SOA - any advice greatly recieved

louby40

Thank you everyone for your advice. I have 2 teenage boys that EAT!!


My credit card is a balance transfer over to First Direct and my bank account will be with them too, the first £250 overdraft limit is free, whereas with Santander I was paying £17 a month + £5 a month fee and only getting about 47p back since they upped the monthly fee from £2 to £5 a month. That's £264 a year in charges!!!


I do cook everything from scratch where I can. I know I need to be stricter with myself. I work 3 miles away but have to carry books and stuff to and from work, plus I live in quite a rural area so public transport is rubbish here. My boys walk to and from school. I couldn't live without my car.




I'm determined to get my overdraft gone! I hate it. It's like a viscious circle each month.

gizmorat

SOA plus the changes you've made already looks pretty tight.

Couple of extra considerations (I'm scraping the barrel a bit):

Ditch terrestrial TV, just use Netflix ?
Cheaper union ? OH's teachers union subs are £7.00 a month.

However these little optimisations are a bit irrelevant when on the face of it you might already have ~ £660 pcm discretionary income. (Apologies if I've read your SOA wrong)

Biggest overspends should be a fairly obvious in your old bank statements, if you can still access them.

Are you spending out on teaching resources ?

Do you need to revise your budget ? A 50% overspend isn't a few treats. Be realistic, especially over the summer holidays.

Try using an "envelope budgeting" system such as Goodbudget (its free) . Set up envelopes as per your SOA, keep your receipts then spend a couple of minutes every evening entering the days spending into the app. Commit to doing it for at least 2 months, it'll work wonders on your awareness of spending.

I think you're in a really good position to not just clear your overdraft quickly but totally smash your debt.

Good luck with it.

enjoyyourshoes

Hi

might be worth considering:-

1. Reconcile you bank account daily with all spending. Takes 30 seconds a day

2. Produce cash flow for annual. 1/2 and 1/4 ly costs and accrue this amount each month into high interesting account. Take 30 minutes annually.

3. Review all contracts month before they are due to expire (MSE website great advice in article on this), diarise it and note down new deal in diary. Takes 30 minutes per month.

So its 30, 30 30 to know where you are financially which is the key as you can then see whats costing you and take steps to focus on your objective in life.

MoneyMission2015

louby40 wrote: »

It's £55 a month with First Utilty for both

Hi


Just picked up on this and wanted to just tell you to be careful with First Utility. I'm with them, switched in November 2014 and believe it or not my gas bill is still having issues.


I switched both in November 2014, provided my meter readings for gas & electric and had confirmation from First Utility that all was set up and effective from 8th December 2014. My DD was also £55 to begin with, which they started taking in January 2015. In April 2015 I had a letter from my previous supplier chasing me for money owed, I rang them confused and said that I haven't been with them since December 2014, to which they told me the gas account was never switched over and they are still my gas supplier.


I had lots of telephone calls between the two companies but eventually got it sorted, provided the gas reading and all sorted. Everything was fine, or so I thought. I recently went online because they had sent me an email to say that my DD was going up to £85 per month!! Bear in mind we have solar panels on our house and the house is usually empty during the day because we're in work/school etc. So I went online and provided up to date meter readings because I realised I hadn't provided a reading in a while for gas or electricity. The electric reading went through fine, but they said they couldn't accept my gas meter reading. So when I looked in to it, the reason they couldn't accept it is because the real meter reading that I took is substantially lower than what they have on their records. So I went back through all of my bills and it goes all the way back to the opening meter reading which is incorrect. The difference in meter readings equates to around £600. I know the correct reading was given because I gave it to my previous supplier and it's correct on their final bill. So yet again my account is in dispute with them, I've cancelled my DD at the moment and told them I'll continue to pay my regular monthly instalment but I won't be increasing the monthly payment until they sort out the mess.


I know I should have checked the readings sooner, I wish I had now! My fixed deal ends in October 2016 and I am definitely going to switch to another provider.

loupoppins

yes, it seems that the problem is that there is roughly £600 a month that is vanishing without trace! I agree you need to keep some sort of spending log, or better still sign up for a free trial of You Need a Budget which will really help you HONESTLY see where all your money is going and then be able to prioritise it and budget it more effectively.

louby40

I've just gone through my bank statements and highlighted all spending I don't really account for.


I have my nails done every 3//4 weeks at £25 a time
I walk to the shop for extra milk/bread and that can be £5-6 a week extra - more sometimes. £5 on a bottle of wine on a Friday
I do buy stuff for school, second hand books on Amazon and stuff on ebay - that can be £10 a month
Ive been paying for a school trip to Paris for my son £50 a month - thats now finished.


It's amazing how it can all add up whithout realising it.


I need to be stricter and look at the ideas you've all suggested. I earn a good amount and can live comfortably if I was a bit more savvy.

kazwookie

Well done for checking you account.

You NEED to account for the missing money and what it has been spent on, in theory you have enough, you need to tighten up.

Adjust you SOA as you find the missing money, so you get an acurate picture of where you are with it all, nails at £25 for 3/4 weeks, (£300 per year) can you go with out? or make them last every 6/7 weeks as an example

Good luck

loupoppins

with things like school trips I have realised there is always something, so it is more realistic for me to budget a certain amount each month and have it accumulate until needed. (this is more of an issue for me because I have 6 children!)
and maybe you need to set aside a certain amount each month for school stuff etc
extra top up shopping also turned out to be a big amount for us too!

louby40

I reckon my top up shop could be up to £50 a month on top of my £250. Is it stuff i need or just stuff that finds its way into my basket?


Which is better YNAB or Budgetplanner

Im just about to switch banks (on the 1st July) so I may be better waiting until that happens to make full use of the 34 day free trial? Does it use your actual bank account?


I do use Moneydashboard but that's not quite the same.

MoneyMission2015

I can't comment on Budgetplanner as I haven't used it, but I have been using YNAB for over a year now and love it. It's completely changed my finances, I am overpaying my debts and still able to put away some money for savings.