True cost of living- how do others manage?

Jackieboy

anna_1977 wrote: »

I understand why you bring everything home - yes storage may be cheap and your child can megabus BUT how they would need to hire a van to put in and take out of storage - prob at about £50 per go... and more than likely the van hire won't insure them if under 25.

I'd definitely megabus the other one home though

A a student is likely to be in halls or a shared house they aren't going to have furniture and need a van - a mini cab would be likely to be enough.

Jackieboy

lifebegins wrote: »

That's a fair point about repayment- no I suppose we weren't expecting them to repay it! Not sure how that would work- I'd be really interested to hear what other parents do- the in and outs of financing sons and daughters at uni is not something I've really discussed with other parents we know.
One child is not allowed to get a term time job (uni v strict) the other probably could but has a very heavy timetable (health-related degree).
They're not asking for more, and can manage, particularly with their Summer earnings, unless we reduce our payments of course. Both their courses are longer than 3 years (which is fairly common now I think0

Not really, quite unusual.

FBaby

Your question is 'how do other manage'? Well very much as you pointed out, but not having as many outgoings.

You look at it from the perspective of your income, but this is irrelevant when you outgoings are what they are. I expect you live in the South/East/London area, so your mortgage for your 'modest' house is high, and probably 1/3 if no more than someone living up North.

So take the reduction in mortgage payment, and then the fact that most Uni students will get the full loan or close to it, you find that your disposable income is the same than another family whose income might be half.

In the end, you are affording two cars, a decent house, nice birthdays/Christmas presents, and a holiday a year, so really, pretty average.

The difference for you will be when your children will be done with Uni and your mortgage paid, then you'll finally be 'rich'!!

tallyhoh

We manage fairly well on £900 a month for 2 of us (not benefits) We have a small car & buy reduced food from supermarket, clothes from charity shops & we have an allotment, we even save a little.

The mortgage is paid off though. Fortunately I will be collecting my pension lump sum soon which will be put aside for emergencies.

theoretica

If you can fit all your kid's uni stuff into the small car then they can move it in a taxi to storage or a friend's place.

My parents put me on their insurance - and made that the bulk of my christmas present for each year they did so. Two birds with one stone - and emphasised it was a gift and not a right. Even cheaper if you investigate just adding them when they are around.

Wobblydeb

I thought I'd look at something aside from the money to children at university :-)

Your council tax and utility bills suggest a reasonably expensive house to buy / run. That would then make me think that you have a reasonable % equity as £189k mortgage isn't massive. So.... (if I'm right) 3.5% on your mortgage does not look a good deal.

Either the mortgage is a high % in equity - in which case your council tax and utility costs are WAY too high.

Or..... you could potentially do much better than the 3.5% in the current market.

[As a comparison, we've got £160k left on the mortgage on an old rate of 2.69% which could be beaten now. That's a £300k house which costs £160 / month council tax and £100 / month for gas and electricity]

LauraB89

Hi all -slightly different perspective here, I graduated not so long ago and there were HUGE variations in how much parents helped out with money at uni.

I got the minimum on everything and I got a part time job at the uni bar - my mum bought my food shopping every now and again, or occasionally gave me money for things like my car's MOT etc.

I have a student living with me currently as a flatmate - he has PLENTY of spare time, believe me.

Having a job helped me to make friends, and meant that I wasn't dependant on my parents.

If you were to cut this down to £200 a month each, you could be taking £350 off of your monthly outgoings, and they would need about 5 hours a week in a bar or a shop to make up the difference (no tax for students!). It was rare for people at my uni to not work at all.

Either way, it really sounds like you are headed in the right direction and whatever you decide to do, you will definitely get there.

I know for sure that I would not want my parents to have given me the money if it caused them any financial difficulty, and I am sure that your children would feel the same.

xx

anna_1977

Jackieboy wrote: »

A a student is likely to be in halls or a shared house they aren't going to have furniture and need a van - a mini cab would be likely to be enough.

Try telling my 2 girls that! there is no way their uni stuff would fit in one mini cab!:rotfl::rotfl:

enthusiasticsaver

I think you are finding it hard to manage due to uni costs, still a relatively high mortgage and debt repayments and maybe a less than tight hand on the finances. When our 2 girls were at uni (10 years ago before the horrendous hike in fees) we subsidised them as they could not get maximum loan but it was within our means so we prepared a budget, told them how much we could afford (above parental contribution set by SLC) and they worked for difference. They were lucky though in that my mum also gave them a lump sum so I appreciate not everyone gets that. We also geared our mortgage so it was repaid before the girls went to uni.

I think in your circumstances there needs to be a balance between what you want to give your children to help them through uni and what things will disappear to pay for it. Maybe only a short weekend break for the years they are at uni and they pay for their own holidays now. Ours preferred to go away with friends on hostel/camp/caravan or cheap package holidays anyway.

EssexHebridean

Comments on SOA in red...

lifebegins wrote: »

Finally managed to do the SOA:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3 3 childred, yes, but technically speaking only 1 in household most of the year...
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 4342 (OH and me combined)
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 82
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 4424

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 947
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 208 Is this paid over 12 months? If currently over 10, you may find switching it helps with budgeting
Electricity............................. 72 (cheapest deal) For 3 people and assuming that the gas is for your heating, this is HUGE! Go round the house room by room working out what is using power. If something can be turned off, turn it off. If you have a smart meter start using it to the best of its capabilities to track what is eating this much power. If you've got electric showers think about how much time is spent in them - they eat power, and thus money.
Gas..................................... 75 (cheapest deal) Turn the thermostat down a few degrees and present everyone with a jumper top wear. If the heating is on. there should be no bare arms and legs visible - if there are, the house is too warm! :rotfl: Pull the curtains in unoccupied rooms, and turn heating either off or right to the lowest setting in those rooms - leave doors open to make sure damp doesn't develop.
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 28
Telephone (land line)................... 0 (included in internet- includes all calls except premium/ mobiles)
Mobile phone............................ 30 (just left expensive contract- now 3 x SIM only) Well done! How old is child 3? Should they be paying their own mobile bill from weekend job earnings?
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 7.49
Internet Services....................... 32.49
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 (ambitious- usually much more than this) Yes, it shouldn't be ANY more than that other than when the two older children are home.
Clothing................................ 80 (guesstimate for this year- 1 child still growing!)
Petrol/diesel........................... 440 (both have longish commutes and smallish cars and 2 kids to ferry to / from distant unis every term) so hard to see how to reduce this) Read Martin's "driving frugally" guide.
Road tax................................ 260 EDIT- should be 21.67 monthly Do you actually pay it monthly? If not are you setting this amount aside each month? Even if you are paying monthly, I'd suggest trying to stash enough to pay at least 1 car upfront next time it's due as there's a premium paid for monthly payments on this
Car Insurance........................... 71 (highish as includes kids) There have been suggestions already on reducing this
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 140 (ambitious- has been more than this in past) We budget £75 per car per month but that includes tax & insurance...I'd say of our annual budget around £600 per car goes to depreciative items like tyres, wiper blades etc, servicing and repairs, and MoT. With that in mind, your budgeted figure SHOULD be OK. Again though - do you actually set this amount aside each month? If not - make sure you start!
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 15
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 750 (uni costs x 2)
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 30
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 35 (includes food)
Buildings insurance..................... 37
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 45
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 125 (approx. £100 per birthday and £200 at Xmas per child) This really is too high, especially in light of the fact that you'/re funding £4,500 each for 2 of the kids for uni. The two older ones need to understand that they are adults not, and so there is a differing budget for presents - the younger one should probably also see a reduction, quite honestly.
Haircuts................................ 50 (for 3 -4 of us) This is a LOT of money on haircuts!
Entertainment........................... 70
Holiday................................. 150 (modest hol for for 5 of us- much less than in past!)
Emergency fund.......................... 80 (old house- things always needing repair) Are you actually setting this amount aside every month?
Child's hobby........................... 52
Total monthly expenses.................. 4142.1



Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 189000...(947)......3.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 189000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit card 1..................5500......55........0
Credit card 2..................7600......89.41.....0
Credit card 3..................3250......32.5......0
Total unsecured debts..........16350.....176.91....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,424
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 4,142.1
Available for debt repayments........... 281.9
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 176.91
Amount left after debt repayments....... 104.99 EDIT

***should be 343.32 due to car tax mistake*** - sounds a lot better in theory, but still 0 in reality so need to find where it's gone

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

But it really doesn't seem as though we have anything left each month at the moment so keeping a track of every pound this month to see where the "surplus" goes.

Spending diaries will help you track down the surplus. Maybe think about you & OH each having a small personal budget to cover things like haircuts, toiletries and that sort of thing?

Not sure of the age of your youngest child who's at home - but if old enough to have a part time weekend/evening job then they need to be funding anything above a basic cut themselves. If they're not of an age to be earning, then I'd suggest they're also not of an age to be needing anything more high maintenance than a basic hairstyle, either!

Personally I think that for kids at Uni to have a part time job is absolutely brilliant - it encourages them to learn time-management skills as well as budgeting for money they've earned themselves. It also encourages them to learn the value of money - when they've put in an 8 hour shift on their feet serving in a bar, they start top realise how long YOU must have worked to give them the amount that you do! enabling that transition from the world of education to the world of work is a great thing - and lets face it - you can REALLY tell the difference to youngsters in the workplace if they've had some work experience prior to starting full time employment! :rotfl: