Treading water and never getting anywhere!

strummergirl

thriftylass wrote: »

Just a few note just now, but I can easily see where the money is going without being frivolous. Maybe try and keep a spending diary for a month (guess your DH as best as you can) and adjust the SOA.

Good luck

Cheers!! Yes the sky/entertainment is astronomical, DH insists on it as we don't go out, drink/smoke etc and he loves his sports etc. I would reduce this and so would he but him as a last resort.
Internet is essential for work and we need 2 in case 1 goes down.

Car insurance is monthly!! I have had my license 3 years and this is the absolute lowest we can insure both, using admiral's multicar policy :eek:

Birthdays, yes the figure didn't "take" I spend probably 20-30 a month on bargains through the year, same for xmas.

Food i am really tight with haha! We are vegetarian and save lots plus we also "prep" and so I have huge stores of staples and cleaning products etc so don't buy them regularly.

Gas/elec we owe ovo a few hundred quid so can't lower the payment for now. Water isn't a meter and we can't change as we rent. Hope that helps

thriftylass

strummergirl wrote: »

Cheers!! Yes the sky/entertainment is astronomical, DH insists on it as we don't go out, drink/smoke etc and he loves his sports etc. I would reduce this and so would he but him as a last resort.
Internet is essential for work and we need 2 in case 1 goes down. Does that mean one of you works from home? Do you need two cars then?

Car insurance is monthly!! I have had my license 3 years and this is the absolute lowest we can insure both, using admiral's multicar policy :eek:

Birthdays, yes the figure didn't "take" I spend probably 20-30 a month on bargains through the year, same for xmas.

Food i am really tight with haha! We are vegetarian and save lots plus we also "prep" and so I have huge stores of staples and cleaning products etc so don't buy them regularly.

Gas/elec we owe ovo a few hundred quid so can't lower the payment for now. Water isn't a meter and we can't change as we rent. Hope that helps

Well you seem to be quite in control of matters then and have thought about options to reduce. But as it is you should have 800-900 spare to save etc. which seems plenty. I would still keep a spending diary for a month or do you do this anyway as you know your number quite well?

Re the cars, not being over critical just curious as we only have one.

strummergirl

thriftylass wrote: »

Well you seem to be quite in control of matters then and have thought about options to reduce. But as it is you should have 800-900 spare to save etc. which seems plenty. I would still keep a spending diary for a month or do you do this anyway as you know your number quite well?

Re the cars, not being over critical just curious as we only have one.

Thank you! A spending diary sounds like a good idea, I just don't understand where the extra money is going really. But as I say atm I'm picking up about £600 a month so not a lot of leeway. I was just hoping for someone to give me a miracle answer I think haha. It feels like we just leak money in all directions! Two kids in nursery must be horrifically expensive for you!

The cars we both need for work and school/nursery pickups when I'm in work. We tried for a year with 1 and it made life very stressful. Again tho, I would go to 1 if needed. No finance etc on cars so it's only petrol and insurance

thriftylass

Luckily one went to school now but still cost nearly the same in after school club as he was in nursery minus 3yo funding (about 300). Little one is about the same (100-300 depending on month) now as we also pay childcare vouchers as a salary sacrifice (£249 each before tax). So still really nearly a grand. When I just went back to work after little one they were both at a private one for a few month before we got them into cheaper one (two year wait) and paid nearly 1.2k in nursery cost plus vouchers. But it does get easier. DD will turn 3 next year. I can totally understand why people don't go back to work that earn less. BTW one of our nursery nurses had to quit her job after her boy was born as she could not afford nursery.....

I am more vigilant again this month about writing down what I spend after also having a few months where I just didn't know what happened to my/our money, it was just gone. Try some of the other threads like https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5517424 they help me stay on track.

andyfromotley

Hi Strummer,

i agree with the observations above however could i add a couple?

if you want to acheive your dreams you need to get a bit ruthless!! That means taking EVERY single expense and hammering it down to the lowest possible or eliminating it all together. getting rid of sky alone will save you nearly £1400 per year. (I note your husbands sports mad like me, what would he rather have, sky sports or your own house?) Similarly birthdays, electricity, car insurance etc. Drive everything down to absolute minimum and then do not waste a penny of the money that you have squeezed out of this budget. Talking of which a rock solid budget which you ive by will be your absolute best friend in doing this. I can tell you exactly what i have spent on pretty much everything over the last 18 months since i started budgeting properly. I can tell you to the penny how much money i have, where every single penny of that is headed for and how i am going to pay for every forseeable expense that i have coming up. The budget is king in my house!!

Doing this is hard (and tedious) sometimes and isnt for everyone, but you will be amazed at the prgress that you can make if you really go for it.

Finally i kinda get the feeling that hubby isnt 100% on board with this? (apologies if i am wrong.) But in this case try sitting him down and explaining how important this is to make your dreams and hopes come true. Sell it to him. it wont be like this forever, childcare costs disappear over time and some short term pain can help you do wonderful things!

user1168934

From your SOA

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,158.00
Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,302.25

4158.00 - 3302.25 = 855.75 saving each month.
Are you really left this amount at the end of each month. This alone will be £10269 savings each year. Based on what you said earlier it does not add up, may be you have forgotten some expenses.

I would high recommend keeping a spending diary as others have suggested.

On a related note ....
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
please please please tell me how to achieve this :money:

MallyGirl

I think the spending diary is a must. You have admitted to eating out and coffees out but the numbers are quite low. £15 a month on coffee/sandwiches would just about buy 1 round of coffee and a couple of 'little somethings' in Starbucks. Is that all that it really is, once a month?
When my DD was young we went to town every Saturday to get out of the house - as she got older this often included lunch at Nandos as it was easy and she liked it. Even on soft drinks and a kids meal that was probably £100 pcm gone. !!!!!!! You have £20 per month - that is enough for 1 takeaway a month.
The Sky bill is a killer - have you tried threatening to cancel - people often get good deals to make them stay when they do this.
I work from home and have BT Infinity 2 - it has never 'gone down'. I think you are over catering here with 2 internet providers - unless you are running some form of transactional service at home. I have been a homeworker in IT for 12 years and the only time I had no internet and had to spend a day working in the local coffee shop was when we moved house and the BT installation slipped a day. Nowadays I would just use my phone as a hotspot for the day.
Is the newspaper figure high enough - that would get one weekend broadsheet delivered round here, or 2 if you collect, per month.
'Shopping for fun' - should pin this down really.

user1168934

andyfromotley wrote: »

Hi Strummer,

i agree with the observations above however could i add a couple?

if you want to acheive your dreams you need to get a bit ruthless!! That means taking EVERY single expense and hammering it down to the lowest possible or eliminating it all together. getting rid of sky alone will save you nearly £1400 per year. (I note your husbands sports mad like me, what would he rather have, sky sports or your own house?) Similarly birthdays, electricity, car insurance etc. Drive everything down to absolute minimum and then do not waste a penny of the money that you have squeezed out of this budget. Talking of which a rock solid budget which you ive by will be your absolute best friend in doing this. I can tell you exactly what i have spent on pretty much everything over the last 18 months since i started budgeting properly. I can tell you to the penny how much money i have, where every single penny of that is headed for and how i am going to pay for every forseeable expense that i have coming up. The budget is king in my house!!

Doing this is hard (and tedious) sometimes and isnt for everyone, but you will be amazed at the prgress that you can make if you really go for it.

Finally i kinda get the feeling that hubby isnt 100% on board with this? (apologies if i am wrong.) But in this case try sitting him down and explaining how important this is to make your dreams and hopes come true. Sell it to him. it wont be like this forever, childcare costs disappear over time and some short term pain can help you do wonderful things!

Very good advice this. Although over the years I have kinda lost my way .... slightly.... ... but when I was saving for my first house a couple of years back I was doing all of that. No eating out, basic phones, no sky contract, no new furniture, cheap small car and no holidays. Good luck.

Muttipops

Reading through all this, you seemed very switched on and organised as to how you manage your finances, so I would return to your husbands' business, as this seems to be the source of financial problems at the minute.
I would echo the idea to give business debtline a call if your DH will do it, becuase if it has happened once, it can happen again and you don't want to keep putting life on hold because of his cash flow problems.
I wish there was a magic answer!

anna_1977

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 this is massive, who are you with? Sky unlimited Fibre Optic is only £25 per month
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.50
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00 this should probably go...
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175.00expensive
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00no heating on Gas?
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.00
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135.00 ask if you can spread over 12 mths to reduce monthly outgoing
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 how many are in the house, for 2 adults & 1 child that seems low
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.67
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181.00really? how many cars do you have this is huge expense
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 again massive cost, sky all in pack is about £50 if you threaten to leave - I honestly didn't know it was possible to spend this on a TV package
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.00with your £175 per mth TV package do you really rent films too?
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]

Hi

Please see my comments above, sorry if they seems harsh. There must be errors with your SOA if you're not making headway, you should have approx £800 per month to throw at debts or save.
The TV/Internet is bonkers, I don't understand how you are spending this much. Your TV package is the same as your monthly food bill.
If you cut down on everything then you could easily save a deposit for a new place and pay the £14k off within the year