Over budget :(

jocat15

Hi, I'm hoping I can get some help with my budget. I do try very hard to keep costs to a minimum however as can be seen I am not quite achieving the right balance. Any help and advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666.67
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 1,126.67
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650.00
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

Debt Repayments

Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.67
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.67
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.67

Odds & Sods

Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.33
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,793.33


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,923.33

rockm87

How many in your household?

Your seem to spend alot of your home phone and mobile.

~Beanie~

Only £20 a year on birthdays? Same for holiday and Christmas?

£150 per month on phones? £70 a month for internet? Why are these so high?

jocat15

rockm87 wrote: »

How many in your household?

Your seem to spend alot of your home phone and mobile.

Hi and thank you for replying

There are two adults (including me) and one teenager. I work from home so have to have a high inclusive phone package as it works out cheaper than the individual call costs.

jocat15

I think I have doubled up on a cost somewhere - oops

The phones and broadband should be £150 in total.

jocat15

~Beanie~ wrote: »

Only £20 a year on birthdays? Same for holiday and Christmas?

Thats all I can afford, i would love to be able to afford more

FireWyrm

£200 for groceries for two adults and a teenager is a lot. You can do much better than this - potentially halve it. I dont spend that much on 5.

You need to get rid of your mobiles and entertanment packages as well as any days out or other frivilous spending. You can get rid of the TV package and go catchup thereby freeing yourself of the TV license while you are at it.

Your car insurance is ridiculously high. I pay £26 a month. You need to shop around and see if there is anything you can do there.

Your internet cost is silly. Ring them up and threaten to leave unless they sweeten the pot a little.

Any chance of more work or anything? Your problem is your income is marginal at best.

Tixy

Does what your budget shows feel about right?

It is showing a shortfall of £130 a month. Are you reusing credit to that amount each month? or falling further in to debt each month?

Is the £250 on credit cards the minimum repayments or more? how much do you owe in total on these? are these your only debts currently?

Your car insrurance and breakdown costs look high. Do you shop around for these at renewal time?
As others have said the phone/internet costs etc look very high, hopefully they have been doubled up.

Have you shopped around for gas & elec to see if you can find cheaper deals? is your water on a meter or unmeasured?

jocat15

It does feel about right.

I am not able to make the full payments on the credit cards, I should be paying approximately £250/month but am only able to make payments of about £100, so I am falling behind with those. In total they amount to about £6600 over two cards.

We have two cars, both cost approximately £50/month. I have shopped around but due to partner having a DR10 on his license it increases the premiums.

The house phone, mobile phones, broadband and cable TV amount to £150/month so I did somehow manage to double them up on the plan - apologies.

The gas and elec is the cheapest I can get, that has been reduced from £80/month each. Water is metered.

I am also desperately looking for additional work and part time work to supplement the income although that won't make much difference as the benefits will drop in line with additional earnings.

Tixy

Ok so if you are only paying £100 to the cards and and the phones etc only come to £150 not £220 then it looks like you also have a further £90 spending a month that you haven't listed.

If you are significantly behind on your card repayments then you do need to cut back on any areas you can.

Given that you are only using £60 a petrol a month and that it looks like only one of you is working do you really need 2 cars? Could you consider reducing this down to 1 car and savings insurance/tax/maintenance etc?

If you cannot make your budget balance and afford the minimum repayments then you really need to contact one of the debt advice charities for some advice on your options. They may recommend a DMP in your situation, whereby you default on debt repayments and the charity help you work out what you can afford to your debts and you pay reduced monthly repayments to your debts.

IMPORTANT - Where to seek professional impartial advice about your debts.

ViolaLass

We spend half of what you spend on mobiles/internet/broadband (we don't have a TV) and my partner's mobile contract is for unlimited minutes so I think you could save there.

Does the other adult work? Could they?