Part SOA - Getting ahead

theoretica

Is entertainment really zero over your whole year? No trips to the cinema or zoo? What about presents for when they are invited to other kids' parties?

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

rockm87 wrote: »

haha yeah this is a tricky one!

What is OP asking? I feel like I'm playing a game of guess how many bills I have ;-)

Because when I was in my early 20s I had £34k worth of debt with my ex, It's been repaid, all the black marks removed from my credit file, I'm finally in a position to start putting money away for future bills and I'm wanting to check I've budgeted enough...

theoretica wrote: »

Is entertainment really zero over your whole year? No trips to the cinema or zoo? What about presents for when they are invited to other kids' parties?

Probably not zero but I'm not sure what to schedule for this. My children to a lot of activities elsewhere (For instance, brownies go to camp, or they go to theatre etc)


Me... Its rare that I go out to be honest (I'm not a hermit, I'd just rather spend time with the kids down the park or on a bike ride lol)


Presents for parties... I usually buy things in the January sale and I have a "present cupboard" - When there's a party we just grab one. Anything left is a stocking filler for mine at Christmas

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Well, the main one you've removed, which makes it tricky to give precise advice, is the salary, hence we don't know what, if anything, you have left each month.

Also, you've removed how many adults and children.

BTW. If you are renting, which, given you have £0 for mortgage, seems likely, why do you need buildings insurance?

As mentioned above, I have around £2k a month and I own my house outright (Inherited). There's 1 adult and 2 children. Yes I removed the income - Before I inherited the house I posted on here, got quite a few nasty PM's from people who were struggling who wasn't happy I had posted on here. But like I said, I've been in debt, I've counted 2p's before to buy bread and I got out of debt. I removed the income so I wouldn't upset anyone - I'm within my means.


Mainly - I wanted to check I'd not missed anything from my budget so I don't get in trouble again by forgetting something

HappyMJ

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel wrote: »

As mentioned above, I have around £2k a month and I own my house outright (Inherited). There's 1 adult and 2 children. Yes I removed the income - Before I inherited the house I posted on here, got quite a few nasty PM's from people who were struggling who wasn't happy I had posted on here. But like I said, I've been in debt, I've counted 2p's before to buy bread and I got out of debt. I removed the income so I wouldn't upset anyone - I'm within my means.


Mainly - I wanted to check I'd not missed anything from my budget so I don't get in trouble again by forgetting something

Many apologies for the nasty PM's. It's not warranted. You can report them....not that it will do much. I ended up disabling that function myself.

What you could do instead of putting down your real income is just make one up which equals your expenses so it shows you have no surplus then you might not get the jealous crowd in saying you're fine.

You can put the value of your house down as a low figure such as £20,000 instead of what it's really worth. Just say you can't sell it if questioned. This is an anonymous forum so just put any figures down for the bits that don't matter too much rather than delete them altogether. You could put the debt to your mother in the mortgage entry as £9,000 outstandng with monthly repayments of £200 so it looks like you have a mortgage and that money was used to improve the house so it's very similar to a mortgage.

Forgetting something is very very common and a reason most people get into debt as they haven't planned for an annual expense so put it on a credit card. The best you can do is keep a diary of everything you spend. I've got myself a spreadsheet and every day I enter what I've spent that day and sum the columns and rows together and that shows what I've spent that month. Once you've done this for a year add the whole lot up and divide by 12 and you've got your average monthly spend. Keep doing that every month and you'll see if you spend more or less as time goes on.

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

I didn't know you could disable PM's!


See i thought of doing that but then i realised that if i had shown no surplus but then missed something (Like the dentist) It would seem I was in a negative figure and I'd still have to explain thats not strictly true and would be accused of lying


You cant win lol


I do have a spreadsheet that I've kept, for a number of years actually (some very kind member organised this for me around 5 years ago!) last year was the first time in a long time I didnt let my bank drop below £100 and this year as I said, is the first time I'm able to put money aside for next years bills.


So far I've missed:


Car maintaince
Dentist
Entertainment
School trips
School dinners (Forgot DD isnt entitled to them any more now shes year 3)


I think I'll put:


Car: £25 a month
Dentist: I only ever have check ups but I guess I will at some point need treatment... I've not idea what cost is! NHS website says £51 ish for anything up to root canal so if I budget £100 a year? or more?
Entertainment: still undecided what to put
School trips: Again, No idea what to put?! This year DD1 has been on 2 trips which cost (in total) £100 is that usual?
School dinners.... £10 a week. I think we could do sandwiches for less!

HappyMJ

I wouldn't really bother putting a significant figure down for entertainment. I've got £180 per month on my SOA for 2 adults (£3 per person per day) but in reality I know it's much more I think it's closer to £300 (£5 per person per day) and I've got comments saying it can easily be reduced yet I know there's no way it can be reduced further. Even if you put £10 a month for a family of four that's about 8 pence per person per day you'll get comments saying "you can't afford this right now". I know that you've got to have something reasonable there.

£100 for school trips is fine so put £10 a month and that should cover it.

School dinners are generally quite a reasonable portion size of a [STRIKE] hot[/STRIKE] luke warm cooked meal with a sweet of some description with fruit. It's much more substantial than a sandwich.

Dentist can cost £51 for root canal but you rarely need that all you need is the check up costing about £20 every 6 months. If something is found requiring further treatment then alter your SOA at that point.

You could put £80 for holiday. That's only £960 a year which should be enough for a family of 4 to go away in the UK for one week twice a year.

[Deleted User]

HappyMJ wrote: »

That's only £960 a year which should be enough for a family of 4 to go away in the UK for one week twice a year.

Abroad is often cheaper.

HappyMJ

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Abroad is often cheaper.

There's another cost an Adult passport is £72.50 over 10 years and a child passport £46 valid for 5 years. You've also got the cost of the photo's about £5 a time. 2 adults and 2 children therefore when all the costs are added up and divided into 120 months would be a cost of £3 per month. I'd leave that included in the holiday figure but it's something to consider.

I do agree a week all inclusive holiday in term time can be cheaper than a UK holiday.

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

holidays:

We're lucky to have family in Devon. So.. £40 a month = £480 a year

I book a break away in April time through the Sun holidays (Week in Devon has just cost me £80ish) so we go to family the weekend before and after and have a week in a caravan somewhere. The other £400 is petrol, food and a bit of spending money

Each year at work we have a bonus, this is usually enough to cover a holiday abroad in October. I haven't scheduled this into the budget (nor spending money for this holiday) which I probably should!