Can afford to save on paper, not in reality

Lingua

Out of interest, who are you with for your landline, and when does the contract for your mobile end?

I get 20GB of 4G data, plus unlimited minutes/texts for £20/mnth with BT - no problems so far, and as you mentioned earlier you use a lot of data. Of course, I'm assuming your current contract includes your phone cost too - if you still want to have the luxury of buying a brand new phone (as you also mentioned further up), it might be worth seeing if buying upfront and getting a SIM-only contract will save you more in the long term.



Lingua

anotheruser

Purplesky wrote: »

Buy used. Buy with cash. Buy something reliable and efficient.

Yeah, not that easy to get all of those things together for a cheap price.

Purplesky wrote: »

For reference, we spend £950 a year on our car. I spend about £300 commuting and visiting friends on the train.

But you are not commuting from Manchester to Liverpool every day. Nor are you on the same salary I bet.

However, I do agree with Purplesky - the car is a big drain. That's why hire purchase, or any other sort of "buy now, pay later" is just a bad deal when it comes to cars. I've always bought used, always bought cash (or to be precise, card).
One day, I hope to buy a brand new car purely for being the first person to own it.

dcouponzzzz wrote: »

Thanks Grumbler, I'm 2 months into a new contract and use circa 10gb data per month average. Unfortunately this can't be reduced.

Ths can't be reduced? Or won't?
Unless you work from home, it probably could be reduced.

dcouponzzzz

mattk_180 wrote: »

You're spending an awful lot on juice for your e-cig. I'd recommend having a look around online for alternatives.


The site I buy from (insanejuice.co.uk) is only £15 for 100ML so you'd be saving yourself a lot on juice alone only having to pay £15 every 3 weeks rather than every 1 based on your post.


Good job on making the changes to try and get everything straightened out. And well done on not having to use the bank of mum and dad!!

Hey Matt, I'm pretty cautious around e-liquid considering it's unregulated. After much research Totally Wicked seems to do regular spot testing on the nicotine products they ship in to make sure there's nothing untoward in the composition. I'll take a look in to insanejuice and see what I can find. If it looks good then you've just saved me a fortune Thank you!

dcouponzzzz

Lingua wrote: »

Out of interest, who are you with for your landline, and when does the contract for your mobile end?

I get 20GB of 4G data, plus unlimited minutes/texts for £20/mnth with BT - no problems so far, and as you mentioned earlier you use a lot of data. Of course, I'm assuming your current contract includes your phone cost too - if you still want to have the luxury of buying a brand new phone (as you also mentioned further up), it might be worth seeing if buying upfront and getting a SIM-only contract will save you more in the long term.



Lingua

My landline is with SSE, on an 18 month promo with free broadband and £12 line rental. My mobile contract ends in Feb 2017 so not too long left. The data is relatively important, even more so now as I will be pretty much working 24/7 and the company apps are data hungry.

Regarding buying a phone outright, I tried that with the phone prior to this one. The mistake I made was buying the HTC one on release for £530, which meant I had to keep it for 18 months to make it financially viable on a rolling monthly plan (£18 p/m at the time). When this expires I'll use this phone until it dies or some extremely useful phone revolution occurs.

Reckless_Saving

Congrats on the promotion, the trick now is to carry on budgeting going forward against the old salary and put the excess straight into savings, that will then put you in a better buying position when the car needs replacing in the years to come, by taking you out of the finance game, so that future car will actually cost you £7500 instead of £10000 on finance.

Also once your car is 4 year old you will need to budget £500 per for general wear/tear maintainace on the car above normal servicing costs.

Wow £45 a month on mobile and 10gb, what you using it for, Netflix

robatwork

Something you said on p1 was that your 10Gb of data was "needed".

You then intimated ^^^ that it's for your job as you mentioned "company apps". Can you expand on that? 10Gb is an awful lot and if you need a mobile phone as part of your job surely that should be provided or that portion of the contract claimed as expenses?

Even so, 3 do unlimited data packages from about £17 per month....

Kernel_Sanders

Can you explain why 'Groceries etc.' in March has rocketed from the £120 in the OP, particularly as this included buying lunch when at work?

I don't recall you answering the question about driving to an obscure station and getting the train (e.g. dep Earlestown 0613, arr Piccadilly 0644)?
Did you know there are bargains to be had by booking in advance, even less than 48 hours?

dcouponzzzz

The company apps allow me to download and edit documents from sharepoint, make voip calls and IM/email replicated across up to 3 iOs and android devices I own (s6 + ipad). This is a voluntary incentive instead of taking a Blackberry, and I'd much prefer not to have 2 devices with me at all times.

When I bought this contract I asked 3mobile what my average monthly usage was for the previous 2 years, which was 9.4gb. My own personal use has reduced but I would rather not cut that allowance back to not be able to use my device when/where/how I'd like.

Thanks for reminding me Kernel, I must've overlooked that. I've done some calculations this morning and I could save approximately £790 per year by driving to Newton Le Willows, which includes petrol costs but does not include depreciation of adding 7800 miles per year to my car. I'm not quite sure how to work out the actual cost of this on top. The downside being it adds over an hour to my overall travel time per day, and won't allow me to cycle to the train station.

regarding groceries, OP was calculated before my (now ex) gf moved in with me. It skyrocketed because she wasn't earning enough to contribute but had more of an appetite than me ;/ I would say it'll be much lower now but being back in the dating game probably cancels out any savings!

dcouponzzzz

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1550
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1550

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 304.3
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 263.2
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 65 increased by council, can't claim single living discount
Electricity @ Gas............................. 50 5 month struggle with Scottish Power and we're finally on monthly dual-fuel as of this week.
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 20.63 This will reduce significantly after ex moving out
Telephone (land line)................... 6.56
Mobile phone............................ 45.72 10gb allowance. I regularly hit the allowance limit 1-5 days before the end of the month
TV Licence.............................. 6.06
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0 Free with phone line - SSE promo deal
Groceries etc. ......................... 160 this will reduce going forward - £20 p/w food not including cleaning products/costco
Clothing................................ 30.68 Average spend over the past 12 months
Petrol/diesel........................... 120
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 55.83 Already paid, lump sum. Saving for next year
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 70
Car parking............................. 15
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 6.13
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0 Work benefit
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 199 Expensive ex... need to reduce this significantly
Holiday................................. 0
Lunch/Snacks ........................ 100 embarassing... on it's way down
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1538.11


Assets
Cash.................................... 600
House value (Gross)..................... 75000
Shares and bonds........................ 200
Car(s).................................. 5800
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 81600


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 52500....(304.3)....3.99
Secured Debt.................. 5912.....(263.2)....6
Total secured & HP debts...... 58412.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,550
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,538.11
Available for debt repayments........... 11.89
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 11.89

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 81,600
Total HP & Secured debt................. -58,412
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 23,188

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.



So this is how it looks using the past 12 months figures, which explains why I struggled to save! Some costs will reduce significantly over the next 12 months due to either being single or finding someone who can support themself... and 1 or 2 months from now my take-home pay will be increasing by £190-390 per month (depending on time spent on call each month)

Kernel_Sanders

dcouponzzzz wrote: »

Thanks for reminding me Kernel, I must've overlooked that. I've done some calculations this morning and I could save approximately £790 per year by driving to Newton Le Willows, which includes petrol costs but does not include depreciation of adding 7800 miles per year to my car. I'm not quite sure how to work out the actual cost of this on top. The downside being it adds over an hour to my overall travel time per day, and won't allow me to cycle to the train station.

Regarding groceries, OP was calculated before my (now ex) gf moved in with me. It skyrocketed because she wasn't earning enough to contribute but had more of an appetite than me ;/

That would be an appetite for food, right? (just wondering why she might have left )
Couldn't you cycle to Lime Street? For those wondering, Earlestown Station is in Newton-le-Willows (in fact it appears to be the town centre station!). You could still utilise a folding bike by parking somewhere safer as well as free, e.g. an out-of town supermarket.