Help

KPB

Hi

Very new to all this, need help and lots of it. I appreciate there is a lot of bits missing but its a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul or we just don't do it. Backgound is family of 4, 2 adults, 2 children age 11 & 8.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,995.00
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). . . . . . . . . . . 134.80
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.67
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72.00
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38.75
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517.79
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.20
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96.47
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303.33
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151.67
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.27
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560.03
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180.46
Savings & Investments
Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216.67
Family
Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135.42
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Education & Courses
University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One-Offs
Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,129.80

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,261.17


Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

savingmummy

KPB wrote: »

Hi

Very new to all this, need help and lots of it. I appreciate there is a lot of bits missing but its a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul or we just don't do it. Backgound is family of 4, 2 adults, 2 children age 11 & 8.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,995.00
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). . . . . . . . . . . 134.80 no tax credits?


Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76.00 This a lot can you cancel? get cheaper contract?
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42.00 As you have mobiles I`d not bother with the home phone. If its needed incoming only?
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.67
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87.00 Look for cheaper, ring around. we have a 3 bed and pay £30 on each!
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72.00 :eek:
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38.75
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517.79
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.20
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96.47
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303.33
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151.67 Is this travel for work or pleasure?
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.27
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 ?????????? mot/service? tyres?

Debt Repayments
Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560.03
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180.46
Savings & Investments
Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216.67 is this for an emergency fund? use it on debt payments.
Family
Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00 cancel, OR reduce ALOT!
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135.42 what is this? I`d put a stop for now

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,129.80

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,261.17


Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

Hi and welcome.
I have commented on things I`d definitely sort out asap.
Making cut backs is one of the things you need to do until your straight.


I`m guessing your water bill includes arrears? or is a water metre?

stevemLS

The usual seem high, water, motoring costs (how many cars), mobile phones and Sky (£70pm!).

I don't see how you can afford to save £216.67pm when your budget is in deficit by £131pm?

Tixy

Hi

In terms of items being missing I would suggest starting a spending diary and recording every single spend or even back tracking a couple of months of bank statements for missing items.

So at the moment you are showing a £130 shortfall or so, does that feel about right? are you having to reuse credit or slipping further in to debt each month? Or as some costs look to be missing are you actually much worse off than this?

Is this the income/costs for all of you (do both adults work)?

Some initial comments on some of your spending -

Mobile phones . . 76.00 how many phones, are you in contract? can you reduce tariffs/look for cheaper deals?
Garden maintenance. . . . 10.67 is this paying someone to garden? if so can you cancel it?
Electricity . . . 60.00
Gas . . . . . 87.00 have you shopped around for gas & elec deals? are you paying off any arrears? have you tried reducing your usage?
Water . . . . 72.00 metered or unmeasured, have you checked for leaks? do you feel you are high users? can you try erducing?
Mortgage/Rent . . . 517.79 rent or mortgage? if mortgage how much owed? capital or interst only? what APR?
Plumbing/Boiler cover . .. . . . 20.20 is this a good deal?
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . 96.47 have you shopped around for this, at first glance it looks a lot
Food and household shopping . . . . . . 303.33 can you try reducing a bit

Motoring & Public Transport
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.27 1 or 2 cars?
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . 0.00 try to estimate

Debt Repayments
Credit card repayments. . . . 220.00 how much owed? is this just the minimum payments?
Hire purchase repayments. .. . . . 63.00 how long left?
Personal loan repayments. . . 560.03 how much owed? how long left?
Car loan repayments . . . . 180.46 how much owed? how long left?
Regular saving. . .. . 216.67 you can't really afford this at present - how much do you have saved? can you put that towards your debts?

Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. .. . . . . . 70.00 can you reduce/cancel and switch to freeview
Hobbies . . . . . . . . .. . 135.42 how much can you reduce this?

Clothes, Health & Beauty Try to include reasonable estimates for all these
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One-Offs and these

Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 3,129.80

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . 3,261.17

[Deleted User]

Redoing your SOA, using the MSE friendly calculator (link below) will make it easier for us to understand it.

In the meantime, at £118 per month (that's £1,416 per year), your phone costs are :eek:

Likewise, your energy costs of £147 per month (£1,764 per year) are also :eek:

As for £70 per month (£840 per year) on Pay TV, you simply cannot afford it.

Nor can you afford to spend 135.42 per month (£1,625 per year) on hobbies.

On the plus side, there's plenty of options to cut down, without feeling too deprived.

EDIT: Forgot to add the SOA Calculator link.

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

FBaby

Do you really never go out as a family, never go on holiday, kids don't go on school trips, never have anything for Christmas, never have any new clothes, never a hair cut?

Are you sure you have really included all you outgoings?

KPB

savingmummy wrote: »

Hi and welcome.
I have commented on things I`d definitely sort out asap.
Making cut backs is one of the things you need to do until your straight.


I`m guessing your water bill includes arrears? or is a water metre?

Hi


We're not entitled to tax credits
Stuck into contracts with the mobile phones (2 mobiles)
Home phone cost includes internet.
I have looked into cheaper Gas/Electric but the saving was pence rather then £s (4 bed house)
Water is a metre and yes its very high and the water company has also pointed this out, cant find a leak.
Petrol is for one 1.4 litre car used for pleasure, to/from school, work etc.
Car Maintenance etc is a case of borrow, put on card, overtime if available.
Savings are used as needed for birthdays, days out etc so very rarely stays in the bank for more than a couple of weeks at a time.
Satellite TV isn't always as high as £70 but put it at the highest rather then the lowest.
Hobbies are the childrens out of school stuff, one hobby each.

KPB

Tixy wrote: »

Hi

In terms of items being missing I would suggest starting a spending diary and recording every single spend or even back tracking a couple of months of bank statements for missing items.

So at the moment you are showing a £130 shortfall or so, does that feel about right? are you having to reuse credit or slipping further in to debt each month? Or as some costs look to be missing are you actually much worse off than this?

Is this the income/costs for all of you (do both adults work)?

Some initial comments on some of your spending -

Mobile phones . . 76.00 how many phones, are you in contract? can you reduce tariffs/look for cheaper deals?
Garden maintenance. . . . 10.67 is this paying someone to garden? if so can you cancel it?
Electricity . . . 60.00
Gas . . . . . 87.00 have you shopped around for gas & elec deals? are you paying off any arrears? have you tried reducing your usage?
Water . . . . 72.00 metered or unmeasured, have you checked for leaks? do you feel you are high users? can you try erducing?
Mortgage/Rent . . . 517.79 rent or mortgage? if mortgage how much owed? capital or interst only? what APR?
Plumbing/Boiler cover . .. . . . 20.20 is this a good deal?
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . 96.47 have you shopped around for this, at first glance it looks a lot
Food and household shopping . . . . . . 303.33 can you try reducing a bit

Motoring & Public Transport
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.27 1 or 2 cars?
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . 0.00 try to estimate

Debt Repayments
Credit card repayments. . . . 220.00 how much owed? is this just the minimum payments?
Hire purchase repayments. .. . . . 63.00 how long left?
Personal loan repayments. . . 560.03 how much owed? how long left?
Car loan repayments . . . . 180.46 how much owed? how long left?
Regular saving. . .. . 216.67 you can't really afford this at present - how much do you have saved? can you put that towards your debts?

Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. .. . . . . . 70.00 can you reduce/cancel and switch to freeview
Hobbies . . . . . . . . .. . 135.42 how much can you reduce this?

Clothes, Health & Beauty Try to include reasonable estimates for all these
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One-Offs and these

Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 3,129.80

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . 3,261.17

Hi


We're not entitled to tax credits
Stuck into contracts with the mobile phones (2 mobiles)
Home phone cost includes internet.
I have looked into cheaper Gas/Electric but the saving was pence rather then £s (4 bed house, no arrears)
Water is a metre and yes its very high and the water company has also pointed this out, cant find a leak. (no arrears)
Petrol is for one 1.4 litre car used for pleasure, to/from school, work etc.
Car Maintenance etc is a case of borrow, put on card, overtime if available.
Savings are used as needed for birthdays, days out etc so very rarely stays in the bank for more than a couple of weeks at a time.
Satellite TV isn't always as high as £70 but put it at the highest rather then the lowest.
Hobbies are the childrens out of school stuff, one hobby each.
Garden Maintenance is someone coming quarterly to feed grass to make it look good (very big garden)
Car Insurance is for 2 cars
Mortgage not rent, £110000 owed is 1.49 above the base rate.
Life Insurance is high but I'm a big lady shall we say so makes me high risk to higher costs.

KPB

FBaby wrote: »

Do you really never go out as a family, never go on holiday, kids don't go on school trips, never have anything for Christmas, never have any new clothes, never a hair cut?

Are you sure you have really included all you outgoings?

Hi


Yes we do go out but not a lot which is why the satellite TV is high, new clothes, hair cuts etc is taken from what we save as and when we have it. As for Christmas forgot to put my OH puts into a Christmas club (£40 a month).


No definitely not included everything as I said at the beginning of my post but to be honest finding this all a little overwhelming but well aware I need to get my head out of the sand and deal with it all which is probably the reasons for the drip feed on our outgoings.


Thanks

[Deleted User]

KPB wrote: »

Stuck into contracts with the mobile phones (2 mobiles)

Contact them, and see if you can at least move to a lower tariff.

Satellite TV isn't always as high as £70 but put it at the highest rather then the lowest.

To be frank, atm you can't afford pay TV at any price.

Switch to Freeview or Freesat instead.

Hobbies are the children's out of school stuff, one hobby each.

Can you find cheaper places to do the activities?

Car Insurance is for 2 cars

Do you absolutely need two cars?

asparagus1968

KPB wrote: »

Hi


We're not entitled to tax credits
Stuck into contracts with the mobile phones (2 mobiles)
Home phone cost includes internet.
I have looked into cheaper Gas/Electric but the saving was pence rather then £s (4 bed house, no arrears)
Water is a metre and yes its very high and the water company has also pointed this out, cant find a leak. (no arrears)
Petrol is for one 1.4 litre car used for pleasure, to/from school, work etc.
Car Maintenance etc is a case of borrow, put on card, overtime if available.
Savings are used as needed for birthdays, days out etc so very rarely stays in the bank for more than a couple of weeks at a time.
Satellite TV isn't always as high as £70 but put it at the highest rather then the lowest.
Hobbies are the childrens out of school stuff, one hobby each.
Garden Maintenance is someone coming quarterly to feed grass to make it look good (very big garden)
Car Insurance is for 2 cars
Mortgage not rent, £110000 owed is 1.49 above the base rate.
Life Insurance is high but I'm a big lady shall we say so makes me high risk to higher costs.

so which of these are you going to reduce /go without/ cutback?


if you are in deficit, you can't afford satellite tv, hobbies, gardening stuff, etc


gas/electric- you need to start switching things off at the plugs, being mindful of the appliances you are using, only have heating on when needed,
if no water leak, then its just your usage that is too high? look at saving water websites.
mobile phones- as you are still in contract you need to phone supplier, tell them you are struggling, ask them what they can do to help-they usually reduce it for you, after all, they would rather get some money than none:)
use your inclusive minutes and avoid using the landline
expensive handsets? sell them and use cheapies for now.
what did the loans and credit cards pay for?
what are the totals for each debt, the minimum payment, length left of debt and APR?
you need to be looking at every outgoing amount and asking
1. can it be got rid of?
2.can it be reduced?
3.is the an alternative?
4.is it a need or a want?


have a look at cashback sites too.
can you up your incomes in any way?


be really good to see the SOA that Bob sent you the link to,
good luck