My SOA

enthusiasticsaver

As you say the soa looks ok because you are not having to pay childcare at the moment. Is your salary correct though as presumably it is reduced due to you being on maternity leave?

You need to get in the habit of putting money aside every month for things like christmas, holidays, car maintenance and most importantly emergency fund. Yes there is no point in saving if you have debt but if you do not have any emergency savings then should a problem occur with your house or car then you are tempted to resort to a credit card which you absolutely must not do. Ideally you would cut the things up and not use them again until they are clear.

The window cleaner is expensive. Can you have them cleaned every other month? I pay £12 for a 4 bed detached house with massive conservatory. We have them done every 6-8 weeks. The car maintenance looks a little low for two cars unless they are quite new. Personally I would redirect the childrens savings to the credit cards. Also if you are on maternity leave £80 fuel per month looks high.

Grazeley

Thank you. I am currently on full pay and have some saved to tied us over when I drop to SMP. So this will change a little but is a long term plan.

I agree about putting the money aside and think I now have all potential categories covered off and money set aside in them,
Although no general savings, I have accounted £50 for emergency fund per mth.

Yes window cleaner I can change frequency, will add to my list of expenditures to review.
Cars are newish. Fuel for me is overestimated to ensure I dont go short.

I am bit loathe to cut any savings for the kids as it's not their fault I've got myself into this state and feel like saving a little will give to them. Although we do use their savings if they need any big ish purchases. :-/

Grazeley

Spoke to hubby last night, we arent putting the £20 away for each of the children.
Going to aim to keep afloat for the next 3 years whilst have childcare to pay, and slowly chip away at the cc, and using a proper budget will prevent further cc spending.
Then once we have no childcare costs we can overpay the secured loan and have calculated it will take just over 3 years to pay this off - so debt free by October 2023!

MrsLWW

Fabulous!! :T:T:T

Whilst debt repayment IS priority, you should try and put aside an emergency fund (put it in a separate bank account or have the cold hard cash stored safely in the house (an actual safe if possible)). Whilst it is very exciting to have the old XL document sitting there and see those numbers dropping, an emergency (new boiler/car break down or similar) can scupper all of that and leave you reaching for finance.

If I was you, I'd take £500 of your surplus for the next 2 months and put it aside. By all means, use the extra £200 towards debt (I personally go for the smallest debt and then snowball because a. it's a psychological boost and b. it allows your first snowball - but the right and logical thing to do is attack the debt with the highest interest).

Don't discredit getting rid of those small extra's such as Virgin (we're planning to drop down to BB only and get rid of TV and landline - we mainly watch freeview (or council telly as it's called round our way :rotfl: ) and Netflix. We have a recordable box which will be going in it's place as soon as our contract is up (roll on September).

Don't sniff at the £20/month gym membership that's £240 + saved interest off your debt in a year.

One other thing I noticed is your window cleaner £20 a month :eek: I'm assuming that's every fortnight - next time the window cleaner is at the door ask for him to drop to every 4 or 6 weeks (we're every 8 weeks and honestly, there's not too bad a difference) that's a potential saving of £120/180 a year (+ saved interest). :money:

Overall well done, you're doing great :beer::j:T

MrsLWW

Oooops, missed the second page

ViolaLass

Why do you need the window cleaner at all? Aren't there things you'd rather spend that money on (including your debts)?

[Deleted User]

MrsLWW wrote: »

If I was you, I'd take £500 of your surplus for the next 2 months and put it aside.

Given the OP is a home owner, I'd say £1,000 is the absolute minimum they should as an Emergency Fund.

A couple of grand would be more sensible.

MrsLWW

I agree but a thousand to start plus £50 a month as the OP has budgeted for isn't a bad start.