SOA after we move

ShakeItOff

You can salary sacrifice up to £243 to child care vouchers which might be helpful though you would need to check if your workplace's scheme covers your nursery or childcare provider.

Jon_B_2

If you are a 40% rate tax payer and it doesn't look like you are - the limit is £124. But seriously it is really worth it. My £124/month voucher only really costs me around £50 net.

National_Debtline

Hi chelseablue


The positive thing for me is that while your mortgage payment may have doubled, it's still < 20% of your household income. I haven't much to add to the expenditure suggestions already posted, but I would agree that it makes sense to overpay on the mortgage while the going is good.


Dennis
@natdebtline

cms-help

chelseablue wrote: »

Don't currently claim vouchers so will def look into that, thank you.


The £760 is just for 3 days a week at nursery; the other 2 days MIL has him on a Monday, my Mum has him on a Friday

WOW! Your childcare is expensive. Ours is around £750 a month full-time for an under 2 year old and it's one of the most expensive ones in our area.

Anyway, we both use the childcare voucher scheme. I buy £243 of vouchers every month and it costs me £174 so almost £70 of "free" money. My husband is only able to buy £124 of vouchers and it costs him £72 so another £50+ of "free" money. So you could save yourselves around £140 a month using the scheme.

FBaby

My advice is for you to keep record of what you are actually spending until the time you move and the expected extra cost that will come with the new house.

My experience is that the SOA tool only identifies the main every day costs, but leaves a lot out. When I did my SOA, I calculated that I should have about £1,000 left over, the reality was that I never had that amount, yet didn't feel I was spending recklessly. I kept a record of all I had spent for a period of 3 months and realised that a lot of my essentials were not covered in the SOA. It went from anything like a few £££ for sending packages abroad to family members to costs such as paying for a prescription googles for swimming, to household item repairs/replacements etc... All together, this added on average another £400 a month.

Your budget as it is is very tight, so I think the above will really help you ensuring you don't put yourself at risk of building debt slowly.

theoretica

I suggest that when you move you delay for a couple of months on signing up to any new ongoing costs until you see how things settle down - could you survive for a month with the cheapest broadband and no TV at all? Keep the old car just a little longer. Then when you see how your plans match reality you can upgrade.

Goldiegirl

theoretica wrote: »

I suggest that when you move you delay for a couple of months on signing up to any new ongoing costs until you see how things settle down - could you survive for a month with the cheapest broadband and no TV at all? Keep the old car just a little longer. Then when you see how your plans match reality you can upgrade.

Whilst I agree with the sentiments of taking things slowly for the first few months and seeing how things pan out before making any big changes, perhaps getting rid of the TV is a step too far? These are people with no debts and, even if their SOA isn't entirely accurate, it shows a monthly surplus of nearly £1000, so there is a lot of wiggle room there. This isn't a debt emergency - these are people with a decent joint income and a reasonably comfortable situation. They don't need to give up all their pleasures in these circumstances

alixia

Hello Chelseablue!
Your situation is very similar to ours. We earn less, but grandparents help with childcare, so in the end we end up on the same line.

Just your water is very high. We pay about £25ish.

We can't do child vouchers as we use childminder and our hours are not set for a year. We make changes quite often so it will not work with them.

anna_1977

Only just seen this thread, have you thought about looking at an electric car such as Nissan Leaf? If you have the ability to charge it at home I'd have thought it would be an ideal vehicle for your OH

chelseablue

alixia wrote: »

Hello Chelseablue!
Your situation is very similar to ours. We earn less, but grandparents help with childcare, so in the end we end up on the same line.

Just your water is very high. We pay about £25ish.

We can't do child vouchers as we use childminder and our hours are not set for a year. We make changes quite often so it will not work with them.

Hi! I have telephoned the water supplier of the new house and gave them the postcode and they advised water will be about £40 a month.


I wish ours could be £25