The Spreadsheet Diva's MF Diary

SueP19

lulabelle1 wrote: »

I hope you don't mind, but I took a look at your SOA and have some comments/questions - please feel free to tell me to mind my own business if you like, lol but here goes.......

* £390 on cigarettes - apart from the health implications, that's £4,680 per year. Assuming basic rate tax, you need to earn nearly £6,000 per year just to pay for your cigarettes.

* In contrast, you only save £30 per month for holidays and

*£0 per month for entertainment

So, you seem to be going without any nice holidays and not going out for the odd drink or nice meal, but spending a small fortune on cigarettes. Sorry, I won't go on anymore!!

* I also note that you have a dog (high sided bowl and dog coat) but no pet insurance. How do you fund annual injections? And, what if the dog is poorly? Just a thought, but what about opening a separate savings account to self insure the dog - perhaps put in £25 per month and this can then cover injection costs and also stat to mount up just incase you need it for any vet emergencies?

* do you not have any contents insurance?

* and no life insurance? (Maybe not necessary now that your daughter is an adult, but if something happened to your partner could you pay the mortgage and afford to live?)

*subscription of £44 per month? Do you need this? It's more than you spend on a holiday?

* £35 on lottery?????!!!!!!!

I think you could make some massive savings in some areas but also increase the spends in others such as holidays, entertainment - without these things life can be very dull and I think it's important to get a nice balance otherwise you will resent the savings and overpayments.

I've subscribed to your diary and I really wish you the very best in achieving your goals

No I don't mind

Cigs OH gave up and money is placed in tin every week for a new caravan, we have £1,250 to date.
Holidays we use a caravan last holiday cost £270
Entertainment whats that?
Dog insurance, been sh*fted by insurance companies before but we should put a sum aside, we have not had him long and previous GSD cost us £2,500
Subscriptions covers phone insurance, charity donations, magazine and NT
Lottery that is one line per euro and national per week

Up until this point I have never had any spare so am keen to make sure I don't fritter this excess away

lulabelle1

SueP19 wrote: »

No I don't mind

Cigs OH gave up and money is placed in tin every week for a new caravan, we have £1,250 to date.
Holidays we use a caravan last holiday cost £270
Entertainment whats that?
Dog insurance, been sh*fted by insurance companies before but we should put a sum aside, we have not had him long and previous GSD cost us £2,500
Subscriptions covers phone insurance, charity donations, magazine and NT
Lottery that is one line per euro and national per week

Up until this point I have never had any spare so am keen to make sure I don't fritter this excess away

Congrats to OH or quitting the smoking, that's brilliant!!

I'm nervous of pet insurance, I think there's so many clauses you never know whether you will get paid - plus they increase the premium every year. For me, self insurance is the way forward - at least that way, if I never need it - I have a lump sum of money to console myself with when my pet passes away.... I just wish I'd done it from day one rather than when she was about 13!!

I also have similar worries about phone insurance - I'd rather put the money away in a savings account incase I never use it. There's so many clauses and excesses that I'm very sceptical.

As for magazines and lottery, we all have our vices

SueP19

Lol I got so fed up with paying full price for magazines and OH wanted one regularly so this way he only get one.
We had car warranty once, paid for 8 years and when we tred to claid they said car was too old. Waiting for all the MSE guru's to jump on that one as I want my premiums back

Karmacat

Hello Sue! Subscribing ...

so the ciggie money isn't spent on ciggies any more, but on your savings for a caravan, is that right? Thats good!

I notice you say your sky subscription has multi room - do you need that now, with only two of you? Especially with delayed recording and all of that!

I can see the lottery doesn't seem very much, one line on euro and national, but its still £35 per month! Even if you chose to spend it elsewhere on something that gave you pleasure, that would be something, but spending on a lottery .... nope, even premium bonds would be better. Sorry!

Its great that you're already realising you have spends that aren't allocated, so they're cutting in to the surplus that your budget says you should have - a spending diary, even if you only keep it for a month, will help you realise whats going on. I found it invaluable.

Your car spends sounded really big,but I can't see that post right now (cos I'm blathering, sorry!) but I love what you've done with the 0% debt - good for you :T

jeanangeo

Hi, just popping in to say a quick "hello" .

I agonised for days about how much EF to have. I have a small one and a few credit cards. I personally decided (this evening in fact) to whack as much at OP as possible because (I think) my mortgage costs me more per day than all my credit cards combined.

Time will tell if that was a smart decision or not but I thought about it enough that I am happy with the trade-offs I am making.

In the end, you would need a crystal ball to be sure you were doing the right thing. All you can do is weigh up the pros and cons and your own personal wishes and go from there. And if you really, really can't decide then any kind of split between both EF and OP is at least partially covering all bases.

Good luck with your decision . I've subscribed to your thread and wish you all the best and a lovely evening

jeanangeo

Hi @karmacat,

I just wanted to say that there is no way you "blather". I personally think it's great when people read the finances and point out where improvements may be possible.

@SueP19 congrats to OH on quitting and what a lovely way to use the spare cash .

lulabelle1

My DH has a magazine subscription too.... I never budget for it as it comes out once per quarter and is in the region of £10. I always hold a few hundred pounds back in the current account (after paying bills and doing the money shuffle etc) to cover for cash withdrawals,, school lunch & school bus money for DS1 and other bits and pieces that just seem to come along.....

A_Frayed_Knot

SueP19 wrote: »

Lol I got so fed up with paying full price for magazines and OH wanted one regularly so this way he only get one.
We had car warranty once, paid for 8 years and when we tred to claid they said car was too old. Waiting for all the MSE guru's to jump on that one as I want my premiums back

Magazines - good christmas/brithday pressie - oh heck, if you see spelling mistakes, sometimes my "i" & "k" keys dont work - will have to return this to shop soon.:(

And I would certainly want my money back if they haven't paid out.:money::mad:

A_Frayed_Knot

SueP19 wrote: »

Cigs OH gave up and "money is placed in a tin" ]:eek:for a new caravan, we have £1,250 to date.

A Tin:eek: - start with this - into isa/savings - anything that pays interest - now !!!:D

Karmacat

jeanangeo - thanks! You're right about being prepared to look at people's budgets, the detail is crucial.

Sue - I looked at your SOA again, you're spending £280 a month on petrol/diesel - that might be just a long commute, or ferrying DD around or something, but journeys need to be thought out carefully, even though petrol prices are dipping. Driving shortest routes between a variety of places, even a bit of attention paid to acceleration and braking (Martin wrote some great articles on that a while ago, in the blog).

And I have more just for reference, its not a call to immediate action :kisses3:

SueP19 wrote: »

Gas is LPG :mad: disgusting price but timed to go on off earlier than should etc.
Electric always been high never sure why

Both of these bear further investigation, Sue - are *all* your timer settings appropriate? Have you been using more heating when DD was home?

Mobile my tarriff is cheap DH wanted a fancy phone, year to go on contract

Is your DH on board with attacking the finances? You've got a year to work on him

Satellite, yeah tough one, have cancelled sport and movie but we do have a multiroom on it

I already mentioned this :money:

Groceries :eek::eek::eek: yep that is current figure with DH and DD eating different things so hoping that will drop from next week but wasn't sure by how much.

Even for three adults, this is really high, sorry Sue. For two adults, you could eventually halve it and still be eating well - I appreciate that takes time and a lot of learning how to get the best out of your shopping and cooking.

So you have in excess of over £1300 - which has the highest interest rate loan(s)/debt you have ?? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: should be a chair by this smiley as I fell off one when I saw how much we had left

Highest interest rate is mortgage as others are 0%

I love the SOA but hate it too because I just look at it and my shame is the size of Mount Vesuvius

This is a great conversation :rotfl: please don't be ashamed of the SOA - look what you did with the debts, 0%, thats brilliant. You just need to pay attention to the rest of it in the same way, you'll do brilliantly.