Budget overhaul advice

getmore4less

Fibre broadband (no landline), spotify, nowTV, netflix and audible. That makes up our costs and we both use all of them a lot. Apart from the broadband, I don't think there's any way to lower those costs, so I'm all ears if there is.

Never pay full price for NowTV keep an eye out for vouchers even if it means buying a box.
£20 for 6 months(£3.34pm) entertainment or 4 months(£5pm) movies is about right.

There are the offers if you cancel before renewal if you say it costs too much they often offer a couple of months 1/2 price.

Not sure about the others don't use them, worth a bit of research for reduce price services.

We also find we watch less in the summer so drop the Movies for a while and have a gap in the entertainment and stick to the free TV.

getmore4less

The place this is an issue is with the mortgage. We will be remortgaging in about a year and if the rates have gone up then we have the option to a) afford the increase because we'll have less debt by then anyway or b) extend the years remaining on the mortgage as we're on track to be mortgage free by 51 at the moment

Mortgage free is part of retirement planning, getting it out the way relatively early gives a more options as you get older like reduce hours.

If you increase borrowing(eg. move/extend) I would push the end date out no further than 55.

getmore4less

megwump wrote: »

Logically, you're quite right, but emotionally I just can't do it. If it meant a significant difference in how quickly we'd pay off our debt then I would, but it will only make about two months worth of difference, maybe even one if we have a really strict month on 'extras'. I feel really nervous when I don't have money I can draw on in an emergency which isn't credit.

You have already borrowed the money on credit.

all you have done is draw it of credit to stick in an account to give the impression you have a small emergency fund.

it will make no difference to the debt free date if you leave it where it is or pay off one of the debt.

What will make a difference is if you need to spend it on something not on the budget, using the cash or a bit of credit you just paid off is the same thing.


Where the money is(not earned yet, cash, credit limit on a card) make no difference to the plan, what you spend does.

getmore4less

Originally Posted by megwump
that would be part of the £800 each we get allocated. For now, I'm not looking at reviewing our personal expenses,

getmore4less wrote: »

£13k mortgage,council tax & bills
£19k personal spend.
£5k food ( you have £4,200 but say you overspend over budget/plan if not sure)...
£1k in home entertainment/internet.
£5500 debts

That's £43500k sorted only another £12900 to allocate.

Your issue will be that is where the review is needed, your personal allowances are the biggest chuck of your income by a long way.

£365 a week is going somewhere.

Some of that may actually be joint expenses if it includes things like going out together.

megwump

getmore4less wrote: »

Your issue will be that is where the review is needed, your personal allowances are the biggest chuck of your income by a long way.

£365 a week is going somewhere.

Some of that may actually be joint expenses if it includes things like going out together.

That may be true (size of the outgoing), but it doesn't make it a priority - we need to work on our joint approach before we consider whether or not we need/want to reduce our personal monthly allowance. I've no doubt we can afford to reduce it, but a new approach to our joint account needs to bed in and then encourage the habits to develop in other areas.

FWIW, I've set my personal account up in YNAB too and will, for the next couple of months, just use it to track what I do, rather than try to change what I do with it. Things like birthday presents, tickets for events, mobile phone comes out of that account i.e. anything that doesn't relate to 'us' only to me.

megwump

Well! 11 weeks on with YNAB and it's going BRILLIANTLY well.

We know exactly when our debts will be paid off and have set goals to help track against it.
My husband likes to know that we're ok but doesn't like the tracking (whereas I love it), so this gives us a really simple place to look together for an overview.

So far, 85% of all our spend has gone on our 'immediate obligations' categories incl debt payments, mortgage, right through to our Audible subscription.
Just under 10% has gone on food/eating out.
3.2% on car expenditure which covers annual tax and saving for next years tax payment

A measly £88 has gone on stuff we didn't plan for (but it was in a budgeted 'buffer' category).

I'm budgeting to 0 and reorganising it every few weeks in line with any changes we need to make.

I've also set up a second budget which is for my own account and debt payments - I'm already nearly saved up for Christmas!

I switched us to a Nationwide current account too and I'm so glad. It's already earning more for us than our Santander one did, so thanks for that advice.