Review my budget?

binky21

Hi all,

I'm looking for some 3rd party feedback on my current budget. My partner and I have recently purchased a house and we're getting married in the summer, so we're trying to re-build our savings as quickly as possible. We split the majority of our bills in half, but I do take on a few in full.

Monthly Income:

£2,105.00

Expenses

House:

Mortgage (Half): £432.81
Service Charge Monthly Contributions (Half): £35.00
Water (Half): £17.50
Electric & Gas (Half): £40.00
Building & Content Insurance (Full): £14.80
Council Tax (Half): £66.00
Internet/Sky (Half): £22.50
TV License (Full): £29.10 [will reduce in a few months]

Personal:

Train (London Commuter): £382.00
Weekly Food Shops: £160.00
Phone: £51.00
Spotify: £10.00
Netflix: £7.00
Car Insurance: £28.78
Car Tax: £15.75
Life Insurance: £22.00
Gym: £39.00
Server Hosting: £7.00
National Trust : £2.50
Petrol: £25.00

Savings:

Emergency fund: £50.00
Savings: £500.00

Remaining (Social Money):

£137.26

--

Thanks!

CLAPTON

binky21 wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm looking for some 3rd party feedback on my current budget. My partner and I have recently purchased a house and we're getting married in the summer, so we're trying to re-build our savings as quickly as possible. We split the majority of our bills in half, but I do take on a few in full.

Monthly Income:

£2,105.00

Expenses

House:

Mortgage (Half): £432.81
Service Charge Monthly Contributions (Half): £35.00
Water (Half): £17.50
Electric & Gas (Half): £40.00
Building & Content Insurance (Full): £14.80
Council Tax (Half): £66.00
Internet/Sky (Half): £22.50
TV License (Full): £29.10 [will reduce in a few months]

Personal:

Train (London Commuter): £382.00
Weekly Food Shops: £160.00
Phone: £51.00
Spotify: £10.00
Netflix: £7.00
Car Insurance: £28.78
Car Tax: £15.75
Life Insurance: £22.00
Gym: £39.00
Server Hosting: £7.00
National Trust : £2.50
Petrol: £25.00

Savings:

Emergency fund: £50.00
Savings: £500.00

Remaining (Social Money):

£137.26

--

Thanks!

its a little confusing to quote 'food' as weekly whereas everything else is monthly

however there seem to be a few things left out

do you spend anything on
-fuel
-MOT , provision for some maintenance, breakdown cover
-lunches/coffees/ newspapers etc
-haircuts
-christmas and birthday presents (put a monthly equivalent)
-any holidays planned?
-clothes

Although you are not in debt, the debtfreewannabe board has a good format for budgets (which include all the yearly or irregular costs) and a good crowd of people to make useful suggestions

getmore4less

Weekly Food Shops: £160.00


For 2 its high for 1 it is very high(think £200pm total for 2 as a starting low number)

Sky netflix and spotify, review you can't be watching everything.

NOWTV box £19 with 6month entetainment plenty of box sets to wade through. Get a movie pass(buy when cheap) watch a month have a month off.

Mobile expensive.

Don't do much driving do you both have cars, try with one for a while?

You realy need to be doing a Joint SOA as well as the individual ones to see the full picture.

Should be able to squeeze £50pm on regular stuff and £200 as a start on the food, £300 with some effort and £400 on a very good tight month.

getmore4less

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

try using that, format for MSE much clearer picture.

binky21

Thanks everyone; joint SOA below:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2105
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1374
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3479

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 865.6
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 70
Council tax............................. 132
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 40
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35
Telephone (land line)................... 17.5
Mobile phone............................ 71
TV Licence.............................. 29.1
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 25
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 320
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 31.5
Car Insurance........................... 60
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 14.8
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 44
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 26.5
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Gym..................................... 78
Train....................................382
Total monthly expenses.................. 2382


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 260000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 8000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 268000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 195000...(865.6)....3.98
Total secured & HP debts...... 195000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
HSBC...........................799.......0.........18.9
Barclay........................1585.03...0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........2384.03...0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,479
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,382
Available for debt repayments........... 1,097
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,097

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 268,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -195,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -2,384.03
Net Assets.............................. 70,615.97

Apologies for the weekly food budget confusion. As you can see, we're currently spending around £320 a month on food shops (roughly £80 per week) between two of us. We do drive two cars, but we've talked a lot about getting rid of one (I get dropped off and picked up from the station four days a week), but there is the odd occasion when we need the second one. To be honest, I could easily cycle to the train station, it's just laziness and convenience sake.

Dird

£45/month Sky is a joke, my sister will pay either £3/month or £10/month...switch and get a new customer deal and a freeview box
£51/month phone is a joke, I've got 1gb data and pay £6/month. Are you locked in some dodgy iPhone 6 24 month contract?
Spotify - why not just use YouTube? Many "lyrics" videos don't have adverts
Gym - is that the cheapest gym? Pure Gym is like £15-18/month in most areas

What activity is your website getting? I pay £21/year and then £20 for 2 year domain registration (but cashback available)

If you cut back on those above you could save an extra £120ish/month. I don't think I'm allowed to endorse anything in particular but there's ways around paying Netflix to watch the shows it contains.

Edit: Pay the HSBC debt ASAP

Is £70/month normal for a flat management fee? :f

Darksparkle

Did the train fares disappear or am I missing something?

To be honest a lot of your costs are similar to mines and OH. We have sky at £45 a month (that's tv phone and Internet). I was paying £39 with BT but sky offered better internet, channels and box sets.

I also have Netflix, currently 12 months free with new phone contract but I wouldn't give it up, I use it loads!

Only think I would suggest is the gym, we use xercise4less at £10 each per month.

Dird

Darksparkle wrote: »

To be honest a lot of your costs are similar to mines and OH. We have sky at £45 a month (that's tv phone and Internet).
I also have Netflix, currently 12 months free with new phone contract but I wouldn't give it up, I use it loads!
Only think I would suggest is the gym, we use xercise4less at £10 each per month.

I've watched Narcos and (sadly) GOT and yet I avoided the majority of that £55/month charge

Darksparkle

Had no interest in Narcos and love GOT but I watch far more than that. Don't grudge what I pay (other than landline because I dont use the house phone).

And I pay £45, not £55

binky21

Sorry about that, I thought things looked far too promising!

£45.00 per month is for Sky and Internet, very similar to @Darksparkle.

I am indeed locked in a dodgy 24 month contract, which expires in September. I'm really annoyed about it to be honest, as I used to own my phone outright and spend around £10 on a sim, but unfortunately my phone broke. Lesson learnt, I won't be doing it again.

Spotify is mainly for my commute (I spend around two hours on trains everyday, so I need something to block out the noise!), but I probably could get rid of it to be honest and rely on music I've purchased in the past.

I'm going to get rid of Netflix as we rarely watch it, and we can now use Sky's boxsets instead so that's £7 per month saved.

Gyms are insanely expensive where I live unfortunately, although a 24 hour chain has opened up nearby recently, so I'm going to make sure I take a look at this.

Dird

Darksparkle wrote: »

but I watch far more than that.

So do I but after I get the cashback it works out £10/month :P I've just found a new show to watch too (Million Dollar Listing on sky living)