Sashybo - Back Again

sashybo

Thanks all, yes taking the kids anywhere seems to be very expensive and the costs just mount up. I know to take drinks and snacks but DS loves going into cafes and we don't take him very often which is why we went into the very expensive cafe. 😱 

DH is a spender and doesn't seem to see the problem "It's a treat, it's fine!" etc but he knows deep down it is a problem and that we can't keep living like this. We're going round in circles paying one thing off then having to take out another loan/CC balance or cash transfer etc to keep going.

You're right Moneywhizz, being in the overdraft is horrible, I hate it, it basically takes my whole wage. I have tried YNAB before but really struggled with it, it doesn't help that we are both paid 4 weekly and all our bills are monthly so there are always times when we're in the OD.

I've been looking at our outgoings again and we really should have a good £500 "spare" money every month. Obviously it's being frittered on takeaways and things we don't actually need which is scary. 😭 I think the problem is that DH just sticks it on the spending CC and doesn't think about what he is spending then pays it off in full when we get paid. However we're overspending so this takes us into the overdraft.

DH has agreed that we will try a £50 "allowance" each for now, once we're out of the overdraft we may be able to increase it. He has cancelled some direct debits that he doesn't use and we have agreed to stick to a budget for food every week and cut down the takeaways drastically. DH also spends a lot on lunches/dinners for work as he works long shifts so we'll need to work on that as well.

I have several savings accounts for kids stuff, house stuff, cars, birthdays & cats (as they are too expensive to insure now they're older) that we pay into every month and use for these purposes. I want to put money away for Christmas next year and also need to save for DS to have a birthday party next year. I'll have a think about doing a proper SOA too. 

We need to try and get the debt paid off asap, we're paying around £700 to that alone. 😭 

Bluegreen143

I’ve tried various ways of joint budgeting and I’ve found that the only way that works for us is separate allowances.

We get around 15-20% of our salaries as our own money each month, depending on what’s going on that month. 

I know that sounds a lot (it’s usually at least £400 for DH and £300 for me) but it has to pay for:
- clothes
- gym
- our phones
- alcohol (and vaping for Red)
- hobbies
- socialising
- books
- going on dates (one treats the other or we split it)
- general frittering eg buying lunch at work or cafe visits

So none of the above comes out of our joint budget which is 80-85% of our income and includes savings, bills, groceries, saving for family “wants” eg Christmas, holidays or doing stuff to the house. Kids’ clothes, pocket money & activities come from child benefit money which is ringfenced separately.

This all means I know where I stand when I make the family budget and Red’s random spending is way less likely to disrupt the budget as I’ve already generously accounted for his spending. If we spend less than we’ve been given - great! We often use this for funding something we want to do in the house. 

YNAB is perfect for variable pay - there are videos on YouTube and their website to teach you how to do lots of things including budgeting for variable pay without using an overdraft. Worth checking it out - even if you decide to use a spreadsheet not YNAB you could apply the same principles.

£700 a month to debt is a lot, if you can try the snowball method to get rid of even one monthly payment I’m sure everything would feel much easier. It’s tough trying to budget effectively on a £700 a month pay cut.

Sun_Addict

When Mr SA was working he got paid weekly but as he was a sub contractor in the building trade his wages fluctuated week to week. What worked for me was getting a month ahead with bills. It took a few months to achieve but was the best thing I did. 

sashybo

Thanks Bluegreen, that’s really helpful and sounds like a good idea on how to allocate the allowances. I think that would be a good way to do it once we have got rid of the overdraft and some of the other debts.

The monthly debt repayment is huge, our garage conversion loan will be paid off next September and we are trying to overpay the smaller car loan with any extra money. We can cut the term on this one & it has a higher interest rate so concentrating on that for now. 

I also overpay the CC’s slightly but not sure whether to keep doing that or pay it off the car loan first. 🤔

SA that sounds like a good idea, I think we really need to concentrate on getting rid of the overdraft & not overspending.

sashybo

The kids finished school & nursery yesterday for Christmas. They were both exhausted.

We took them to see Santa last night, it was at a small farm with a cafe and they had Santa’s grotto out in the stables. He was in with the baby alpacas. 🤣 

DD loved the alpacas and there were also miniature ponies. She wasn’t actually interested in Santa, just the animals. DS was good and had a chat with Santa and told him what DD would like too. 😊

DD was happy as she got a soft toy baby alpaca & DS got a book.

sashybo

Rough SOA, will split over a few posts.

Income - DH basic £2700
              - My basic £1100

Both paid 4 weekly so the pay date changes every month.

We are both paid overtime for Sundays worked which is over & above the basic pay. I’m usually rostered for one Sunday every 4 weeks, DH usually has two. Need to work out how much extra this adds to DH’s pay, it adds roughly £100 to mine after tax.

We also have the option to work overtime shifts, obviously childcare dependent though. 
     

sashybo

Monthly bills

Mortgage - £792.53 but we have rounded up to £825 to start a small overpayment.

Bank account fee -£13 this includes travel insurance, breakdown cover & mobile phone insurance 

Council Tax - £289
Energy DD - £222
Life insurance 1 - £13.89
Life insurance 2 - £16.67
House insurance - £18.23
Car insurance - £32.61
My phone -£6
DH’s phone - £14.40
My union fees - £9.04
Internet - £47.99
TV licence - £13.25
Window cleaners -£8
Fruit & Veg box - £39.98 
Milkman - £46
Bin cleaner - £12.50 (varies, £2.50 per bin and sometimes one bin out, sometimes two.

Allowances for DH & I - £100 (£50 each)

Food - budgeting £500 but need to add up the spends to see what we’ve actually been spending.

Toiletries/Vitamins - £50 
Cat food/litter - £50
Diesel - £100
Estate factor fees - £10 (£30 per quarter)

DS swimming lessons - £53 every 10 weeks.

sashybo

Pots - paid into monthly when paid

Kids expenses - £50
Cats - £30 (too expensive to insure due to age)
House (DIY/furnishings) - £40
Cars - £40
Birthdays - £40

I also want to set up another two pots: Christmas 2023 - £20 plus half of any survey money 
Birthday party for DS (whole class, likely soft play and won’t be a yearly thing) - £50 pm for 6 months. 

The car tax is £20 annually for my car and £165 for DH’s. I’m considering upping the car monthly amount to £60 to save for this as well.

I might start another pot for annual subscriptions like Am@zon prime - £10 pm.

sashybo

Debts

Car loan 1 - £152.21 pm
Current total £3955 & interest rate of 2.9%. Approx 2 years left on this loan but we have been overpaying recently.

Car loan 2 - £231.38 pm 
Current total £17,264 & interest rate 3.9%. 7 years left on this loan as just taken out for DH’s new car which needed to be ULEZ compliant in order for him to get to work.

Garage conversion loan - £155.84 pm
Current total £1402 and due to be paid off in September 2023. This is a Zopa loan so any overpayments lower the monthly payment and not the term of the loan.

CC1 - Min payment last month was £17.60 but have been paying £100 pm
Current total £1700 on 0% until June 2024.

CC2 - Min payment last month £75.38 but have been paying £100 pm
Current total £3300 on 0% until March 2024.

sashybo

If my sums are right we actually should have approx £250 “spare” money left over every month and that’s not counting the overtime Sunday pay. 😳 

We have been in the overdraft by around £1000 by the time we are paid every 4 weeks. So obviously we need to get rid of that too somehow. 😩