Help with budget and want to pay mortgage off.....

getmore4less

Another stratagy is to split into needs and wants.

For every need on the list you look for ways to make the bill smaller or a different way of obtaining the same.

eg we need shelter, heat, clothes, food they can all be reviewed,
clothes make stuff last longer, reuse, buy cheaper(sales only) or even do a charity shop run for some things.

For discresionary things then your money is competing so look for where you get value.

For example if you make you normal need food budget as slim as possible then the fancy stuff can be a want item competing with takeways or eating out, a £30 meal out for two buys a very nice extra special sunday roast and leftovers for a few other nice meals or some great sandwiches for work.

Challenge every spend catagory

Eg you have £85pm month for home based services and £80 for mobiles

Would freeview/sat do the job for the TV a cheaper internet/phone or even ditch the landline and go mobile.
or review the mobile use if you have the coverage would "3" 123 do the job? Worked out the cheapest PAYG for us when Avivo went bust.

runforlife

If I may suggest one thing. Do it TODAY, NOW! Get your credit cards and cut them up. Then close the accounts. Even tucked away they can be too much of a temptation and tbh I am not sure you've had your LBM yet. I don't wish to be harsh but if you and your husband had then you would no longer be paying for something like Sky Sports. If you retain your card then unless you radically change your spending habits you will end up with unsecured debt, a massive mortgage and back to square one…although with the previous card debt also hanging around your neck.

Is the mortgage repayment only?

getmore4less

Not clear if you allready had a SOA for the remortgage or if some of the items are guesses things like £100 for clothes looks more guess.

Another thing worth doing is go back 12months and get you net position say 1sept 2013 and then so the same for 1sept 2014.

look at all income and the difernce in net positions and try to work out how you got there.

some stuff will be easy going through statements.

chances are there will be a big chunk that you cant remeber but you should have much better ides of what you really spend especialy once you pull out ll the house expences and interest.

you could do it in SOA format but for a year not a month, add unknown, and house doing ip and see how it looks.

TopCat1978

Thank you all for the help and advice. I have set up a debt free diary to keep me focused and accountable to myself. I don't want to get back into this mess and will not. I can't so I have to be focused.

The mortgage is repayment and I want to start paying off an extra monthly amount to pay it off earlier. Just am extra £100 reduces it by 4 years!

Yeah soa was A first attempt. I have done a budget on excel of monthly bills and also allowed for annual costs that that will need reviewing every so often.

Here's to a debt free future! Good luck lewpylew! Xxxx