Treading water and never getting anywhere!

strummergirl

Hi I'd be really grateful for any outside perspective on our situation. I have a good job, earn 35k and my DH has his own company and draws about the same in salary. We have an ok lifestyle, dont want for anything in particular and have been saving for the last few years to buy a house. We had about 8k saved and then I found out that DH had used his CCs to subsidise the company during a rough patch and now owes 14k. I had no idea and I feel really angry with him though I know he did it for the right reasons. So now we have no prospects of buying a property and the landlord has just announced he is selling the house next year so we need to look to move. This was after we had to buy a new sofa and had just booked a small holiday thinking we were in an ok position I can post our SOA from my perspective but I can never pin DH down to give me his figures as he says its all variable. The whole situation is very frustrating!! Thank you for reading. Does anyone else feel like theyre going nowhere fast?

Muttipops

Yes, but that is a massive income to be going nowhere on.
Could you at least give an SOA with estimated figures as to his income as you can at least give the outgoings and we can see what they are like.
A bit more background as to situation would help the forum to give more help.

National_Debtline

Hi Strummergirl,


A SOA would be helpful but if he is struggling to create this he could try using the Business Debtline budget or get some help from his accountant (depending on whether he take dividends or not). If the minimum payments are affordable then the savings shouldn't need to be used for the debts. Plus, you may be able to look at 0% balance transfers on the cards and if you can overpay the minimum payments you will deal with the debts even quicker.


You could use some of the savings to pay towards the cards as well but you may want to get some independent financial advice about whether that is necessary with your other goals of owning a home.


Laura
@natdebtline

strummergirl

Thank you for the replies! I'm struggling to find the SOA template if someone could point me in the right direction? All debts are interest free for 24 months so it's not extremely urgent and payments are extremely manageable. I guess I'm just looking for the motivation to get moving on it! We're not particularly extravagant but DS does do a few clubs that I don't want to cut down on. I guess the full SOA will show more of the picture. If I can find it I will fill it in when the kids are in bed tonight. Thanks again

thriftylass

Hello,

here it is http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php. At the bottom you can press MSE and link it to here I think.

I'm subscribing as it would be interesting to see your SOA. I earn about 30k and DH 35k (two kids in nursery and a mortgage of 110k) and we too seem to be getting nowhere. But I am fed up of people thinking we should be loaded (like the response the families recently on the BBC news report about the squeezed middle classes). I don't consider myself middle class but working class (not that this matters) but we don't go on fancy holidays, have matching M&S crockery of a fancy car. So I can relate

Catch you later

user1168934

Ok so here is what I have read so far.

35K annual means around £2240 net a month (used an online salary calculator). Combined with your husband's that's 2240 x 2 = £4480 a month.
You saved for a few years (your words) and had £8000. Lets assume you saved for 3 years i.e. 36 months
8000 / 36 = £222.22 a month

So each month you spend £4480 - £222 = £4258

I don't know about your outgoings, children, other debt etc but to me it seems nowhere near an "ok lifestyle".

IMO you should be saving at least 6 times what you are saving now especially if you are serious about buying a property in the current market. You will still have approx £3000 each month which for an average family is more than enough to live comfortably.

I think an SOA would be useful.

strummergirl

Monthly Income Details[/b]
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,021.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 137.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.08
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51.00
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.50
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.00
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.50
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700.00
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
income protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.00
Life insurance x 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.67
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181.00
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.00

Debt Repayments

Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Savings & Investments

Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Family

Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Swimming/gym classes for DS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.17
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Complementary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.50
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.50
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Education & Courses

University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One-Offs

Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.50
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67

Odds & Sods

Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,158.00


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,302.25


[/font]

strummergirl

Sorry I used the budget brain one I already completed and some of the numbers didn't "take" and others are annual which have been split into a monthly breakdown e.g. car tax. I am currently on maternity leave and only picking up SMP so this is all based on when I go back to work in December and start picking up my normal wage. Any questions please ask

strummergirl

Also to add, we will be saving £400 a month in a Help 2 buy ISA, as I'm not earning much atm we are just transferring from a lower rate of interest ISA and while I've been off our savings have dwindled to about 6k. Hubby has 5700 and 6900 CC debt and I have 3000 CC debt. The payments shown above are the minimum payments but DH is overpaying as much as he can and has paid down 1k in the last few months

strummergirl

user1168934 wrote: »

Ok so here is what I have read so far.

35K annual means around £2240 net a month (used an online salary calculator). Combined with your husband's that's 2240 x 2 = £4480 a month.
You saved for a few years (your words) and had £8000. Lets assume you saved for 3 years i.e. 36 months
8000 / 36 = £222.22 a month

So each month you spend £4480 - £222 = £4258

I don't know about your outgoings, children, other debt etc but to me it seems nowhere near an "ok lifestyle".

IMO you should be saving at least 6 times what you are saving now especially if you are serious about buying a property in the current market. You will still have approx £3000 each month which for an average family is more than enough to live comfortably.

I think an SOA would be useful.

Thank you! I actually only pick up 2021 after matching my employer's pension contribution and I have deductions made for my car parking. I have estimate DH picks up about 2k. Also my student loan is £135 pm

thriftylass

strummergirl wrote: »

Monthly Income Details[/b]
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,021.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 137.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.08
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51.00 add this to phones and TV and it is nearly 200 for phone tv and internet
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.50
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175.00 Seems high to me as it's not even winter yet
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.00 do you have a meter
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.50
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700.00
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
income protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.00
Life insurance x 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175.00 is this really your monthly spend for a family of three, seems low unless you are super frugal
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.67
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181.00 i guess this is annual
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.00

Debt Repayments

Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Savings & Investments

Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Family

Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Swimming/gym classes for DS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117.00 gosh, really
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.17
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Complementary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.50
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.50
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Education & Courses

University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One-Offs

Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 nothing here, friend's presents etc?
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.50
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67

Odds & Sods

Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,158.00


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,302.25


[/font]

Just a few notes just now, but I can easily see where the money is going without being frivolous. You may have a higher TV package than most but don't seem to go out much. Maybe try and keep a spending diary for a month (guess your DH as best as you can) and adjust the SOA.

Good luck