advice

teacup_2

Hi I have taken a good look through our finances and want to post everything. I have already taken a few tips of money saving expert ie getting my virgin broadband 2mb for £10.00 so fourth reducing from £18.00. Also really went mad on switching lights off etc electricity so much so that new direct debit is now £26.00

Here it is

Hubbys salary £1056.
My Salary £0.00
Benefits £226.00 (tax credits starting from september)
Child benefit £120.80


Council tax £119.00
n-power gas £26.00
N-power Elec £31.00
Mortgage £379.79
Laptop £15.00
Virgin broadband / tv £20.00
denplan teeth £11.00
phone bill / line rental £50.00 ( varies )

This all comes out of hubbys bank £651.79 in total / have not included food /petrol or any extras that may arise ie birthday pressies



Out of the child benefit (120.80) account comes

Southern water £28.48
Denplan teeth £11.00
M&S Life Insurance £15.00
Swinton car insurance £40.05 ( I beleive it includes buildings insurance)
TV LIcense £11.61

Total £106.14
This account is always overdrawn by about £150.00


tax credit will start from september of £226.00 paid in to a seperate account


laptop needs to be paid off by 6 months as otherwise high apr £458.00 in total

have £300.00 in wordly savings for emergencies


I want help and advice to be able to have a holiday fund / xmas / birthday /fund and be able to put some money away to save as it is nice to have a little bit of money should you need it for anything unexpected.
Sometimes we have students but have not got any at moment , they pay £100. a week. It just always seems like hubby is overdrawn by outgoings everymonth.
I am starting college in september so not working, but have children to see to as well. I have started a spending diary but keep forgetting to put things on it ( can see how much beer he drinks though):beer: , it is like we never get a holiday, I love how some people make this a priority . Please can you wise owls give me some pointers and suggestions for how much to pop away , or what you do. We should be able to live on this ? right. Tax credits have only just come , so it was worse without that, we were left with not alot after unexpected things come up. Do you pop money in bank for xmas / holiday fund?? or leave in jar??

many many thanksxxxxxxxxx:A

liz105

You should have £400 or so left over each month, and out of this comes car tax petrol servicing and food? It would be very handy if you could tell us how much you spend on each of these so we can see how much you have left over and whether or not there is anything to save towards a holiday.

Personally we havent had a holiday for so long I cant remember what we did last time! It was our honeymoon so probably came out of wedding savings.

I would set up a savings accounts cos if the cash is in front of you in a jar there is always the temptation to take some out.

Gemmzie

Hi teacup, welcome and well done for your first steps. Have commented on your SOA below

teacup wrote: »

Here it is

Hubbys salary £1056.
My Salary £0.00
Benefits £226.00 (tax credits starting from september)
Child benefit £120.80
Total = £1402.80

Council tax £119.00
n-power gas £26.00
N-power Elec £31.00
Mortgage £379.79
Laptop £15.00
Virgin broadband / tv £20.00
denplan teeth £11.00
phone bill / line rental £50.00 ( varies )

This all comes out of hubbys bank £651.79 in total / have not included food /petrol or any extras that may arise ie birthday pressies



Out of the child benefit (120.80) account comes

Southern water £28.48
Denplan teeth £11.00
M&S Life Insurance £15.00
Swinton car insurance £40.05 ( I beleive it includes buildings insurance)
TV LIcense £11.61

Total £106.14
This account is always overdrawn by about £150.00

Total outgoings = £757.93

Difference = £644.87

tax credit will start from september of £226.00 paid in to a seperate account Personally I would use the first months payment to clear the OD of the child benefit account, if you need to have it seperately then there's no reason for that account to be overdrawn.

laptop needs to be paid off by 6 months as otherwise high apr £458.00 in total This is £76.33 a month, it might be easier to think of it monthly, again, could the tax credit cover this as it's not something you've got used to relying on yet.

have £300.00 in wordly savings for emergencies Do you have this in a high rate ISA?


I want help and advice to be able to have a holiday fund / xmas / birthday /fund and be able to put some money away to save as it is nice to have a little bit of money should you need it for anything unexpected.
Sometimes we have students but have not got any at moment , they pay £100. a week. It just always seems like hubby is overdrawn by outgoings everymonth.
I am starting college in september so not working, but have children to see to as well. I have started a spending diary but keep forgetting to put things on it ( can see how much beer he drinks though):beer: , it is like we never get a holiday, I love how some people make this a priority . Please can you wise owls give me some pointers and suggestions for how much to pop away , or what you do. We should be able to live on this ? right. Tax credits have only just come , so it was worse without that, we were left with not alot after unexpected things come up. Do you pop money in bank for xmas / holiday fund?? or leave in jar??

many many thanksxxxxxxxxx:A

You have plenty of income to cover everything if you break it down. Do you have a car? How much is tax / petrol / repairs / MOTs a year then divide it by 12 months?
You have two children? Try a rough food budget and see how you go.

I always think savings accounts are the best way to keep money if you are disciplined enough not to empty them, otherwise try a terrimundi savings pot.

A spending diary is definitely a good idea. But another suggestion is to have all the bills coming out of one account and have the second account just for disposable income so you and your partner don't end up overspending.


HTH Gem

Bagpuss1973

teacup wrote: »

Hi I have taken a good look through our finances and want to post everything. I have already taken a few tips of money saving expert ie getting my virgin broadband 2mb for £10.00 so fourth reducing from £18.00. Also really went mad on switching lights off etc electricity so much so that new direct debit is now £26.00

Here it is

Hubbys salary £1056.
My Salary £0.00
Benefits £226.00 (tax credits starting from september)
Child benefit £120.80


Council tax £119.00
n-power gas £26.00
N-power Elec £31.00
Mortgage £379.79
Laptop £15.00
Virgin broadband / tv £20.00
denplan teeth £11.00
phone bill / line rental £50.00 ( varies )

This all comes out of hubbys bank £651.79 in total / have not included food /petrol or any extras that may arise ie birthday pressies



Out of the child benefit (120.80) account comes

Southern water £28.48
Denplan teeth £11.00
M&S Life Insurance £15.00
Swinton car insurance £40.05 ( I beleive it includes buildings insurance)
TV LIcense £11.61

Total £106.14
This account is always overdrawn by about £150.00


tax credit will start from september of £226.00 paid in to a seperate account


laptop needs to be paid off by 6 months as otherwise high apr £458.00 in total

have £300.00 in wordly savings for emergencies

Did you mean to count the denplan of £11.00 twice?
Is the £50 phone bill really a month? Where do you 'phone? Should be able to cut that by loads as you don't appear to be working from home.

£404.21 Left in Hubby account
£14,66 Left in child benefit account

£76.33 each month for the laptop to pay it off in 6 months - where did you get £15 from or is this something different?

You need to allow for food, petrol, mot etc
What about childcare? Do you need to pay for that?

I would use the first couple of tax credit payments to pay off the overdraft and then the laptop giving you more disposable income for the future.

mae

Personally I have 3 accounts. This helps me keep in control alot.

Account 1 - Spending Account - wages go into this then x amount is transferred automatically to account 2 each month to cover all bills. Anything left over is what we have to live on and I know there will be no expected bills coming out throughout the month so I know exactly where I am.

Account 2 - Bill Account (I do not have a switch card for this account just a cheque book incase I need to apy a bill) I round this figure up that comes out of accoint 1 by £50 so that there always a little extra that is building up for car tax and services or other one off bills.

Account 3 - Savings Account - I transfer anything I think we can afford each month even if its only £10 but hopefully always more.

This takes a bit of time and hassle to organise changing all the DD etc but it is well worth the effort as you know the money is there in the bill account for all the direct debits and standing orders etc to just come out of all month without any hassle of checking if you have over spent or have left enough money in the account to cover it etc.

I have all 3 accounts with one bank and I have Internet Banking which I find essential to manage all accounts and its easy to set up standing orders etc and easy to transfer money out of Spending Account into Savings Account. Recently I have opened an ISA so when I get a decent amount in my saving account then I transfer it into my ISA via internet banking as it is tax free.

So seperate accounts, internet banking and and ISA make my life more simple.

And shopping online and using the codes of this site for Tesco has been invaluable to me, my shopping is much more organised (in terms of meals) and I spend much less as I have no temptations. So if you could do this and whatever you save in food each month automatically transfer it over to your savings account.

Also I have made £600 since May 06 from quidco just by buying insurances etc via their site so if you haven't already you should check this out as £600 is a chunk towards a holiday fund.

Also always think twice when buying things like magazines, snacks etc in shops that really adds up over a month. Me and my daughter use the library and she really looks forward to getting her new books (she only 4 bless)

None of us are perfect with money we all find our own way of managing it but I found that the inital hard work of setting up accoutns and organising DD etc was well worth the simple system I now have.
Good luck I hope you get a holiday, only you can decide what you can afford to put away each month and then maybe see how much you have in 12 months time and book the type of holiday according to what savings you have, could be a caravan, could be disney you never know, you can do anything you set your mind to.

teacup_2

Firstly can I say wow & thank you was very impressed with the speed of response and your kindness in answering my plee .
The denplan is one for hubby and one for me.

The phone bill is approx £50.00 , but it has been between £75 - £125 as my naughty children! were quite naughty and using it, I have had serious words with my daughter and made her contribute some from her pocket money from grandparents to this for a few weeks , and that is a month too. Phone calls to my family/ friends / hubbys work, virgin media

The £15.00 for the laptop is going to run for 48 months, if I dont pay it by the time the 6 months intrest free period is up. Which I well intend to ( monthly £15.00 will finish as soon as I pay it off within 6 months )but their is a £25.00 charge to pay it off earlier than stated on the agreement.

Food I would say approxiametely £45.00 a week

petrol about £20 a week

Mot will be here in november and car tax disc , have not budgeted for as would not know where to start budgeting really. Will have to ask hubby mot cost and tax disc cost as I dont know that

No childcare as thats all me and I save on bus fares as walk about 5 miles a day(hubby has use of car )getting kids from school

I will definately use tax credit to pay laptop off , money is in nationwide ISA not sure on rate for it though cant locate statemets for it

Luckily nothing has gone wrong with car at moment but it did get bashed when hubby was parking and he came up with the money so it didnt affect his no claims bonus

Hope this helps , greatly appreciated , it helps me greatly to be advised as I would not really know how to budget for the extras

The tax credit account is going to be my account as I am better with money than hubby and i will use it wisely to benefit us ie pay the laptop off , unexpected bits , save some . Hubby is always saying clear the child benefit overdraft as I arranged an overdraft facility of £300.00 which is a bit excessive for an income of £120. child benefit in it

many thanks

Hi mae
Thats a great method you use , I will definately try the internet food shop as I guess you dont have the same temptation and cant smell the yummy bread either!! I have completely stopped buying magazines now. I did buy the 3 for £1.00mag deals on here and remembered to cancel it when I should .My kids love the library too which is good, it is good your wee one loves it too !. I think I will apply myself to get a holiday otherwise it feels like it is just bills bills bills

many thanks

mae

Just to mention if you do shop with Tesco on line do you have a clubcard? There are codes on the discounts board for 1000 points on your shop which equates to £40 in deals and you can exchange the vouchers for holidays or days out etc. and at 1000 points per shop it soon adds up to a fair amount.

Also don't forget to look at Quidco that could be your spending money.

teacup_2

hi mae,
No I dont have a clubcard, looks like i will apply for one though as looks like a good incentive too.
Will take a look at quidco too have used it once , but always seem to forget about the little things
thanks

mae

If you go over to the freebies board there is a thread on how you can make money from quidco without spending, its worth spending a little time and seeing it as a little job for maybe the holiday spending money.

The codes for Tesco are on the Discount Codes and Vouchers Thread alot of people save the points and then exchange for clubcard vouchers and go to a Haven site for a holdiay. We have used them to pay us all in Alton Towers and then pay for a meal at Bella Italia on the way home so they day out cost only petrol and a few snacks. Just an example of something you can do with little outlay.

teacup_2

Thanks mae some great ideas their, am going to go and check out the quidco now , and have a little look. I hope to improve financially how i use money, in my past I have done lots of clothes shopping , for the sake of it,just out of habit, for things i dont need, especially when I could be putting it to better use for the family. Just working on hubby a bit too at the moment !:rotfl:

teacup_2

Hi Mae , just went and checked out quidco yesterday and today after checking quidco earnings I made £23.45 pence !!!!!!!!.
1. that was the whiskars kitten care pack £1.45
2. Kelkoo click
3. Hilarys blinds £20.00 , but the man is coming out next week to give me a quote ! , he rang an hour after I filled it in, will get a quote , hopefully i wont get hard sell. :rotfl:

thanks again