My boyfriends SOA - Help needed here

black-saturn

I'm typing this on behalf of my boyfriend. He never seems to have any money in the bank or in his pocket so I went through his SOA with him last night and can't think of anything he can cut down on.

Outgoings

Rent - £208.00
Council Tax - £71.00
Gas - £20.00
Electric - £20.00
Home phone - £12.00
Mobile - £10.00
Food - £100.00 (for 2 people)
Pets - £1.00
Travel - £44.00
Laundry - £1.00
Wedding - £70.00
Daughters pocket money - £40.00

Total - £600.00

Income

Wages job 1 - £296.00
Wages job 2 - £178.00
WTC - £40.00
Child Benefit - £70.00

Total - £704.00


Can anyone see anything where he could cut down here?

wok_boy

I assume the mobile phone is PAYG that's why the figure is low?

I take it your SOA is for the monthly out goings. Are the wages listed weekly? Because that seems rather low for a month.

Uniscots97

Hi Black Saturn, hows the wedding preparation going? The only thing I see he could cut down on is the food. Though how old is his daughter (if you don't mind me asking), as 40 quid pocket money seems a lot.

Smiley_Mum

If his home phone is BT, is it just line rental the £12 a month, if so couldn't he sign up online, courtesy of your broadband and go paperless and that would bring it down to £10.50 a month. 1899 for calls during day and primus saver option 2 for free eves/weekends up to 90 mins.

Someone posted this recently which is a great idea...

http://www.spendingdiary.com/

How old is his daughter, the pocket money seems a lot. As for the food bill, we spend £40 a week for 3, shopping at Lidls and Tescos for things I can't get at Lidl.

Kevicho

The things that standout are the pocket money, and the wages.

Has he tried looking for a full time job which pays better?

black-saturn

wok_boy wrote: »

I assume the mobile phone is PAYG that's why the figure is low?

I take it your SOA is for the monthly out goings. Are the wages listed weekly? Because that seems rather low for a month.

Yes the mobile is PAYG.

Sadly the wages are the monthly figure. He works from 6am to 4pm 5 days per week. He used to work full time but his company recently dropped his hours considerably and since then he has been applying for other full-time work with no luck.

black-saturn

unixgirluk wrote: »

Hi Black Saturn, hows the wedding preparation going? The only thing I see he could cut down on is the food. Though how old is his daughter (if you don't mind me asking), as 40 quid pocket money seems a lot.

The wedding preps are going fine. Theres a vicar coming round on friday to go through with us some more details.

His daughter is 17. She's in full time education and gets her EMA every week which goes untouched but he still coughs up £10 per week pocket money. I know it's a lot and I've told him but he still does it. If he didn't he would have to endure loads of sulks and feet stamping which you could probably hear from where you are.

Fortheloveofmoney

Hi there! Sorry if I'm speaking out of turn and I'm probably missing something but the monthly income figures do not add up. Based on the hours he works it would appear that he is earning below minimum wage which went up to £5.52 per hour on the 1st October.

Based on a 9 hour day the minimum gross salary would be £248.40 per week

patchwork_cat

Hi
I second for the love of money. I am not upto date with wtc law, but surely if that is his wage he is entitled to more than £40 a month? He is working for about £2.60 an hour - I thought he worked for Tesco?

black-saturn

I'll ask him again tonight. I'm sure the figure is per month.

He doesn't work for Tesco, he works for a lot of different merchandising companies which stock the shelves for tesco. All the entertainment, books, cds, games etc are stocked by non Tesco workers. I work for the same companies but my work is mostly from home.

He spends a lot of time travelling from shop to shop which takes time but he doesn't get paid for it. So when I say he's at work all that time there was probably 1 or 2 hours of that day spent travelling from one branch to another.

misspoppy

HI

It sounds like he needs to find a new job i'm afraid and to get tough on his daughter she should be earning her own money or living off her EMA at 16 my pocket money stopped and I got a job.

The only other thing is the wedding savings but I'm sure you don't want to touch that.