My Budget

spendaholic

Here are my figures from the budget form - this was quite easy to fill in as I've had a budget for years in Excel. It's nice to have all the formulas already calculated, though.

Phones: £27.72 (one in office, one in house)
Internet: £23.99
Mobile: £7.00 (PAYG)
Private Medical Insurance: £15.40 (will stop when start new job - free BUPA)
Travel Insurance: FREE (but "FREE" with £10 pm Gold bank account)
Food Shopping: av £324.75 (but already cut that today)
Milk: £17.10
Car Maintenance: £8.33
Car Insurance: £19.97 (saved £150 per year by switching recently)
Car Tax: £8.75
Fuel: £15.00
Personal Loan (£25k at 7.5% reduced from 9.5%): £467.16
Credit Cards (3): £110.00
Various Bank Charges: £19.00
10 yr Savings Plan (Friendly Society): £10.00
DD to Mini Cash ISA (4.6%): £10.00
Personal Pension: £38.75 (will get final salary pension from new job + also have frozen pension)
Professional Membership (NUJ, SofA): £17.43
Dentist: £2.08
Optician: £0.63
Other Stuff (grooming, National Trust membership, magazine/website subs, etc): £18.25

TOTAL OUTGOINGS: £1,154.32

CURRENT AVERAGE MONTHLY INCOME: £800.00 (say no more)
FUTURE AVERAGE MONTHLY INCOME TBC: £1,200.00??

Soz if this is more detailed than expected.

System

Do you keep the amount in your bank account so you dont have to pay the charge for your Gold bank account. I had a gold account for months, but since i always shift money out of there into savings accounts as soon as i could, i found i was always getting charged. (i think it was £8 a month at the time) Alliance and Leicester used to do free travel insurance when you opened an online bank account with them. It might be worth looking into.

Also, do you have enough in your savings to either pay off your debts? Either that or shift them onto credit cards with 0% on balance transfers?

edited to provide a link

spendaholic

Hi Judi

I've just switched the balance from Barclaycard 0% - about to expire - (apx £1,500) and Tesco PF 0% - also about to expire - (apx £900) to Halifax One, but I think there's interest on here. As long as I have a card that has 0% I seem to batter it or pay off the minimum amount only. The other card is Bank of Scotland and the apr is about 15%, but I often clear it when I can because it's 15%, although this is the card I've just put my new job clothes on, so there'll be about £1k on there by the time the next statement comes. I've cut up the Barclaycard and the Halifax card which came today will also be cut up, but I'm being precious about the other 2 because the Tesco one is also my loyalty card and the BOS one has a good credit limit (in case of emergency - yeah, right ).

I don't get paid a regular income at the moment. One week I could get nothing. Another I could get £500. Sometimes I've gone 6 - 8 weeks without any cheques coming in. Hence the new job. So the Lloyds account is perpetually in or around the overdraft (currently £800). We have to pay the £10 now anyway, whether we're in overdraft or not, but the first £100 of overdraft is free of interest.

I think things will be easier once I get this new job, but as I won't get my first pay cheque (or BACS) until the end of June, I'm up a certain creek without a paddle until then.

Thank goodness my husband pays for everything else!

spendaholic

btw - I also have 2 current accounts. The Lloyds money is where all of my income goes, then I (usually) transfer so much to my Woolwich, or personal account, which has individual savings pots within the savings element. However, as cashflow has been really bad just lately, the Woolwich is currently in overdraft too (the maximum is £1,875 but I have about £400 left), and that's included in my "bank charges" item.

System

spendaholic wrote:

Thank goodness my husband pays for everything else!

They have their uses eh?

Mine pays me £900 a month, but expects me to pay bills out it it LOL.

spendaholic

My income includes £260 off my hubby, and he thinks thats too much!

System

spendaholic wrote:

My income includes £260 off my hubby, and he thinks thats too much!

Mine says the same, but i think its a man thing.

Is there just the two of you or do you have children because i do think your shopping bills could be trimmed down a bit more. Could you cancel your National Trust subscription for a few months. I know its for a good cause, but you could do with the cash sitting in your bank account right now.

I dont think the rest of your accounts are too high, but its just the debts you need to get control of. My knowledge of credit cards is limited unfortunately.

spendaholic

The National Trust and the Society of Authors both come out once a year. This is the monthly calculated sum by Martin's spreadsheet. The NT comes out in August and SofA comes out in November, apx £65 and £75 respectively. Both could be cancelled, truthfully.

Yes, there are only 2 of us and I very proudly announced in Money Saving Old Style under the May Grocery Shopping Challenge that what normally costs between £65 and £100 per week in shopping came in at £42.44 today. I went out hoping to keep it down, but didn't believe I could make it £25 or £30 just yet.

See, I've been registered with this site for 24 hrs and already I've saved.

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi Spendaholic

Im quite new too!!

Can I ask why you have spent £1000 on new clothes for your job? Seems a little extravagant for someone claiming they are in alot of debt :eek:

I used to be in a high positioned/paid job and had very expensive tastes in clothes shopping , but I was in no debt and could afford this. A good trouser suit and/or skirt suit, black smart trousers, couple of skirts and a few smart shirts/blouses should suffice and a couple of pairs of good quality shoes of course! Can you take these clothes back?

Maybe look in local charity shops for designer clothes-no one will know-promise! I buy loads from ebay and occasionally get to go to a Bootsale, being disabled this can be quite difficult.

I dont mean any offence by this reply, but you appear to be in abit of debt already and adding another £1000 just on clothes for your new job seems silly to me

Penny-Pincher!!
XXX

Magentasue

I think I might have missed a post about your debts - it seems as if you juggle around and end up living on credit and therefore increasing your debts. Been there, done that.

When I got better paid work, my situation improved, unfortunately my work is unreliable like yours. The only way to get straight is to use your income to live, cut your outgoings to the minimum and use the surplus for debt repayment. As you say, this will be so much easier when you have a regular income.

Anyway, some suggestions:

1) We have a bills account (Mr Magentasue's salary goes in here) and everything is paid by Standing Order. The overdraft is now paid off and is our emergency fund - only for something that needs doing NOW like a car repair but will be repaid within weeks. Excess goes to debt repayment.

2) My salary goes into another account. I leave £400 in it for food shopping and clothes and transfer the rest to account 3. This was £500 until I got hooked on Oldstyle!

3) Account 3 is for annual bills like house insurance, MOT etc. I've managed to spread these around so there's never more than one a month and none in November and December. I aim to have £1000 for lean months. Any more than that goes as one off debt repayments.

4) Account 3 is a savings account, the other two are interest paying current accounts (Abbey and First Direct).I would never pay bank charges for a current account - you can get free banking now.

5) I'm a rate tart but have the dates on my phone and on this site to remind me to apply for transfers. I NEVER spend on these cards - I cut them up as soon as they arrive and cancel them before they charge interest.

6) We do have one credit card that I do use but only when I know I will earn enough to pay it off as soon as the bill arrives.

What I should do is cut my spending and reduce my debt quicker but I'm not that strong willed. Well, actually I might be but OH and kids don't want to live like that so it's a compromise. While I am earning, we have a reasonable if not extravagant lifestyle but we also have cleared our interest bearing debts and pay a lot more than the minimum repayments on our 0% cards. Hopefully they'll still be available long enough for us to become debt free and not pay any interest.

spendaholic

Thanks for the reply. I didn't actually spend £1k on new clothes - probably more like around £700, which is still a lot I know. But this card is one that I try to use and pay off at the end of the month when I can and there are a couple of other things on there too. It might not even be £1k. I''ll have to sit down and do my sums.

I've been working at home for 10 yrs so live in leggings and t-shirts or sweatshirts. I own one good pair of trousers. As I'm going into middle management I just thought I ought to get 2 good quality suits - 1 of which is travellable as my 2nd week will be the first of many trips to Holland.

But yes, this is yet another reason why I'm in such a pickle. I suppose it's the why get hung for a lamb when I can get hung for a flock mentality.