SoA to avoid getting in debt

pollyanna24

I'm in the process of possibly buying my brother out of our house, so I have set up a brand new SoA and I just wondered if people could look it over and see if I have missed anything out. I'm not in debt at the moment, but am remortgaging to my absolute limit, so don't want to get in debt.


Mortgage 417.00
Mortgage (2) 331.98
Childcare 400.00
Council tax 109.50
Gas/Electricity 108.00
Pension 104.00
Water 32.73
Sky 28.00
Tax Credits Debt 22.65
Telephone 16.99
Mobile Telephone 15.00
Broadband 13.00
TV Licence 12.12
Dog Insurance 8.28
Cat Insurance 5.44
Groceries 200.00
Me 150.00 - going out, clothes, luxuries etc.
Girls 100.00 - school trips, clothes, days out etc.
Petrol 50.00

Total 2,124.69

Annual bills
Car Insurance 350.00
Car Tax 130.00
Car Service 200.00
MOT 30.00
AA 55.00
House Ins 150.00

Each one divided by 12 to get monthly amount - 76.25

Incomings
Wages (Average) 2,061.51
Child Benefit 136.20
Child Tax Credits 92.35
Child Maintenance 350.00

Overview
Incomings 2,640.06
Outgoings 2,200.94
Left over 439.12

EDIT: If I have put this in the wrong place, I apologise, didn't know where else to put it.

Tixy

Hi

Looks fairly comprehensive - a couple of possible considerations:

Are you likely to have any other pet costs except for the insurance - vet bills etc? Is pet food in with groceries?

Are things like haircuts/dentists / opticians / any 'treatments' etc included in "Me" & "Girls". Do the girls have pocket money and is that included in the £100?

Do you have life assurance (if so that isn't included)?

You don't have any contingency in for house repairs etc - although you do obviously have the £400+ surplus.

Is your childcare averaged over a year? or if that is a school term figure do you need to budget more for school holiday times?

pollyanna24

Tixy wrote: »

Hi

Looks fairly comprehensive - a couple of possible considerations:

Are you likely to have any other pet costs except for the insurance - vet bills etc? Is pet food in with groceries?

Are things like haircuts/dentists / opticians / any 'treatments' etc included in "Me" & "Girls". Do the girls have pocket money and is that included in the £100?

Do you have life assurance (if so that isn't included)?

You don't have any contingency in for house repairs etc - although you do obviously have the £400+ surplus.

Is your childcare averaged over a year? or if that is a school term figure do you need to budget more for school holiday times?

Thank you so much! It's so helpful to get an outsider's perspective.

I have the pet insurance in case one of them breaks their leg or something, but have already decided that one of them gets a long term or serious illness, then I will.... (I don't want to type it!) as we went through all the insurance, trying to keep a pet alive with our previous dog.

Pet food is in with groceries. At the moment, I have £150 in groceries as some groceries are joint with my brother (bog roll etc.) so I have added £50 as I will have to buy all this myself when he goes.

Girls' haircuts are free from a friend as it's only a trim - they are doing their best to be Rapunzel. One has it down to her waist and the other is doing her best to catch up. My haircuts are usually an Xmas or birthday pressie from my mum, haha.

I thought about doing pocket money, but haven't so far. If I did, think it would come out of their £100 budget.

No life insurance at all. Eek. Is this if I die? Should really think about this, but up to now have owned the house with my brother, so he could deal with that(!) and my girls would go to their dad.

House repairs - yeah, should really have something for this, shouldn't I? And you've reminded me to get the boiler serviced!

Childcare is my mum. I pay her the same every month regardless.

Again, thank you so much, you have made me think about the gaps.

cakeforbrains

You've put 'average' income. What happens if you get your lowest monthly pay?

sanfrancisco

You are doing really well.

You do really need £2 to 3 k in savings tho. No one means to get into debt and it is normally the things that we don't want to think about that tip us over (new washing machine, roof collapses, new care etc etc, car servicing). We all like to think it's difficult to plan for these things, but they happen to all of us. So get prepared.

Re life insurance. It would only cost a few £ to get say £100k. That could be put into savings for your girls, to put down as a deposit, university etc. what a great start for them. Worth having a think x

Tixy

As you have children then I do think its worth considering life assurance. However do also check if you already have death in service cover from your employer, as if you do you may decide that is sufficient.

pollyanna24

cakeforbrains wrote: »

You've put 'average' income. What happens if you get your lowest monthly pay?

Some weeks I get paid for four weeks, some weeks for five weeks, it all depends when boss puts in my wages.

I work all my spreadsheets out on a monthly basis, so for the months where I get a little less, there "should" be money in the bank from when I got more. That's the way I plan it anyhows, can't think how else to do it.

pollyanna24

Tixy wrote: »

As you have children then I do think its worth considering life assurance. However do also check if you already have death in service cover from your employer, as if you do you may decide that is sufficient.

Hmm, will have to look into this and see how much it costs. Think I'll do the whole buying my brother out first.

I work for a self employed solicitor and only just managed to persuade him to put money into my pension after working here for 10 years!, doubt there is anything about death policy.

pollyanna24

sanfrancisco wrote: »

You are doing really well.

You do really need £2 to 3 k in savings tho. No one means to get into debt and it is normally the things that we don't want to think about that tip us over (new washing machine, roof collapses, new care etc etc, car servicing). We all like to think it's difficult to plan for these things, but they happen to all of us. So get prepared.

Re life insurance. It would only cost a few £ to get say £100k. That could be put into savings for your girls, to put down as a deposit, university etc. what a great start for them. Worth having a think x

Anything I don't spend, I will try and put it into savings. So this should the surplus each month (haha, she says, in an ideal world, but that's the plan anyways).

On_my_way

I was going to say is there any way you could reduce your childcare bill but as this is to your mum it is likely to be very reasonable already!

I would definitely look at tips on here on how to reduce your expenditure so that you are in the best possible situation from today.

Good luck!

lilahloo

Hi - just another thought on the subject of the pet insurance, I know with mine I have to pay an excess and then a percentage of the treatment costs. You may want to consider adding some contingency for this to your emergency fund savings.

You're doing the right thing getting your head round your finances now - good luck with it all.