We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.

This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.

📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
The Forum now has a brand new text editor, adding a bunch of handy features to use when creating posts. Read more in our how-to guide

Help! trying to decrease monthly spend

Hi guys


I just completed the monthly budget planner and I'm quite disappointed in what I have left over each month. Any suggestions on what I do to decrease my monthly spend?


its either that or look for a higher paying job :)




Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,573.31
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). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.13
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.50
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91.65
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500.00
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
ciritcal life insurance & payment protection i think. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
cineworld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Tithes & Offering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59.00
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,573.31

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,506.95

«1

Comments

  • tlc678910
    tlc678910 Posts: 983 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker
    Do you have a spare room you could rent out or if you rent could you share. You would get lower rent/mortgage and get to split the bills. You can take over 4K a year tax free in the rent a room scheme.
  • double_mummy
    double_mummy Posts: 3,989 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    party wrote: »
    Hi guys


    I just completed the monthly budget planner and I'm quite disappointed in what I have left over each month. Any suggestions on what I do to decrease my monthly spend?


    its either that or look for a higher paying job :)




    Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
    Monthly Income Details
    Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,573.31
    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). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Monthly Expense Details
    In Your Home
    Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00can this be cut down by going to a PAYG or a cheaper contract?
    TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.13
    Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.50 any cheaper deals out there?
    Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 go to the old style board
    Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
    Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
    Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91.65 is this over 10 or 12 months?
    Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500.00
    Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160.00 go the old style board i think you could cut this down a bit
    Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    ciritcal life insurance & payment protection i think. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    cineworld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 can this go?
    Tithes & Offering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190.00 what does this cover?
    Motoring & Public Transport
    Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
    Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
    Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59.00
    Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
    Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Debt Repayments
    Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Family
    Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 over 300 on days out a year?
    Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 whats this?
    IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 you cant afford this
    Clothes, Health & Beauty
    Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
    Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33 again old style board do these at home for pennies
    Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 you spend over £300 on work clothes a years?
    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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67 what is this for?
    Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 can you continue to afford this?
    Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67 can you get rid of this?
    Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Odds & Sods
    Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00 you cant afford this every penny counts
    Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 take a packed lunch
    Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

    Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,573.31

    Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,506.95


    comments in blue :)
    The only people I have to answer to are my beautiful babies aged 8 and 5
  • Redoing the SOA, using the MSE friendly version (link below) will make it easier for us to analyse.

    It's also more detailed.

    http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php
  • theoretica
    theoretica Posts: 12,691 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    £210 a month on food looks like an easy target to me. I also question that your car costs twice as much in servicing and insurance as you use petrol. Is it worth owning? Do you have zipcars or city cars in your area? Or hiring one occasionally and more taxis.
    But a banker, engaged at enormous expense,
    Had the whole of their cash in his care.
    Lewis Carroll
  • ViolaLass
    ViolaLass Posts: 5,764 Forumite
    What on earth is 'tithes and offering'? Charity?
  • ViolaLass wrote: »
    What on earth is 'tithes and offering'? Charity?

    It's a 10% contribution from your income towards your church.

    The OP should actually be paying £150 per month rather than £190, but I would guess this is a not a straightforward issue and not an area where the OP could look to make a saving.
    Start Date 02-09-2024

    CC1 £569
    CC2 £1,036
    L1 £1,621
    L2 £938
    L3 £936
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
    Eighth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Debt-free and Proud!
    edited 19 July 2014 at 10:12AM
    ViolaLass wrote: »
    What on earth is 'tithes and offering'? Charity?
    It's a 10% contribution from your income towards your church.

    I'd stop that straight away.

    It's virtually three times the OPs spare income.

    It would leave the OP with £256 pm, after expenditures, which would be a far healthier position than the current £66 pm.
  • HappyMJ
    HappyMJ Posts: 21,115 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    It's a 10% contribution from your income towards your church.

    The OP should actually be paying £150 per month rather than £190, but I would guess this is a not a straightforward issue and not an area where the OP could look to make a saving.
    £190 is probably 10% of gross income. Although it should be 10% of take home pay as long as it continues into pension age as the tax contribution to the government and pension contributions made now will be returned in the future as a pension. Otherwise the OP would be paying it twice. Of course we've had this debate many times on here and the posters who pay tithes will not reduce this expenses despite living in virtual poverty. OP if you pay a training provider to improve your qualifications to increase your income then your tax and NI contributions increase and your tithe increases as well. It's a terrible cycle in which you'll never really get any more money as you'll always need to invest more in your education to earn more to cover the increased tithe.

    You'll need to cut out every expense which is considered luxury and only spend money on travel to/from work, a roof over your head and for food on the table and forget everything else.
    :footie:
    :p Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) :p Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. :p
  • Bedsit_Bob wrote: »
    I'd stop that straight away.

    It's virtually three times the OPs spare income.

    It would leave the OP with £256 pm, after expenditures, which would be a far healthier position than the current £66 pm.

    That's the issue though - the OP can't stop this and I doubt he/she would want to.

    I'm not a religious person in the slightest and I'm guessing you're not, so it's not really an issue for us. If it's something you believe in or feel obliged to do then it's a different situation - regardless of your financial problems. The widow's mite for example.
    Start Date 02-09-2024

    CC1 £569
    CC2 £1,036
    L1 £1,621
    L2 £938
    L3 £936
  • the OP can't stop this and I doubt he/she would want to.

    Can't :huh:

    Not want to, I can believe, but CAN'T?
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 354.2K Banking & Borrowing
  • 254.3K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 455.3K Spending & Discounts
  • 247.2K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 603.8K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 178.4K Life & Family
  • 261.3K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.7K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.