Treading water and never getting anywhere!

thriftylass

anna_1977 wrote: »

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

Most of these issues were already addressed in previous posts, for instance they do not go out, smoke or drink, so the TV package is their only "vice". The electricity is to pay of previous debt, she is a new driver etc etc. Also this is a hypothetical budget for when the OP goes back to work as she is now on maternity pay.

strummergirl

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!

Thank you I appreciate the encouragement! You are right on the husband front, he doesn't see any of this as urgent and is just happy to coast along forever I think. We've had a bit of a chat today though and I think he sees my point.

strummergirl

user1168934 wrote: »

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:

Spoken to Dh today and we will both be starting spending diaries!! This £10 a month is for a cheese toastie on a friday morning haha! Every other day I take leftovers for lunch

strummergirl

MallyGirl wrote: »

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.

The sky bill is as low as DH says he can get it but Im not an account holder so I can't check! He has to call :mad: he has said today he thinks he can get free sky fibre optic BB as he has sky sprts which would save £51 per month so he will call tomorrow and check out the logistics! We don't buy newspapers that expense is for a magazine subscription which works out at £2 per month.

You're definitely right about spending with the kids tho, I thnk this is where the spending diary will help. All summer I've been spending money on activities but this is my only summer holidays at home probably ever so we've made the most of it We have joined national trust now and been doing lots of no spend days out with a picnic

strummergirl

Muttipops wrote: »

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!

Cheers for this. I like to think I am haha. Everything is as I say completely manageable but I would like to start buckling down and getting a bit more focused!

strummergirl

anna_1977 wrote: »

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

Thank you! I haven't been picking up this wage for the last 8 months as per previous post and won't be until december so that's why it has stalled a bit.

Electric is gas and electric combined, with arrears as per pp.

My car insurance on my own would be above £120pm but we get it at this with admiral multi car as per pp - this is by the cheapest we can get it. I also have a huge supply of pantry food and cleaning products as per pp so food spend is low. We are also vegetarian and eat from scratch every night.

The broadband is with virgin but we may have a solution as per pp. The sky bill is huge but is our only entertainment. Neither of us drink or smoke or go out so we like to enjoy tv at home. The DVD rental expense is for an EE £1 wuaki movie rental twice a month- hardly breaking the bank!!

And the cleaner.....well I would rather go without food than cancel her if I had to :rotfl: for a family where both parents work full time in stressful jobs and we have two little ones, for the price of a takeaway each week (£15) we have a lady come in and help with the house. I think this has saved my marriage! Also means I get to spend time with my kids on the weekend - priceless! Obviously if we had to we would cancel this but I would sooner cut back other areas if possible or at least focus on actually keeping hold of the surplus we should have.

theoretica

Just a small one, but if you only pay £100 a year on car servicing they must be fairly new - and I suspect you could get cheaper breakdown cover that still does what you need. See http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/car-insurance/breakdown-cover

strummergirl

theoretica wrote: »

Just a small one, but if you only pay £100 a year on car servicing they must be fairly new - and I suspect you could get cheaper breakdown cover that still does what you need. See http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/car-insurance/breakdown-cover

Thanks - we have been servicing them on alternate years, Mine is 5 years old, DH's is 10 years old

user1168934

strummergirl wrote: »

Spoken to Dh today and we will both be starting spending diaries!! This £10 a month is for a cheese toastie on a friday morning haha! Every other day I take leftovers for lunch

You are on the right track, keep it up. :beer:

barbarawright

The Sky bill is insane. Even if it's your only entertainment you can get it much cheaper. Have a look at Now TV - the sports package is c£35 a month

http://www.nowtv.com/about