations and good luck

EverTheOptimist

Awwww firstly congratulations.

Secondly I hope this post doesn't come across as patronising

Just a couple of things baby related as opposed to SOA related. (My little ones 8 months old)

You will get 3-4 'bounty' packs following the birth of baba. These have vouchers for nappies, wipes, photos, all sorts and some free samples too. I recommend opening as soon as you get them as these obviously come in handy. (I didn't and missed a couple of deals)

Don't go mad on baby clothes, seriously don't. I have two under bed storage boxes (pretty hefty ones) and a wardrobe and chest of drawers full of decent outgrown clothes that baba just didn't wear often. They grow so quickly and TBH our little man wore mainly babygros for the first few months. He did have some outfits for visits etc.

If your OH can breast feed then this is obviously a lot cheaper and easer than formula. (I appreciate it's not for everyone)

We also bought some baby books, on routines, sleeping etc etc. if you can get books from the library or charity shop then do so. I really feel we wasted money on these as I have never read them and have let baby lead the way with sleeping/ feeding etc.

Try out car seats and prams/ buggies in store, ours have been fine but my friend replaced her buggy when her little one was only a few months old as she didn't get on with it. Such a waste.

Apply for your child benefit ASAP, you'll be given the form, it is backdated for 3 months, but you'll be so busy you don't what to forget.

Hope that helps a little. And good luck. xx