How much do you have left over at the end of the month?

zenshi

Popstess wrote: »

Thanks Zenshi, yes that's why I asked to give me ideas this is all brand new to me as I've been living above and beyond my means for quite some time now.
I love the idea of NSD's think I might start leaving my purse at home when I'm at work lol. Do you still count it as a NSD even if for example a DD goes out of your acc to pay a bill? Or is it just what you spend over and above usual outgoings?

I obviously count my DDs as essentials, so they don't factor. My spending diary is anything and everything else that isn't strictly budgeted. A stamp or bar of chocolate etc. I jot my food spends as well so I can see at a glance what I spent month by month. I would love to be able to allocate £x for the food budget but I can't right now
I am lucky at the mo as my second job income is not spent on day to day living as my business is picking up nicely but it's paying for essential house repairs ie leaky roof and car repairs. Once the emergency fund is there, then I can start to chuck more at the debts

Currently, I'm only paying token amounts to the CCs. I figure as long as they're happy and not charging interest, then I can use my spare money as I've said. Can't stress the importance of the emergency fund, just wish I had one before I needed it!!!

zenshi

I also have my 'debt book' which is basically a ledger which logs all my creditors, dates of defaults, payments etc. end of each month I tally the totals and circle the total amount that I've paid off the lot. I know I could do it on the iPad but having it written in pen seems much more real to me

Popstess

rolls99 wrote: »

Look on all your bills (DDs and so on) as already spent; you can't of course spend your Council tax payment for instance; so it's not really a "Spend" - that comes from anything you've left after all that.


Aside from the NSD there's tons of posts with people cutting costs of other bills: mobile phones, TV/Internet packages, club memberships and so on, and it can be very rewarding as a challenge never mind anything else!


If you can, try and do an SOA as plenty people will help you with that too. Realistically, it is down to "incomings versus outgoings" - and with your outgoings there's a portion you can't do much about (priority stuff) but pretty much everything else you can change one way or another!

Okay so SOA TIME:

Not sure if I'm doing this right but here goes.....

Income
Monthly salary £1480.00
Child Benefit. £80.00
Working Tax. £140.00
Maintainance. £100.00

TOTAL. £1,800.00

Outgoings
Mortgage £234.00
food/toiletries/
cleaning products £280.00
Council Tax. £81.00
Gas & electric. £68.00
Christmas. £50.00
Sky. £36.00
Car Insurance. £30.00
Petrol. £30.00
Birthdays. £20.00
Mobile. £18.00
Water bill. £17.00
Halifax ultimate
Reward account. £15.00
School snack money. £15.00
Buildings & contents
Insurance. £13.00
TV license. £13.00
Sons saving account. £10.00
MOT. £5.00

TOTAL. £935.00

Debt outgoings
Halifax loan. £269.00
Barclay Card. £132.00
Dad. £100.00
Tesco card. £90.00
MBNA card. £25.00

TOTAL OUTGOINGS. £1,526.00

TOTAL REMAINING £274.00


I also have my next account currently sitting at £250.00 but hopefully once the returned clothes are credited to my account + £120.00 out of my pot of dreams that will be paid and closed by next week.

Very I have £1,035.00 buy now pay laters so I'm not paying interest but also not paying a monthly direct debit on that one so not sure whether to just chip away at it or set up a direct debit and include it in my outgoings.


Anyway there's my SOA's I have probably missed something major off as I'm new to all this, but please be gentle with me it's taken a lot for me to share that on here, thank you

zenshi

Well done. Posting on here will soon be like talking to your best mate and you won't feel uncomfortable about it at all

Popstess

zenshi wrote: »

I obviously count my DDs as essentials, so they don't factor. My spending diary is anything and everything else that isn't strictly budgeted. A stamp or bar of chocolate etc. I jot my food spends as well so I can see at a glance what I spent month by month. I would love to be able to allocate £x for the food budget but I can't right now
I am lucky at the mo as my second job income is not spent on day to day living as my business is picking up nicely but it's paying for essential house repairs ie leaky roof and car repairs. Once the emergency fund is there, then I can start to chuck more at the debts

Currently, I'm only paying token amounts to the CCs. I figure as long as they're happy and not charging interest, then I can use my spare money as I've said. Can't stress the importance of the emergency fund, just wish I had one before I needed it!!!

That's one thing I don't have an emergency fund. How much do you set a side per month for your emergency fund?

zenshi

LOL I've not got one yet! I'm just finished paying my roof repair and last week my fridge went kaput , so paying daughter back for buying me new fridge. I would like to have an emergency fund of £1k. Wether that takes me two months or twelve, I don't know!!

I am very fortunate to have a sister that owns a garage, so can pay for any car stuff when I have spare money and both my kids will pay for emergencys that may crop up. They know I will pay them back as a priority

[Deleted User]

A tenner currently - I am losing my landlord soon so it will change, cutting bills never worked in a year that got progressively worse, (I can't understand the work location why it is so poorly paid, it isn't like it's a provi area but it might as well be)
Can't believe when the door shuts that's it everything I've strived or struggled for gone, if there is a lesson to be learnt, sometimes it's better not to bother worry about these things as they turn around when you least expect it.

Popstess

zenshi wrote: »

LOL I've not got one yet! I'm just finished paying my roof repair and last week my fridge went kaput , so paying daughter back for buying me new fridge. I would like to have an emergency fund of £1k. Wether that takes me two months or twelve, I don't know!!

I am very fortunate to have a sister that owns a garage, so can pay for any car stuff when I have spare money and both my kids will pay for emergencys that may crop up. They know I will pay them back as a priority

Me either £1,000 would be ideal but I can't Justify saving any money at the moment as all my spare cash is going to go towards paying off my debts and as Martin Lewis always says if you have any savings use them to pay off debt. Eventually I will have savings though when I've sorted myself out!

Popstess

Deleted%20User wrote: »

A tenner currently - I am losing my landlord soon so it will change, cutting bills never worked in a year that got progressively worse, (I can't understand the work location why it is so poorly paid, it isn't like it's a provi area but it might as well be)
Can't believe when the door shuts that's it everything I've strived or struggled for gone, if there is a lesson to be learnt, sometimes it's better not to bother worry about these things as they turn around when you least expect it.

I'm sorry to hear things are tough for you right now, I hope things turn around soon.

zenshi

Popstess wrote: »

Me either £1,000 would be ideal but I can't Justify saving any money at the moment as all my spare cash is going to go towards paying off my debts and as Martin Lewis always says if you have any savings use them to pay off debt. Eventually I will have savings though when I've sorted myself out!

I know what you mean but as long as the debts are not going up, then keep some back for EF. If something does blow up, how will you deal with it? Borrow? Bung on CC?

Some of my CC debts are just short of 7K each but currently they only get a fiver a month. They're happy right now, so I will build EF
If they start charging interest or get huffy, then will have to re think